Shopping at the Commissary

I was lucky to have the wife of a consulate member invite me to go shopping this morning at the commissary at Wiesbaden, which is about 20 minutes away. I have heard that you feel like you're in a regular American supermarket when you're there. My plan was to only buy things that I cannot find at the German grocery stores. That was the plan.

I expected, when I first walked in, to feel like Madame Blueberry when she first walks into the StuffMart -- all woozy and overwhelmed (apologies to those not familiar with Veggie Tales). But instead, I got straight down to business. I had shopping to do!

I methodically walked the aisles, filling my cart with those things I haven't been able to find elsewhere, or have been unwilling to pay so much for: Campbell soups for casseroles, Poptarts, Froot Loops, Starbucks coffee beans, peanut butter crackers, microwave popcorn, large bags of shredded cheddar cheese, etc. Everything was there at my finger tips!

They also had displays for Thanksgiving and I realized, "Hey, I can get everything I need for a Thanksgiving meal while I'm here!" And so I did, from a Butterball frozen turkey breast to Ocean Spray cranberry sauce.

After my first round, I did a second one, now aiming at just filling the cart up with other things we would like (I had noticed how inexpensive most of the food was and, afterall, it would be downright foolish of me not to use every inch of the cart, wouldn't it?).

The only two things I couldn't find were Nathan's hotdogs and Marie's caesar salad dressing. Not too shabby, otherwise. It was wonderful being able to stock up on snacks for the kids' lunches. German stores don't have a good selection of cookies and crackers.

And, bonus! They packed our groceries in white plastic grocery bags! Hooray! Now I have a good supply of little trashcan liners.

So, for dinner, it was Celebrate America! We had Tyson chicken strips with Sweet Baby Ray barbeque sauce, Lipton rice and sauce (broccoli and cheese flavor), salad with Newman's Own salad dressing, Country Time lemonade, and for dessert, some warm Duncan Hines brownies. The kids were in heaven. David and I were halfway there ourselves.

My mouth is watering just thinking of that Starbucks coffee in the morning.