Woke up at 7:30 AM without the alarm. I got a lot of things I want to accomplish today, and, who knows, maybe I'll get them all done. I thought about breakfast, but decided coffee was enough.
After two cups, I put all the dirty dishes in the dishwasher, and then blended together the now-softened butter and basil with a fork. Next, I put down a piece of tin foil, covered by a piece of Saran Wrap. Using a spatula, I transferred the butter mixture to the middle of the Saran Wrap, trying to shape it as best as I could into a log. When I had it all on there, I rolled it up and put the package in the fridge. What ever I don't use for this recipe, I'll put in the freezer. Compound butters will last a l-o-n-g time if frozen.
Then I got shaved, showered and dressed. I reviewed and approved my list of both errands and grocery items, refilled Scruff's food and water dishes, opened all my windows, shut of the A/C (it's an absolutely perfect Fall-ish day with a nice West wind and only supposed to get to a high of 75 degrees F. So, time to air the place out before shutting it up for the long, Michigan winter) and then I headed out.
First I stopped at the bank to get some money out of the ATM, and then drove to the eye doctor's. I may or may not have mentioned that on Tuesday night, I fell asleep watching TV (as usual) and, when I woke up, I'd broken the little fishing line that held my right lense in. I've been wearing my older pair of glasses ever since. I got there just after 9:30 AM. But, it took her almost 30 minutes to fix them! I felt bad, thinking I'd really jacked them around. But, when I apologized, she said it was her bi-focals that hindered her putting the translucent line into the two small holes. Hey, I can thoroughly understand that!
Now I'm off to Meijers. I got everything I needed there, and then headed back home so the perishables wouldn't be sitting in the trunk while I finished my errands. I put everything away, and then headed back out. I tried to drop off the last check to my lawn-lady, but nobody was home.
Next came the library and my usual two-week exchange of books. Then, I drove down Five Mile to the feed store for bird seed and suet. It was there that my knee suddenly gave out, and, if it wasn't for my cane and the shelves I grabbed onto, I would have fallen. I had noticed both my knees were hurting before, but thought it was just odd, nothing to be concerned about. But now it dawned on me: I forgot to take my pills this morning!
Okay, stupid, let's get through this and get to those pills. So, last stop was Westborn for fresh veggies. As I think I mentioned, I have Lu here Monday and Tuesday for dinner, so the menu must include something a vegetarian would enjoy.
Made it home just before 1:00 PM, took my pills, put everything away, started a load of laundry and decided to lay down for a while to let the pills work (nap time!) I started reading to fall asleep, but after a while, I realized I was more hungry than sleepy. So, I got back up and made myself a tuna fish sandwich (just drained tuna, diced onion and celery, house seasoning and a bit of mayo). I put the empty (almost) can of tuna on the floor for Scruffy, but, ironically, I had to wake him up from his more successful nap on my bed to eat it!
I did eventually fall asleep, woke up at 3:30 and got back to work. I put the clothes in the dryer, and then went out to straighten up both workbenches. I used the blower to get the sawdust out the garage door. Then I hopped on the mower to cut the front lawn (trying to blow the leaves onto the driveway from each side).
When I was doing that, Tonya (the lawn cutting lady down the street), walked over. She asked if I liked cream of broccoli soup, because she'd made too much. I said, "Sure, and I have your check. I tried to drop it off this morning but nobody was home." She suggested a trade and left to go get the soup. I went inside and got her check and we did, in fact, meet in the road and traded. She said this was her first time making it, and she thought it was a bit too thin and asked me to let her know what I thought of it, so I told her I would. Apparently, there are no hard feelings about me stopping her service, which is good. I like having neighbors who like me (and watch over my place, etc.)
I put the baggie of soup in the deep freeze and went back to work, blowing the leaves and grass clippings out into the road. Sidebar: B___ told me if I did that in his neighborhood, I'd get a fine. But I've always done that (ignorant that it was somehow wrong) since I moved here. Maybe it's because I live on a dirt road, but the cars drive over it, the wind disperses it and in a couple of days, it's disappeared! Perfect!
So, that being done, I tried to fit the mower in between the two workbenches. Why is that important? Because I want to be able to put two vehicles (my car and Jake & Carla's, or Luanne's, or B___? Who knows? Who cares?) in the garage if needed. If it doesn't fit, I'll have to build a shed on the concrete pad where the trailers are. But, as luck would have it, it fit! (See photos)
Now, it's after 6:00 PM and I am thinking about dinner. So, I cut up a large sweet onion into 1/2 inch sections and put only the perfect rings into buttermilk. The rest I saved in a baggie for some other dish. Next I took 2 pounds of ground chuck and made it into six burger patties. I made a hollow in each patty and added a chunk of blue cheese and a slice of the basil compound butter. Then I worked the patty in my hands until the additions were firmly in the middle (I hope, lol). I seasoned them on both sides with the house seasoning and let them rest.
I fired up the charcoal in the grill and waited until it was the perfect temperature. I cooked the burgers three minutes a side. I usually cook them four minutes for medium rare, but these will be sitting in the oven on "Warm" for a while, until the onion rings are done. When they were done, I did indeed park them in the oven and then started the onion rings.
So, I've got my mise-en-place set up for the onion rings: the rings themselves, sitting in buttermilk (for a minimum of an hour), a bowl of flour and house seasoning, a bowl with one cup of flour and one can of warm beer whisked together and my cast iron dutch oven, filled with four cups of canola oil, heated to 350 degrees F. On the other side of the dutch oven is a cookie sheet, lined with paper towels and topped with a rack.
Oh, oh! Ran into a problem. I'm supposed to dust the onion rings when they come out of the oil with salt (no problem) and grated parmesan cheese (where the hell is that damn green cardboard can when you need it? The answer? No where!) So, I got out the Parmigiano-Reggiano and the box grater and, using the fine side, grated a half a cup of cheese. These have now officially turned into very expensive, gourmet onion rings!
So, it was grab an onion ring, shake off the buttermilk, dredge it in the flour mixture, shake off the flour, dip it in the batter, let it drain a bit, then drop it in the oil. I worked slowly, only doing three or four at a time because you don't want to crowd them or they will stick together (if you've ever ordered onion rings in a restaurant, you know what I'm talking about). When they were done, I took them out, put them on the rack to drain the grease, and sprinkled them with the salt and cheese.
Oh, but they were a thing of beauty! And, (I am so proud of myself) I only made three more than I ate! I am getting this "cooking for one" shit DOWN!
Seriously, the burgers were fantastic (with just yellow mustard and real mayo on sesame seed buns) and the onions rings (golden brown) were the best I ever had.
I decided the mess could be cleaned up in the morning and went out to hook up the back garden sprinkler. 30 minutes later (in the dark) I disconnected it, came back inside (fat and happy) and grabbed a new library book out of the bag. I read (with my glasses OFF) until I fell asleep. You may have observed that I never mentioned shutting any of the windows (because I didn't), so the 4:30 AM train whistle woke me up, bleary-eyed (as opposed to bright-eyed) but still bushy-tailed, ready to start my Sunday.
