Food

I went to the Mart on Wednesday evening and my usual routine is to drop by the deli to get something for dinner.

We all like different things, so I just order whatever amount of this, that or the other that I think will be enough.

I get home, the food is still warm and everyone digs in.

Except, if I had not seen the clerk put the actual food into the containers, I would have thought the "food" had been brought in by paleontologist. We're talking fossilized here, people.

Chicken strips so hard, the cat wouldn't even touch one. Sissy's mozzarella sticks were hard as rocks and brown inside. Mozzarella isn't brown.

This scenario has happened to me before, so I knew the food had been sitting in the heat trays too long.

I didn't spend much money on it - maybe $3.50 total (that's for the food that was inedible...I bought some wings for the Evil Twin and his were fine.), so the money issue wasn't my gripe.

I got to thinking, "Shouldn't they time this stuff, so if X amount of time goes by and the stuff is unsold, dump it out and make some fresh?"

The next morning, I called to speak to the manager. She was very nice and said that they do have a timing policy, but the employees were not following the protocol and that she was new there and was trying to stress the importance of this policy.

She offered me replacement food, but I told her that wasn't what I was after, I just wanted someone to be aware of the situation.

She thanked me and then said, "You know that you can place an order ahead of time, have it made for you and then pick it up on your way out." That's right!

From now on, I will swing by the deli first, tell them to drop a pound of wings, a half pound of popcorn chicken, half pound of potato wedges and 4 mozzarella sticks. Then, I will know it's fresh! And hot. And not fossilized.

My family gets a decent dinner I don't have to cook or really clean up after (load the plates in the dishwasher, Evil One. Thx!)

The deli food there is really good. The Evil Twin likes their wings a lot. Only one restaurant in town gets first place over the Marts. I've never eaten a chicken wing in my entire life, so I wouldn't know....But, he's a man who likes to eat. I'll take his word for it.

I'm going to do a little experiment next time and see how long it takes to make what I need fresh, then schedule my trip to the deli accordingly to how long it may take me to shop for the rest of my list. I'll let y'all know how that turns out!

Have a wonderful Friday, my hooligans. Lawsy, it's been a long week here. I know I'll enjoy the weekend!

Love,