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| Talk about a crazy Saturday night. |
I love food. I love shopping for food, I love cooking food, and I especially love eating food, whether I’ve made it or not. (I could do without the cleaning up food part though…) I love watching TV shows about food, I love discovering all the fantastic blogs that exist about food (because there are a lot of them out there!), and I love writing about food myself. I am also married to someone that loves food just as much (if not more) than I do. It’s something that is a shared passion for both of us and something that we love to enjoy together. For this reason, our monthly food budget is a little out of control. What we spend between restaurants and groceries for two people is really a little absurd, but you know what? I’ve decided that I’m ok with it. Sure, I’m always going to try to do what I can to cut costs where I can and try to keep reducing this area of our budget, but at the same time, I’m not going to cut corners. It’s important to both of us that our food is produced in a way that is sustainable and reduces impact on the Earth. This is why we do the majority of our grocery shopping at Whole Foods. (At least during the winter months; during the summer, I try to go to the farmer’s market as much as possible!) But another reason that we shop at Whole Foods? There is just some really really good food there. If I want fresh ground peanut butter, triple cream brie, or different varieties of prosciutto, Whole Foods has the best selection, at least here in Greenville…
Don’t get me wrong, I’m fortunate to live in a place that at least has a Whole Foods. But it’s no Zingerman’s. Ahh Zingerman’s. For those times when I want a hard to find blue cheese, an amazing slab of bacon, or a dreamy sour cream coffee cake, I do wish that I could teleport back to Ann Arbor. Cam and I were getting home sick for Zingerman’s the other day because we were watching America’s Best: Top 10 Comfort Foods on Food Network, and Alton Brown crowned the mac & cheese at Zingerman’s Roadhouse with the #1 spot. Umm tell me something I don’t know Alton. The macaroni and cheese at Zingerman’s is SO good. And since Cam and I are the same person in that when we see something on TV that looks so delicious, it plants a seed in our mind(s), and inevitably we’ll end up making it. Case in point, we watched the America’s Best Comfort Foods on Wednesday…and we made the mac & cheese from the Zingerman’s cookbook this weekend. Bam. And boy was it yummy. (It’s the dish in the picture at the top of this post!)
Even though we’re in our twenties and occasionally feel obligated to go out and be young, Cam and I really like having low-key nights on the weekends where we just stay in. Honestly, we can be super lame and I’m totally fine with it. We both work all week, so it’s nice to just stay home and relax sometimes. And usually this relaxing involves cooking, eating, and watching a movie…and ice cream. That’s another thing we have in common, our shared love of ice cream (which falls under that whole food umbrella I was referring to). After our Whole Foods trip run and cooking our Zingerman’s mac & cheese on Saturday, we settled in to watch a movie. This weekend’s pick? Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and Talenti Mediterranean Mint gelato. Last weekend, it was Summertime and Talenti Belgian Milk Chocolate gelato. Two patterns here. One, I like old movies…and I can usually get Cam to agree to watch them with me if there is some element I can hook him in with. For 7B47B, it was the fact that it takes place in the Oregon…and if you’ve ever seen this movie, it’s a musical that Cam would love…and he did. For Summertime, it was the fact that the film was shot in beautiful Venice, in complete Technicolor glory, and we were able to reminisce about Europe. The other common thread? Talenti gelato. This stuff is the bomb. (I know people don’t really use this expression anymore, but I really just couldn’t think of any other way to describe it!) I’ve been to Italy twice and have tried lots of different types of gelati here in the US as well, and this stuff is great. Every flavor I’ve tried has been delicious…and I’ve tried a lot of them. My favorite so far is the Belgian Milk Chocolate, it’s seriously heavenly! And, surprise surprise, Talenti gelato available at Whole Foods 🙂
Happy eating y’all! 🙂