Veal Chops

Since I’m a frugal Yankee, my gym is Shaw’s Supermarket.  I’ve gotten to know the staff so I have the same camaraderie I’d get in a gym I had to pay for.  I go early when the aisles are free of shoppers, and I walk briskly seven times around, which I estimate to be a mile.  It’s just as good as a treadmill. When I’ve finished the seventh lap, I get a cart and go around again.

Being there early, I find bargains.  There’s a spot at the end of the meat counter where they put the stuff that didn’t sell, and the other day I found two veal chops that had been discounted deeply. They started at $7.00 each, but this isn’t Whole Foods, and they languished. They were marked down to $5.00 – still no takers.  Now they had manager’s special stickers deducting $3:00 from the lowest marked price so the $7.00 chops were $2.00 each.  How could I resist?

We pan-broiled the chops in a cast iron skillet, the kind my grandmother called a spider.  Then Annette made a sauce using pan drippings deglazed with wine and Cognac. She thickened it with heavy cream.  

We had the chops for lunch accompanied by asparagus and a lovely Rosé D’Anjou. When I thought how much this luncheon would cost in a fine restaurant, I felt smug.