Life before 2008 24 Aug 2006 06:59 pm
Lucy Sandwiches, The Epicurian, and Grapes of Wrath feline style
First things first. Last week when my friend Cathy was in town, we met for lunch at The Tomato Head restaurant (link above). While it was chaotic with my four kiddos and a busy lunch crowd, I still managed to store away a fairly careful inventory of the goodies on her sandwich, which was much better than my still-spectacular spinach burrito. Tonight we had a version of the sandwich for dinner, and while I didn’t hit it perfectly (I know now from the website that I forgot the cheese and spinach), I did score a winner with the family!
The Lucy:
Whole wheat buns
hummous (I made mine with Great Northern beans tonight because I was out of chickpeas and it was still great!)
grated carrot, fresh spinach leaves
crispy walnuts (see Nourishing Traditions)
sauted (in coconut oil these are delcious) sliced red bell pepper, portabella mushroom, and red onion
montery jack cheese
Assemble and heat to melt the cheese if you want. Serve with tortilla chips.
Doing my family’s grocery shopping is going to require a health food store at least twice a month and that is too often to trek into Knoxville without something else to tack on. So the hunt was on for a closer store. I found it, thanks to a recommendation from my new aquaintance Karen.
The Epicurean is a tiny little store tucked in an older and uneven building across from the hospital in Oak Ridge. It’s just exactly my kind of place; there is a good chocolate selection as soon as you walk into the door! There is a pretty large inventory of homeopathics and health care stuff and a few rambling rooms of groceries. And the CHEESE! “Cheese Grommit! I’m just crackers about cheese!” mimicks Celia. He’s got a beautiful case of cheese selections, including a white stilton laced with blueberries that I had to pry myself away from so as not to dismantle my nearly-sacred budget.
I was able to get my bulk grains and Good Earth tea and dehydrated, unrefined cane juice (I use that instead of white sugar and in much smaller quantities). Household supplies came from Walmart (growl), produce came from French’s Produce market (very, very friendly staff but the produce needs to be better and so I will still search), meat and dairy came from Kroger.
We came home to one deranged dog, one Red Fox, who barked and yipped hysterically to see us and who insists he lives here, and the family of cats. Poor, poor Missy. She’s the little black Momma to Baby Grey, and adoptive mother to Sam who was dumped at the post office. The Orange and Whites, all FOUR of them, much too old to be considered “kittens” anymore, were all nursing on that poor cat. She was sitting there with four big cats and 2 kittens kneading her belly and just pleading with me with huge green eyes to get them off. Her milk bag has been rather large lately with the good food she gets at our house and now I see, from the vigorous stimulation of so many hungry mouths. I should probably call her Ms. Joad…it’s like these once-starving cats took a chapter of Stienback and decided since she had milk, why not? Poor cat.
