Today, I have read in Yahoo news that clothing prices in America will rise 10 percent, starting in spring. So, let me ask if you have ever bought anything for just one cent? It may seem unbelievable, but I have, and of course it was not a hundred years ago but just last year, and it happened at a reputable store in my local shopping mall.
It was a very pretty short black skirt by Tahari, which I found at Bloomingdale's. The original tag price was $135, but the skirt was hanging in the sale section. The price scanner was not working with this item and I was sent to see the sales associate. When the lady look at the computer, she smiled widely and said "one cent". She could not explain why, but sometimes it was happening that, for some mysterious reasons, perfectly fine and newly arrived items showed a price of one cent. It was my size but, as you can guess, I did not even care to try it on. I paid one cent, that I had to dig out from my purse. No tax either, or maybe the tax was already included?
The other day, while browsing between shelves at a local food store, one reflection came to my mind. Prices are going up all the time, but there are still many products that we can buy, maybe not exactly for one cent, but for less than a dollar for the whole item or at least per pound. Yesterday, I saw bloody oranges that I bought for a tart, three for a dollar, huge pummelos for 89 cents a piece and, pink grapefruits two for 1 dollar, which I bought to make my lunch with.
I did a lot of cooking recently, including a birthday cake, so I wanted to make something easy and light for lunch. These grapefruits reminded me of a nice and crispy grapefruit salad that I used to make. It requires only three ingredients (grapefruits, walnuts, and celery sticks) and is very healthy, because grapefruits are a great source of vitamins A and C, and have a lot of potassium. I like to blanch the walnuts to soften them up, and that way they complement nicely the soft and juicy citrus and very crispy celery sticks. I must honestly say that my mother, who is visiting us right now, and who is used to more traditional tastes, did not like it at all, maybe because she does not like the celery sticks. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it very much for my lunch.
Crunchy Pink Grapefruit Salad
(Serves four)
Ingredients:
3 pink grapefruits or 2 pummelos,
1 cup walnuts,
6 celery sticks, about 2 cups,
1/2 cup low fat Greek yogurt,
1 tsp sugar,
1 tbsp olive oil.
Preparation:
1. Supreme the grapefruits--remove the segments and leave the white membranes out (see the picture).
2. Cut celery sticks into very thin slices.
3. Pour hot water over walnuts and soak them for about 10 minutes. Drain.
4. Cut grapefruit segments into smaller pieces, gently squeezing out excess juice, and put in medium sized bowl together with celery sticks and walnuts.
5. Mix yogurt with oil, sugar, salt, and pepper. Add it to the bowl and gently combine with all the ingredients.
If you like it very crunchy, you can serve it right away. If you let it stand for sometime, the celery will soften and will be less crispy.
