Sealing the Deal

When I woke up on Thursday morning, the snow had apparently just changed to rain (it was 41 degrees F. here, BTW). We apparently dodged the winter storm here in southeast Michigan, but have a "High Wind Warning" until Friday, with rain changing to snow and significantly lower temperatures coming in this afternoon.

Sure enough it was noticeably colder with a wicked wind when I left work at 11:00 AM. After I ate some lunch, I put a blanket on the kitchen table and started today's project: resealing the tile and grout on the kitchen countertop.

So, I took everything on the counter off and put it on the table. Then I thoroughly washed the counter top and backsplash, using a scrub brush and a rough sponge. I rinsed that off about four times to ensure all the soap was gone. I wiped it dry and let it sit and dry further for a couple of hours.

Then I slathered on a TON of grout sealer. I worked it in with a three-inch brush and used the extra to apply it to the backsplash, paying attention in both cases to the grout lines. I let that sit and soak for 15 minutes, and then I used copious amounts of paper towels to wipe the sealer off the tops of the tile (trying to avoid the grout lines, this time).

I let that dry for about three hours. BTW, weather-wise, it was below freezing then and the snow here was still minimal, but the wind was amazing (20-30 MPH, with gust up to 50 MPH).

So, it was 6:00 PM and I was back to work. I washed every damn thing on the table and dried it before it went back on the counter (the toaster oven, the coffee pot, the bread box, the toaster, the French press, etc.). Slowly, but surely, my kitchen came back together.

I finished up about 7:30 PM and was starving! So, I reconfigured the oven for broiling (rack at the highest level) and set up a cookie sheet by covering it with tin foil and installing the now-cleaned rack again.

I peeled a pound of parsnips (that was fun to say) and cut them into rounds. They went into a saucepan with water and kosher salt. Then I took out a rib eye steak (one of the four or five items left from last year's meat purchase) I'd thawed and seasoned it. I rubbed both sides with softened butter (instead of the usual olive oil), put on salt and pepper and then pressed in some dried thyme (mistake - I should have went with house seasoning).

I put the steak on the rack and under the preheated broiler. While it was doing its thing, I drained the parsnips, added some butter and fresh chopped flat leaf parsley and covered it to keep warm.

I broiled the steak for five minutes per side (I'm looking for medium rare here) and then I pulled it out and let it rest for five minutes to redistribute the juices. Speaking of juices, my mouth has been watering for the last half hour or so...

Finally, I plated dinner and went in to see what I'd missed on TV. I watched a part of an old favorite movie, "The Hunt for Red October" until 10:00 PM when I switched over to the season finale of "Top Chef."

The steak was flawlessly done and the parsnips were perfect. My only complaint was that the dried thyme (while giving great flavor) was unpleasantly "crunchy."

I put the plate out on the newly sealed counter to deal with in the morning, locked down the oven and turned it on "clean." I like to do this at night, because the heat thrown off is unnoticeable and helps reduce the time the furnace runs. Then I went to sleep.