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Within a 20-30 minute ride from my home I have a large variety of food stores to select from: Shop-Rite, Acme, Foodtown, Whole Foods, Aldi, Wegmans, Lidl and Trader Joe’s. Although there is such a variety of food stores, some with sale flyers, the selection of meal choices was looking thin this week.
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Last Sunday found my husband and I home with nothing in particular to do. We decided to visit Eataly in the Flatiron neighborhood of Manhattan. We boarded an express train and were in Manhattan before 11 am. The subway wasn’t crowded at all so we were downtown in no time. 
 
Although it was Sunday morning, Eataly was just beginning to get busy. We wandered through their candy department as I wanted to purchase another bar of Piemonte Classico. It is Gianduja hazelnut milk chocolate with whole hazelnuts that my daughter gave me. The candy bar isn’t firm like American chocolate, but is a bit softer and had a rich creamy texture in the mouth. It’s heavenly. 
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March has a lot of birthdays for my family, my brother-in-law, great nephew and both my father and father-in-law. This year would have been my late father-in-law’s ninetieth birthday. To commemorate his birthday, my husband requested his father’s favorite pie, Lemon Meringue. ​
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​Last week Whole Foods had a prime member special on boneless chicken breasts for less than $5/lb. I purchased a family size package for my husband and I and made small packages to freeze. Before doing that, I kept two breasts out for a quick supper last Saturday night. A short time ago, I purchased a simmering sauce from the sale section of William-Sonoma. For me they are on the pricey side, but if I can find them on sale, I’ll purchase one or two. 
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​David Tanis writes a column in the Wednesday food section of the New York Times called City Kitchen. On March 8th this recipe caught both my husband’s and my eye, Red Wine Spaghetti with Pancetta. Mr. Tanis’ recipe was very intriguing due to the fact that it was made with a whole bottle of dry red wine, a Merlot, Pinot Noir or Chianti. I happened to have a bottle of Merlot on hand perfect! 
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I have found that Whole Foods and Wegmans have very good apps and websites, but for different reasons. In their app, Whole Foods clearly shows the specials for the week in clear format. On their website, their product web pages are nicely organized, however, you can’t create an online shopping list.  Their local store isn’t overly large as their inventory is carefully curated to reflect their healthy approach to eating.

​Wegmans on the other hand has a knockout app that gives you a list of your frequently purchased items, coupons, recipes, products and the ability to create a digital shopping list that not only gives you prices, but also the aisle the product is located in. How great is that?
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As much as possible, I try to purchase protein items that are on sale each week at our local food stores. Last week, whole chickens were on sale at Whole Foods, but when I went on Monday, they were wiped out. However, I was able to purchase an organic whole chicken at Wegmans ($2.99/lb.). With my chicken in hand, I could prepare a barbecue chicken recipe I found on the PBS website. The recipe was for grilled butterflied Cornish hen or chicken[1]. Butterflied or spatchcock, all it means is that you’ve removed the backbone of the chicken which makes cooking faster.
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This winter, on occasion, has left me reaching for the same old recipes. It was time to shake things up. The other day I found myself with some idle time on my hands. I was surfing various food websites when I found myself at Lidia Bastianich’s cruising for a new recipe. I found yet another recipe for ground turkey used in a meatloaf. Lidia’s recipe is turkey meatloaf with mushroom sauce...yum! It’s meatloaf with a delicious sauce with mushrooms, shallots, fresh sage, dry white wine and chicken stock.
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The weather the past few days has been cold, damp and snowy at times and I thought it was a good idea to put up a pot of soup the other morning. I’ve have, since 1997, a cookbook by Arthur Schwartz called Soup Suppers. In it, there is a wonderful recipe for lentil soup with fennel and sun-dried tomatoes.

​A little history on Mr. Schwartz. Back in the 90’s Arthur was the radio host of a show called “Food Talk.” He was also a restaurant and food critic at the New York Daily News. Arthur has written cookbooks on topics such as Italian food, Jewish cooking and the food of New York City to name a few. 
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The weather last Thursday called for snow beginning in the afternoon. My husband suggested a soup and sandwich night for supper, paninis to be specific. I checked the Williams-Sonoma and Epicurious web pages for inspiration and I came up with my own recipe that I think is rather good. I needed boneless chicken breasts, fresh mozzarella, pesto sauce, roasted peppers and a sturdy bread.


​meet donna

A former teacher, shop-a-holic, empty-nester redefining quick, family approved dinners.

​If you have questions or comments, click on the envelope icon above to contact me directly. 

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