Wait- expecting something else?
OK, he's not that kind of centerfold (even though he is to me). Allow me to explain.
Some of you probably consider yourself foodies (as do I), so you may have heard of the lovely ladies who run the Canal House. They are the best kind of cook- they source locally, eat in season and write and cook for real people. Their credentials are impeccable, being former editors for Saveur and Martha Stewart.
They publish a recipe anthology three times a year, in cookbook form. And true to their professional lineage the book is absolutely gorgeous- just like the pages of Martha Stewart Living and Saveur. The recipes are totally manageable, even for novices, and use simple techniques and common ingredients.
So it happened a few months ago that they came by my husband's butcher shop to do a shoot for their latest offering. His shop is a bit unusual (old school, or vintage, if you will) in that they bring in the whole animal (already slaughtered) and cut it to your specification, as opposed to your supermarket that buys vacuum-packed cartons of pre-cut meat and re-packages them.
They took some photos of him breaking down whole hanging pigs for hams and the like and whaddya know, when we get the cookbook, there he is, right in the middle across two pages! My kids think this is the coolest thing ever- their dad is in a book. And now that he's a foodie celebrity, he's even autographed a couple copies. (No one has to know that he doesn't cook!) But I try to keep things in perspective- he will always be a centerfold to me!
Wow! Congrats to your hubby! That is so cool that he's a butcher! I have a girlfriend who knows how to skin and dress wild hogs, chickens, squirrels and other assorted fauna--just yesterday she was telling me about skinning a 150 pound hog and it was 25 pounds bigger than SHE is! Butchering is becoming a lost art, I'm afraid--a few supermarkets still package meat behind the counter and can custom cut steaks, etc. but it already comes to them pretty much hacked up. When I was a little kid at the supermarket in the 50's I do remember squeezing shut my eyes when we went past the meat department because they had all the carcasses hung up behind a plate glass window. Traumatic!
ReplyDeleteCongrats to J! That's wonderful. Hope you're all doing well this lovely spring.
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