Grocery Life June 2, 2014

Grocery Life June 2, 2014

By Tom Butler

Good morning from Butler & Bailey Market.  June is upon us and we are definitely in a summer weather pattern. I think we have been for about for five weeks now. We need some rain. I love hot weather, but I also love gardening and fishing. When it doesn’t rain, the garden doesn’t grow which leaves me more time for fishing, but I like to fish small streams and rivers and they are very dependent on rain also. Until we get some rain, my new hobby seems to be pulling my kids on tubes behind the boat out on the lake. Every day when I get home they are waiting. Some days I really don’t want to do it, but I lose that vote two to one every time. Once we get out there, I end up having as much fun watching them as they do riding.

I think another reason they want to go out in the boat so often is we usually visit Ben at Duncan’s Boat Dock. I am sure most of you are familiar with Ben Duncan and Duncan’s Boat Dock, especially if you live in the Rocky Hill area. He has been operating the boat dock since I was a kid and I think his family has owned the land since before they dammed the river forming Fort Loudon Lake. I think the only thing that has changed about the place since I was a kid is his gas prices and he now takes credit cards. I bet he doesn’t own or use a credit card, but he will gladly take yours. If the Andy Griffith show had ever needed to cast a boat dock operator and his boat dock in Mayberry, Duncan’s would have been the one. The appeal of the dock to my kids is they usually get to pick out a drink and a snack when we stop in. Regardless of what we have on the boat, Ben’s snacks and drinks are always better. What they do not realize is Ben and I have our own little micro economy. Ben buys a lot of his snacks and drinks here at the store to sell at his dock. He then marks up the price of them and my kids and I go and buy them back. We will do this all summer. My kids assure me that his drinks and snacks are better than what they can get a daddy’s store. So I guess I will not tell them any different. I don’t know if Ben comes out better on this or me, but I do know he usually has a big wad of cash in his pocket and I usually just have a credit card. Either way, I like doing business with Ben and appreciate him doing business with me.

I talked about Joseph Lenn in my last blog and here is the recipe he sent me. I have not tried it yet but am planning on doing so tonight.

We did have flank steak with rice and Brussels sprouts this weekend. Flank steak is a lean cut of beef but has great flavor. The way I prepare it is to marinade a few hours in soy sauce. We have also used teriyaki or allegro meat marinade. I then grill it on low heat. For some reason it takes longer to cook flank steak to doneness so I use low heat to keep from burning the outside. I cook the Brussels sprouts on the grill at the same time. I make a foil boat; coat the Brussels sprouts in olive oil, and season with kosher salt, pepper, and onion and garlic powder. Then I put them in the “boat” with the top open. Once they start to brown on the outside, I wrap the foil over the top to completely seal them. This makes them steam which helps to tenderize. You do need to stir or turn them while they cook or the sides closest to the heat will burn. When the steak is done, we slice it in quarter inch strips. It needs to be sliced across the grain, which on a flank steak is widthwise not lengthwise. I then put the steak and sprouts over a bed of rice. If you have not tried flank steak, this is an easy way to prepare it and if you don’t like Brussels sprouts, I can’t really blame you. I only like them grilled.

Another thing we did this weekend was feed our Sunday School Class at church breakfast. It was our Sunday to provide breakfast so we took quiche and banana bread from out deli/bakery. We make both of these things from scratch and they were a big hit with our class. If you need a quick and easy way to feed a group or just want something for yourself that you can just heat up and eat, give these items a try. We have four different varieties of quiches (ham & cheese, Mediterranean, Lorraine, and spinach, bacon, & feta), and we bake an apple caramel bread too. Have a great week!

Thanks for letting us be a part of your community,

Tom Butler