A smell to remember triggers a few thoughts

When I was a wee lad, we all had tasks we had to do at home on Saturday. One of mine was to walk half a dozen to Ray Guetschoff's butcher shop. A half a century later, I still enjoy going to these places to get meat and other goodies. Like the great smell of fresh bread, there is something about the aroma of the meat market that is reassuring and pleasurable to me. In our little part of the world, there are two places I go to regularly for such stuff. One has a meat area in the back of a small grocery store. There, Jim knows exactly what kind of cut of pork chop I want and offers suggestions for other delectable items, His suggestion for a turkey that was grilled last Thanksgiving was on the nose ... and went down the gullet easily. I also like the fact they have dog bones I can take home for Pete. His nose goes beserk at the smell of one of these. If there is such as a clean bone club (the animal equivalent of the clean plate club), Pete would graduate magna cum laude.

I was at the other place this morning - a true butcher shop about 10 miles from our house. What I like about this place is the variety of meats as well as some nifty homemade spices that add taste to the various meats. Based on a recipe I had read, I had an idea for a sandwich this morning that I took to these guys. After some consultation, we changed it up a bit. But I think I have a potential winner now. We'll see when I spring it on my wife and whoever else happens to wander through the house in the near future.

As I get older, I find I am more attracted to simple, uncomplicated foods. I admire good cooking and wish I was better at it. My wife and her sisters are superb cooks. (Interestingly, they differ in technique but the result is always the same: great, tasty but not particularly exotic eats. Kathy found a recipe for shrimp on the barbecue the other night that was c'est magnifique.)

I can't match that. So I settle for finding different ways to get most of whatever meat we buy - whether it be on the grill, the oven or even the toaster oven. And if the latest idea doesn't work as well as hoped for ... well, one just heads back to the butcher shop for another try. There are worse things in life.