Tuesday's Tale

I washed the car today at lunchtime. I know it's supposed to snow again tonight (only a dusting) but I hate all that salt and crud on the car, especially on the windows and the outside mirrors.

Sure enough, it started snowing about 4:00 PM.

Once home (and cats treated), I took the galvanized wash tub I had put the soil in from last year's hanging pots and dumped the dirt over the front garden. Then I cleaned the tub out with a brush. Next, I took out the air compressor from the back room and set it back in its "garage" spot.

I took the 50-foot hose out, too, and laid in out on the garage floor (it kinks like a mother, given half the chance). I reattached the one end to the compressor and then carefully coiled it up (un-kinking it as I went) into the wash tub. I am hoping this will make it more manageable, lol!

Then, I packed up the three air guns and took them out to the garage as well. The downstairs room is really starting to look like the downstairs room again (as opposed to Tool-Central as it had since Thanksgiving!) Then, and only then, I changed my clothes.

You remember how I had found the meatballs and tomato sauce on Saturday? Well, I also found the rest of the Christmas roast. I had taken that out to thaw as well. So, tonight, I put it back in the freezer for a bit (it makes it easier to cut extra-thin) while I downloaded my favorite recipe for French Dip Sandwiches.

You could check the posts from a few years ago, but I will reproduce it for you tonight. Now, you may or may not remember, but it was Carla who started me on this whole foodie thing and the show she got me hooked on was Rachel Ray's 30-minute Meals. We watched it religiously when they first lived here. Today, foodie's everywhere pooh-pooh her as selling out (she's got her own prime-time daytime show and is making, like, millions) but, back then, she was this rather unsophisticated chick, living in upstate new York, who's gimmick was to make a good, healthy meal in under 30 minutes.

So, I went back to my roots and printed out her recipe. The only difference is that while she called for 1 1/2 pounds of deli-sliced roast beef, I will be using the Christmas leftovers. So, while I let it chill, I swept the kitchen floor. Since I had the broom and dustpan in hand, I swept the downstairs as well.

Once I had the floors swept, I took out the leftover roast from the freezer and, first, I cut off the outside (I figured the green peppercorn crust would definitely affect the flavor). Next, I sliced it as thin as I could.

Then I added two tablespoons of butter to a shallow skillet pan. To the heated butter, I added a shallot, thinly-sliced, and saut�ed it for two minutes. I added two tablespoons of flour and stirred it in for about a minute. I whisked in a jigger of dry cooking sherry and let the alcohol cook out.

Then, I whisked in two cups of beef stock in a slow, steady stream. Now, normally (in the original recipe), here you would put the deli-sliced roast beef on a cutting board and season it with Montreal steak seasoning. Then, using tongs, you would put the beef momentarily into the au jus and pile it into a 6-inch sub roll.

But, since I was dealing with leftover roast beef, here's what I did. I added about half a teaspoon of the Montreal Steak Seasoning to the pan. Then I threw in the thin-sliced roast beef. I walked away at that point, letting everybody get warm and happy.

Then I got out a sub bun and loaded it up with meat. I put some of the au jus into a small ramekin and went off to watch TV and eat. Not bad! Because I couldn't get the meat as thin as a meat-slicer would, the meat seemed a bit tougher than normal. But, the taste was great.

I went to sleep at 9:30 PM or so.