My Obsession with Food -- and Price Chopper

MY OBSESSION WITH FOOD - More specifically, with groceries.  The first step is admitting you have a problem.  All those who know me, know that I am obsessed with grocery shopping.  I must have, not just enough food in the house, but MORE than enough.  I have dedicated an inordinate amount of space in my house to just that goal.  I have two refrigerators and a deep freezer.  I have converted normal spaces into food storage.  Coat closet?  With a call to my carpenter, it’s now a PANTRY!  Downstairs office?  What a waste of space, with some hard work from my kids and shelving, it’s now a WALK IN PANTRY!  I have more bring-your-own grocery bags than any human should have.  When normal people buy souvenirs on vacation -- I buy the grocery bags so it can think about my vacations while grocery shopping.

So how often do I go to the grocery store?  Umm, well, ok, truth be told -- pretty much every day.  Monday after work is my BIG SHOP DAY!!  All the other days I go to pick up all the other little things I might need for a dinner, or someone’s lunch, or my luxurious fruit smoothy in the morning.

But I don’t just go to any grocery store, my particular obsession is with Price Chopper, specifically, the Price Chopper in Newburgh.  Go ahead, ask me anything!  Where are the capers?  Get the Goya capers in the Hispanic aisle.  Pomegranate Juice?  They just moved it to the center aisle in produce.  Kind bars?  They’re next to the Ensure in the pharmacy aisle, not with the other granola bars.  If they had a Price Chopper trivia game I would be champion.

When I walk up to seafood, my buddy there automatically says, “Hello my friend, you didn’t call in your salmon today, let me steam it.  Two pounds, farm raised, no seasonings, right?”  Of course, he’s right.  

One time after a particularly long vacation, one of the cashiers walked up to me and said, “Oh thank God, we haven’t seen you in two weeks, we were worried about you!”  My younger son just looked at me and shook his head.  “Come here much, Mom?”  

You know, when I was a little girl, I always knew I would be successful.  I always thought how nice it would be to have some extra disposable income.  I thought I would use that extra income for baubles -- perhaps diamonds or rubies, something from Tiffany’s.  Maybe shoes or makeup or handbags  Something fancy.  It turns out -- not so much.  I donated my mink coat to PETA and stored my Louboutins.  Jewelry -- never got into it.  

I feel RICHEST when the refrigerators are full of fresh fruit, vegetables and cheese.  When I cook several trays of lasagna and they are in the downstairs freezer, I feel lightheaded with SUCCESS.  The moment I put the crockpot on in the morning before work, or stuff a roaster chicken on my lunch hour, I am giddy with achievement.  Making Christian’s lunches (four sandwiches, lots of fruit, granola bars, protein bars and Goldfish) every night makes me feel connected to a son who is 38 miles south of me all day at Don Bosco Prep, followed by crew practice.  I know he dips into those bags all day over the course of 12 hours.  When my younger son writes an essay about his favorite things and it turns out that one of them is Mom’s meatballs, I am complete.  And when my husband thanks me for getting 3 fresh meals into the family while working all day, I am a happy wife.

What can I say?  My grandmother always told me -- Food is Love.  I love making food, my family loves food, and Price Chopper is the temple of good fresh food.  Therefore, I visit it it daily.  (No, they didn’t pay me to write this blog LOL).

Have a great day everyone and, as always, Remember to Count your Blessings! <3 Mrs. Lo www.LoBiondoPage.Blogpsot.com  (Photo of one of my Sunday dinners)