nicole tries ballet: Cables for Hubs

Sometimes it's very strange grocery shopping in my yuppie neighborhood since I am married to a chef. My grocer habits have definitely changed from what they were four years ago. Back then my regular purchases consisted of half of the frozen food section. I lived off of Lean Cuisines and stove pop popcorn. I'm not exaggerating.

Now, I think we buy a lot of stuff that anyone else would buy, except at the butcher counter. There, amongst men in jogging gear and women in peacoats ordering their skinless boneless chicken breasts and the occasional steak, I put in my order for my husband and myself. This generally involves the butcher going into the back and grabbing specialty items from his freezer.

I usually get the most looks when I'm alone. For example, when I ordered meat for a sauce I was making recently, 1.5 lbs ground chuck (for the meatballs), 1lb. of sausage, and five short ribs (I only needed one but Joe wanted more for 'playing around' with). Our big meat buys together the other day were two whole turkey legs, five slices of bacon sliced thinly, 1.5lbs of ground chuck again, and finally one huge chunk of bacon because they didn't have fat back. Yes, we asked for something called 'fat back' in front of a customer wearing spandex biking shorts who was on his cell talking about potential organ donors. Whatever! Joe's baked beans are the best!

He was especially happy because I finally finished some longer wrist warmers for him. Even though at first he critcized that they weren't long enough or snug enough and questioned the color choices, even though he approved them in the store. I would just like to say, I am not as picky about his cooking. Granted, I did not study knitting professionally nor do I get paid to do it for a living nor do I have someone hovering over me yelling instructions and criticism every five minutes ("TENSION! Watch that tension! This is crap! Throw it away! Do it again! FASTER!"), so yah my skills in knitting are nowhere near his skills in cooking and that may be an unfair comparison. Having said that, I would say that Joe's knowledge of knitting is about the same level as my knowledge about cooking and therefore when he throws disappointed looks my way I have the urge to hide his favorite knives. Oh yah, and don't think I don't know which one is your favorite Joe. You just brought it home the other day. Yep THAT one. I may forget that we have an extra soup pot floating around in the cupboards, but I know which utensils you like.

Below: Cables for Hubs