QFC Grocery Basket 5/20

A couple of weeks ago I drove down to Seaside, Oregon and met up with my sister, Miss SmartyPants.  We had glorious weather for the four days that we were there as you can tell from this photo of the sunset from our balcony.  Actually, the first day it was 81 degrees!!  The only problem was a huge die-off of jellyfish so it was pretty miserable getting down to the water.  In fact, I think that I still have jellyfish gick on the bottoms of my flip flops.

One of our days we drove to McMinnville to see our very favorite Aunt Barbara.  She is the last of our older relatives but she is gonna be around for a long time.  She has always treated us like we were her kids even though she has four of her own.  When my mom had a long stay in the hospital she cared for my sister.  She took this on while in the middle of having a new baby and her own little toddler.  I can't imagine three kids in diapers.  Here she is (in yellow) with her best friend Bonnie:

I wanted to show you how gorgeous my dogwood is this year.  It would have been a better shot from the other way but I didn't think that you needed to see the neighbor's garbage pile.

Here is a closeup of the petals:

This beautiful old fashioned iris came from Miss Judith and it is everything that an iris should be.  One time I cut a bouquet of irises and put in a few stems of Don Juan the rose.  It was so over the top fragrant that I couldn't have it in the house with me.

This is my first batch of French Breakfast radishes.  I planted all my cool weather crops early this year and didn't get burned by cold weather.  I've also been eating lettuce and I made rhubarb/strawberry sauce from the Skidder rhubarb.  I used half the sugar and it was still plenty sweet.

I want to tell you about my new cool tool.  This thing is put out by Fiskar and they call it a planting tool.  The gals up at Hadlock Building Supply Garden Center assured me that it was the best thing since pizza for weeding.  So I put it up on the counter with my other stuff and went home to use it.  They were totally right!!  Best weeder ever!! but the second time I used it I broke it.  I knew it had a lifetime guarantee so I dug out my receipt and went back up to get another one.

Come to find out it wasn't listed on the receipt.  Everybody was embarrassed, including me.  I said well it looks like I stole this thing, then I broke it, and now I want another one but I will pay for one of them.  They gave me a new one that I have worked the devil out of and it is just fine.  They found that there was rust in the welding join, so it must have been a lemon.

Anyway - buy one of these.  It is under ten bucks and you can also use it for a weapon:

Did you have a good Mother's Day??  My son, the plumber, went out fishing and Miss PeggyRae and I went down to the Valley Tavern and had beer and hot dogs to rev ourselves up for some serious nursery hopping.  My Mother's Day card had a fifty in it which I promptly spent at the first nursery.  My receipt came to $48.79 which is cutting it pretty close.  Now that was a great Mother's Day!!

Okay - let's look at the ad for this week.  Will wonders never cease??  The ad is for one week only this time and they are heavy on Memorial Day weekend cookout stuff.  I was expecting to see wild fresh salmon this week but if they have it it didn't make the ad.

Here are my suggestions:

Peet's Coffee - $6.99/12oz
Hebrew National Beef Franks - $3.50/pack
Kroger Sour Cream - $1.25/16oz
Draper Valley Boneless Skinless Breasts - BOGO
Boneless Pork Top Loin Chops - $3.99/lb
Fresh Wild Halibut Fillets - $19.99/lb
Lean Ground Beef - $5.99/lb
Ribeye Steak - $7.88/lb
Driscoll's Strawberries - $3.99/2lb
Asparagus - $1.99/lb
Medium Hass Avocados - $ .99/ea
Tomatoes on the Vine - $1.49/lb
Colored Bell Peppers - $1.25/ea
Fresh Cut Tulips - $10/3 five stem bunches (15)

Every morning after all the critters have been watered, fed, and medicated I grab my coffee and sit in my chair and watch Charlie Rose on CBS.  All the animals join me except the Boston Terror.  She heads back to bed and doesn't get up until I make the bed or the UPS truck drives by - whichever comes first.  I don't know if she loves the driver or hates him but she barks her head off at him and his truck.