May 2, 2008
culinaria
Comments Off
Over on one of my other blogs, Six Great States, I talked about a new program recently introduced to Shaw’s supermarkets.
You can read more in the SGS blog post I just linked to, for more info. In short, Shaw’s has partnered with America’s Test Kitchen to produce quick, easy and tasty recipes that are also healthy. Free recipe cards are given away at the stores, and the ingredients for that week’s featured recipes are offered at special sale prices.
I think very highly of the people at America’s Test Kitchen, who are the same people who put out Cook’s Illustrated magazine, something I have a subscription to until sometime in the next century. Best Cooking Magazine Ever.
I know that Shaw’s is owned by a huge supermarket company, they also own chains like Albertson’s and Acme. But I checked, and it seems that only Shaw’s is running this program. So, as a public service for those who don’t live in the New England area, I am starting this series here, where I will post scans of the recipe cards, as well as my own opinions of the recipes. I think that this is a great program, and the recipes I’ve made so far have been excellent. Anything that encourages people to cook at home, rather than buying all sorts of pre-made crap, or takeout, is always a good thing!
First up is the BLT Salad.
You can click on the image to see a much larger image of the recipe side. This should print out nicely on a regular 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper.
———-
This was the first of the “Get Inspired” recipes that we tried. This is NOT a side salad, it is a main dish salad. The bacon and the mayo make it very rich, and it is worth it to try to find the thick sliced bacon for this.
For some reason, Shaw’s didn’t have the cherry tomatoes called for. So I bought the smaller grape tomatoes, and left them whole. If you have larger tomatoes, you can just cut them smaller and they’ll do just fine.
Money-saving tip: if you need to buy Italian bread for this recipe, see if they have any in the day-old section. Since you’re going to slather it with mayo and toast it, it doesn’t matter if it’s a bit stale.
Enjoy!
May 2, 2008
just stuph, product/service reviews
Comments Off
…a product called Euro Lens Bath. Their website is *under construction*, but it seems that now the only place to find the product is at an optical shop. No one around here seems to carry it that I’ve seen so far, and I can’t find any source to order online.
This is a very nifty item that does a bang-up job of cleaning eyeglasses. It consists of a container with this sort of squeezy plastic cushy thing inside it, and the lens cleaning fluid itself. You squeeze a small amount of the lens fluid into the large container, add water to the fill line. Put the glasses in, screw the lid on, and SHAKE for about ten seconds. Remove glasses, rinse, and dry with a non-abrasive cloth.
I had bought this kit when it was on QVC, probably about ten years ago? For some reason, I got lazy and stopped using it. And, as a result of NOT using it, I ruined my favorite glasses, the ones with the blue frames.
I had thought my vision was getting much worse, but put off going to the eye doctor for too long. I needed to renew my drivers license, and I was scared I’d not pass the vision test.
Just days before my birthday (the date that my license was to expire, I realized that my blue glasses were looking VERY cloudy. I remembered that I had the Euro Lens Bath system, and I dug it out and tried cleaning those glasses with it. But they were beyond cleaning, due to years of not cleaning them properly.
Luckily, I had a second pair of eyeglasses with the same prescription, that I hadn’t worn in eons. I also have a pair of prescription sunglasses that I seldom wear. They hadn’t taken the same abuse that the others did, and when I found them and put them on, I was amazed at how much better I could see.
So I wore this other pair when I went to the RMV, and was able to pass the vision test. The blue framed glasses are now in retirement, which is a shame, because I really liked them. The other glasses are the ones I’m wearing in the photo at the top of the sidebar here.
Anyhoo, now I am religious about using the Euro Lens Bath every day. It came with two containers of the cleaning fluid, one not even opened yet, so I have enough to last me for a while. But I’m hoping to find a place where I can get refills when I need them. QVC doesn’t carry it anymore; I think they only sold the whole kit, anyway. I don’t need another shaker thingy, just the cleaning stuff.
I’ll just have to keep looking.
