local hardware store finds - pickled vegetables

If you're from the Midwest, you might be familiar with Fleet Farm and Menards. I see them as between Home Depot/Lowe's and an Ace Hardware in both size and assortment. While they all have a selection of household supplies, wood, tools, etc., Fleet Farm caters more to a farming customer and Menards maybe to a typical homeowner that just wants the lowest price and doesn't need a wide selection to choose from. 

I, myself, head to Fleet Farm when I want snacks. They have an insanely large area with bulk bags of Fleet Farm brand snacks, including caramel nut clusters, sesame stix, trail mix, and chocolate covered pretzels and nuts. I find myself there most often in the Fall when I have a craving for candy corn. When one of my sisters comes we always stop in to see what clothing finds they have. We typically walk away with something Carhartt. And, on one visit, I scored a pair of $2 grey sweat pants that are about five sizes too large, yet are my absolute favorite pair of cozy bottoms to wear around the house! 

I am one of the typical homeowners I mentioned that head to Menards to get the cheapest price from a tailored assortment of products. If I want anything on trend such as a lighting fixture or a new door that comes anywhere close to this era, then I might head elsewhere. But for everything else Menards is great. There are two categories of things I pick up from Menards that aren't typical hardware fare -- dog toys and Watkins spices and extracts. The dog toys are an ever-changing assortment piled into a pallet sized cardboard bin in the center of an aisle near the pet section. The toys are just a few dollars and are more durable than any other brand I've paid four times as much for. They also have an in-aisle display of Watkins products at great prices. I often pick up a large bottle of vanilla extract. 

My neighbor mentioned loving some of the jarred pickled items from Menards. So I scouted those out on my most recent visit. I am IN LOVE! There are fourteen different kinds from the Old World brand, including pickled tomatoes, garlic pickles, beet and leek salad, traditional Polish salad, traditional German salad, traditional Greek salad, sauerkraut with carrot, green tomato salad, diced baby beets, marinated peppers, pickled red cabbage, pickled mushrooms, red cabbage with apples, and sweet cucumber salad. I haven't opened all of them yet, but the pickled mushrooms was the first I tried and it certainly is unique and fun! That particular one does have sulfites, but since I limit those in general I would probably buy them again regardless. I've also tried the pickled tomatoes and beet and leek salad and I enjoyed those as well. 

While shopping this section of the store, I noticed a number of other products I want to grab next time. Preserved Harvest is a brand that has mostly pickles and jams, but also spiced peaches, vanilla peaches, pears, sweet pickled garlic, and pickled dilly corn. Marcella Gourmet also has unique items, including pickled snap peas, green tomato relish, corn relish, red sweet pepper relish, as well as jams, pasta sauces, and pesto sauces. Leone's is another great one with pickled asparagus, spicy pickled carrots, spicy pickled green beans, muffuletta, and various pickles and olives. 

Do you have any favorites from Fleet Farm or Menards? Or, do you have your own local chain of hardware stores that has great finds like these? Let me know in the comments.

most interesting vol. 5

Freefall: A Reckoning for Boeing was just released this week and it was heart wrenching. One of the focuses of the documentary was to show the impact protege's of CEO Jack Welch have had - attempting to make profits at any cost including cutting quality and safety despite knowing it's potential to put the public in harms way causing injury and death. And also the interconnectedness and corruptness between large corporations and the government - to the extent that the government also ensures the judiciary process favors the corporation to protect GDP. This documentary also focused heavily on the whistleblowers, all which were exceptionally brave for coming forward! 

After the heaviness of the above, Relay is a fictional whistleblower plot. I found it to be a really unique and engrossing take on this plot idea.

Since watching and loving Shrill, I ran across Diary of a Ditched Girl on Netflix that gave me similar vibes. This Swedish series follows Amanda on her dating endeavors and also her relationships with family and friends. I especially loved that this main character is thirty and therefore somewhat eager in her dating life, which made the interactions so funny, cringeworthy, and relatable to my own life at that age. I also found the other relationship dynamics very accurate. 

recipe: beef and cabbage with wild rice

When the cabbage is bountiful in the garden and needs to be used up, this recipe of my moms for beef and cabbage with wild rice is the first recipe I reach for. The prep is a bit time consuming. Yet the flavorful result is so worth it!

beef and cabbage with wild rice

Ingredients:

3/4 cup dried wild rice

6 eggs

1 pound ground beef

2 medium onions, chopped

2 cloves garlic, diced

2 tbsp butter

2 tbsp all purpose flour

14 ounce can stewed tomatoes with Italian herbs 

2 tbsp ketchup

1 1/4 cup water

1/2 tsp garlic salt

1 small head cabbage, shredded

Salt and pepper to taste 

Instructions:

1) Cook wild rice per directions. Hard boil eggs, once cooled peel and dice. Set both cooked wild rice and diced eggs aside. 

2) Brown ground beef with onions and garlic. Push ground beef aside and melt butter in corner of pan. Mix flour in with the butter, then combine the butter flour mixture with the ground beef. Add to the pan canned tomatoes, ketchup, water, and garlic salt. Heat to a simmer. Add cooked rice and chopped eggs to the pan and stir to combine.

3) Butter 9x13 casserole dish. Spread half of the shredded cabbage in the bottom of the casserole dish. Top with half the ground beef mixture. Spread another layer of cabbage and then remaining meat mixture.

4) Cover with an oven safe lid or aluminum foil. Bake in 350 degree oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

5) Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve. 

Notes:

- A small head of cabbage or half of a larger cabbage is all that will fit with the beef mixture in a 9x13 pan. If you're like me and LOVE cabbage, you can use up a whole head of cabbage by layering the mixture in a 9x13 pan as well as an 8x8 pan. 

- To reduce the amount of pans overall needed to make this recipe, you can use a larger stockpot when cooking the meat mixture and add the cabbage directly into that stockpot. Once removing any handles, or other non-oven safe materials, you can stick this stockpot directly into the oven for cooking. Additionally, if you don't want to use the oven at all, you can cook the cabbage in a pan on the stovetop with a little butter and then combine that with the meat mixture, then serve.