Wednesday May 20 2020
Last Friday, I decided to make a trip to our local meat shop to check out how worried we need to be about the rumored meat shortage. I’ve rarely made a trip to Landes over the years; they’re less than ten minutes away, but I could never get into the groove of how things worked there. You get a number when you walk in and they would nearly immediately call it. Fast service, sure, but I wouldn’t have a chance to scan the choices and calculate the price to make a solid decision. So, I’d panic buy ground beef or something similarly familiar.
Things are different now, of course. I bought baby back ribs at Kroger to make in the instant pot, which were good, but not great. Maybe Landes offers a higher quality? Worth a shot. They’re letting only ten people in the shop at a time. A line is formed outside the shop and several of us are standing in the wind and rain, wearing face masks and awaiting our turn. Once inside, I now have time to browse the meat case. I feel good about what I bought, pack up my own goods as is protocol, and walk back out into the wind and rain with my $45 worth of meat and a pack of lemon cookies.
The meat is fresh, of good quality, and gone by Sunday. I did not much else over the weekend than cook meals. Ground sirloin patties (smothered with bacon, mushrooms, and swiss cheese) for Friday’s dinner. Saturday was tacos for lunch and ribs for dinner. Out of cereal for Sunday, so made bacon & eggs for breakfast, lunch was grilled ham & swiss, then, wait. I forget what we had Sunday night. But I know I cooked it, so there’s that.
I used to play The Sims a while back. Basically, a game of unfinished business. There’s no winning and no ending. You just push these avatars to do things at your whim. It’s kinda therapeutic in a power of God way. Except each Sim has needs, like socialization and play and sleep and hunger. Always hunger. Which meant you needed to have someone cooking something all the effing time. The Sim would gain in cooking skills, which opened different meals they could make – and they would take less time to prepare it. But if a Sim were cooking, he, or let’s be honest here, she, couldn’t do anything else to improve their quality of life. Or relax or socialize or sleep.
This Sim is me, I think. As round as I am tall, wearing black pants, black flats, and I’m fairly certain I have that same sweater in my closet. This is a representation of how I feel when I’m home on the weekends.
Not pictured is the sink full of dirty dishes, because the dishwasher is still running from the meal before. It’s a game of unfinished business.
Anyway, the Landes meat case was brimming to full of different cuts of meats. No sign of a shortage there, not even reflected in their prices. Not yet.
Our silver lining is that one of us knows how to meal plan and cook. It doesn’t help the Wonder Bread or bologna markets, but we can live large. So to speak.
Donnatopia 