These are strange times.

Grocery shopping now is always an adventure. (Yes, I am still going albeit with utmost caution and protection and only when absolutely necessary).

Forget about going with a pre-determined list. Flexibility is the key.

My supermarket is rationing items. Frozen vegetables, of all things, are restricted. Four to a shopper. And then, the question is choice. Broccoli is abundant. Corn is plentiful. Peas, on the other hand, for some reason are in high demand and oh, so difficult to find. Peas. We like peas in my house.

This past Saturday, I was studying the frozen vegetable display searching for peas. A neighbor (ok, really a stranger from my neighborhood) asked if I knew where he could find peas. We lamented for a moment about “no peas at Shoprite” and he joked that he was going to be in big trouble when he showed up without peas at home.

He left. I kept looking – and then, tucked away in the back of some other vegetables by a brand I had never heard of, I found them. A handful of small bags of petite peas. So here is the embarrassing part – I literally exclaimed out loud at full voice “Peas!!”, called up the aisle to my new friend to come back -- and noticed several people around me heading toward my new found gold.

Peas in a pandemic.