Mom and I grabbed a cart and paused a minute to get our bearings in this new grocery location for us: Trader Joe’s. Having heard tales of it from others who rave about how great it is, we were a little surprised to find it smaller than expected. However, size did not impact its reputation. Shoppers filled every aisle, finding their familiar goods as we poked along learning the store layout.
While I’m waiting for what’s next, one of the constants I’m focused on maintaining is cooking one new meal a week from Clean Food, a cookbook my mom gave me for Christmas. The premise of the book is to eat whole grains, fruits and vegetables, omitting dairy and meats. The other primary concept is to eat seasonally, paying attention to what’s natural for the time of year since so much of the food available out of season has been treated with pesticides and other unnatural chemicals.
After leafing through the book, I quickly found that my idea of basic ingredients had to change. Instead of my baking basics—brown sugar, vanilla, flour, baking soda, salt—I needed to invest in ingredients like kombu, kudzu, brown rice flour, maple syrup, and sea salt. This pricey restocking of the cabinets has been generously “underwritten” by my mom, who currently has taken responsibility for the initial costs since she bought me the cookbook. Our search for ingredients took us to two more stores beyond Trader Joe’s—Olympia Health food store, where we found the more unique items such as kudzu and kombu; and Dorothy Lane, a fancy typical grocery store. I labeled the ingredients with the date of purchase to see how long these new staples will last.
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