They show up one in seven, after all. I shouldn't be surprised when another Monday arrives.
One way to make Mondays easier is to have better weekends. Sunday was pretty good -- along with the long slog of attempting to achieve something resembling civilized life in my room, we had grilled steaks for dinner!
The hardwood charcoal ran out the most recent time I used the grill. The lump hardwood charcoal -- actual pieces of wood, not reconstituted briquettes -- ran out much earlier and I had been using up the less-good stuff.
Tamara, being a big fan of steaks from the grill, went on a quest to find more lump hardwood charcoal. It's not terribly uncommon, but few stores stock it in much depth, so there's an element of luck involved.
Tam struck gold.
She found the charcoal at the supermarket across the street from Kincaid's Meat Market, a long-established and outstanding butcher shop. Since she was already in the area, she crossed the street and found a couple of wonderful ribeyes. We had potatoes, mushrooms and side vegetables, so there's dinner.
And what a dinner it was! The steaks got the usual treatment: salt, pepper and let them come up to room temperature right before grilling. I sliced the mushrooms with a large green onion, a couple of small sweet peppers and bacon fat, added a shake of tarragon and a sprinkle of chipotle salt, and set that in a small pot on the upper grill rack. Potatoes were microwaved until mostly done, wrapped in foil and set on the grill, and some ready-to-cook fresh squash primavera (five minutes in the microwave) rounded out the menu.
We cleared our plates. There's something about the good charcoal that elevates even a good steak, and the mushrooms benefit from the smoke, too.
Started the fire with a single match, a stick of hardwood kindling, a stick of pine and pine shavings. The pine shavings work so well that I think I'm going to have to keep on building furniture in order to maintain a steady supply. It's a little more difficult to build a "chimney" of charcoal with the lump version, but it works out.
Yup, "real" charcoal is better. And a pain to start with a chimney and even a propane torch. Seeing as how delicious slices of dead bovine are involved, I will persevere.
ReplyDeleteMom bought a $13/lb Porterhouse for my birthday and displayed wisdom by letting me cook it. Thanks, Mom! Vegetables are good; meat is mandatory. So glad we have opposable thumbs and have more-or-less mastered fire.
A pain to start? Didja miss the part where it was a one-match exercise?
ReplyDeleteI do a little pound-sign/hash mark (#) of kindling, with a little crumpled newspaper in it. Stack charcoal on it for from a hollow "chimney" and bank more charcoal at the sides but not front or back. I pour clean excelsior (wood shavings) down the center, very loosely. Open the front vent on the grill, slide a lit match in, and step back. (For extra credit, use the same match to light the back of the fire.)
This will burn like mad, and the coals are usually ready when the kindling collapses and dumps them in a pile.
The only slightly challenging part is stacking irregular lump charcoal to make a hollow chimney, but that's a kindergarten-level skill.
Our forebears did this sort of thing on a daily basis. Millions of people still do. They didn't need a propane torch to do so, and neither do you.