ingredients for Julia Child's recipe: $100.00. Keeley's reaction: Priceless

Yesterday started off with both Keeley and I not feeling well. Must have picked up a bug somewhere along the way. The good news, is that Keeley and I have decided to temporarily halt our little game of "blame (Keeley or CAT) Day." Yes, WE both were feeling terrible. I'm going to spare the gory details so we all don't have nightmares!

(upon re-reading this, it is not as funny as it actually happened, but trust me, Keeley and I were STILL laughing this morning about the experience)
So, Keeley asked me to go to our local Gelson's supermarket. They have better EVERYTHING except prices there..
The shopping experience was extraordinary! The butcher knew exactly what it was I wanted, because apparently, there is a huge rush to make Julia's recipes!

I did look at the prices, and everything seemed to be about the right price, compared to other markets.. but then I realized that I actually do not buy most of the ingredients for Julia's recipes and didn't know what I was supposed to pay! The meat for the Stew came out to be almost $10.00 for every pound of meat!!!! At Ralph's it would have been about 1/2 that.. but again, substandard meat.. For Julia's recipes, everything needs to be exact, or fear of it not turning out to be "Last meal on death row" good.

I did suffer from sticker shock when my entire bill came out to be $142 dollars!

Both the checker and the cute little old lady (didn't ask if she was from Pasadena) both asked if everything I purchased was for one meal. I affirmed that it was, and then stated, that only the chicken as not for the recipe ($28.00 worth), and seeing as I did not know how much beef stock I needed to buy, I bought 4 containers, at $5.00 each.
Yes, buying groceries for Julia Child recipes are expensive!!
The little old lady said that eating the Julia Child way is not economical at all, but to enjoy the food, no matter what I paid for it. Typical for someone to say that whose on their last decade of life!

Keeley laughed when I showed her the receipt for my purchase, and said I was cute.. Umm.. was she laughing at me, or with me? She assures me she was laughing with me, but you can never be too sure... Maybe I was just a fool who is falling for this whole thing?
Well, at least I redeemed myself today... Elise, a friend of mine, and MEGA foodie (meaning other countries as well) had a slight problem. She bought a soda out of our new soda machine here at work. The soda dropped but not all of the way.. She asked nicely to put my little hand up there to see what I could find. I was able to retrieve her stuck drink out of the machine.. See, there are lots of advantages to being small.. Too bad you don;t notice them as much as when the shortcomings are thrown in your face!
BTW, Elise, your blog is fantastic.. I will always remember you rescuing me from work, to go to IHOP at 3:00 am for chocolate chip pancakes!! That is one of my most memorable moments!