Swim Team!

Years ago I was riding my mountain bike in Susanville Ranch on the way to Desmond Meadows wondering if this would be the day I would make it through the infamous rock garden. The rock garden is like a dry stream bed of large rocks with a vague trail you could pick your way through, and over, the rocks. I had never made it the whole way. What’s this? Here comes a woman with a Burley baby carrier attached to the back of her bike, she had just come from the rock garden WITH A BABY! That is Camille Buehler. I had heard about her from her husband, Sean, a Champion Mountain biker, but never met before.


Camille is an all around athlete but her real love is swimming, since she was 8 or 9. On her way to earning her Masters in Civil Engineering she coached and was a USC Division 1 College swimmer. Career wise she served 2 years as the Assistant Engineer for City of Susanville then started her own engineering firm which she’s had for 15 years, that firm even helped design the Skyline road. Did I mention she did all this while raising 3 beautiful children. Since we didn’t have a community pool Camille gave LoCaL kids swimming lessons in her backyard pool for 4 years, the last year she had 40 kids! Can you even imagine how excited she is that we have a pool? So excited in fact she wants to start a Swim Team. Go Camille, I wouldn’t expect anything less. 

We are so HOMETOWN PROUD to have people like Camille, always making our community a better place to live!


The Community Pool schedule and lots of other useful info can be found at www.cityofsusanville.net


*Green Grocerette life hack comes from my daughter Cyndi~ If you need to store cut avocado store keep the pit, it’ll keep it from turning.

Hope's Kitchen

Some days I’m working with my head down not paying attention to my surroundings then I hear this incredibly joyous and SUPER mischievous laugh. I can’t help but smile. Hope is here. Hope the Deli SUPERvisor that is. Making people happy with her food, her humor and her caring.  

Let me tell you a little about our ray of Hope. She returned to Susanville after being away for more than a decade. Cooking is her ‘happy place, her relaxing me time”. She met her “mountain man” Jeff right here when she was working in our Bakery. As a kid she had tough circumstances and always wanted to make people like her enough to share all that like with her brother and sister. When her 11 year old son was battling Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma she shaved her head twice so he wouldn’t be bald alone, she assures me that she has a nice dome. He has been cancer free for 14 years now. Thinking of others shows in her work too. When the Deli is really busy, especially if we’re all working on a fire order, Hope will make sure everyone is hydrating, resting and getting a snack. Deli is a fast paced job and that’s just one of her favorite things about it. Her other fave is she says she gets paid to visit and make sure her customers are happy.

To Hope these ARE her golden years and Susanville SUPERmarket is an extension of her family. She’s irreverent, funny, kind, so caring and a fantastic cook! 

So when you hear that laughter, smell that DELIcious food, you know you're in Hope’s Kitchen. 

                                         

*Green Grocerette tip of the week~ Store unused avocado with the pit and it will keep longer. Thank go to my daughter Cyndi for this tip.*

Foil Wrap FrEsH Dinner~

So there I was. Totally had my …uh...stuff together. The plan was to make an easy foil wrapped dinner on the grill, document it for a page 4 article, my house would stay cool PLUS no pots and pans to wash. I could do the prep then just sit back and relax until it was time to grill. Yeah, sure. As soon as I got home from work I washed all my ingredients, began slicing, seasoning and foil wrapping. I was SO impressed with myself. All the foil packets went in the fridge, I sat down to watch a bit of a movie (I LOVE movies). At 5 pm I went out to light the grill for a 5 minute pre heat. I took my first grill items, corn and potatoes out. Wait. What’s this? Once again I have forgotten to check the fuel. AHHHHHH! All he…heck breaks loose. Yes this is much more like my style of cooking. Fortunately my SUPERhero husband knows me too well and always has a spare tank. Oh and did I mention when I went out to get the rescue tank a frog was in my shoe IN THE HOUSE, said frog had to be caught and relocated.  
         


Anyway. Dinner was a little late but delicious.
*Side note~ I use a Weber Gas Grill I bought at Ace Hardware years ago. Wonderful Grill. Those SUPER cute salt/pepper shakers are from Every Blooming Thing. It took me forever to find the perfect set. The holes are large enough for McCormick Coarse Ground Pepper and the salt lets out plenty in two shakes. Reynolds Wrappers are the perfect size for the packets. 
Spray or lightly oil inside of foil to keep food from sticking~
2 or 3 sliced Yukon Gold Potatoes, diced red onion, salt/pepper, sprinkled with Tillamook Shredded Cheddar. Wrap.
2 cobs White Corn, butter, salt/pepper. Wrap.
3 slice Zucchini, diced tomato, chopped garlic, salt/pepper, drizzle with California Olive Ranch Olive Oil. Wrap.
1/2 lb shrimp topped with salt/pepper, a few dabs of butter, chopped garlic. Wrap.
Light grill. Note to self, CHECK FUEL. After a 5-10 minute pre-heat turn off one jet, set remaining to medium-medium high depending on how hot your grill runs.
Grill Potato, Zucchini and Corn packets over indirect heat for 20 minutes. Turn Corn every 5 minutes.
Grill Shrimp packet directly over fire for 10 minutes.
Open packets and enjoy!
                                  


*Green Grocerette tip for the week~ Keep a spare fuel tank on hand…or marry well :)

New Look, same SuPeRmarket!

If you’re making an omelette, you gotta break some eggs. If you’re making your business better, you gotta use blue rooms. Evidently. We're remodeling the store again and we couldn't be more excited! Please bear* with us while we undergo these major improvements. We promise it will be worth it! Thanks to everyone for being so patient.
*A quick side note. I had to check if I was using that word properly. Is it "bear" or "bare?" A quick search on google gave me the answer. “Bare with us" would be "an invitation to undress." Yeah. Not that one. Ha! Anyway…

Here Are Just a Few Fabulous New Improvements That You'll Enjoy Soon…
Expanded Deli • Expanded Bakery • New bathrooms (not like the ones currently outside)
Lots of Retail Expansions and Brand New Kitchens in Both the Deli & Bakery Departments (Oh yeah! With a dishwasher even!) • Plus much, much more! • Oh and the front…Oh my gosh! I can’t believe how beautiful it will all look when it's finished.

Let’s face it. The old girl needed a facelift. After all, the market will be fifty years old next year! Can you believe that? The photo above is the Architect's rendering of how it will look. Gorgeous. Even more gorgeous when they add the store's sign. Finally, our outsides will match our insides because our customers and staff make Susanville Super such a beautiful place to be.

Thank you all for your support, continued patience and patronage. A heartfelt, "thank you" also goes to the incredible staff at Susanville Super for all of their hard work and enthusiasm while we go through this process. Susanville, you always make us Hometown Proud! - Anna Stewart

Psst, don't tell anyone I posted this but here's a sneak peek at the preliminary design for our sign~

                

* Green Grocerette tip for the week "Use a dry erase pen on your plastic / glass storage containers to label and date."

Mr Wizard

Mr Wizard we like to call him. Well. Maybe it’s just me. No matter Martin Balding IS a wiz when it comes to keeping Susanville SuPeR green and he’s been doing it for about 17 years now. For instance, we don’t use air conditioning. Can you believe that? We use our refrigeration to cool the store. On the coolers that have doors, more shopping equals more cooling just when we need it since the entrance/exits are opening more. Genius. Since we use more of our energy to cool our cases it keeps the food fresher. What?! Less spoilage?! We use our compressors to heat our water. Changing to LED lighting was a 30% reduction in the whole store with the exemption of the LED motion lights in the freezers and refrigerators…those are a 90% reduction. Martin painted the roof white to reflect heat. AND so much more. Martin believes there isn’t another store in the state that uses less electricity.
                                    
Martin has a Masters in Industrial Arts and started his career teaching. He began noticing the school he worked for had things running all the time, he took a couple of energy classes and earned an Energy Auditor Certificate. Martin went to the principal and asked if he could have 10 students to run energy audits at the school. The savings to that school ended up being significant and soon he was applying for grants and auditing 5 high schools. He did things they said couldn’t be done, like using the exhaust from a cogeneration system to heat the pool.
                        
When Martin came here we had a 3 year contract, it ended 14 years ago. Mr Wizard is part of our Susanville Super Family and we’re so very lucky to have him. Always full of new, innovative ideas, he even helps me by sending ideas for the Community Corner! Martin told me this is family, it isn’t just about the work, we have camaraderie. I agree!
                   
Martin is married to the most lovely Janet. They have 3 ‘kids', 5 grand children, 3 great-grandchildren and will celebrate 60 years of marriage this September.

Thank you for keeping us Susanville SuPeR Green Martin!
                                           
*Green Grocerette tip of the week~ Martin cooks his Sweet Potatoes/Yams in the pressure cooker. Thanks for the tip Martin.