Rain, rain, go away!

I woke up at 7:00 AM on Sunday morning, went out to the kitchen and heated up a cup of coffee. I checked outside from the kitchen windows. The freezing rain is pulling down the evergreen branches in the back. I went and looked out the front window, just in time to see a car go sideways on the road and miss my new mailbox by inches!!! The car spun all the way around and ended up on the townhouse lawn. But, that got him/her off the ice and onto some crunchy snow, so they slowing drove back out and onto the road again.

I think I'm glad I planned to stay inside today!

I wrote and posted the Blog (seemed to take forever) and then at 9:30 AM, I went to make some breakfast. Today it was poached eggs on toast. Unfortunately, I poached the eggs about one minute too long. Why? Because I like the yolks runny, but these were semi-hard. Not bad, though, not bad!

Next, I went out to the garage and used spray polyurethane on the stained parts of the plant stand. It's warm enough now to be raining, but cool enough that I think it will be a while before it dries.

Moving right along, I put the last of the weekend laundry in the washer and then go and shave and shower. Now, its time to start prepping for dinner. Remember how I screwed up the cabbage for the Galumpkis, trying to save some of the raw cabbage? Well, it's because I wanted to try the Neely's Sweet and Spicy Coleslaw. I didn't have near enough cabbage left (recipe calls for two pounds), but I have enough to make for one person. So, I put the large hole grater attachment on my food processor and cut the remaining cabbage so it would fit down the feed tub. Then I peeled a carrot (again, recipe calls for 4 carrots) and cut it into chunks. I ran the cabbage through the processor and added enough carrot (I had one chunk left) until it looked "right." Then I fed in 1/2 of a yellow onion.

I put that in a bowl, tossed it around to mix and made the sauce. Obviously, I cut it in half, but here's the original amounts and process. You whisked together 1/2 cup of mayonnaise, 1/4 cup of yellow mustard, 2 teaspoons of apple cider vinegar, 1 cup of sugar, 1 teaspoon of black pepper, and 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne (yes, cayenne). I tossed the dressing with the cabbage mixture, and seasoned it with salt and pepper, to taste. You are supposed to cover this and let it refrigerate for at least two hours before serving, but I ate a big bowl of it on the spot! Whew! That cayenne gives it quite the kick!

While washing dishes, I was looking out the kitchen window. I noticed that, due to the higher temps, melting snow and the freezing rain that since turned into an all-day rain-rain, Lake San Jose has reappeared in my back yard.

I washed up all the parts of the food processor. Those plastic parts seem to take forever to air-dry. Then, I went out to check on the plant stand. It's been two hours (at room temperature it's supposed to dry in 15 to 30 minutes) but it was still a little sticky. But, it was dry enough for me to assemble. I screwed on each leg and then tapped the wooden plug in the screw hole. I carried the plant stand into the house to further dry. I'll have to stain the top tomorrow, I guess.

I took the laundry out of the dryer and folded or hung up everything. Then I finally got around to putting the potato soup left over from Friday night into two freezer containers and into the freezer. Now, its 3:30 PM and I am taking a break after taking the steak out to come to room temperature. I got my book and laid down, with the TV on soft to the Daytona 500 race. BTW, the rain had stopped a while ago, but its back now and coming down steady. Not looking forward to driving to work in the morning, if the temperature dips.

I went out in the kitchen at 4:30 PM and rubbed Montreal steak seasoning into both sides of the steak. At 5:30, it was time to make dinner. So, I got two similar sized russet potatoes, punched holes in them with a fork, rubbed them with Crisco and baked them in the microwave. I cut off the bad spots on that cauliflower and cored it (without cutting myself!) That went into a small pan of salted water. I used Jake's steak-broiling method (not wanted to clean that damn broiler pan again) of tinfoil on a cookie sheet and topping that with a rack. The steak went on the rack and under the broiler for 8 minutes on one side and 5 minutes on the other. Meanwhile, I diced up a small shallot and saut�ed that with the rest (maybe 8 or 9) of the Crimini mushrooms (shallots and mushrooms are best friends, you see).

When the steak was done, I let it rest and redid the potatoes for another 3 minutes (they were still hard on the fork test). Then I plated. The steak got a medallion of the blue cheese compound butter and then was topped with the mushroom/shallot mix. The baked potato was sliced open and squeezed, then topped with butter, sour cream and two sliced scallions. I drained the cauliflower and topped it with butter and salt.

I thought of taking of picture of my dinner, but thought that was a bit much. But, believe me, it tasted better than it looked and it looked pretty damn good!

I cleaned up the kitchen and at 7:45 PM, quit for the night. I went in to watch my Sunday night shows, and went to bed at 11:00 PM. I looked outside before hitting the sack and didn't see any rain or snow, but did noticed the wind had really picked up. I'm not quite sure what that will men for the morning commute.