Sometimes You Learn Something at the Grocery Store

Sometimes I learn things in weird ways. Like I occasionally have these strange but very instructive dreams, where when I wake up, I feel as though I've actually gained real insight into some kind of experience or situation. I can't really explain it, but I'm always thankful when I wake up and feel like I learned something. Very efficient.

Anyway, last night I learned things at the grocery store. I realized what I'm going to write is probably stuff that normal people know. However, I do not know a lot of things normal people here know, like how to take care of a lawn, run a lawn mower, or really anything else that has to do with the outdoors. I digress...let's just say I'd like to be more domestic than I am sometimes.

The biggest thing I learned is that you can buy just 1 piece of meat at the meat counter if you want. (I know...you already knew that) It may have to do with the fact that my family ate out for almost every one of my growing up meals, but for some reason it never dawned on me that you can buy just as much of something as you want at the meat counter. As a singleton and someone who doesn't especially love meat, I don't buy it a lot--the 12 pack of chicken breasts just doesn't seem very economical.

But I've had a bit of a grilling thing going on this summer. A couple weeks back I attempted a Korean BBQ recipe, after hearing from someone at my old church about this summer's picnic with the Korean church. The recipe I picked turned out good, so I saw a grilled pork with peaches recipe and thought I'd give it a try. But what to do with the 3 other pork chops in the package? Aha--the meat counter. I bought 1 pork chop, and the guy didn't even look at me funny. I also didn't waste any extra meat or have to spend an hour wrapping and freezing the other portions. Ingenious. And tasty.

The other thing I learned is that only Hispanics eat garbanzo beans. Seriously, not a chick pea to be found outside of the Hispanic foods section. I stared at the beans for probably 5 minutes, stumped by what I would use to make hummus if there were no chick peas...I saw every other kind of bean, including one called "red beans." Aren't most of them red? Anyway, then I was schooled by the midwestern grocery arrangement--only Hispanics eat chick peas. They also only eat imported chick peas. Who knew?