Grocery Life June 23, 2014

Grocery Life June 23, 2014

By Tom Butler

Good morning from Butler and Bailey Market. I hope everyone had a good weekend! I think I must have overdone it this weekend because I sat down to write this blog about six this morning and it is now seven and I am still gazing at an empty sheet of paper. I usually start writing this the night before but since we didn’t sit down to eat supper until ten o’clock last night I went to bed instead. I will just be tired at work today but my wife will be tired with two tired kids all day. I will take tired at work over that every time.

Keith was out of town this weekend and Deana has been out sick so Ray and I have had double duty for the last few days. Ray filled in Keith’s shifts and I covered Deana’s. Deana’s schedule is kind of the opposite of mine so when I fill in for her I always see a lot of you at the store I don’t normally see. It’s always good to catch up with all the people I haven’t seen in a while. Keith is back to work this morning and hopefully Deana is feeling well enough to work this afternoon. If she’s not, I will get to be in charge this evening.

When I got home from work yesterday, we decided to take a boat ride down to visit some friends of ours who have a house on the lake. Since it was going to be pretty long boat ride, I decided we should get some gas for the boat so we headed over to Duncan’s boat dock.

About a month ago, I wrote about Ben Duncan and his boat dock in this blog and what a special place it is to my family. I didn’t tell Ben I was going to write it and probably figured he would never see it anyways. Well, when I walked in to pay for the gas and of course snacks for the kids yesterday, he told me a lady came to visit him two or three weeks ago. Before he went any further, I knew that her visit something to do with the blog I had written and I was hoping it met his approval. As Ben tells it, she lived in the Rocky Hill area but didn’t know about the boat dock until she saw the blog so she wanted to see it. Ben said she had one of those phones that could show pictures and tell stories and asked him if he wanted to use it to see the blog. He said he told her no, he wanted her to read it to him, so she did. I asked him if he liked it and he just kept grinning and chuckling. I have learned over the years that when Ben gives you that chuckle, you have made him happy. He couldn’t remember the lady’s name but said she was “right pretty.” I am glad that “right pretty” lady got to meet Ben and see his boat dock and I am glad Ben liked what I wrote. He is a real treasure, especially when he is chuckling.

This week at the store, we have a new two week ad with lots of items for the Fourth of July. One of the things on sale is beef brisket. I have never been a fan of beef brisket, but I am not sure I have ever had any that has been prepared well. I have tried doing them a couple of times and wasn’t happy with the results. A customer told me a new way to do it yesterday so I am going to give it another try. If it turns out well I will give you the recipe.

We also have pork spare ribs and Boston butts on sale.  I typically have good luck with either one of these, probably because I do them at least once a week.

We tested some more fried chicken recipes Friday and I actually gave some to customers to take home and try. I am waiting to hear how they liked it. I think we are getting close to having it for sale, but I will see what they think first.

I am sure most of you have noticed that we have not perfected the formatting of this blog yet. Sometimes the pictures are upside down and the text will get scrambled. For some reason it workscorrectly on some devices and not on others. My mobile devices seem to be really inconsistent with the formatting, but my desktop computer always has it right. I apologize for this and Keith and I are working diligently to get the problems corrected.

Have a good week!

Thanks for letting us be a part of your community,

Tom Butler

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