I've noticed the difference for quite a while, especially when the cans and packages started changing shape. Some older recipes are based on the original sizing which is irritating. After being the primary grocery shopper and cook in our household for 45 years, the companies aren't fooling me in the least.
Try Anna Ginsberg's "Cookie Madness". She has four listed under Ice Box Desserts. I like the looks of the first two and plan to try the first one this month for a luncheon. The second one features white chocolate and strawberries.
Divine strawberries - huge and oh so red - artichokes - absolutely huge and so fresh. The produce at the local farmer's market in CA last weekend was incredible since it was locally grown nearby on the coast - and the prices so low compared to the chain stores. How I longed to take it all back with me to the east coast. And sadly .... noone buying that day.
Well - since our favorite 32 oz. mayonnaise jar has now become 30 oz. for the same or higher price - can we expect to see this size at our regular market next?
Thanks for the memories. I lived on Western Ave. when I was a small child - married at age eighteen - and moved away. I haven't been able to make it back to visit - other than to fly in/out. However, I do remember some of the spots we ate and shopped at. A city with lots of ethnic diversity.
Black forest cake - prepared by others (my husband won't eat it) or mother's lemon pie. It's a very old recipe made with orange flavoring as well as lemon and is a bit creamy - divine. It's the best I've ever tasted; however, my husband grew up with packaged pudding mix and thinks that's the only way to make lemon filling. Ugh!
Just finished the recipe I had wanted to try for awhile. My husband insists that sauce have peppers, so I added a little red and green in with the onions and garlic. I bought a really nice Chianti import and I had a loaf of sourdough bread just baked, so I ended up using that for the larger crumbs. I also had to rush so baked the meatballs - there were lots - at 400 degrees, then added most of them to the sauce to finish up. Because I baked the meatballs, I sauteed the vegetables, then added them to the wine and tomatoes, therefore missing out on the browned bits this time. I cooked the sauce down, tasted, and added just a bit of sugar, then added the meatballs. My husband said he thought tasty and I thought worth the extra time to prep and cook. There will be enough meatball for hot subs another day - hooray.
As I write the April Food & Wine sits on the table beside me. Thanks for letting me know what awaits. However, until I try this recipe - I roasted a lovely, fat-breasted chicken just yesterday. I seasoned it very simply - salt & pepper, paprika, and olive oil - roasted it at 325 degrees, and we enjoyed it with a highly seasoned cornbread dressing. I guess I'm old school but I like to roast low and slow. It still browned nicely and turned out moist and delicious.
I'd long ago given up the canned variety (and especially the packaged)when it's so easy to prepare from ingredients in my kitchen. I control the sodium and I much prefer knowing exactly what's gone into the mix. Here's to a good "Sloppy Joe" - as missbhavens said - 'the' saucymeat sandwich.
I plan my meals and shopping list for the week using featured items that can be used for more than one meal. I buy less and use up items while they're still fresh.
I've also noticed a similar trend with our bakeries around town: cookies and muffins remain the same price but are much smaller than they were a few months ago. So it's not just limited to grocery stores....many local food merchants are feeling the pinch of food prices and passing that along to consumers.
Lemon Ice Box Pie
1 can sweetened condensed milk
2 egg yolks
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (really good with lime, too)
1 graham, vanilla wafer, shortbread or other cookie-type crust
Whipped cream
Combine ingredients.
Pour into cookie crust.
Refrigerate several hours until set.
Top with whipped cream.
Serve.
Note -- the acidity of the lemon juice eliminates any remote possibility of salmonella from the uncooked egg yolks.
I wondered why I no longer get 2 rounds of homemade mac-n-cheese out of a box of elbows...now I know. =P
The thing that has always bothered me more is the reverse: when they enlarge the container and claim 15% more FREE! I often don't want or need more of the product and I hate wasting it.
Go to epicurious and search for Tennesse Williams lemon Icebox Pie. This is an old southern favorite. I made 2 at Easter and the family gobbled them both up.
Smaller sizes in 'ready to eat' and 'single serving' sizes is probably a good thing, bar the packaging issues. It could cut down on calories consumed, although it could backfire, if people decide they now need to eat 2 containers rather than one since they're smaller. (The contents of the package, not the person consuming them...the consumers themselves are getting much bigger these days).
Check the label on your Edy's . Their "Edy's Loaded" product and some of the other other new offerings are not ice cream. Check the label carefully and you'll find the phrase "frozen dairy dessert" but nowhere does it say ice cream - because it's not. The Edy's Light Slow Churned and the Edy's Grand flavors are still real ice cream however.
I noticed this at the store the other day, too, when I grabbed an ice cream container that was decidedly wee. Farewell half gallon (and apparently 1.75 gallon). It's interesting to read about the other shrinking products.
I ran into this yesterday at the local Shaw's. When reaching in for some Edy's Vanilla, I noticed a smaller container (1.5) mixed in with a few of the (1.75) and they were all priced the same. Someone forgot to remove the "older" version while stocking the case. Lucky me. I bought all 4 of them!
This has been going on for a long time. I noticed it more than ten years ago with cans going from 16 oz. to 15 oz. Most bags of sugar went from 5 lbs. to 4 lbs. around that same time.
The cereal makers raised prices a couple of months ago, citing increased prices for wheat, energy, etc. They got consumers used to the higher price and then reduced the amount that you get. So...in some cases you pay more AND get less. The justification that they use (we don't want to see higher prices so they're reducing the size instead) is ridiculous. Do they think we haven't noticed all the times that product prices have increased over the years?
General Mills has decreased the size of their boxes in addition to reducing the amount of cereal, so at least there's less packaging in some instances.
Subscribe to our feeds:
All of Serious Eats, Talk, Required Eating, Videos, Eating Out, Recipes, New York
Subscribe by email:
Website:
Location:
About:
Favorite foods:
Last bite on earth: