Every once in awhile, we all need comfort food. There's no one recipe, or one meal, even for each person. Comfort food is whatever makes you feel secure, protected, comforted. Tonight, I needed some comfort food, and here's what I made.
I generally like Niman Ranch Ground Round for the meat. You can use any ground beef, or thin steak, pounded or not, or dry-aged New York Strip. For comfort food, the ground, for fancier meals the strip. You can dress up the ground with sautéed onion, Worcester Sauce, mustard powder, egg, whatever. You can rub the steak with a crushed garlic clove. With good quality meat, I don't like anything hiding the flavor. Use anywhere from 4 ounces to half-a-pound per person. Six ounces is a standard restaurant portion. Heat a pan over medium heat, add extra-virgin olive oil. Brown the meat for at least five minutes on a side, until nicely dark brown (lots of esters generated from browning, making for richer flavor). Cook the meat to the desired degree of doneness, rare to well-done.
While the corn is roasting, do the prep work. That includes the potatoes above, but also the prep work for the sauce or gravy. What's the difference? Flour. If you want a gravy, make a roux from butter and flour, a tablespoon of each per cup of liquid, cooking the flour in the butter for three minutes. Whisk the hot liquid into the the roux, until thick. What liquid? Keep reading.
Plate it up, with the sauce on the plate, or the gravy on the potatoes and beef. Put two to four heaping tablespoons of creamed corn in a small bowl for each serving. Maybe add some crusty bread and a salad, maybe not. Serve with the red wine used to make the sauce. Enjoy.
I've been putting new faucets into various sinks around the house. Today's two hour job, starting at 11:30 AM, just ended a short while ago. The old faucet was very difficult to remove, though the new one went in as expected. The trouble started when I opened up the supply valve for the hot water under the sink - it began leaking, and tightening the screw holding the handle into the stem didn't help. Closing the valve didn't help either. Then it started to leak a LOT.
I drove down to Ocean Shore Hardware in Half Moon Bay and bought a replacement 5/8-inch coarse thread compression to 3/8-inch compression valve. Reading through a home repair book to dredge up old memories of working with my maternal grandfather, both a master carpenter and master plumber, 34 years ago when I was 16, I saw that the only way to remove a compression fitting from a straight copper pipe is with a hacksaw. And if the new one leaks, as the book says, hacksaw it off and start over. This is why I don't do this for a living, or even an hobby.
It leaked. A LOT. I knew this as I sprained my ankle slipping in the puddle it made in the kitchen. Actually, it wasn't so much leaking, as spraying while making a malevolent hissing noise. I turned the main valve to the house off again. I know when to get professional help...
So, I looked through the phone book to find an emergency plumbing service that works the Coastside. Rescue Rooter has a large ad in the yellow pages claiming that "We get there right away... and we get it right. Ask about our 60 minute emergency service". And they have a number for Half Moon Bay and the Coastside (650)761-1313.
Don't call that number. Fifty-five minutes after I called, I received a call back stating that their technician [Grandpa wasn't no technician, he was a craftsman] wasn't able to break away, so they would like to offer me a 10% discount if I could reschedule to 8 the next morning. I explained that the water was off to the whole house, and that my parents, in their 80's, live with me, and that simply wasn't an acceptable solution. So Daisy said that all she could do was phone me back in 45 to 60 minutes [never an hour, they hate when you call their 60 minute guarantee an hour]. She did so, to let me know that the "technician" still couldn't break away and the earliest their "Always Available - Nights, Weekends, holidays" [quoting their ad] service could get to me would be NINE AM the next morning. I told her again about my situation, and quoted their ad to her. It seems Rescue Rooter had no other plumbers, just the one. And I could take their 9 AM offer or go elsewhere. I imagine some other customer who couldn't be serviced tonight took the 8 AM time slot.
No one else listed as providing 24/7 emergency plumbing services on the Coastside even answered.
Luckily, second time was the charm. I had bought several valves at Ocean Shore, and I was able to get a successful compression seal on my next attempt. Of course, hacksawing off copper pipe, and going through all this takes time. So, my two hour job turned into nine hours. And the supply line going from the new valve to the faucet jammed in taking it off again, so I must get another.
I have a sprained ankle, metal splinters in my hand, and I'm very tired.
I DO NOT have any leaks. And water is flowing through all the pipes, except the ones leading to the new kitchen faucet. /sigh
AND... I have to be in Sunnyvale tomorrow at 7:30 [that's when I usually awaken] to volunteer at the ANZATech network 2006 event. I know Buzz Bruggeman will be speaking again this year. I'm not sure if Bill Daul will be there. How about you?
Christmas must be coming. The number of cataglogues that I receive in the mail just jumped for about 6-to-8 per week to 8-to-10 per DAY.