No Dinner Tonight

Pointlessly meandering through local stores can provide welcome surcease at the end of a trying day. After spending an entire morning completing paperwork the boss will probably ignore and a long lunch sitting through many faculty and staff goodbyes (not to mention having to cut my farewell short for fear of leaking tears), I needed a break. So, the family headed to our local strip mall to walk the shops where interesting food abounds.

We started at Dollar Tree, which just opened near our home. I love this place! Not only did I pick up several kitchen necessities, but I ambled through three aisles of food items ranging from old-fashioned candy to jars of black currant preserves. My favorite picks include marinated mushrooms, roasted bell pepper strips, the entire spice section, multiple olives, and artichoke hearts. Of course the bags of snack foods - honey glazed nuts, flavored chips, and cheddar crackers - are good, too.

After making a few selections, we moved on to World Market - a food lover’s mecca. However, unlike Dollar Tree, everything there is expensive. Still, Jeff couldn't resist his favorite imported German cookies (chocolate dipped assorted sugar wafers with flavored fillings), while I was tempted by a wide variety of items - especially the blue cheese and feta cheese stuffed green olives (which were five bucks for a small jar). Though I salivated over chocolate meringues, key lime curd, and bruschetta flavored vegetable chips, I left with only one small item from the sale cart - wasabi flavored, dry roasted edamame. Jeff doesn't care for wasabi or edamame, so he wasn't in danger of swiping any of my treat. On the other hand, the boy likes anything spicy and interesting, so I slid the bag underneath the cookies to protect it from his wandering eyes. (It worked, too!)

As we munched German cookies (which would melt if left in the car), we made our way to Target to browse summer video games, books, and music. But our final stop before check out was the ice cream aisle where (after a long survey of possible choices) we settled on Breyer's Waffle Cone Overload. This package of wonderfulness is creamy vanilla bean ice cream laced with caramel and filled with chunks of chocolate-dipped waffle cone. Mmmm....

As we arrived home with our treasures, we realized that somewhere along the way a tacit understanding had arisen that there would be no dinner tonight - only a myriad of goodies meant to sooth the end-of-year rush.