Grocery Life May 19, 2014

Grocery Life May 19, 2014rocky hill old pic 2 

By Tom Butler

Good afternoon from Butler & Bailey Market,

I hope everyone had a good weekend. My family’s was busy as usual. Probably the most entertaining thing this weekend at our house was tree cutting. My neighbor and I have ended up with an ivy covered pine tree thicket on our shared property line. We hired some guys to cut them down and I enjoyed watching them climb the trees to tie them off or limb them. I also like watching those guys make a tree fall exactly where they want it to. Both of those tasks take special skills. I thought my children would enjoy watching, but realized I was wrong when the first tree fell. My ten year old daughter immediately told my wife and me that we just killed a polar bear and that if we cut the rest of the trees it would kill all the polar bears. My seven year old son then chimed in to tell us that if we leave a room without turning out the lights it will ruin the earth. The only thing I will say to that is I guess they are learning something in school? Maybe they should turn off all their electronics, sew their own clothes, and walk to school if they are so concerned. I appreciate them being taught how to be better stewards of the earth but all things in moderation.

We are starting the second week of our two week ad. If you have not seen it you can find it on our website. Also be looking for our June cooking class schedule. We will probably have it out in the next few days and you will find this on our website.

One of the more popular ad items has been blueberries. They have become very popular in the past few years, probably due to their positive health benefits. I eat blueberries everyday in the form of a kale shake. This is what I have for breakfast every morning. I am not going to tell you they are great but for someone who has never had enough fruits and vegetables in his diet, it is just the thing. My recipe varies based on what we have at the house. In general terms it is one part fruit (1 cup), one part milk (skim or almond), two parts fresh chopped kale or spinach, and one raw egg (pasteurized). I started adding the egg for protein. It also seems to make it more filling so I don’t get hungry before lunch. For fruit I use all kinds of berries, bananas, peaches, mangos, and even clementines. I use fresh and frozen. I always use some frozen to make the shake thicker. I put all the ingredients in my Nutri-bullet blender, blend for a few seconds and I am done. Kale greens are considered a “super food” and we sell a lot. If the shake doesn’t interest you, our deli makes a kale super salad that is very popular and the produce department sells four or five varieties of kale salad kits.

To counteract all this healthy stuff, we are having fried okra for supper tonight. Everyone in our family can eat their weight in fried okra. I even make it for my son’s afternoon snack sometimes, he likes it so much. All I do is rinse fresh okra and slice it crossways no thicker than 1/4”. I then get a gallon Ziploc bag and put cornmeal in it along with salt and pepper. Amounts vary based on how much you are cooking. I would guess I use a cup or two of cornmeal and maybe a teaspoon each of salt and pepper. I then put the sliced okra in the bag a little at a time and shake it to coat the okra with the cornmeal until I have coated all of it. The okra will be sticky so the meal should coat it. Some people use a heavy batter but we like it better with a thin coat. I then put about a quarter inch of oil in a skillet on medium to medium high heat. Once it’s hot, I slowly drop the okra in from the meal bag. I cook it until it lightly browned (probably about 10 minutes) stirring occasionally. This is one of the few things my kids get excited about eating and it is a “green” vegetable. Fresh okra quality is kind of hit or miss until the local comes in, but we did get some nice okra in this morning so give it a try.

The picture you see at the beginning of this blog was taken before the shopping center was built. The buildings you see are right where we sit now. I went up on the Rocky hill new pichill this morning and took an updated picture which you see here. Notice how many more trees we have now compared to then. I can’t wait to get home to show my daughter. Have a great day!

 

Thanks for letting us be a part of your community,

Tom Butler

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