March 4, 2009

• Two times in the last month I have danced in my dreams.  There I can do all my old tricks with ease.  Even a week later I remember exactly what it felt like, something I never appreciated at the time. 

  I was always trying to conquer the next level and be as good as my teacher.  I never took the time to enjoy a piece.  Once it was choreographed and performed I rarely did it again, always working up something new and more difficult.   

  It’s why I used to love going to my blues bar.  It felt good to move again, even though I wasn’t doing much in the way of true bellydance.  But I quit going last summer and I am stiff as a board now.  My arms ache from sanding the walls and using the roller.  I think the dreams are my body’s cry for help.  Plus, I think maybe all this painting has whetted my creativity. 

  I use those creative juices to cook.  All I do now is paint and cook.  I listen to the cooking shows while I paint and record the ones that have dishes I want to make. I’ve even written down some of the Barefoot Contessa’s recipes and that anorexic woman, Robin.  I like her food choices.   

  Here’s what I concocted for breakfast.  I usually use red pepper but I am trying to stick with local ingredients.  I make this when I camp, saving half of my steak and a baked potato from the night before.  I wrap the potatoes in tin foil and throw them in the coals but these were from the oven. 

  Pru’s Steak ‘n Hash

  ½ cooked steak

  1 cooked baked potato

  ½ fennel bulb

  ½ large sweet onion

  5 crimini mushrooms

  2 cloves garlic

  bunch of parsley

  salt and pepper

   

  Chop the onion and fennel the same size as you want the steak bits.  Heat a cast-iron pan and add olive oil.  Sauté the onion and fennel.  Chop  the mushrooms and potatoes to match.  Turn the onion and fennel and when the onions look soft push both to the side, making room for the mushrooms and potatoes.  If you run out of room, lay the rounded mushroom pieces up against the side of the pan.  Season with salt and pepper.  I skip the salt and use Penzey’s Florida seasoned pepper and their bouquet garni.  Dice small the garlic and parsley.  Smash the cloves to get the peel off and the juices released.  Right before the potatoes and mushrooms look ready, add the steak.  Then flip those three and add the garlic and parsley. 

   

  What makes this work is to have enough oil in the pan and to let the potatoes get almost brown before you turn them.  I save half of this and next time have it for dinner.  I deglaze all those yummy bits with some boiling water, which heats up the potatoes faster.  I love New York steak but am trying to cut costs.  This is a great way to get three meals out of a large fillet.

  • 4:45 pm
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