^^^ I was about to post the same thing :-)

No green onions at my Trader Joe's on Saturday, but not a critical ingredient for me.

I always buy a basil plant for my balcony over the summer. This year I tried seeing if I could over-winter it. I cut it back and it's looking great in my east window.

Did you try a nursery?

Had to go to three stores to find brussels sprouts and never did find crushed pineapple.

Couldn’t find fresh broccoli anywhere this past weekend, but was in the right place at the right time yesterday when the Kroger worker was putting out some new stock! And I definitely wasn’t the only shopper grabbing for it. Today I had to run out and get more eggs (college kids want deviled eggs), and I noticed all the hams were gone and only a few frozen turkeys remained.

I'll go to Trader Joe's at 67720 E Palm Canyon Dr, Cathedral City, CA 92234 tomorrow - it's pretty close.

In L.A., I normally buy a basil plant late in the year, such as August or September, and then it will grow outdoors for most of the winter. But I have to be there to water it, although I could probably just bring it with me to the desert. However, it can get down to 30°F in January, and so I would have to bring it indoors on the colder nights here.

I couldn't find bone in, skin on chicken pieces. I roast them off to put in my dressing. I will try another store tommorow. If I can't find any I will poach the boneless skinless ones I have in my freezer. Not as good, but it will do.

My basil plants are still going strong. Purple and sweet basil. Wish I could send you some 😊

Lars, if they don't have plants, in my store the fresh basil is not in the cooler with the other herbs, it's out on one of the produce islands - often they have organic in one place and non-organic with the non-organic produce.

Good luck, Lars!

My only issue was ordering imported cheese. There was only packaged, no cuts. I had to do my best guess for sizes and quality. I'm used to buying by the inch. :) The parm wasn't very aged, but surprisingly good, the gruyere has little flavor, the ementhaller has no holes but is excellent, and the Greek feta was a sad little slice, but packed in real brine and an excellent flavor and texture. Three out of four isn't bad! The cheese filling is chilling and the pumpkins are cooling.

Trader Joe's did have basil plants, and much better ones that Stater Brothers or Gelson's has. Kevin ended up going there on his way back from the dentist's office in Palm Desert, and he bought a very nice plant in a 4" pot. I'll keep it outside here until I need to use it. It should grow very well here, and I'll bring it inside at night. It will get plenty of sun here during the day.

We live in a tiny town with only Walmart and an IGA. No way was I going to Walmart the day before Thanksgiving. Amongst other things, I needed one orange for my fresh cranberry relish. The IGA only had bagged oranges, none loose. I used orange juice, it's fine.

Lars be careful with the sun! Basil won't grow in my sunny herb garden. it's happy in some morning sun and shade the rest of the day.

So another scarcity was ripe avocados. Lots of rocks out there!

The rocks dressed as avocadoes. which I tried to force ripen, were like plastic inside. In desperation, I asked Mr. Picky to go to the local (sad) chain store and try to get better ones. He doesn't know anything about produce. I told him just to squeeze just a bit and if they yielded at all I'd be able to work with them. It's been my job since I was 14 to bring the guacamole to Thanksgiving. A couple of them were squishier than I'd choose, but he said that rather than unripe, they had plenty that even he knew were way too squishy. Well, even the squishiest one was a good avocado, not bruises, other browns or wateriness, excellent flavor. One was perfect. Thanksgiving was saved!

There was only one item I traditionally buy this time of year that was out of stock everywhere: organic stuffing mix. In the past Arrowhead Mills bags of it would be on sale for weeks leading up to and throughout the holiday season. This year none of the stores I checked had any. One local store listed that they had their own store brand, but when I got there it was gone and the staff told me it had been out for awhile.

Nothing on ArrowheadMills.com either 😕

The broccoli was a little late coming in, but that wasn't a Thanksgiving thing. The store was just out of it for a while. Low salt bacon too. Sometimes certain breads sell out. I don't think any of this is pandemic related, it's just the new supply chain aging infrastructure realities. We used to have a local branch of the bakery chain that provides much of the breads to the local stores, now the nearest commercial bakery is an hour away and it supplies more of the region with fewer workers so . . . on the plus side, one can always find cheap pork here due to the local "pork processing plant." And greenhouse tomatoes.

Plllog, I've been keeping my new basil in full sun outdoors from 8am to 3:30pm, and it is doing very well. I do have to water it quite a bit here because the air is so dry, but it seems to be growing very well and no wilting.

I would not do this in the spring or summer, but since we are getting close to the winter solstice, there is not all that much sun. Daytime temperatures are still in the 80s, and so it's still warm enough to use the pool, but it has to be heated at this time of year, and I will stop doing that by Wednesday, I think.

I grew basil in full sun in the summer in Los Angeles, but it was never hot in the summer there, and I kept it in huge pots. I never planted it in the ground, since I have terrible soil in L.A., and I'm also concerned about slugs. I generally let basil go to seed in L.A. because finches like to eat the seeds.

This plant was in full sun on the south side of my house.