It was Friday afternoon, two days after the big storm, before I finally got around to digging out my car sufficiently to go to the supermarket, and I probably wouldn't have done it yet if we weren't having guests on Christmas Eve -- and there was cooking and baking to be done. The nearby King Soopers market resembled my image of Moscow markets in the Soviet era. Customers plodded across snowpiles, slush puddles and ice sheets to the front door, where a dispirited Salvation Army bell ringer was hoping someone would drop something into the kettle now and then.
Immediately inside was a sign apologizing for the small inventory, because delivery trucks hadn't been able to resupply the store. The produce bins were almost empty, with onions, potatoes, avocados and winter squash the only items displayed in any sort of quantity. Everything else was gone or almost so. Ditto with the meat and seafood sections, the bread shelves, the dairy section (the store was almost out of eggs) and the toilet paper shelves. I bought what I needed for baking and have to go back today hoping that the trucks made it with the winter vegetables I plan to roast for tomorrow's dinner.
In this prosperous city in our well-off land, we are unaccustomed to doing without anything we want. We don't go hungry, unless we are dieting and are hungry by choice. But seeing "my" King Soopers picked over reminded me that so many people in our community, our country and around the world simply don't have enough to eat. On the way out of the market, I dropped some money in the Salvation Army kettle, and today, I'm sending off another check to Heifer International, Oxfam or some other global hunger relief organization, and to Community Food Share, the Denver Rescue Mission or Friends of Man closer to home.
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Wasn't that amazing? I asked the dairy manager for egg status so I could prepare a buche de noel cake ... he said "we have trucks outside, but don't know if there are eggs in them" (there were!). And with my heart set on brussels sprouts (and no green vegetables, carrots, onions, potatoes or bananas in our store ...) I purchased frozen sprouts, rinsed off the butter sauce and roasted them. I didn't care for them, but two family members said they were the first brussels sprouts they'd ever liked!
ReplyDeleteIt was amazing indeed, Susanna, but also a reminder of how fortunate we usually are. As a couple of us were grousing about the produce that wasn't available, another woman pointed out that billions of people on this planet would be thrilled at what WAS still available in the market rather than complaining about what wasn't there. I truly did feel changrinned.
ReplyDeleteI managed to get a dozen eggs but not the ones from free-range chickens that I prefer. I also grabbed the last half of a large parsnip, a couple of sweet potatoes, two turnips, a few small white potatoes, one bulb of fennel and a couple of carrots that were a little past prime. A neighbor who went shopping the next day picked up three beets for me. That way, I was able to make the roasted winter vegetables.
I applaud you for making a buche de Noel. I've never dared attempt one. I'm afraid that my pastry decorating skills are lacking and that If I tried, mine would look like a dessert version of 'Ugly Betty.' Good save on the Brussels sprouts too. Obviously, they were a hit.
I just Googled myself and saw your reply. I totally agree on the perspective that storm provided. And Buche de Noel is not too difficult -- for a complicated recipe. I merge recipes from Joy of Cooking (for chocolate ganache & buttercream, although I use Malgieri's suggestion of chestnut puree) and Nick Malgieri's How to Bake. I find his recipes are usually too dry for Colorado flour. But he has you chop an end off the cake, glue it on top with frosting, frost the whole thing, dust it with a sprinkling of cocoa and powdered sugar and shape a roll of marzipan (purchased, in my case) into mushrooms - very cute, easy and tasty. That way the decorating is the least of the baker's concerns ... in my opinion, as it should be after going through the process of making buttercream, which I don't like to make or, really, eat. I've made the cake since we received "How to Bake" as a wedding gift 11 years ago, though with less trauma since adding the Joy aspects a few years ago. But then I think many of the best traditions are a little bit of a pain in the neck! Makes them worthwhile :)
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