THE BUTCHER SHOP

Partly cloudy with temperatures steady near the upper 70s. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph.

Got up early this morning and went grocery shopping. I had to pick up the ingredients I needed to make the dish I was bringing to my cousin's after the wake tomorrow night.

After the market we came home and I made a breakfast, cheese omelet and fresh bagesl. I also bought some fresh fruit.


I got the chicken and potatoes ready to be roasted. My husband peeled and cut up the 5 lbs of potates. I had to cook the chicken in two huge roasting pans and the potatoes in another roasting pan. After everything was cooked I realized that I could consolidate everyting to take to the house. I had the butcher at the supermarket cut the breats in half and I bought eight of them so I had 16 breast pieces than I bought eight drumsticks and 10 thighs. I coated evertying with EVOO and sprinkled a generous amout of seasonsings and covered the pan and cook it in a 350 oven for an hour then I took the cover off and broiled the chicken until it was nice and brown.

After I was done. I went to visit my cousin and everyone seems to be doing good. So many people have begun to bring food and they were telling me what to expect in the way of food tomorrow night when I get there to set things up.

Speaking of the butcher at the supermarket. When I was growing up we lived on block that had a butcher shop right in the middle of the block. My brother worked his way through school there as did many of the neighborhood boys. The butcher who worked there when that shop finally closed is now working at the supermarket where I shop in the butcher shop. When I get ready to make my homemade Italian sauce I got to the counter and say Bob I am making sauce and he just says ok and I go finish my grocery shopping and he has everything ready for me when I get back. All the meats ready to use to make my sauce. The meat for the meatballs, the broccila ready to be stuffed and the sausage links, everyting all packed and ready to go.

Because all of the young guys worked in the butcher shop in our neighbor when I was growing up, it was the thing to do for the girls to hang out around back so we could catch a glimpse of the guys maybe coming out to take a cigarette break or going to get lunch. We even would try to peek in the windows at the back of the store. We were yelled at so many times by the owner of the shop to get away from the windows. There were a lot of very good looking guys working in that butcher shop.

So my daughter made it back from CT about 6:30. She has Monday and Tuesday off so she will be able to be with us for the wake and funeral.

My neighbor and I were able to get two games of Scrabble in tonight on the front porch. It was a beautiful evening.