3°f, -16°C. Clear skies. Very light breeze, thank goodness.
Dogpile
We are back to the deep freeze after another snowy day yesterday. It is supposed to be below zero tonight, and even colder tomorrow night, but back into the low 40's by the weekend. We ended up with about 4" of new snow yesterday, which prettied things up.
So, inside work again today. I canned kidney beans yesterday and will do more of those today. Still working on the auction finds, getting everything washed up, researched, and priced. Slow but interesting work---well, the researching part anyway. I still have a lot to work through.
Right now, breakfast is over, kitchen cleaned up and the floors swept. I can finally drink my coffee! Which had to be warmed up, by the way. This seems to happen every morning: I can't drink coffee on an empty stomach, so I have tea first, and coffee after breakfast. But before I can settle with my cup, I do the cleanup and sometimes also get the laundry started, so my coffee gets cold.
I know some people cannot stand warmed up coffee. Are you in that camp, or are you fine with sticking it in the microwave for a minute? Preferences and tastes are a funny thing. I can't stand cilantro, for example, although I like coriander seeds---and they are the same plant! I am not a fan of anise, either, and yet I bought a bottle of anise extract because I want to try making pfefferneuse, which I tried for the first time this year, and loved.
Last night I made us a couple of small steaks. They weren't a great cut so I pounded them good and marinated overnight. I think this is the first time I have cooked beef steaks in over 30 years. It's just not something I have ever eaten very often, and usually it's too expensive for our budget anyway. Now venison steaks, yes, we have those, but not beef. I had to look up how to cook them!
I remember the first time I cooked steaks. We never had them when I was growing up because, well, 13 children. But the second day after I got married (I was 17, and we had no honeymoon), my husband wanted steak. His mother, bless her, had bought a few groceries and stocked our kitchen with the basics, which had not even occurred to me to do. (This was at our first apartment in a complex called Fairlington, in Arlington, Virginia-- an interesting place which I wrote about in this post.)
So, he wanted the steaks cooked and I had no idea how to do it. I remember that they were chuck steak, so not a fancy cut. He had to show me how to prepare and broil them. They came out fine, as I recall, but I wasn't crazy about them (to this day I am not a big fan of beef). We had a salad and mashed potatoes, but no gravy as I had no idea how to make that either. I cooked at home, of course, because my mother was often ill and I was the oldest daughter. But I made things like spaghetti, goulash, and such, not big chunks of meat.
Funny how one though leads to another, and then to a memory!
...when I was a kid we enjoyed tube steaks (hot dogs), we lived high on he hog.
ReplyDeleteHahaha, yes! And beanie weenies, and pork n beans on toast!
DeleteWe're having the same weather -- and boy, do your dogs look like they know how to keep warm! I'm actually typing in fingerless gloves! So, definitely time for good, warm comfort food. A steak sounds lovely!
ReplyDeleteOh my, fingerless gloves! I had not thought about using those. But really, our house is plenty warm, thank goodness.
DeleteYou are always busy. Did you grow the kidney beans? We used to dry them, but not can them.
ReplyDeleteNo these beans were gallon cans that were given to us. We could never eat a gallon before they spoiled, so I am just reprocessing them in pints and quarts. My family will get some of them because there are way too many for us. I have never tried to grow beans to dry.
DeleteI can drink microwaved coffee but I have recently switched to tea in the morning and am usually satisfied with one cup. We also eat cilantro but that may have been one of the results of living in Mexico for 4 years. I know some people think it tastes like soap and I've often wondered how much soap they ate to gain that prejudice! I used to love steak but my wife and my pocketbook have slowly gotten me away from it. I buy a filet mignon and pan fry it for myself once or twice a year nowadays.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't say cilantro ashes like soap, Cat, but more rubbery maybe?
DeleteI think steak as an occasional treat is nice. My son makes the best I have ever eaten, grilled to perfection. And that Waygu or whatever it's called that my oldest son brought one time, oh.my. Incredibly good and incredibly pricey too!
Lots of venison steaks in the freezer here as well. Yesterday, I made a venison roast with vegetables. This morning I chopped up the meat, added tomatoes and chopped even more vegetables and let it simmer all day. Very hearty supper for a very cold day.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds delicious. I want to make one with kraut this week, in the crackpot. So good.
DeleteIt's about the same here, probably close to you 0 when we went walking this morning. It was a nice walk. I may post something.
ReplyDeleteWe have a single cup coffee maker. I set it up at night and turn it on first thing, usually before I hit the bathroom. It's upstairs with us, not in the kitchen. We usually do tea at noon and supper. We seldom have steak, maybe occasionally on the barbie in summer, but I'm not sure we even did that last summer.
You are a brave man, AC, to go out walking when it's 0! You Canadians sure have my respect.
DeleteNice to have your coffee right there in the morning. There's just something about that first sip...
My favorite story about new brides cooking was my mother's when she made rice. Didn't put in anywhere near enough water...so it was a brick! I love outdoor grilled steaks, and usually could find a man to do them, but like you I seldom do beef these days...and can't grill around these apartments anyway. The taste is pretty nice though! Keep warm!
ReplyDeleteI can just imagine that rice!
DeleteWe rarely eat steak, so I also have to look up the cook times, etc..whenever I make it, lol. When I was first married (19) my husband wanted steak, but asked for it to be fried. I had never had fried steak and I think that was the last time I made it!
ReplyDeleteI love that story, Michelle! Think of how much we have learned about cooking over the years. Kind of amazing.
DeleteYou were a year younger than I was when you got married but at least you had SOME cooking experience. I had absolutely none and although I learned how it just never has been a joy. Now Baking, that's different. I think it's because I love to eat the results :)
ReplyDeleteI confess to forgetting my nice fresh coffee and finding the cup of it cold, lonely and abandoned. So, into the microwave, where it may also be left until once more it is cold but then, um, I go to use the microwave, find it, warm it again and toss it down. Oh dear, I do look bad in this comment.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, I do the same thing! No coffee elitist here. I can't even drink Starbucks, or the coffee at most coffeehouses because it's just too strong.
DeleteIt was never too strong for my mother and aunts. They used a glass percolator and really knew what beans to buy. I miss that sound, from my childhood mornings, of the water going 'glerp' as it was lifted into the basket. They would warm this stuff up, too, and down it. But with cream, always. Me, I go for black.
DeleteThat's freezing cold there...it's minus 3 C here and I am not liking it at all. At least it's dry. Beef steak and other beef products are getting so expensive...and bloody Green party still increases the tax this year again...darn.
ReplyDeleteI would happily take your -3, Angie😊
DeleteBeef isn't good for us anyway, so just as well we don't buy it.
In my life the men did the cooking. I only learned to cook and bake when I lost my job at age 49. I used to drink coffee, black. Then, 2002, I think, my colleague out of the blue said he wants to quit smoking, if I join. He gave me two days to read Alan Carr´s help-book and that was it with the stupid smoking. Also with the coffee. My stomach says no.
ReplyDeleteI can only drink coffee with loads of milk now.
Really! My Dad rarely cooked. Larry does breakfast sometimes, but never anything else. He makes such a mess in the kitchen that I prefer he stay out of it, lol.
DeleteGood on you for quitting the smoking! Thats not easy, I know.
I rarely buy meat at all, but now that I know my neighbor AM is selling meat from his home-raised animals, I've bought a few packages of pork chops for my freezer. I can't stand cilantro either, though I'm not one of the people who says it tastes like soap...it just doesn't taste like food to me! I'll have to try coriander seeds now to see if I like that flavor - thanks for the tip.
ReplyDeleteI hope you are warm and well, Quinn. Is this weather affecting you too?
DeleteFinally was able to access your blog after a bunch of tries. Blogger has been very tempermental who I can access the last few days.
ReplyDeleteThe dogs have the best location for their naps, doesn't take long before they catch on, does it? Stay warm.
We have a new storm coming on Friday with gale winds and lots of rain. The country is under a red warning with risk to life and property. Hopefully it will pass by with some speed.