Monday again?

Even though I slept lousy Sunday night, I did remember that Levan would be closed for construction today at the railroad tracks for an undetermined amount of time. Since Plymouth Road is also screwed up, my only recourse was to get off at Newburgh, turn on Amrhien (sp) and go to Levan. Unfortunately that was everyone else’s only recourse, too, and I was five minutes late for work.

I went to Kroger at lunch and bought more tin foil and a few other things that have popped up on my list. I dropped the stuff off at the house, warmed up and ate a brat for my lunch and then headed right back to work.

After work, I got home, treated the cats, rolled the garbage can out to the road (I would like to say “out to the curb” but I don’t have any curbs here on my street), changed clothes and sprang into action. This dinner was supposed to be on Sunday, when I had plenty of time. But now it was make it tonight or throw away a steak I’d thawed out.

So, I preheated the oven to 350 degrees F. I had one big Idaho baker and bought another one today (Unfortunately, since I didn’t buy them both at the same time, they were different sizes). I washed and dried them. Then I put some canola oil on each and loaded them up with Kosher salt. I wrapped each in tin foil.

I also used more tin foil to line my half sheet pan. Then I cut the big butternut squash my neighbor had given me in half. I dug out the seeds added some butter in each cavity and filled it with fresh picked thyme and oregano.

The squash and the potatoes all went on the half sheet pan and into the oven. I set the timer for an hour. I took the T-bone steak out of the fridge and let it come up to room temperature. I made a cup of coffee and watched the rest of the news.

When the hour was up, I started the charcoal in the chimney. Then I cut off the tops of the two potatoes and discarded them (I left the squash in the oven) to make them like little canoes. I was supposed to carefully dig out the potato flesh and leave the skins intact but two things got in the way. One was that it was my first time trying it and the other was the bigger potato wasn’t as “done” as the smaller one. Well, actually, there was three things: The third thing was they were hotter than the hubs of hell!

So, I did managed to rip both potato skins a little. But, I solved that problem by leaving them in the tinfoil and so somewhat intact. However, I decided later that leaving them in the tin foil did not allow the skins to get as crispy as I thought they would.

I mashed the potato flesh with some left over bacon that I crumbled, some fine-sliced green onions, butter, some sour cream, fresh ground pepper and shredded sharp cheddar cheese.

I refilled the potato skins and topped them with more shredded cheddar cheese and green onion slices. I put them back in the oven and set the timer for another 25 minutes.

Then I went out, cleaned and oiled the grill and proceeded to grill the steak (seasoned with just salt and pepper). I did my new-found trick of throwing some fresh rosemary stalks on the coals.

When I thought it was done, I pulled it off and let it rest for a while. When the timer on the stove went off, I pulled out the pan and dug out some of the squash.

I plated the squash, the steak and the smaller potato and went in to eat dinner at about 8:00 PM.

The squash was excellent. The steak was delicious, but not medium-rare (like I like it) but just medium. Still, it was moist and juicy, so I wasn’t complaining.

The twice baked potato tasted great, but you could tell some of the potato was undercooked. Next time I will definitely buy two (or more) of the same-sized potatoes!

I ate way too much and left the other potato and the squash to cool on the cutting board. I was watching TV, but fell asleep about 9:00 PM.

I woke up around 1:00 AM, and went out to the kitchen. I dug out the rest of the squash and put it in a container in the fridge. I wrapped up the other potato with more tin foil and put that in the fridge as well. The rest of the mess went into the garbage (I’ll take that bag out to the can on the road in the morning) and I hand-washed the dirty dishes and sheet pan.

The kitchen back in order, I went back to bed.