I bought 8 bags of pumpkin-shaped Reese’s at the grocery store yesterday. Is that excessive? Yes. But hear me out:
Grocery shopping is an adventure in surprise, delight, and disappointment here. I used to be a meal planner, where I would plan the week’s dinners, have a tidy list of ingredients, and go onto an app and order my groceries. I would pick them up on my way home from work Monday evening and *boom* everything to make dinner was loaded in my automatic-closing trunk. Sometimes the guy putting them in my truck would tell me jokes the entire time. I hated when I got him, because I don’t actually want to talk or pretend to laugh. He was my biggest grocery concern. “Please don’t let it be the guy with jokes.” as I literally only lifted a finger to have my entire week’s groceries loaded into my car exactly to the specs I ordered. And God forbid if there was a substitution, How will I make the correct spaghetti sauce with mild Italian sausage when the family likes hot Italian sausage!?
There is no grocery order here. There is no such thing as meal planning here if it goes by a recipe. I tried in the beginning, but that ended with a lot of cereal for dinner. My meal planning now is whatever meat looked good and fresh and dealer’s choice veggies, because you truly never know what will be available at the store.
This makes going to the store such an adventure, and I love it. A few weeks ago they had cotton candy grapes. They’ve never ever had them here. Most of our friends who aren’t American had never heard of them, and it was clear the grocery store didn’t know what sort of gold it had. Because, get this, they were cheaper than normal grapes! You better believe that we bought half of them (there were only 4 available). Once I secured mine, I sent my “911 emergency! Don’t walk, run!” text to my snack compatible friends.
About a month ago, they had Bread and Butter pickles. I don’t think I’ve ever bought them in the states, but you can bet your ass I bought a few jars here. I forgot how good they are! I ate the entire jar in one afternoon. At dinner that night, my friends asked why I wasn’t eating. I had to sheepishly explain that I ate a full jar of pickles that day and planned on doing it again tomorrow. My tummy needed a rest. Once again, all the non-Americans had never heard of Bread and Butters.
Some other fun things I have found at the grocery store that required the alert text messages to go out: Chick-fil-a sauce, Dr Pepper, Stouffer’s lasagna, Almond Joy, beef jerky.
As much as I love the surprise and delight of grocery shopping here, it makes traditional holiday meals incredibly difficult to plan. Last year we did Thanksgiving with our friends. After we sat down and planned the meal and listed out ingredients, it was a group WhatsApp to actually find what we needed. The turkey was easy, same for the potatoes. But finding canned pumpkin required hawk eyes from everyone at the grocery stores. Finding fresh or frozen cranberries? This was a trip 2 hours away. French fried onions Was a full on care package from the States!
And the pilgrims think they had it rough!
Could we make this from scratch? Yeah.. probably… but that’s not how my mom did it, and it’s not right if it’s not hers.
Back to the Reese’s, hear me out:
- Anyone who is a Reese’s connoisseur knows the holiday shapes are the perfect ratio of chocolate to peanut butter.
- I’ve NEVER seen normal Reese’s here.
- You can miss me with the mini and big cups (I’ll take one that has pretzels or chips in it because that’s a different thing entirely).
- They cannot be ordered on Amazon because they melt in transit.
I think the only correct response is, “why didn’t I get more?” The truth is, as I sit here a day later, I regret deeply not buying all of them. I know they will be gone now (since I sent my “911 emergency. Don’t walk, run.” text) The thing that brings me comfort is day dreaming about what forgotten treasures I will find next time.
the eventually home 