And then there was the snow
Postcards from New York
My friend, Aileen, sent me these photos from NYC. See if you can identify what’s in the pictures.
New Year’s Eve Dinner
This is the plan, care of Rachael Ray:
2 large T-bone steaks, about 3 pounds, 1 3/4-inch thick each
Vegetable oil, for drizzling
3 to 4 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
Salt and pepper
4 slices white toast, buttered and cut from corner to corner
Vegetable oil, for frying
1 cup all-in-one pancake mix
1/2 cup water
7 to 8 scallions, cleaned, dried and trimmed of roots, chopped
Pinch cayenne pepper
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Preheat a large griddle pan or 14-inch skillet over high heat.
Drizzle the steaks with oil and add to screaming hot pan. Cook 8 minutes on each side for medium doneness. After you flip the steak, baste it with Worcestershire sauce and season with salt and pepper. When you remove steak to cutting board or serving platter, baste opposite side and season it up. Let meat rest a few minutes before you cut into it to let the juices redistribute. Cut meat from bones and portion into 4 servings. Push toast down in toaster, butter it and cut from corner to corner.
Fill a medium saucepan with 2 to 3 inches of vegetable oil and heat to medium-high heat. Arrange a paper towel lined plate on the counter to place the fritters on when they come out of the hot oil.
In a bowl, make the batter by combining the all-in-one pancake mix with the water (the batter will be on the thick side). Add the chopped green onions and season with the cayenne, salt, and pepper. When the oil is ready for frying, drop spoonfuls of the batter into the oil and fry on all sides until golden brown and puffy. This should take no more than 3 to 4 minutes. Remove and drain on the paper towel lined plate. Season with salt while they are still hot.
Serve steaks on toast with green onion fritters
Bacon, Spinach and Cream Potatoes
3 pounds Idaho potatoes, peeled and sliced
Salt
Extra-virgin olive oil
4 strips center cut bacon, chopped
1 medium onion, quartered and thinly sliced
1 cup cream
2 boxes frozen chopped spinach, defrosted and wrung out in a kitchen towel
Salt and pepper
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg, eyeball it
Place potatoes in a pot and cover with water. Bring up to a boil, salt water and cook until tender, 12 to 15 minutes.
To a small skillet over medium heat add a little extra-virgin olive oil and bacon and brown, 7 to 8 minutes. Add onions and cook until soft, 5 minutes more.
Drain the potatoes and place back in the hot pot. Add bacon, onions and defrosted spinach to potatoes, mash to combine then add cream. Mash until smooth and season the mixture with salt, pepper and nutmeg.
contemplating the border
Should I or shouldn’t I actually enter the kitchen?
2006 in Review
Come on, now. Can you really imagine me wanting to review this year? The answer is “no”, honestly.
In January, our pastor proclaimed this “The Year of the New”. For me, this meant a new job at the beginning and caring for someone with new knees at the end, whilst the middle left me wondering what the heck was gonna happen next.
Although we don’t see the glory of these things right now, I’m sure we’ll see it in 2007.
Essentially, the new job equals new opportunity, and some good things on my resume. The new knees means opportunity for more exercise and the ability to walk more freely.
The downside to these things are easier to see sometimes, but I’m confident we can move past them shortly. We’re already making great advances in that direction. And all with only minor doses of sleepless nights and anxiety.
A big thank you goes to those people who are always there to support me…. my friends and family, especially my girl, who was a great source of motivation. God, for putting up with my daily sanity requests. 🙂 And my adopted sister, Jane, who has displayed unworldly patience with me this year. If I had champagne and we could drink it through the Internet, I’d serve you all up a really large glass of it.
Salud.
New Knees
Two new knees, in case you’re wondering, are upwards of $64,000. Thank goodness for insurance. Of course, you can’t put a price on good health or the ability to walk.
Foggy Time
My new nursing duties are keeping me from sleeping at night. I would take a sleeping pill, but then who would get up at 2am to deliver Percocet?
Luckily, my boss is on vacation this week, so there are not many demands on me at work. I’ve just got a few things here and there to get done. In my spare time, I play with the Intranet design. I finally incorporated some CSS and got rid of some tables, so that’s a huge step in the right direction.
Sorry. That was geeky, wasn’t it. But only minorly.
I finally got time to exchange my new winter coat at Old Navy. It’s not the thickest coat in the whole world, but then most of the time I’m not going somewhere where a thick coat is required. The globe is warming, you know.
Tomorrow is “get the staples taken out of the knees day” for the man in the walker. I heard this is not painful… they just pop out. So far, it may be the only painless part of this whole thing.
Today, I listened to my pastor deliver a sermon about “normalcy” and what that is. Do YOU know? “Normal” is what’s going on now, like it or not. It’s been a rough year. Probably the worst year of my life so far, but this helped me to put some of it perspective. You do not have to be overly religious to get something out of this sermon.
I know it’s only 7pm, but I think I will go to bed now. :-{
This is an Ex-Parrot
Because what would Christmas be without the Dead Parrot Routine?
Oh Christmas Tree
Here is a bizarre shot of our Christmas tree. I love our tree because it’s only about 2 feet across at the widest point, so it fits ANYWHERE.
I can’t have a real tree because I am allergic to pine tree sap. Hives are not fun to have around Christmastime. It’s a sad sort of gift, really.
Tomorrow around 10, we are heading OUT OF THE HOUSE for Christmas Eve lunch. We have not been out of the house together since Friday, a week and some change ago. The man in the walker has needed some recuperation time, and still does. I hope this won’t stretch him too far.
Christmas day, I am cooking a small lunch for us and my FIL. I am making turkey legs (cause, hey, white meat gets kinda dry), stuffing, corn, mashed and sweet potatoes and cherry pie for dessert. Sounds like a lot of starch, doesn’t it? But no one eats jello with fruit in it around here, so I guess that PIE will have to do! 🙂
Have a good holiday, people. Try to make it joyous, no matter what.
A Fitting Horoscope for Today
‘We are what we eat’, or so the nutritionists say. Purification, though, consists of more than eliminating dietary toxins. Toxic relationships, toxic emotions and thoughts also play a big part in our overall health. There’s a glut of planets in one area of your chart. All have symbolism. Jupiter asks you to limit who and what you take in. Mars speaks of the need to cut something out. Mercury suggests you slow down. And, I suggest, that recipe will reduce your stress and return your smile today.
肉妇春潮干柴烈火myfducc 