Dorie’s Different Reality

Every time I’ve gone grocery shopping the past few months, I’ve noticed something. I’m getting less and less for the same amount of money. Food prices always go up, that’ s normal.  Dairy and eggs are supposed to be way up- egg prices up something like 45%.  In an article I read they said there’s a worldwide wheat shortage. Huh? I wonder why- drought, population, profit motive? Well it explains why cereal is getting expensive (again!) 
I never understood what was up with the imported gluten from China. I grew up thinking that North America was the breadbasket of the world; so why would anybody buy wheat products from China? Because it was really cheap I guess. I’m still hearing about people losing their pets: cases like they got some tainted pet food a few months ago and never fully recovered.

Had a point there somewhere! A couple of weeks ago I saw a freezer case full of 49 cent a pound turkeys. That’s a good deal and I might have bought one, but there was no expiration date on the package that I could find anywhere-not buying no turkey that’s been in the freezer for 3 years! (this particular market is bad about pulling things out of stock on time) . One thing on the package label that stuck out was it was prominently labeled “gluten free” That’s a new one to me, do turkeys normally contain gluten? I thought turkey was turkey- why would they stick gluten in it? Poultry is often labeled that it “contains a solution”- usually salt and stuff. I guess gluten might be in the marinade or the gravy mix, etc.  I’m a bit gluten intolerant; It strikes me as bad indigestion; lots of fast food will make me ill anymore. There are lots of people now with full blown celiac disease- it makes people very ill! My theory is that lots of commercially produced foods are “stretched” with things that aren’t quite food. On food labels you’ll see “hydrolized vegetable protein”, which is another name for soy. Great food for livestock, but many people are allergic to it. It’s also hard to avoid. Added to a lot of canned food- like chili! It sounds like the modern mass-produced domestic turkey has joined the chemical feast. I urge you to consider buying the higher priced, “all natural” or “organic” or kosher turkey. If you want to prebaste the turkey, they sell nifty injector tools so you can add butter, wine, etc. I think we’re going to have a little ham. Not exactly a natural food- but makes great leftovers!

If you hate fruitcake, there’s no way I can change your mind. Chances are though you don’t like fruitcake because there’s such a big mixture of “stuff” in it. I hate those bitter pieces of citrus peel- so I don’t use it! I’ve made it for years and the fruitcake is always evolving. I don’t use the colorful candied fruit mix anymore. It’s full of corn syrup and preservatives. Bummer because I like that red and green pineapple! This year I bought a dried fruit mixture- golden raisins and stuff from Trader Joe’s. If it had pineapple it would be perfect. So I made my own pineapple- took a can of juice pack and boiled it with sugar syrup until it turned translucent. Now the fruit is soaking in a bowl with some good brandy! I’ll let it sit until tomorrow morning to “stew” and then I’ll bake my batch of fruitcake. The alcohol bakes out but it gives it a spiritual taste.

The camera is back! I am one satisfied customer. Even though it was out of warranty, Canon fixed our digital camera free of charge and got it back to us in just a few days. I’d recommend them to anyone- they really stood behind their product!

Not for the faint of heart: I found an Environmental News website. http://www.enn.com  A whole bunch of news about what’s happening on Mother Earth.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 13th, 2007 at 10:07 am and is filed under Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.