Saturday

[ksmith]

It’s going too fast, but that’s life in general, isn’t it?

The house smells good. I had dug some round and flank steak out of the freezer and threw together some not-quite-beef-bourguignon. Sort of followed this recipe–I just lacked carrots, button mushrooms, or pearl onions, and I was supposed to use chuck, not round or flank. But I did have dried porcini mushrooms. So I soaked them in beef broth and added them.

Verdict? To a complete lack of surprise to some of you, I’m sure, the meat came out dry. There’s a reason one needs a stew-friendly, fatty cut of beef for this recipe. Lesson learned. At least I have plenty of sauce left–if I mince the meat and add barley, I’ll have a decent soup.

Had it with some leftover not-quite-colcannon, which consisted of halved Brussels sprouts and fingerling potatoes fried with lotsa onion and a little fresh thyme. That came out surprisingly well. Tasted good cold or warm, especially earlier this week when added to tuna, wilted spinach, and mustard-caper vinaigrette for a not-really-salad-nicoise.

Yes, I do often make it up as I go along. And sometimes, like today, I pay a price.

Sunny this morning, but chilly. High 30s. Long walk with Herself along the wooded trail. Signs of the week’s heavy rains abound. Mushy ground. Standing water. Grooves cut into the ground by fast-flowing water. Much of the water flowed east, toward the wetlands, which was a great place for it. Marsh life may do well this year as a result. I have seen cranes fly over. Heard them, too. Honk, honk.

There’s a different sort of goose hanging with the Canadas that congregate at the nearby park . Not a swan. Looked a little like these guys. Snow goose? Whatever it is, I hope that it finds some of its own. The Canadas seem to have accepted having it around, but come breeding time it may find life a little lonely.

On the way home, Gabster and I walked through the neighborhood. A couple of homes had deer figurines, large and tiny, in their front yards. Gaby would stiffen as soon as she saw one, and try to approach it until the stillness or lack of smell or something told her that they weren’t real deer. Such a huntress.

Looking forward to a long weekend in the city next week. I will drop by C2E2 for one day, my first comicon. A massage and tea at the Drake may also happen, though not at the same time. Got a little black dress for tea. Big girl shoes, which I will carry in my purse and put on in the lobby because they are about as stable as a toothpick bridge in a gale. They’re not even that high–kitten heels. 2 inches, maybe? It’s the style. Shoes made for sitting and sipping.

Mirrored from Kristine Smith.

Comments

[e-moon60.livejournal.com]

Saturday here--sunny, lovely, great for walk on the land to see wildflowers (which I did with David W.) and eat lunch outside (our family plus David, plus Cleo-cat, who became quite insistent about eating part of our foot-long Philly cheese steaks from local grocery.

Now the bike's loaded in the minivan for my foray into public riding of bicycle in a fundraiser tomorrow morning. Something I've never done and never even contemplated doing until an email from a friend let me know about this one--Autism Society chapter in Austin, and it had a very short, supposedly easy "Family Ride" as one of its options. I'm doing that, as the next longest ride is way out of my league--half again as long as the rides I've done. Next year, maybe, a longer one.

Luckily, I'm used to getting up really early on Sunday mornings to make it to the city in time to sing the first service. Otherwise...I'd oversleep for sure.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Have fun at the Ride! I'll look forward to a post about it.

[naomikritzer]

Here is my favorite recipe for flank steak: http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/slow-cooker-cuban-braised-beef-and-peppers-recipe-00000000025237/index.html

Except I add a can of black beans, to stretch the recipe a bit without buying a second flank steak. Also, I prefer it topped with guacamole rather than sliced avocado.

As sort of the converse of your problem, I have repeatedly tried to figure out an alternative to flank steak, because it's difficult to find consistently and fairly expensive. Chuck does not work (too fatty) and neither does round steak (got dry and didn't pull apart properly). Flank steak has the exact texture this dish requires, where if you braise it for a long time it pulls apart into long strands of beef that can mix in perfectly with the other ingredients to make a really delicious beef-and-vegetable stew-like stuff.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Thanks for this recipe--I really like southwestern.

The flank steak did remain juicier than the round. If I had been patient enough and cooked it longer, I am guessing it would have shredded throughout the gravy.

I bought an eighth of a steer last year, and am slowly working my way through the pieces. I burn through the ground beef first because I have a really good meatloaf recipe. But some of the other pieces are so small--I just had the single piece of flank steak, and it weighed only half a pound. That's not enough for a complex recipe--I wanted enough stew to last several meals. So I added the round steak, and yup, it came out too dry. Didn't help that this was grass-fed beef, which tends to be leaner anyway.