Monday, June 23, 2014

The Deficiency



That just looks like a pasta salad. It's really a story about how my husband married a fool.

Roughly a month ago, tacos came up on our menu plan. I like some black olives on my tacos. I don't eat a ton though, and T could take or leave them, so I usually just buy a tiny can of sliced olives.

I zoomed up and down the aisles of my favorite Publix, grabbing this, crossing that off my list. I scooped up a can of olives, popped them into my cart, and went along my merry way.

As it would turn out, apparently they also sell tiny cans of sliced olives with jalapenos. Given that we were having tacos, which include a little heat anyway, from the spices and the salsa, we just upped the ante a little. Not *that* much a big deal.

So when the day-after-day heat squashed my appetite, a nice cool pasta salad sounded so good.

I like some black olives in my pasta salad.

I zoomed up and down the aisles of my favorite Publix, grabbing this, crossing that off my list.

And then I reached the black olives.

I stopped my cart, squatted down (because they keep the tiny cans all the way at the bottom), and really stared, hard. I saw the ones that said "with jalapenos." I gave them a wide berth, because jalapenos would not play with with the flavors of this salad. I pulled a tiny can off the shelf, scanning the label -- once, twice, three times, four -- and it did NOT breathe a word of jalapenos. I placed it carefully in my cart, alongside the other items, and went about the rest of my business, casting a wary glance at that tiny can every so often. A girl is only unsuspectingly burned by unintended jalapenos once, you see.

After I got home and put away the groceries, I began preparing my pasta salad. I put on a pot of water to boil. I mixed up my dressing. I chopped up cucumber and tomato, and cubed up two different kinds of cheese.

And then I opened the tiny can of olives. It was one of those pull-tab lids, so I cracked it just a bit, to drain the liquid more easily. I tilted the can over the sink...and nothing came out. Somewhere between mildly confused and mildly annoyed, I wondered if I had managed to pick up a bad can of olives. I pulled back the tab just a little more and peered inside. The olives had a rough-looking dry-ish texture. With a sigh, I opened the lid all the way and then took another good look at the label.

It did *not* say "with jalapenos," but it *did* say "chopped," instead of "sliced." (It claimed they were chopped, but I believe the word they were going for was "pulverized.")

Like the can before it, I used it anyway.

Apparently, I cannot be trusted to properly shop for sliced black olives. But I sure can make my husband laugh.

4 with their own thoughts:

Stacy at Exceedingly Mundane Monday, June 23, 2014 4:30:00 PM  

LOL! I feel your pain. I tend to not wear my reading glasses in the grocery store, so half the time I come home with something I would not have bought, because I didn't read fine print on a label! I used to buy chopped olives for some recipes, sliced olives for others (like pizza) and then whole olives to just eat. These days, I just buy black olives and use my knife to cut or chop or slice them, LOL!

I love pasta salad, but I rarely make it because we can't agree - I don't eat tomato and Tim doesn't eat cucumber! That leaves olives and cheese, and I never come up with other stuff, LOL!
:)

gail@more than a song Tuesday, June 24, 2014 12:00:00 PM  

Ha, I've bought those "chopped" black olives before and was surprised the first time I tried to drain them and nothing came out! You are right, they are pulverized!

~**Dawn**~ Wednesday, June 25, 2014 8:47:00 AM  

Stacy: What if you mixed it with black olives, cheese cubes, salami, etc in a big bowl, and then add your tomatoes or cucumbers to preference after? Or, if you feel like that won't give proper dressing marination to the veggies added after the fact, mix up the "community" portion of the salad, separate half into another container, and make one bowl his, one bowl hers! We do stuff like that when there are food preferences in our house. =) Also, what about some sweet peppers for another item?

~**Dawn**~ Wednesday, June 25, 2014 8:47:00 AM  

Gail: They really do mutilate them into an unrecognizable form, don't they??

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