decafe tea.

The pataks brand simmer sauces come marked with chili 🌶️ levels of heat, I used the 3 🌶️ & it was pleasant lip/mouth burn for me. I would add some green veggie next time, it is very red/orange.

made a wrap with chicken, fresh spinach, sweet onion, cucumber, Provolone cheese, and Caesar dressing.
Had a small serving of frozen custard.

The last week has been so busy and I ate more restaurant meals since last Tuesday than I have in two years!

Mostly just walked around to get a quick idea of their inventory and pricing. Sorta reminded me of Cub Foods when I lived in OH. I think it's going to work well. We'll see when I do a full shopping trip.

While there, I picked up a few things. Got some chuck eye steaks for dinner tonight, but I don't know when/if we'll eat them tonight. We stopped for lunch while we were out at Wendy's, but it was around 2p, so not even close to being hungry. Also won't be doing that often, either. For one chicken sandwich combo, 1 plain single, 1 plain jr. cheeseburger (for the dog) and 1 small frosty was over $22.

I've been noticing the same thing at restaurants here in the Phoenix area. K and I got a $50+ bill for lunch at a storefront cafe sort of place recently. A local eatery, not a chain, and until recently the prices were quite a bit lower. We go there regularly-- it's close-- so we didn't even look at the menu before we ordered. I overheard some conversation about the price of wholesale food rising sharply. Unleaded gasoline is $5/gallon here-- I wonder if transportation costs are contributing to higher food prices. Grocery stores don't seem to be up that much-- they spiked a while back and prices seem to be coming down.

with a piece of American cheese added. Any place we go, we almost always get one combo and one sandwich, and share the fries and drink from the combo. I also forgot to tell them to make it a small combo, and was reminded when they handed out a cup holding what has to be a litre of soda. They usually ask, but this guy didn't; I think he just gave me the large combo. The difference for just a sandwich and a small combo is $4.

Gas did get down under $3 here last week, but is up just over $3 today. I'm still not seeing grocery prices drop that much yet. Doubt they will significantly, if at all. Has never happened in the past. They figure people will just get used to it. coz what else are we going to do.

Orange 🍊 before bedtime.

And lemonade. We've been picking lemons since January and drinking fresh lemonade for months. We've just about harvested them all now-- we gave bags full to neighbors and everyone who came to visit or work on the house, lol. Nobody got out without taking lemons! We've juiced six or seven quarts for later, too. I'd just throw the washed lemons into the freezer if they didn't take up so much space.

Make simple syrup by combining equal amounts of sugar and water in a sauce pan, e.g. 2 c sugar + 2 c water, then heating/stirring until ALL the sugar is dissolved. Don't burn it. Stirring keeps it from scorching. I use raw turbinado sugar because we like the taste. Let it cool and store in the refrigerator.

In a tall glass combine over ice:

juice of 1/2 lemon (adjust as necessary-- our lemons are as big as my fist)
simple sugar syrup to taste

Then fill the remaining space in the glass with cold sparkling mineral water. Stir well, taste, and adjust. I use about 2-3 Tbsp of sugar syrup in my glass, while Ms K likes somewhat more.

Just got back from Sicily and lemons are in season. Lemon trees everywhere. Smells of lemon wafting through the air.

Oven roasted potatoes too.

Mr. Retrograde got some boudin noir at the farmers' market last weekend, why I don't know since he's not as big a fan of offal as I am. I've grilled them, and currently have an onion/apple mix caramelizing. I'll serve them with mashed potatoes.

The sausage was looser than British black puddings I've had, and the onion/apple mix complemented them nicely. Now I have to think of what to do with the leftover sausages - tacos? Use instead of chorizo for huevos rancheros?