So...whats for dinner?
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DH answered the What's For Dinner question. I told him I would stop at the supermarket after my exercise at the gym, and he said, "Let's have ribs for dinner. I'll cook them." Very low on my list of possibilities but I wrote Ribs on the grocery list. He always finishes ribs on the grill, so the idea of his cooking them wasn't new. As it turned out, I precooked the ribs as I usually do. They were very good. Side was the leftover baked sweet potato, peeled, split, and warmed in butter in a skillet. And a large tossed salad.
The round loaf of bread is pretty but the crust does look hard. Crusty has its limitations.
We're going out to dinner tomorrow night at a very nice Italian restaurant. A Valentine's dinner proposed by another couple with whom we enjoy eating out. So dinner tonight should be something "light," whatever that means. Maybe a dinner salad. Pizza wouldn't be light, would it?
I would never have seen barramundi in the supermarket because I don't buy frozen fish or any frozen seafood. Speaking of seafood, fresh lump crab meat was $37 a lb. in Rouse's yesterday. I bought it as high as $25 a lb., but $37 is an eye opener. The restaurants must be forced to use a lot of filler because crab cakes are a popular menu item.
Serendipity, please feel free to educate us about your Brazilian food.
For those of you who remember Susan, I found a printed message from her in The New Book of Middle Eastern Food. She listed the recipes she had tried and continued to use. She was out of our league in her cooking but always generous in sharing her expertise. I hope her little granddaughter has lasting memories.
Nance, is low sodium the main requirement of your recommended diet? No (or little) red meat?
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I learned to leave the lid on longer to get a softer crust and allow the bread to cook through more thoroughly before lifting the lid, hardening and browning the crust. I haven't made the bread in a while since DH can eat a loaf in a day and his meds (poor guy is on antihormonals, and we know what hell that does to the body!) are making him gain weight, so he's cut back...a lot.
I always buy frozen seafood. It is flash frozen and I know exactly when it will be thawed...by me. Not languishing at the store. A few species come in "fresh," and that always unnerves me.
YIKES on those crab prices. Maybe if DH suggests crabbing this year, I'll let him.
Tonight, grilled sockeye (yes, previously frozen). I'm making a pot of black beans and think I'll make it mexican-ish...corn, salsa, onions, etc...
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Wallycat, I'm with you on the flash frozen fish. When we lived in California we could buy fish just off the boat but don't have that coastal access here! So dinner last evening was pecan crusted tilapia (thawed just before cooking), a new brand of French fries on which the judgement is still out, slaw, and green beans. Happy to have fish in the freezer! Tonight DH will be out so Granddaughter and I may have chicken nuggets and left over slaw and green beans.
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In Puerto Rico my grandfather had, and now my father has various trees (bananas, plantains, mangos, passion fruit, star fruit. oranges, breadfruit, avocados and more), grow yuca (cassava), malanga (taro), batata (boniato or a white sweet potato), yautia, ñame (I believe these are considered taro as well) along with pumpkin and squash, they're all soo good. My grandmother would use these vegetables in stews, she'd roast, boil and fry them. We make pasteles with them, which are these vegetables, grated and seasoned and then filled with usually a meat filling and wrapped in banana leaves, made mainly during the Christmas season. Very starchy, but good and have so many health benefits
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I've seen frozen barramundi at larger Whole Foods stores, and once at Trader Joe's. Ate it once over a dozen years ago at "Sixteen" restaurant in the He-Who-Shall-Go-Nameless Tower downtown.
Last night I split the leftover lamb chop in two, and reheated it with the leftover veggies. Bob brought home steamed lemon-garlic asparagus and sausage with peppers from Pompeii near Union Health. So I combined the two dishes, and we polished them off.
Going out tonight for early Valentine's dinner. Bob is working tomorrow and has office on Mon. night; and he wants to stay home Sunday night for Super Bowl (though we may go out for brunch anywhere I can get a big omelet or quiche and a salad). Last night our local NBC station's "The Food Guy" featured a local landmark Tuscan restaurant, Coco Pazzo, for its 30th anniversary. When I saw the antipasto platter, the wood-roasted and the huge bistecca alla Fiorentina seared and then wood-roasted-finished bone-in ribeye, I knew I would be able to enjoy myself and keep it low-carb. The earliest table we could get is 8:30 (they close at 10 but tables are booked for only 90 min. anyway). Bob wants to go first en route home to the IN casino to place a bet on the Rams for Sunday (he won't use apps because he feels they're addictive. I know he really wants to buy cheaper gas & cigs there too. Before we got Omicron (and the treatments for it), I put my foot down and forbade him setting foot in IN because its COVID rates are so much higher (and vax rates so much lower) than IL's, especially Chicago's. Heck, one of the casinos there advertises "extra cleaning" but also "masks optional," even at the peak of Omicron. He says he should get home by 7, but considering Fri. night rush hour traffic on the Dan Ryan Expway (and often lane closures due to "police activity") he's gonna be cutting it very close: the restaurant is a half-hour drive from here. And the snow should be starting shortly after we sit down to eat. Hope the parking valet cleans it off the car.
Brunch was an avocado BLT with yellow heirloom tomato on low-carb hi-fiber toast. First BLT I've had in a couple of months.
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Lacey - this is very much like your COD recipe, except you are using Raos (as did I) Mediterranean Cod.
Saute in EVOO - 1 chopped onion, 2 crushed garlic cloves, 1 each diced red AND yellow bell pepper. Cook 2 minutes stirring continuously. Add 1 (14oz) can diced tomatoes, 2 Tblsp tomato paste and juice of 1/2 lemon. Season w/S&P & stir in 2 Tblsp fresh parsley. Pour sauce into small baking dish. Place 2 Cod fillets on top & scatter 8 pitted & chopped black olives on top. Bake 20 minutes at 400, until fish is cooked thru. (327 calories & 775 mg sodium per serving)
Nance - you could leave out extra salt, look for low sodium pasta sauce & toss in chopped fresh Campari tomatoes.
Edited to add - scored a large bunch of asparagus today for $0.87. Obvouisly a loss leader.
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Nancy, to lower sodium without making food bland, try fresh herbs (dried if you can't find fresh) and various citrus juices to add acidity. Acidity--Balsamic, champagne, red & white wine & apple-cider vinegars--will add flavor and create the impression of a better-seasoned dish. And if you do use salt, use kosher or flake sea salt--the larger surface area of the crystals are more flavorful so you use less. Use them for finishing, not during cooking--remember that as foods cook, moisture evaporates and the salt already added is more concentrated to the point of being too salty. Those imitation salts (mostly potassium chloride) are just plain gross. After my dad had his heart attacks, my mom tried that ("Co-Salt") and we all hated it--it was better to use herbs & spices (carefully) instead of fake salt. Seasoning blends like Mrs. Dash are jacks of all trades and masters of none--customize your seasonings to the dish. And instead of soy sauce, try a low-sodium tamari (I like San-J) or coconut aminos.
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53 gallons of orange juice is in the freezer. The tree is about 3/4 cleaned off and the picking is slow now because only the hard to get oranges are still on the tree. Even with the 8 foot tall ladder and a 12 foot picking pole, I still can't get all the oranges at the top of the tree. So, the tree gets about 90% clean and the rest I just have to let fall. The dogs then eat the fallen oranges and we find lots of empty oranges in the house. It is a good thing we have tile floors!
By the time we're done with a juicing session, the kitchen floor is so sticky that the dogs "walk kind of funny" when they move to a better begging position. The dogs love the pulp that was caught in the strainer, so they are quite busy with the, "PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I HAVEN'T EATEN IN DAYS! PLEASE FEED ME!!!!!" look. :-)
I get the counters clean, the juicer clean and then I have to mop the floor twice so it's not sticky.
Chi, my dad was on a low fat AND low salt diet. Commercial foods were pretty much not suitable. The low salt stuff was high fat and the low fat stuff was high salt. I guess fat and salt are much cheaper than proper spices. Mom, Sharon and I did a lot to learn about spices, which, once we figured things out, was much better than the salt-fat stuff anyway. One of the things I discovered was that a little bit of dried lemon peel would make a 1/4 teaspoon of salt taste almost too salty. This may be "just my impression", but it works for me.
I agree in part about the imitation salts tasking "Just plain gross". I would add nasty, horrible and awful to the list. :-)
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Lemon zest is usually the secret weapon in cooks' arsenals--in both savory & sweet cooking--as well as cocktail-making.
Dinner at Coco Pazzo tonight. Started with a mixed antipasto (wood-roasted veg,, olives, Parm-Regg, salami, red pepperoncini, prosciutto and coppa. Pasta course was spaghettini alla vongole--I had about 1/3 of Bob's Manila clams and he had the rest plus the pasta. For the entree, we had the bistecca alla Fiorentina (Porterhouse, fileted at tableside) with arugula salad. We have quite a bit of leftovers for tomorrow night!
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What is so surprising about salt content is that the canned foods don't taste salty. Not to offend anyone (as I may have with my remark about not buying frozen fish) but I don't buy much canned food except tomatoes, beans, artichoke hearts. The tomatoes and beans are often available in No Added Salt. More often than not, I cook dry beans. I also buy canned albacore tuna.
I'm always amazed as I push my cart up and down the aisles of the supermarket and look at all the boxes and cans and bottles and frozen food items and I think, "Somebody must buy this." Or a lot of somebodies. I'm envious as I pass the bread selections and the dessert selections. The boxed foods like Hamburger Helper have very high sodium.
I saw on Facebook this morning that the trend in egg production is not to cage the chickens, thanks to public pressure. During the summer in MN, we have easy access to farm eggs at $3 a dozen. For some reason, I like the brown eggs.
Dinner last night was cauliflower mash and shrimp cooked scampi style in butter and EVOO with lemon and garlic. The shrimp were bought fresh, headed (by me), and frozen in water. I had to peel and devein them.
Tonight is our dinner out at Impastato Cellars.
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Carole, if I lived where you live I wouldn’t buy any frozen fish either. Fresh is definitely where it’s at. However, since I’m landlocked those opportunities rarely present themselves. I did find barramundi yesterday, not at Costco but at Fresh Thyme. Later I also saw it at my local grocery store so if I like it, I now know where to get it.
I cook with herbs a lot both fresh and dry so I’m no stranger to that way of cooking and I use a lot of lemon juice and zest especially on vegetables but also chicken, always fish (my preference like yours Carole) and even pastas. My biggest challenge will be deli meats and other ready to eat things. It’s just a mindfulness thing that I need to get used to. Other than my affinity for baking, I really eat a pretty healthful diet. Can’t say the same for my DH who has an affinity for hamburgers. He is probably going to suffer from changes more than I.
I miss Susan. She was such an inspiration to me.
I do plan on chicken wings for super bowl. They will be baked and I’m not sure if I’ll do Frank’s or not. Even if I do, I always cut the butter in half anyway. By the way, I absolutely am not giving up realbutter.
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Eric, how big is your freezer that it can house 50 gallons of orange juice??
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Yes I miss Susan too. I was fortunate to have dinner with Susan & Lacey when I was in Boston several years ago. Also got to meet Eric & Mae - and a number of other BCO folks who don't post on this thread. That was "before" when the world was still traveling regularly. It's always a treat to meet BCO folks in person.
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Carole, no offense taken on the frozen fish. Some fish do not 'translate' well once frozen. Same for crab...frozen dungeness is a shell (pun not intended) of it's former, fresh self, but other seafood freezes remarkably well. I have walked through QFC and Safeway when the stench of the fish/meat area was so bad, I wrote a complaint to headquarters and I had to run out. So fresh makes me nervous. Fresh fish handled with care, I would happily eat.
Potassium citrate could be a slightly better option than the chloride. Potassium also lowers blood pressure, so be careful if you are on BP meds. Also, make sure your kidneys are OK.
Leftover grilled salmon tonight. I made a slaw last night, to go with the bean/corn/salsa side.
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I have a 35 cubic foot freezer. Two other large freezers at others' houses have also been "recruited" into the effort. :-)
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Also a bg nope on salt substitutes. I'd rather have no salt. Also, I pretty strictly use Diamond crystal kosher salt with some small amounts on hand of “special” salts like Maldon, fleur de sel, smoked, etc. I keep a box of regular salt for pasta water and the occasional recipe that calls for table salt.
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Ten years has passed since Sharon's BC diagnosis!!!
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Yea for ten years!!!
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Eric, so wonderful for Sharon!! I'll be starting year 16 in April. What are Sharon's stats?
35 cubic feet. YIKES on that freezer size. Do tell me how you keep it organized.
Had leftover salmon and will make grass-fed beef ragu for tomorrow.0 -
It's upright freezer, which helps. 95% of the freezer holds only orange juice and rhe remaining space takes care if "everything else". Organizing that is easy! :-)
As the orange juice is used, we will add to the "everything else" and then we have to be more careful.
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She was stage 3a, ER+ PR+ HER-, 8 of 12 nodes positive and a couple of nodes had extensions.
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Eric, mazel tov to Sharon on 10 years!
Wally, it breaks my heart to learn that QFC is now Kroger-owned. Kroger basically Wal-Mart-i-fies every chain it takes over and sucks the life and distinction out of it. Mariano's (founded in Milwaukee by the guy who ran Dominick's before it closed, and which replaced a lot of Dominick's plus building a few stores from the ground up) started out like QFC was in the '70s: upscale, lots of variety, fantastic fresh produce/meats/fish; plus in the from-the-ground-up stores stuff QFC didn't have: in-house BBQs, oyster & sushi bars, pizza by the slice, great produce/fish/meats, a huge kosher section in Jewish neighborhoods, wine bar (with jazz trios) and liquor dept., quality prepared foods replenished often. The Marianos that went into defrocked Dominick's stores--especially in less-upscale neighborhoods (there weren't any in really poor 'hoods, which rely on corner shops)--had smaller produce selections whose wares often went bad within a day or two of purchase, hot food bars that sat out forever till they looked like bad truck stops, with street people and bus drivers awaiting shift change occupying the tables so paying customers couldn't sit down to eat (not that the food was palatable). But then Mariano's was taken over by the Milwaukee midrange chain Roundy's and the quality of even the bigger stores began to slip--and then Kroger bought Roundy's too, including all the Mariano's stores. No more oyster bars, the BBQs & sushi bars have only prepacked stuff, they fired all the experts in the wine & liquor depts., etc. And this even started happening pre-pandemic.
Speaking of "what's for dinner?" I'm a little p.o.'ed right now. Bob decided to take on more consults, grab cafeteria dinner, and won't be coming home till after midnight. I busted my butt preparing stuff to make the leftovers seem a lot less "left over," all the while dealing with the cats. So I have to portion out and heat (including making wild mushroom medley from scratch) only what I intend to eat--and the cats (especially Happy) will be hassling me while I eat in front of the TV. (Without Bob, It's on me alone to keep shooing them from the table). Not just that, we're having friends over for Super Bowl, and it's on me to put out the spread---because he doesn't know how. He's never lived alone (he's always had women wait on him) and can't even set a table no matter how many times I show him how (his parents were introverts who never had company or dined out and had terrible table manners--not to mention clutter everywhere). And tomorrow he wants to go to buffet brunch in Rosemont at either Fogo de Chao or the casino (to place a Super Bowl bet--he won't use a sportsbook app because he thinks they foster addiction). Now, the last thing I want to do on a cold morning is drive on icy roads all the way out past O'Hare, jockey for parking, and "consume mass quantities" (as the Coneheads used to say) with noisy crowds--especially when we have to come home and I have to clean up his clutter (every surface is his desk) and put out food for our guests. And of course, still maintain the eating and litterbox schedules for two aging and demanding cats.
Thanks for letting me rant--I never get to. I know he works so hard and deserves to enjoy himself, but it still fries me when I have to do all the work (and driving) when he's not at work--and I never know when to get food prepared and on the table.
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ChiSandy - sorry to hear your Krogers stores are so bad. But don't bash the whole chain. Our Krogers have fresh sushi made while you watch, bread hot out of the oven and many even have tables in their wine departments with curated tastings & selections. Don't get me wrong - I like other stores for different things, but as a regular store for convenience & value - it's Kroger. I drive 30 miles one way to buy groceries, but would not set foot in the WalMart that is 5 minutes away.
Eric - woo hoo - 10 years. Hope you'll give Sharon a hug from all of us. Personally I count from my first treatment. I know we all use different "cancerversary dates", but next week will be 11 years for me from my initial BMX surgery. I'm looking down the road to get to 10 years AFTER the LAST treatment, which will still be a couple of years yet.
Nance - sounds like you already do mostly healthy cooking.
My niece & her husband were here from 2-6:30 for some serious talk, so I didn't make the cod that I'd defrosted, or the fresh asparagus, or the potatoes. In fact I was so tired that I opened a can of Beenie Weenies and a can of B&M Brown Bread and called it done.
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Bob just got home and admitted that the last thing he wants to do tomorrow is get up early, drive out to Rosemont (I always get lost, even with GPS because the town keeps changing traffic patterns), pig out, and then immediately rush to get the place ready for our friends. No betting--he'll wait till we can visit our Vegas timeshare sometime this year (or Harrah's along the Riverwalk in NOLA the day we arrive for the wedding). We'll walk across the street to Beard & Belly for a light brunch (quiche & salad, leave the crust, for me; small hand pies & salad for him). He brought home a shrimp wheel from Jewel and a tin of cookies (glazed sour cream rosettes) baked by a long-time patient. Those will go on the Super Bowl table tomorrow. One friend is bringing hummus (we have some open, along with babaghannouj and half a jar of taramosalata, but I don't feel right serving stuff we've already opened) and another is bringing bean dip & queso. I have Kettle & Terra Chips (the blue potato, batata, & sweet potato assortment), two kinds of tortilla chips, Finn-Crisps, crudites and plain pork rinds (the latter two to keep me away from the carbs). I'll also put out various cheeses, salmon & whitefish roes, and jamon Iberico. If anyone wants something hot, I do have a bag of AnyTizers hot wings in the freezer I can nuke if need be.
There are very, very few things that would cause me to enter a Wal-Mart. Most of my grocery shopping is split between the Whole Foods around the corner, the Jewel in Evanston (which has an even bigger kosher section than Mariano's in Lincolnwood), and Instacart or Amazon Fresh. Sometimes, Target if I'm there for something else. In summer, the farmers' markets (and the gourmet grocery in west Lincoln Park during fresh local strawberry season). For meat & salmon, our Butcher Box subscription and for fish Hooked on Fish (if I like the week's two Fishmonger's Choices). I order the latter online on Sat. or Sun. and pick it up on Tues. I rarely set foot in bakeries or donut shops--way too dangerous.
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I think there's a generation of men who think either kitchen work is "beneath" them or they have been spoiled and it never occurs to them that gender roles are not carved in stone. I've seen enough men pull themselves out of that quagmire and can excel in "domestic arts" if push came to shove. I've told DH too many times that I need a wife, LOL.
When we lived in WI, Roundys was a Pickn'Save and it was barely OK. When Sendiks started spreading out, it was nirvana. A real, old fashioned store with decent prices if you watched what was in season, and clean, organized and plentiful. Great wine selection and the CHEESE!!! was to die for.
Out here, we live on a peninsula; not heavily populated so not a lot of choices. There's one fish monger, a tiny wine seller, a "health food co-op" type store, a small coffee roaster and the QFC/SAFEWAY franchise. The only box-store allowed here was a McDonalds, otherwise nothing else.
I've gone into the Walmart in Sequim when I simply do not want to buy Costco sized products. It is great for frozen veggies/fruits and pet food. Occasionally, the produce looks great, but not often. Things like sweet potatoes, mushrooms, avocados are the best prices around here and decent looking.
I've thawed some grass-fed ground beef and will make the ragu. If anyone has a recipe they love, I'll happily look at it, otherwise I'll use the Huffington Post recipe they have after intervieweing three "Nonnas."
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The local Pick N Save (Kroeger) is nice, plus it's walking distance. I will usually stop at Sendiks or a Metro Mart (also owned by Kroegers) if I'm out and about or going to an appointment (which is very often).The Metro Marts are the ones' that offer the on site oyster and sushi bars, fish baked bread and have the wine bars. They're so nice. We have two really nice Cermaks; usually where I'll but my root vegetables or any other Spanish groceries I need.
Some of Chicago's finest will be coming over to watch the game and they had special requests; so the Super Bowl menu will be PR rice, grilled filets, shrimp and chicken wings with a spicy guava bbq sauce (they'll be doing the grilling as it's too cold for me), tostones (fried plantains) with a chimichurri sauce and garlic mojo, cheesy meatball sliders, spinach and artichoke bread bowl, taco dip, a charcuterie board, guava/cream cheese pastelillos (pastries) and a chocolate cake.
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My parents, and my mom's parents both pretty much did whatever needed to get done, although there were some preferences about "who did what". However, the "who did what" didn't follow the normal 1950s gender roles.
I guess I followed their example. :-)
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Eric, females of the world applaud, laud and love you guys!!
I tweaked the Huff post recipe by adding cream. So many ragu recipes added milk (we never have it in the house) and some used cream. This recipe had neither, but I needed to use it up, so in it went. LOTS of leftovers. Turned out beautifully!
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Serendipity, we have a Cermak nearby on Ridge Blvd. in West Ridge/W. Rogers Park. (Used to be a mega-Dominick's). They have the largest produce dept, and the organic section is decent and fresh. I like the variety of Asian & Latin/Caribbean veg & fruits. Their hot bar has carnitas for $5/lb--great for keto. The one on S. Cicero & State Rd. (en route to my husband's hospitals & office in Evergreen Park & Oak Lawn/Chicago Ridge) has a kettle with real tamales (steamed in cornhusks, various fillings) replenished every couple of hours and labeled with the time--sort of like the stickers on the containers of rotisserie chickens. There's a Fresh Farms in Niles that has a massive selection of int'l foods (including E. Asian, Indian, Hispanic, E. European, Greek) and a huge seafood section with very reasonable prices. It's a pain in the butt driving out there, but I occasionally stop by after filling up on gas at Costco.
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Cermak opened here about 10 years ago. There are only 2 stores locally. I remember driving down to Chicago to go to the Cermak on North Ave to get our produce. The stores here have the hot bar and yes, I agree their carnitas are very good. They also have a wonderful cheese selection.
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