Did You Know?

I just spent about ten minutes at QFC looking at pickles and relish, and I walked away not only empty handed, but also baffled and perturbed. Not ONE jar/brand of pickles was without high fructose corn syrup AND/OR yellow #5 and other chemically derived flavors and colors.
THIS IS NOT OKAY BY ME!
Why are we adding unnatural color to PICKLED CUCUMBERS? What is the need to add high fructose corn syrup to EVERYTHING?
Eric and I have made it a rule that nothing lands in our shopping cart if it contains high fructose corn syrup. It has become a habit to look at the ingredients of everything before we buy it; we heard someone say once, "if it contains an ingredient you have never heard of or can't pronounce, you probably shouldn't be eating it." I agree this a fabulous rule of thumb for trying to eat natural, healthy foods that haven't been processed or concocted by a chemist in a laboratory. I am definitely going to try making my own pickles at some point. Emeril (who has yet to let me down) has a tasty recipe on foodnetwork.com that I might try: Emeril's Homemade Sweet & Spicy Pickles.

Anyway, I had an absolutely atrocious day of work and stopped by the library to pick up a new book and the grocery store to spoil myself with food. I had an avocado and onion waiting for me at home, so my first instincts were to get the rest of the items for the makings of guacamole and pico de gallo. I picked those up, as well as an loaf of olive bread, stuffed olives, goat cheese...need I say more? After I got home and put the groceries away, I got out my knife and cutting board and sliced the avocado in half, only to find it completely rotten. And there goes my guacamole.
Oh well. I whipped up some beautiful pico de gallo, opened a new bag of Food Should Taste Good Jalapeno Chips, and scooped a heaping bite onto one of those triangular morsels. I about died afterward of burning tongue and mouth syndrome. I made my pico waaaayyyy too spicy, again.
It's just one of those days.
Damn it.