Twelve Easy Pieces
"For years, suspicion has been growing in the orchards of the Wenatchee Valley in Washington State and in the food industry at large that fruit, nature's original hand-held convenience food, is simply too poorly designed for today's busy eater. The apple, for instance: whatever it has meant to Americans over the years -- from mom's pie to the little red schoolhouse -- getting our mouths around one has also apparently meant some unspoken aggravation." Posted at 7:36 AM Central Time

Safeshopping.org
"This informational site, created by the American Bar Association, will help you order safely when shopping online:" Safeshopping.org Posted at 7:14 AM Central Time

Change is the one constant in the supermarket industry
"It started in 1930, when Michael Cullen converted a vacant garage in Jamaica, N.Y., into the King Kullen Grocery Co., which is recognized as the nation's first supermarket. And it has continued into the 21st century as store owners come up with new gimmicks and services to make themselves stand out from the competition." Posted at 7:37 AM Central Time

How to survive a trip to the grocery store when you have young kids
"Buying groceries is one of constant task for us Moms, and we often lack anyone at home to watch our baby or toddler. Trips to the store can turn into a huge headache if your kids are in tow and are grabbing every box of cookies they see and complaining about everything you put into the cart." Posted at 6:31 AM Central Time

Food 4 Less wins battle of the basics
"On Wednesday, we visited Stater Bros. on Highway 111 and Madison in Indio and asked shoppers how much they are spending on groceries each week -- and if it's more or less than they were spending a year ago." Posted at 6:24 AM Central Time

Suppertime shuffle: Create a dinner plan that makes everyone happy
"Grab a sheet of paper and a pencil and jot down a list of simple meals you want to serve next week. Get the kids and other adults in the home to help come up with ideas. Dinner could be as simple as slipping a pan of Stouffer's frozen lasagna into the oven and throwing together a tossed salad. That can't happen, though, if you didn't think ahead to buy the lettuce and lasagna." Posted at 6:51 AM Central Time

Which Cut Is Older? (It's a Trick Question)
"If some of the meat in supermarkets is looking rosier than it used to, the reason is that a growing number of markets are selling it in airtight packages treated with a touch of carbon monoxide to help the product stay red for weeks." (NYT story that requires registration, try bugmenot.com.) Posted at 7:30 AM Central Time

1976 Slide: IGA Supermarket
"Found this small group of Supermarket slides dated 1976."
Posted at 7:29 AM Central Time

Create a dinner plan that makes everyone happy
"Meal preparation starts with a good grocery list. You can have cookware endorsed by Emeril Lagasse, but if you don't have a plan you're in trouble. Check out Tuesday's Lansing State Journal for a parent-approved, step-by-step plan to help you put together meals that fit within the limits of your time and budget." Posted at 7:46 AM Central Time

Don't Be Blinded by Bulk Sales
"...what I can't decide about is the situation where I go someplace like Wal-Mart's Sam's Club and try to stick with my shopping list. I often see items that are really good deals (I think), and I know that the next time I go to Sam's (probably a month or two later) those particular items won't be there although they might be on my list by that time. I don't stockpile a lot of stuff, but sometimes it seems to make more sense to save money. If I buy those particular items in the grocery store they will cost two or three times more than if I buy them at Sam's. So -- which is the lesser evil: Not sticking to the list in order to snare the bargain, or paying more at another store when I do finally run out of said item?" (Requires login: Use one from bugmenot.com) Posted at 8:01 AM Central Time

Tucker Shaw, Everything I Ate: A Year in the Life of My Mouth
An interview with "Tucker Shaw, food lover, author, Everything I Ate: A Year in the Life of My Mouth: Do you ever walk through the streets of New York and marvel at the seemingly endless rows of restaurants, wondering how many years you'd have to live here to eat at all of them? Well, Tucker Shaw has probably come close, and has chronicled one year of his eating life in Everything I Ate: A Year in the Life of My Mouth (Chronicle Books, 2005), a grandiose, obsessive and utterly addictive photo collection of food, glorious, nonstop food. Shaw photographed every bite, from candy to cereal, steaks to sandwiches, throughout New York and during his travels. The result is a smorgasbord of food that's impossible to even page through without feeling a rumbling in your stomach. Read it with edibles on hand." Posted at 7:30 AM Central Time

Baby Got Back
"Ugh, I got on the scale the other day, not good. I need to do something with myself, like yesterday (which I did). I started by going grocery shopping. Please compare the two lists. They outline what I would have purchased pre-me-getting-on-the-scale and post -me-getting-on-the-scale." Posted at 7:19 AM Central Time

Organic Veggie Co-op haul, week 8
"Swiss chard, lettuce, kale, bag-o-basil, carrots, English cuke, edible-pod peas, gooseberries, and radish sprouts."
Posted at 7:13 AM Central Time

I Would Like To Buy a Vowel (Inside a C)
"While perusing the aisles of the local grocery store, a similarity between a few of the products presented itself to me. Several diverse products, especially in the coffee area, had logotypes where the vowel of the letter was enclosed inside a capital 'C'. These were all brands that I was familiar with, but I had never put them together." Posted at 6:52 AM Central Time

"I always feel like, my cart is watching me
"In an effort to to 'improve the customer's shopping experience, facilitate the up-sell, increase sales volume, and boost store loyalty', Springboard Retail Networks manufactures the Concierge, an interactive, touch-screen computer affixed to grocery shopping carts." Posted at 7:32 AM Central Time

Soulard Market essay earns Galapagos trip
"Caitlin Vera thrives on exploration. Her inspiration: the culturally rich Soulard Farmer's Market. Weekly trips to the market are the reason Caitlin, 14, of south St. Louis County, is packing her bags to go to the Galapagos Islands in May. She will be a member of the first-ever National Geographic Kids Expedition Team. Caitlin's essay describing the variety of cultures and cuisine in her hometown, as well as a photograph of the market, won her a spot on the 15-member team." Posted at 7:31 AM Central Time

Cyber clipping for the pantry
"In 2004, Nancy Giehl spent $12,000 on groceries for her family of five. 'Now, I probably spend about $9,000 a year,' said Giehl, of Boulder, Colo. What's changed since then is Giehl, 48, now is one of the many 'players' on a Web site called The Grocery Game. For a fee of $10 every eight weeks, Giehl and other members get on www.grocerygame.com to use sales and coupons to their advantage." Posted at 6:48 AM Central Time

LCD magnets write their own poetry
See first comment: "They should really make them items in a grocery list and you tap them to light them up. Then they use bluetooth to print themselves out once a week and turn off." Posted at 7:51 AM Central Time

Home economists: The Desperation Dinners duo add 'cheap' to their repertoire
"Cheap. Fast. Good. On the home-meals front, Beverly Mills and Alicia Ross have spent almost three years compiling some 275 recipes and related tips into a book designed to help you achieve all three simultaneously. 'Cheap. Fast. Good!' (Workman, 2005, $13.95) is the third book co-authored by the pair, whose initial and ongoing collaboration is a syndicated newspaper column, Desperation Dinners." Posted at 7:28 AM Central Time

SmartShopper - the voice-activated shopping list device
"SmartShopper is an automated grocery shopping list device that will use voice recognition technology to store, and intelligently aggregate lists for shopping and errands, then print the list. According to the company's co-founder Richard G. Brindisi, 'the user simply presses a button on the unit and says the name of a grocery item they will need on their next visit to the store. The unit has an LCD and an embedded thermal printer that actually prints the list right out of the unit." Posted at 8:01 AM Central Time

Grocery List at BettyCrocker.com
"As you find recipes on BettyCrocker.com, add them to your Grocery List. We'll create a complete list, including amounts, separated by grocery store sections. To add a new recipe, search through all of Betty's recipes. To remove, simply mark a recipe, then click on 'delete.'" Posted at 8:26 AM Central Time

Web sites are serving price comparisons
"Enter in a ZIP code and the name of a food item such as popcorn or Lay's barbecue chips, and the Cairo and Froogle Web sites will list sale prices in that area. Cairo.com's system can be configured to send e-mail alerts when an item goes on sale." Posted at 7:09 AM Central Time

Consumer Club: Online Discount Shopping and Price Comparison
"Our mission is to save you money on everything you buy and to provide our online shoppers a one-stop source for their shopping needs. We offer consumers the option to designate a Cause to receive rebates so they can help a favorite Cause while doing everyday shopping." Posted at 7:47 AM Central Time

A new bag of tricks for grocers
"Shoppers will be able to order deli meats on a touch screen in the canned pea aisle, get recipes and ingredient lists from a kiosk or even talk to a faraway expert on an in-store phone in the supermarket of the future. New technology is finding its way into the front of some grocery stores around the country..." Posted at 7:29 AM Central Time

Grocery list: Milk, detergent, strep test
"Fearing bad news as her son suffered with a cough, aches and a sore throat, Donna Bultez found help in the most common of places -- her neighborhood grocery store. Just feet from the beeping cash registers, a few steps behind the frosted-glass door, Bultez was relieved to find that her son Trevor Belmont wasn't suffering from strep throat. That she saved money by avoiding a trip to the emergency room was good news, too. More and more stores -- from small-scale chains like Bultez' local Hy-Vee to megamarkets like Wal-Mart and Target -- have started trial runs with in-store medical clinics." Posted at 7:45 AM Central Time

Weekly Meal Planning: Dine Without Whine
"Here at Dine Without Whine we strive to eliminate the dinner hour stress in your home. Our weekly menu plans help you quickly and easily prepare home-cooked meals for your family that even your picky eater will be willing to try." Posted at 10:51 AM Central Time

Gallery clerk hurls obscenities at students
"A cashier at the Gallery Gourmet Market in the basement of Ivory Tower was detained Sunday night after University Police was called due to inappropriate remarks he made to customers. GW spokeswoman Tracy Schario said the man was 'clearly very drunk.' As of 9 p.m., the man was being detained by UPD until a relative could escort him from campus, Schario said." Posted at 10:50 AM Central Time

Spice up those single servings
"Most cookbook recipes could feed a small army, and frankly, so can I when I cook. But after seriously taking on my own journey toward healthier living and plunking down some of my hard-earned cash for a nutritionist to put an eating plan together for me, I found I was just wasting a lot of food, and money. As a single career woman with no one to feed but myself, it would be easier -- though not healthier -- to just eat out more often, or skip meals. But I don't. I spend my weekends, typically Sundays, preparing a weeks' worth of healthy meals to take to work with me." Posted at 7:20 AM Central Time

Tasty Sandwich Diet!
Seen on Flickr: "I love me a tasty sandwich. Esp. when it's administered by that 'Good Doctor.'"
Posted at 7:11 AM Central Time

GLC is SMITHEN
SMITH Magazine linked us up as a "Site We Like" -- check them out: "SMITH magazine celebrates a new golden age of storytelling. Smith is our stories, our history, our friends, our celebrities, our moments, our lives. We believe everyone has a story. Everyone is a Smith." Posted at 7:07 AM Central Time

GLC giveaway alert for February!
UPDATE: February's books are gone. Congrats Kate and Celia. | More free books! The first person to write in and request a book linked below gets it for free during our second Monthly GLC Giveaway of 2006. Limit one per person -- you must request a specific book. First come, first served. You must include a snail mail address -- but we won't use your email or postal address for anything other than sending you the book.

And since Valentine's Day is just around the corner, we're featuring a couple spicy selections:

Gone! Claimed by Kate of Boston, Massachusetts!
Curry: A Tale of Cooks and Conquerors | "Curry serves up a delectable history of Indian cuisine, ranging from the imperial kitchen of the Mughal invader Babur to the smoky cookhouse of the British Raj. In this fascinating volume, the first authoritative history of Indian food, Lizzie Collingham reveals that almost every well-known Indian dish is the product of a long history of invasion and the fusion of different food traditions. We see how, with the arrival of Portuguese explorers and the Mughal horde, the cooking styles and ingredients of central Asia, Persia and Europe came to the subcontinent, where over the next four centuries they mixed with traditional Indian food to produce the popular cuisine that we know today... Richly spiced with colorful anecdotes and curious historical facts, and attractively designed with 34 illustrations, 5 maps, and numerous recipes, Curry is vivid, entertaining, and delicious -- a feast for food lovers everywhere." —Amazon.com (List price: $28.00)

Gone! Claimed by Celia of Cleveland, Ohio!
Salt and Pepper: 135 Perfectly Seasoned Recipes | "In Salt and Pepper, Michele Anna Jordan reminds us that salt is the spice of life: we cannot live without it. Pepper, on the other hand, is only a much enjoyed culinary pleasure. Such bold statements are typical of Jordan, who writes with a strong voice. She is informative, challenging, opinionated, and poetic, giving us vivid images of places and flavors. She describes the delicate salt from the French Île de Ré as 'salty jewels for the tongue to savor.' Jordan takes us to Malaysia, sharing how peppercorns are grown, harvested, and processed, and to Poland, where chandeliers now hang in their rock-salt mines. She explains how Lampong, Sarawak, and Malabar peppercorns differ, and compares the salt from O-shima Island in Japan to Lima and Sea Stars salts. Finally, Jordan shares the ultimate mystery of salt -- that no one yet understands exactly how and why it improves the taste of what we eat. Jordan's food is elemental and intriguing. Spaghetti with Black Pepper and Nutmeg, Green Peppercorn Mayonnaise, and dozens of other recipes require only three to five ingredients." —Amazon.com (List price: $25.00)

So, go for it. Just write in and request a free book. Be sure to check back next month for more Monthly GLC giveaways.

Love,
The GLC Crew and keaggy.com

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Posted at 6:26 PM Central Time

This week is Food Check-Out Week
"FM95's Chuck O'Brien learned Monday he needs far more than five minutes to shop for a half month's worth of groceries. The radio personality's cart held a dozen cans of fruit and a package of elbow macaroni at Main Street Hy-Vee. 'This poor family is going to be on a lean diet,' a spectator said. O'Brien knew he was sluggish. 'My wife does all the shopping,' he said.

This week is Food Check-Out Week, recognizing that the average American has earned enough income in five weeks to pay for their family's annual food supply. U.S. citizens spend 10 percent of their disposable income on food, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture statistics. By comparison, citizens of France spend 18 percent and Japan, 26 percent." Posted at 7:54 AM Central Time