How to Purchase Beef Brisket

Although I wouldn't call myself a vegetarian, I am definitely not a meat lover.  I do love a good hamburger, but other than that I rarely get excited about meat.  My meat buying experience consists mostly of ground beef, boneless skinless chicken breasts, and pork chops. 

JP, on the other hand, loves meat.  He often chooses not to have sides like potato or salad with his steak because those would only take up space that the meat should be taking up.  To him, rice is a filler.  Since we have been married, he has smoked boston butts, ribs, and brisket.

Typically, HE is the one who purchases these meats.  However, he really wanted a brisket this week, and since he has started working he doesn't have much time to go to the store.  So, yesterday when I was making our grocery list for my post-work trip, I asked him what he wanted and of course brisket was on his list.

http://www.dorseymeats.com/store/images/bee14.jpg

Now, I have no idea what makes a good brisket.  JP told me to purchase the one with the most meat and least amount of fat.  Well, being the perfectionist I can be at times, I was really trying to get the one with the least amount of fat.  I was mentally estimating the surface area of fat on each brisket.  In my opinion, they all had too much fat!  I called JP and asked him questions, and basically made the process way more complicated than it should be.

So, as I was about to give up, I saw this large male employee walking near me.  I yelled, "Sir, can you please help me?"  He walked over to me, and I said, "Now, I want you to pick out the brisket that you would buy if you were buying one." He laughed and started analyzing the briskets.  He spent several minutes comparing the different options (which made me feel not so bad about all the time I had spent analyzing). 

He finally made a decision, and I grabbed that brisket and headed towards the cash register.  Once home, JP approved of the brisket, and we now have a crockpot full of brisket as well as a stock pot full of it too. 

Girls Day of Fun

This Saturday my Mom came down to Birmingham for a fun girls day.

We ate here:

...which is located in SoHo.  We enjoyed our lunch.  I really liked the hummus/feta cheese dip.

We walked from lunch to here:

I want all of my furniture to come from here.

Then we made the short drive to here:

... where we used the Groupon I got my Mom for her birthday to obtain 4 yummy cupcakes.  Then we walked around the cute Homewood neighborhood.

Then we started shopping.  We went to Home Goods followed by Pottery Barn, Gap, Anthropologie, Francesca's, and Ann Taylor Loft.

I got this:

A have a small obsession with dresses and skirts with pockets.

And this:

...which I got for much less than the original price.

We had a wonderful, fun time, but we missed her:

Grocery Shopping

Grocery shopping... it is something everyone experiences at some point in time. Many dread it and choose to eat out instead. Others get stressed out. Others look at it simply as a chore. While others truly find joy out of it.

Here are my thoughts on what might seem like a boring topic: Grocery shopping

Shopping for One:
Grocery shopping was never something I enjoyed when I was shopping by myself. It was simply a task I had to get done. While I was shopping just for myself, I never bought much, and I usually bought about the same things every time which really doesn't equal excitement. For example, when I lived in Dallas I pretty much lived off of frozen cheese tortellini paired with pasta sauce.

Shopping for Two:
Since I've been married, my view of grocery shopping has changed. It is not just a task to me anymore, but it is something I truly like to do. If you know JP at all, you know how much he loves food. This makes grocery shopping so much fun.
When we do the shopping together (which we try to do as much as possible), we always have so much fun deciding what we are going to make. There are always so many possibilities and making decision together is so fun!
When I do the shopping by myself (which happens frequently now with all of his studying), I love coming home and telling him what I have gotten. He gets so excited and always shows his appreciation.

Favorite Grocery Store:
My favorite place to shop is definitely Tom Thumb. I discovered Tom Thumb when I lived in Dallas. Unfortunately, there is no Tom Thumb in Birmingham. Another place JP and I love to shop is Trader Joe's. Again, there is no Trader Joe's in Birmingham. The closet one is in Atlanta. The last time we were in Atlanta we definitely spent $50 on sauces alone from Trader Joe's.

So, Where Do I Shop?
JP and I do most of our grocery shopping at Walmart. I'll be honest, I don't really like shopping at Walmart. However, it is the closest store to our apartment, and I have found that they really do have the lowest prices. So, we normally do our big weekend shopping day at Walmart. Then, I go to other places if I have to pick anything up during the week.
Publix and Aldi are both on my way home from work, and I love stopping by during the week. I love Publix for all of their great sales, and Aldi for their great prices on milk and produce.

How do I prepare?
I wish I could say I am a hardcore couponer, but I'm not. I do use some coupons, and I usually check the Publix ad. If there are any items that we usually use that are on sale at Publix, I stop by on my way home from work. I'm trying to get better about having meals planned out for an entire week. I definitely have gone to the store before and just started grabbing random things. To help with organization and meal planning I want to start use something like this:

I figure I better get really good at planning meals, because I'm sure when we have kids it will be much more difficult to plan for more than two. Good thing I should have time to get it down pat.

How do I shop?
I try to always have a list. I don't just throw things in to the cart, but try to organize things in the cart in categories like boxed items, fruit, meat, etc. This organization continues at the checkout. The first time JP and I went grocery shopping together, he quickly learned that I have a method to putting things on the conveyor belt. I always put all of the meats first, followed by the cold items, then the boxed items, then fruits and vegetable, then bread, and finishing with all nonfood items. It really makes unloading the groceries at home much easier.

So, that concludes my take on grocery shopping.