Getting it all done

You know the kind of day that I mean, you're rushing from one place to the next, still need to get the laundry in, have nothing available for breakfast the next morning, and dinner is now late to the table.

That was my day last Tuesday. So, when I came in the door from my volunteer work, I had to prioritize the last of the chores. Laundry -- we'd need clean things for the next day. Laundry takes a while, so that had to be job 1.

Next, dinner - we needed to eat. I had cooked rice and some beans on hand, so that's what we'd have for an easy dinner.

Last, we were out of bread and granola. We would need something easy to grab and go for the next morning.

So, while the Rice & Beans was cooking,

I got a batch of muffin batter put together (this time, dried cranberry-orange zest). I've made the same basic muffin recipe for so many years that I have it memorized. And it's the same basic recipe that I use for both pancakes and waffles, as well, just altering the milk/liquid addition as needed for consistency of the batter. Because I don't need to consult a recipe card or cookbook, I can get a batch of batter ready to go into the pan in 5 minutes.

While the muffins baked, I put together a green salad and a fruit salad, to go with dinner. I had brought home some leftover, cut-up fruit from the reception where I hostessed. For the fruit salad, all I needed to do was add a banana and make a dressing with sour cream and jam. A dressing for the green salad was simply chive blossom vinegar, salt, dried garlic, dried onion and oil -- very quick and easy.

When the muffins came out of the oven, the rest of dinner was finished. We ate our dinner while the muffins cooled on the counter. Muffins were bagged up and set on the counter for the morning's breakfast.

One more day managed.

Thank you for reading, this morning, and have a lovely day!

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Getting a real beefy flavor and texture using ground beef

Let's face it, ground beef is often (though not always) the least expensive beef, but also when used as mince, it seems to lack that beefiness that I crave.

Soooooo, if ground beef is the only beef I can afford, I like to prepare it in ways that maximize the beefiness. For me, that means, serving it in chunks, like meatballs, burger patties, Salisbury steak, meatloaf (if there aren't too many "stretchers" in the mix),

and baked in a sheet, using this method, then cutting the cooked ground beef into strips to use in beef with broccoli and for making French dip or bbq beef sandwiches.

I take 1 pound of ground beef, mix in some salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, and herbs. My favorite herb with beef is thyme, but oregano will also add flavor.

While you can use fresh garlic and minced onion, I find the powder diffuses flavor through the whole batch of beef better, and those little "bits" don't fall out of the cooked meat strips.

I press this meat mixture into a rimmed baking sheet, like a jelly roll pan (to catch drippings). If the beef is very lean, I grease the pan first. The beef should be about 1/8-inch to 1/4-inch thick all over.

Bake in the oven, about 425 degrees F, until browned all over, and thoroughly cooked, about 15-23 minutes. Remove from oven, allow to rest for 1 minute,

then cut into strips for topping a French roll, for French dip sandwiches, or, adding to the stir-fried vegetables at the last minute for beef with broccoli, or, topped with bbq sauce, and placed on small buns for bbq beef sliders.

For the French dip sandwiches, you can make an easy au jus with just beef bouillon granules, onion and garlic powders, heated in water.

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Woohoo -- Oh No!!

So, Monday morning, after dropping my daughter off at the transit center, I stopped in to Fred Meyer to pick up an essential. I always make the rounds of the markdown spots (but you knew that already). In the produce department, I found some more boxes of leafy greens. Perfect! I'll buy 2 boxes. We'll have salads again for a couple of days. The sell-by date was still a a day away, so the greens should be decent quality still. Or so I thought.

Imagine my disappointment when I opened the first box to find the lettuce laced with slimy brown leaves. No, I don't mean one or two bad leaves. I mean loads of bad leaves. I washed and sorted both boxes of leaves, picking out all of the decomposing ones, then repacked the boxes, lining with a tea towel to absorb any excess moisture. I composted 3 heaping cups of bad leaves.

I was thinking I should take these back. But it would have cost me more in gas to make that return than I would receive in a refund.

So, what's a consumer to do when they buy a product and discover it falls way below their standards? (And you know that I can be rather unfussy about some purchases, right?)

I went online and filled out a customer comment form. I made the comment as informative as possible, giving product codes, dates of purchase, sell-by dates, the amount of wasted, edible product, and I emphasized that this product should have never been made available to the consumer, and I'm informing them so that they can continue to work towards their goal of providing excellent groceries at a decent price.

I was nice, but to the point. I gave as many details as I could about the product, so that they could follow up on this item. And of course, I gave them 3 ways to contact me, a phone number, a street address, and an email address. So now, I await a response from them and will give you the info on how they handle my comment.


And just why am I telling you all of this? Because I want you to feel empowered to contact product manufacturers when you find something to be inferior to your expectations. There was a part of me that wanted to say, "oh well, live and learn" and just not do anything about it. After all, it was only $1.98 that I spent.

But I remembered another blogger's tale of contacting a manufacturer about a frozen turkey purchased a couple of years ago. Her turkey came missing a wing. This isn't something that you can see through the opaque wrapping. She felt it her duty and right to bring this to the attention of the company.

That incident stuck with me, and gave me the push that I needed to do something about this past-its-prime lettuce that I purchased. I hope to do the same for you. Give you that little nudge to make your concerns known.

And now here it is, about day after emailing my comment, and I have indeed heard from the customer service department. They thanked me for informing them of the problem and have snail-mailed me a coupon for use in the store. I have no idea what the value of that coupon is, but that wasn't my point.

When I have to make a complaint about a product or service, I don't really count on "getting" anything in return. The thing that I look for in a manufacturer or retail establishment is courtesy and promptness in addressing my concerns. I want to feel like my concerns matter to them.

I'll continue shopping at Fred Meyer, and enjoying good deals. But I will look more closely at all marked down items that I buy in the future.


Have you ever had to make a customer complaint? How did you handle it? Did you feel you were taken seriously?

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