How very sad is it that the local supermarket had cans of cooked pumpkin (for piemaking) priced at $2.09, yet a pre-made pie was going for $1.97?? No wonder people are more inclined to buy the pre-made crap. Even if you use the excuse of a lack of time and skill (and really, pumpkin is the easiest of pies to make, seeing as it tastes better with a graham crust and you just have to mix the can of pumpkin with an egg and some spices), there’s no way you can argue with the fact that a pre-made pie is going to run at half the cost of a from-scratch pie once you calculate all the ingredient costs.
Taste should be a factor, of course, and one look at the ingredients label should convince anyone with a brain to go for the homemade version, but even the day after Thanksgiving, those pies were flying out the door.
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Fruitcake supply display. Already??? Yeah, I guess it’s coming up to fruitcake time. On the end cap – so they’re serious about it! Which means that this week I have to sit down and make a grocery list for all my fruitcake supplies. I didn’t make any last year; my broken arm got me off the hook, so this year, I had better make the damn fruitcakes (both kinds, maybe a chocolate one too!) if I don’t want an East Coast uproar. Sometimes being the only person who makes fruitcake that people actually like can be a heavy burden to carry.
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One of the cool things about having a grocery store where the demographic is predominantly Portugese and Italian is that we often get produce from Portugal and Italy. The inclination to eat locally is strong, but when faced with a selection of pears not local to southern Ontario, I can’t help but come home with a bag of Italian Abates. They’re just too beautiful (and delicious) to leave behind.