Movie Day

I spent a frustrating night, but woke up just before the alarm on Tuesday. I set it for 6:30 AM so I could get my garbage out in time. I know, I know! My friend B___ puts his garbage cans out the night before (as do most of my neighbors). But, I use garbage bags and, the first few times I tried that when I moved in, somebody (cats, dogs, raccoons, possums, ?) ripped them to shreds to get to the tossed away leftovers or cooking scraps. I'd much rather freeze my butt off early in the morning than pick up week-old food scraps! Gross!!

Back inside, I wanted to make a pot of coffee, but found the fresh grounds almost gone (sigh). So, I filled the coffee grinder with whole beans, buzzed it up and made a six-cup pot. I filled in the Blog and sat on the couch to enjoy my first cup.

I went in to watch the Today show and found that Punxsutawney Phil (a groundhog) saw his shadow so we should have six more weeks of winter. I think this scientific approach is what makes America great!

I forgot to mention this, but on Monday morning, I noticed the bird feeder was down on the ground again. I'm not sure if the sisal rope just deteriorates or the squirrels chew it but this happens every couple of months. So I brought it inside yesterday and, today, my first chore was to replace the rope (again). Since I'm not scheduled to refill the feeder until tomorrow, it's just sitting there on the washer.

I made up my short-list of ToDo items and then went to accomplish them. When they were finished, I decided it was "movie day."

So, first I watched the "Fellowship of the Ring" (first movie of the trilogy "Lord of the Rings" and the only one I own). The promised snow still hasn't really materialized, just a light dusting on the driveway and patio. Then I took a short nap.

When I woke up, the snow seems to have gotten a little more organized. I cut off a couple pieces of the roast chicken breast and made myself a chicken sandwich for lunch.

I was back on the couch and back drinking another cup of coffee, watching the snow, when I saw the garbage men finally picking my garbage at 2:30 PM. Bastards! Why'd they come at like 7:01 AM last week? But, at least it's all gone now.

So, next movie: I had to choose between The Ninth Gate with Johnny Depp or Inglorious Bastards. Since I just saw Inglorious Bastards, I went with The Ninth Gate (I love Lena Olin in this movie - she's a Swedish-born actress and she plays the devil).

Quick 5:00 PM update: Snow's lessened, but still coming down. The grass is almost covered, so I'd guess maybe 1/2 inch so far.

Sidebar: My next culinary experiment.

Background: A few months back, Jake had told me that Kroger was selling frozen French fries at a ridiculously low price. Now I like frozen French fries as they are a good side and I can make an individual portion in my toaster oven. But, when I got to the store, there was only like one bag left. However, there were still plenty of hash browns at the same low price, so I bought two bags of hash browns and the last French fry bag.

Well, here's the problem. I don't make or eat breakfast all that much. And, when and if I do, I like grits much better than hash browns. So, they've sat out in the chest freezer (taking up space) for a while now. And, whenever I try to get something out, they are in the way. So, they just piss me off.

But, I started thinking about it... What are hash browns except grated potatoes? Where else do you use grated potatoes? Then it hit me the other day: Potato latkes!

So, when I got a pound of hamburger out of the chest freezer for dinner tonight, I opened a bag and took about three cups of frozen hash browns out too. I figured when they thawed, they'd be about two cups, which is what I need.

Now, normally, you would grate up fresh potatoes for this until you got two cups worth. The fresh potatoes have a lot of starch and water in them, so you have to put them in a kitchen towel and squeeze them to get as much water out as possible. But the frozen ones (and they did thaw down to like two cups) seemed pretty dry.

So, I just added one tablespoon of a grated yellow onion, three beaten eggs, two tablespoons of flour and 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt. I mixed it all together and let that get happy while I heated about 1/4 inch of oil in my skillet.

I took a good heaping tablespoon of the mixture out for each and fried them up until they were golden on each side. I set them on paper towels to dry when I pulled them off and hit them with some Kosher salt. Then I put them in a 170 degrees F. oven to keep warm.

Note: This recipe only makes, like, six of them.

I dumped out the oil from the skillet and fried up sliced onions (the rest of the one I grated plus another medium-sized one) and a can of sliced mushrooms (I didn't have any fresh ones). When they were done, I put them in a bowl and they, too, went into the oven.

Next I made the pound of hamburger into a patty and fried it (getting a nice sear on both sides). I let it rest a bit, topped it with the onions and mushrooms and some A1 Steak Sauce. I plated it with two potato latkes, topped with sour cream and went off to watch some TV. I only ate half of the hamburger steak (I knew I couldn't eat it all).

I watched TV until 12:00 AM and then went to bed.