Shopping

I love shopping.
Yes, in general, but particularly for food. I am one of those people who'll get sidetracked in markets by brightly colored packaging on a product I've never seen before. Today, however, I had some time to kill and went out to the outlets where I spent a signifigant portion of my morning in Harry and David and Le Gourmet Chef.
Harry and David always has yummy things in their catalogue and even if people sometimes complain about the prices, no one complains if they get a gift box. In their stores, they have tons of samples - chocolate covered fruits, various spreads, coffee, etc. - and catalogue overstocks, meaning you can get some great deals on their Moose Munch. I bought some fruit butters and some relish. I am planning to use my apple butter tomorrow in my Sugar High Friday entry. What am I making, you ask? Tune in tomorrow!
It was also the first time I had been in Le Gourmet Chef for a while. It is a fabulous place to pick up gifts for friends - tons of interesting mixes, bakeware, appliances... I could go on. I bought myself some star shaped nesting cookie cutters for making christmas Linzer cookies. Mmm... I also sampled a Raspberry Chocolate Pretzel Dip which was incredibly, incredibly good.
After that I made myself leave, as I had consumed about two meals' worth of samples. =)