Foraging Forward
They went through the bakery/bread section. Leslie picked out a packaged loaf of a brand name sliced bread, a fresh baked loaf of crusty French bread, an artisan loaf of rosemary-olive oil bread and a package of King's Hawaiian rolls (because they were her favorites).
She led Steve among the baked goods and told him to pick something that looked good. Steve's eyes lingered on a loaf of chocolate pound cake, but then he spotted a box of orange scones. He got the bittersweet expression on his face that Leslie associated with good memories of his lost past. She guessed that scones reminded him of Englishwoman Peggy Carter.
Steve put the box in the cart and Leslie added the pound cake. "I said, anything you want," she reminded her friend. "And I love chocolate."
Packaged meats and cheeses were on one side of the bakery display tables and the deli on the other next to the bakery itself. While Leslie foraged among the packages, Steve went confidently to the deli and ordered a half-pound of sliced roast beef and an equal amount of mortadella.
"Better make it a pound each," Leslie told the deli man.
"Bucky worked the slicer at the deli until Mr. Goldberg's kids got big enough to do it — and Bucky got big enough to get a better-paying job at the docks," Steve said nostalgically. "We ate pretty good in those days. We got all the end pieces and the cheese rinds, which all had good salable meat or cheese on them. Mr. Goldberg was no cheapskate."
Steve studied the items Leslie had collected and smiled at the Nathan's Famous hotdogs. "If you're going to get those, then we need buns," he said authoritatively. He went back to the bread section and got the hotdog buns he'd noticed — King's Hawaiian, because he'd noticed Leslie's preference, too.
Leslie was glad to see him taking ownership of the shopping, even if it was just deli meat and hotdog buns.
With one full shopping cart, they finally reached the meat department at the back of the store. "I want to show you different ways to use the kitchen, so I plan to fix a beef stew and roast a chicken," Leslie said. She contemplated the choices in the butcher's case. "The salmon looks good. I can bake salmon in the oven." She sighed. "Which means I should have gotten a couple of lemons in produce. I always forget something," she confided. "I get half my exercise going back for things I forgot."
Then she gestured at the meat, "Anything look interesting?"
Steve pointed at the pork ribs. "Ooh, good choice," Leslie agreed.
"When I was on tour, we had barbecue several times at different stops in the Midwest and the South. The girls knew where the best places were," Steve said. "The brisket was great, but the pork ribs were my favorite."
"Vinegar sauce or tomato based?" Leslie asked.
"Uh, my favorite was dark red and kind sweet."
"We'll look at the jars in the condiments section," Leslie said. "We'll see what looks best."
Leslie got the fish from the butcher and prepackaged cut up beef for stew and two prepackaged chickens (because they looked so small). She got meaty St. Louis style ribs from the freezer compartment. "We can't cook everything all at once and these will keep longer since they're frozen," she explained.
Steve turned the package around in his hands. "We had ice boxes, but I never knew anyone who had a home freezer — until I met Howard Stark," he said. "And he only used his to store volatile chemicals and to make ice cubes for drinks."
"At the same time?" Leslie was aghast.
"Until Peggy found out. Then Howard bought a second one for ice cubes," Steve said. "Until Howard, I'd only seen freezers in businesses like the butcher's shop and the drug store."
"At the soda fountain?"
"Yes."
"Now we have home freezers. We can keep ice cream at home. Ice creeeeam," she said temptingly.
"You vamp!" Steve accused with a smile.
They turned into the cereal aisle. "Do you want more corn flakes?" When Steve said yes, she picked up the largest box. "K-E-Double L-Oh-Double Good. Kellogg's best to you," she sang under her breath, which keen-eared Steve could hear, of course. "Sorry, TV commercial jingle from my childhood," she said unapologetically.
"I remember a few from the radio," Steve said. "Mostly about cigarettes, though."
"They banned tobacco advertising from radio and TV when I was a kid," Leslie said. "You still see them in magazines, though."
"Why ban the advertising?"
"Scientists decided it's an unhealthy habit," Leslie answered. "Suck on a cigarette and you're sucking in poison."
"It always made me cough," Steve admitted. "Even the herb cigarettes that were supposed to be good for asthma."
Leslie rolled her eyes at the thought. "I know smoking was everywhere in your day," she said. "They even included cigarettes in the GI rations. I can remember cigarette vending machines where anyone, any age could drop in coins and get a pack."
"Is it illegal now?" Steve asked. He realized he hadn't noted anyone smoking, not even in the bar area of the restaurant.
"No. There are still plenty of people who smoke. It's illegal to sell cigarettes to minors. It's illegal to smoke in a lot of places," Leslie said. "Some places have signs posted 'a smoke-free' facility. We can look up the rules, if you want. I never memorized them because I've never smoked."
"I don't smoke. I never smoked much," Steve said. "It made me cough. Ma always said it was a waste of money. I gave it up entirely when I became Captain America. I didn't want little kids seeing Cap smoking."
"Such a good example," Leslie said. "That's part of the reason they banned cigarette ads from TV, to stop selling children on the idea of smoking."
"Is everybody healthier now that they don't smoke so much?" Steve asked.
Leslie laughed. "We always find bad habits," she answered. "Today we eat too many sweets, too much salt and too many fats. And we lead more sedentary lives than most people did in your day. Obesity is rampant, and that leads to diabetes, heart disease and other problems. We don't sell cigarettes in vending machines, but we do sell candy, sodas and potato chips. They're bad for you in a different way. And don't think I'm preaching. I'm no health food addict," Leslie said. "I keep trying to lose 20 pounds. Not getting anywhere fast. I can resist anything but temptation."
Steve chuckled. Leslie patted his arm. "I'm going to try to teach you good habits," she said. "But you don't really have to worry. The serum will protect you from bad food decisions."
Leslie used the corn flakes box to show Steve how to read modern food labels. She compared the corn flakes to the frosted flakes, pointing out the sugar, the calories and the sodium.
"There's a lot more salt in things than people realize and it's bad for people with high blood pressure." She also showed him the Cheerios box with its "gluten free" label and "no artificial colors, no artificial flavors." She gave a brief explanation about allergies, food sensitivities and other concerns.
"I have a problem with milk," she said. "So I get lactose free milk. There are other things I avoid with my cranky digestion, like carbonated drinks. These labels give buyers a warning. It's not something you have to worry about, but you might have a friend with a sensitivity, so now you know what to look for."
Steve was frowning at all this serious talk, so Leslie lightened it up by explaining the "moment of enlightenment" she had at age 50. "I realized you can mix cereals," she said. "You could buy regular Cheerios and chocolate ones and mix a little chocolate in a bowl of regular. Then you get a little sweetness, and not as much sugar as if you had a whole bowl of chocolate. Took me 50 years to figure that out."
Steve's familiar choice from the cereal section was oatmeal, still in the cylindrical package he remembered, though the design is different. His "try it" selection was a package of eight sugary cereals in "single serving" boxes.
"Single serving for normal eaters," Leslie said with a wink.
When the reached the front of the store again, Leslie sent Steve back to produce to get four lemons.
"I hate buying lemons," she said when he returned. "I lived in three houses in California growing up and each one had a lemon bush. I never bought lemons until I moved to New York." She chuckled. "My father called it the whiskey sour bush, because he mostly used the lemons to make mixed drinks."
In the baking area, Leslie told Steve about mixes, using pancakes as an illustration. "This has all the dry ingredients, four, baking powder, salt, sugar — whatever. All you add are the wet ingredients like eggs, oil and milk."
"Is this the same?" Steve asked, pointing to one box that reads "complete."
She showed him the instructions that read "just add water." "These must have powdered eggs and milk. I don't like the flavor of those as well," Leslie said. They studied the ingredients together.
"I've had enough powdered eggs to last me a lifetime," Steve agreed.
"I mean, if you were going camping or lived somewhere without refrigeration, 'just add water' would be real convenient," Leslie said. "But it's not my preference."
After taking the "original" pancake mix, Leslie picked up a box of fudge brownie mix and one of yellow cake mix.
Steve asked plaintively if anyone still baked from scratch. Leslie made a face at him, told him, "of course," and picked out flour, three kinds of sugar, vanilla, two kinds of oil, other baking essentials and two bags of chocolate chips, because everything is better with chocolate chips.
"Satisfied?" she asked.
Steve smirked at her and added a package of yeast to the cart. Leslie pursed her lips. "I've only made bread once," she confessed. "And that was for a class."
"Don't worry, I'll show you how," Steve said with a confidence Leslie was glad to see.
"Did your bread taste good?" he asked, as they moved on.
"Yes, I can make anything as long as I have a recipe," Leslie said with an exaggerated boastful air. "Except pate choux," she added. "That didn't work at all."
"Patty what?" Steve asked.
"Pate choux. It's the dough you use for eclairs and cream puffs — puffs up light and airy on the inside."
Steve nodded that he recognized what she was talking about.
"Mine came out flat and more like a cookie. My technique was all wrong," Leslie said. "Nowadays, I could look it up online and see a video of how to make it. That would make all the difference, I think."
"Online," Steve said thoughtfully. "On one of those computers?"
"Exactly," Leslie said, proud he'd figured out something she hadn't actually explained yet.
A/N: Sorry, I ran out of time to finish the shopping trip, so here's a shorter chapter to meet deadline. Those are true stories about the lemon bushes (we have one now) and the pate choux.