Monday at the diner

It was a whopping 41 degrees F. when I woke up at 5:30 AM! But there was still a 20 MPH wind to contend with. And I was right. With all the melting going on, the car wash didn’t last until I even got to work.

Now, tonight’s it’s supposed to go below freezing again, so I imagine tomorrow morning all this snow melt with have turned to ice...

Also, ice dams on roofs and potholes are becoming a serious problem in the area.

When I got home, I found one of the cats had barfed on the bedspread. Dammit! I just washed that yesterday. I got the hair ball off, treated the stain with Zout and washed it again.

Now, I had more of the shrimp scampi with linguine for lunch, so I am getting a bit sick of it. So, I decided to make something you used to be able to get in any diner you walked into: the classic hamburger steak with onions and gravy.

In a large bowl, I mixed together one pound of thawed ground beef, one egg, 1/4 cup of plain bread crumbs, 1/8 teaspoon of black pepper, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 1/2 teaspoon of onion powder, 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder, and one teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce. I formed the mixture into four balls, and flattened them into patties.

I heated one tablespoon of Canola oil in a large skillet over medium heat. I fried the patties and one cup of thin-sliced onions in the oil until the patties were nicely browned, (about 4 minutes per side). I removed the beef patties to a plate, and stuck them in the microwave to keep warm.

I sprinkled two tablespoons of flour over the onions and drippings in the skillet. I stirred in the flour with a wooden spoon, scraping bits of beef off of the bottom (that’s the good stuff). I gradually mixed in one cup of beef broth and one tablespoon of cooking sherry. I seasoned with a little seasoned salt. I simmered and stirred over medium-low heat for about five minutes, until the gravy thickened.

I turned the heat to low, added a pat of butter, returned the patties to the gravy, covered it, and simmered it for another 15 minutes.

While that was getting happy, I made half a bag of wide egg noodles. When they were done and drained, I added butter and some of the “fines herbes” Joe and Kathy had given me, along with some dried parsley. Yes, my side dish is herbed noodles. If you don’t have “fines herbes” you can use 1/4 teaspoon of dried thyme, 1/4 teaspoon of dried basil, 1/4 teaspoon of dried parsley and 1/4 teaspoon of dried, minced chives.

In keeping with the diner theme, I was going to turn the rest of my cooked rice into rice pudding (another perennial diner favorite). But, by then, I was really hungry so I decided to skip that.

Dinner was excellent and I watched TV until bedtime.