Work actually ended after only nine hours yesterday -- the weather was so cold and blustery that my tower crew decided it would be more productive to take off a little early and go pick up one more rigger.
They were likely right; part of the work they're doing calls for thin gloves or no gloves. No matter how motivated you are, in the cold you get slower and slower as your hands get colder and colder. With more people on the job, the coldest tasks can be rotated from one to another, giving everyone more time to warm back up as they glove up and work on other elements of the job.
The inside work that need a factory technician had ended even earlier; he's on to the next installation, with my thanks for all his help and training.
I came home, started laundry (two new pairs of Double-Front dungarees had arrived!) and made beef stew, with stew beef (of course), hot Italian sausage, a little corned beef snipped up, multicolor carrots, fennel bulb, onion, shiitake mushrooms (too strong, I fished three-quarters of them back out. Portabellas would have been better), canned crushed tomatoes, some beef stock and half a can of cannellini beans. Seasoned with smoked paprika, freshly-ground pepper, basil, parsley, sage, a few bay leaves and a hint of garlic. Salt to taste. I tossed in a very small amount of purple pickled cauliflower at the last minute, for fun and a touch of color.
BUILDING A 1:1 BALUN
4 years ago
4 comments:
I just wanted to pop my head in and say how much I enjoy and appreciate your cooking posts; they often give me ideas for things to try in my own kitchen. Thanks!
~Katherine~
Thank you! They're barely recipes, but they're pretty good starting points. :)
One of these days, I will get a new range with a good oven, and then I can do a little baking.
I don't usually buy meat labeled as "stew meat" It's usually more expensive per pound than other cheaper (and more tasty) meats in the cabinet. Just chop those cheaper meats up for a better stew... bob
I usually don't buy "stew beef" either, since their chopped sirloin is a better buy for the money but (unusually) the meat cases were pretty bare; the butchers were restocking but in terms of beef suited to a stew, there was stew beef, some uninspiring thin-cut breakfast steaks, a few huge slabs of beef we wouldn't get through in a month, and filet mignon in several grades and varieties varying from $15 to $29 a pound and I was darned if I was going to put that in a stew.
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