Left Chops

I got an urge to cook lamb for Easter, so I invited some friends over, and ran to HEB on Easter-eve. They had a few chops in the refrigerator case, and a few in the butcher case. At $10.99 per pound I decided to be picky - lamb chops are basically tiny ovine T-bones, with a sirloin side and a smaller tenderloin side. Some of their chops had hardly any tenderloin left and so were hardly worth buying.

I waited for the nice butcher lady to come over and pointed out which chops I wanted, plus took 2 of the packages from the shelf. They had 2 big loins in the back that hadn't been sliced yet but I didn't have time for that since Anna had a party to be at in 45 minutes. I took my chops and my other groceries, and as always, did self check out and used my own cloth bags, although I did put the chops in a plastic bag since they were a little moist.

Unloading my bags at home, I realized I had only grabbed "my bags," and left my meat at the self-check-out. Breathless, I ran in with my groceries and dialed the number on the receipt. "Hi, I was just there, at self-check-out, number 8, and I left my meat. Is it still there?" No, it wasn't, but if I came back and picked out something of similar size they would honor my receipt.

Yikes! I quickly told Anthony about my crisis, and he said, "Go, just go back and get your meat." I ran out and left him to unload the other groceries and get the kids ready. They still hadn't located my meat when I returned to the store, so I went back to the butcher case.

In the interim the store had gotten MUCH more crowded, plus everyone was buying seafood (?) and so I had to wait and wait for help. Finally the same nice lady came up, and I told her my situation, and asked her to slice the whole chops in the back of the case. She took them back to get cut, which took forever; I had to watch 3 other people get helped while I waited for my chops. In between the other clerks would ask me if I'd been helped, and I said, "Yes, I'm just waiting for them to cut my lamb chops...." and twice some guys came and asked me how thick I wanted them, then finally FINALLY I had a huge package of beautiful custom lamb chops. Of course, it was my stupid mistake to leave them at the check-out and I was so thrilled that HEB replaced it for me so quickly. I know in other countries I'd be forking out the dough for more chops. We were able to get Anna to her party just 5 minutes late.

The next day, after they were grilled, they were SO worth it. See the food blog for more info. (Finally posted there, Steph, just for you!)