Smile-breaks
Cranberry walnut bread
Cranberry walnut bread. Never heard of it. But there it was, resting on one of those oh-so-healthy 100% whole wheat loaves. It looked good, different. I'm not a breakfast person. A slice of buttered toast and some fruit usually does it for me. But cranberry walnut toast? I should try it. I swooped it off the shelf and took it home. Yeah, yeah, I paid for it.
Next morning, I crammed a slice of it into the toaster slot—the bread being one of those healthy-sized loaves with slices that totally disregard the need to fit into a normal toaster slot. When it popped up, I slathered some "You won't believe it isn't butter" on it and took it to my favorite spot for eating toast and fruit.
It was good! A little crunchy where the walnut hits your teeth; a little sweet where the cranberry melts on your tongue. I was a convert.
Cranberry walnut bread is not something you find in every store. When the last slice was gone, I went to get another loaf. First stop, Harvest Ranch, where I got the first loaf. Nada.
What do you do when you can't find what you want? You Google it, of course. And I did. Google said Harvest Ranch, Ralphs, Walmart and Sprouts all had it. Except they didn't. "Out of stock," or just plain it didn't come up when I logged onto their website and searched for cranberry walnut bread.
Side note: you know I love to drive, but grocery stores are not my favorite destination. Online works for me.
I forgot to tell you, I didn't try Sprouts. I never go there—too healthy. But I'd been weeks without cranberry walnut toast and I was getting desperate so I finally went to Sprouts. Not too healthy after all. I couldn't find any cranberry walnut bread but there were some yummy looking cherry turnovers. I resisted. I was on a mission. I looked again, scouring the multiple shelves of breads of all kinds. No cranberry walnut.
As I turned to leave—after checking out those cherry turnovers a few more times—a label on a lower shelf caught my eye. "Cranberry walnut bread," with a loaf of cranberry walnut bread behind it. I took it. Oh, wow! There's another loaf behind it. I took that one, too. And another one—in case I couldn't find any next time I wanted some. I'd freeze two of the loaves.
Back at home I opened the freezer door and started to put the loaf in when an expiration date showed up uninvited: use by the 15th. That would be tomorrow. The other two loaves had the same expiration date, almost: tomorrow and the day after.
All I have to do now is figure out how to eat three loaves of cranberry walnut bread in two days.
Got any ideas?