The Commons at Paulie World

I have been "between books" for a little while. I was not-so-guiltily enjoying the schadenfreude of Joe Torre's recent book, and I have stalled out a bit reading about Joba Chamberlain and the midges.

Anyway, I've been loafing a bit on the computer and following a link in a junk mail from Harris Teeter for curb-side pickup. One thing led to another, and I have now used the delivery service from Peapod (Giant) for my routine, bi-weekly grocery run. The first visit to the web site took about 35 minutes to set up my profile, payment information, and build my shopping list. I set the order for three days hence, on Saturday morning at ten am. Done. The fellow arrived at ten-oh-five, and was gone by ten-fifteen.

Everything was fresh, nicely bundled, and carried into the house. Total time: 45 minutes. The delivery fee was less than ten bucks, plus a tip.

This morning I had my second delivery. Shopping took less than ten minutes. The fellow was here at 9:45 and gone by 9:55. Schlepped into the house. He even asked me if the friend who had recommended Peapod had gotten his credit. Delivery was less than ten buck, plus a tip. Total time, 20 minutes for two weeks' worth of groceries.

I have no complaints with the service. The food comes from the same local distribution center the supply the stores with, so some of the perishables are fresher. The variety on the "shelves" isn't fantastic, but will get better. You can apply coupons.

Now that I have saved so much time energy, I have changed some of my shopping habits and often stop by the very expensive Whole Foods for the specialty items I need to pick up. This is going to be a recurring theme, saving time and investing in quality products.

When I cater large events, you can't imagine the amount of time I spend either in grocery stores or schlepping things from store to car to house to pantry. Now, click, click, click, delivered to the house.

"No complaints." Highly recommended. I bet city folks must love Peapod.

"No complaints."

My wife is not partial to beef, veal, pork, so my cooking at home is generally chicken or fish. I haven't cooked much fish this winter. My grocery habits have changed since I moved to the other side of town. I used to go to Trader Joe's - a really, really, really great grocery store and well worth the extra effort to go there - and stock up on very good frozen fish fillets and steaks. Really worth the effort. But it's out of the flight path now, and I don't do my regular shopping there any more.

Anyway, I'm off the point.

I've been moving away from Big Industrial Farm poultry for a while now, at least for home cooking. I don't really care about so-called "inhumane" treatment of the chickens: they are chickens. I do care about the nasties pumped into them, and I do care - my primary factor - about the taste. Purdue, Tyson's and the lot, well, they taste like cardboard.

By the way, when I am catering large parties, I go for the bulk items from the big box store, and don't much care where it was raised as long as it is fresh. Cost-cutting and is the nature of the game.

A whole bird, "organic free range," is going to cost you $3 to $ per pound. That's getting steep. Is it worth it? You be the judge. Sure tastes a lot more like chicken.

Now, when I roast whole birds, I generally brine them overnight. This is an especially great technique for your Thanksgiving turkey. It helps moisten the meat so that the breast doesn't dry out before the dark meat is done. I read about this technique from America's Test Kitchen (and Cook's Illustrated magazine, which is my favorite. Google them.)

I primarily cook thighs, by the way. More flavor.

As I mentioned in a post below, I've been using Peapod by Giant for the past few weeks. They are a grocery delivery service. I was surfing the poultry aisle for my first delivery, and was leery of their fresh product. Something about not putting eyeballs on bird. So I bought frozen breasts. (I have gotten over my hesitation: Peapod is a recommended service.)

To defrost, then brine, a piece of chicken means you have to take an extra day in the chicken-cooking process. Man, it's only a chicken! So, I bought Empire Kosher frozen chicken breasts. They were fantastic. Fantastic. They were moist and chickeny. Moist and chickeny. And not because of my technique. I rushed through dinner prep and made a marinade out of a tangerine that was too sugary, and I scorched the pan and had to futz about cleaning - then changing - skillets and such. I cooked the chicken to almost 175 degrees, way overcooked to me.

Moist and chickeny, even after overcooking.

Kosher birds are now my preference for home cooking.