The Missing Grocery Caper-5/12/10

I love mysteries. I read the Nancy Drew and

Hardy Boys books as a kid, Sherlock Holmes as a teenager, and Agatha Christie as an adult. But I don't like mysteries when it comes to my groceries. I know I picked up at least 3 things at Food Lion yesterday that never made it to my house. I distinctly remember picking up ham for the pea soup I made tonight, fillet for the Shaking Beef I'm making tomorrow, and bananas for Eyrleigh. None of these made it home. I checked the receipt. Thankfully, it looks like I didn't pay for these items either so some time between putting them in my cart and checking out, they disappeared. I have a few guesses what happened but no real clue. Eyrleigh could have taken them out... though I doubt that. I had one of those double carts with a smaller basket on top and a larger one on the bottom. I could have left these items in the bottom part, underneath the top basket. That seems really spacey of me to miss 3 items, one of them bright yellow but it's possible. Eyrleigh had her first grocery store meltdown while we were checking out. I have never bought her candy from the grocery store checkout aisle but she choose yesterday to decide to scream for candy. Needless to say, I was flustered, okay, really angry at her, while checking out and had to enter my discount card number 3 times. Between her crying and shouting and the nasty looks from the lady behind me, I was not in peak form. I'm not calling this case closed but that's the best detective work I've got.

Tonight I began the meal with the hamless Sweet Pea Soup with Ham and Croutons from page 112 on this month's Food and Wine. The ham may have added a flavorful note but my complaints with this soup were more with texture. The spinach left stringy pieces in the soup. I didn't mind the flavor but it wasn't as rich as a long simmering split pea soup. It tasted like blended peas and spinach with a bit of onion. It was

nothing spectacular.

My meal plan for tonight was a bit less formal so I choose to add one of the hummus adaptations, the Hummus Deviled Eggs. Eyrleigh was thrilled. She ate 3 of these eggs and would have had one or two more had we let her. The addition of hummus to traditional deviled eggs was less surprising than I would have thought. It added a little tang to the filling but really wasn't all that different. That's a good thing if you like your deviled eggs and want to cut down on the mayonnaise.

One of the best things about trying lots of new recipes is the realization that some foods are more accessible than you think. I love crab rolls but I only eat them on vacation in New England. Tonight, I used crab meat from a can I bought at Food Lion (that did not go missing!) and made really good crab rolls. The purists may argue that canned crab meat in Georgia doesn't have the flavor of salt and sea that you taste when you order from a shack on the ocean. I agree, these weren't perfect but for those nights I want to close my eyes and pretend I'm in Old Orchard Beach again, these rolls will work just fine. With a little mayo, a little lemon, and the crunch of celery, the flavor of the sea still comes through, even here, a long way from the ocean.

Sweet Pea Soup with Ham and Croutons-C

Hummus Deviled Eggs-B+

Crab Rolls with Lemon Aioli-A-