Saturday, May 21, 2011

First Time Ever.....

There is a first time for everything. Tonight was my night to be disappointed in dinner. No one to blame but myself since I was the mastermind behind it.

I started out with the best of intentions. Placing tender, break apart in your mouth, make your taste buds drool stew meat with a brown gravy over a hot bed of noodles with a side of sauteed zucchini sounded like a golden idea. How fast that opinion can change.

When I peeked in the crock pot this afternoon my heart fell when I noticed the meat was anything but tender. It had the consistency of a well done steak. Very chewy. I decided I would continue with my plans to save dinner and prepared the gravy thickener to place in the broth from the cooking meat. All that accomplished was turning the broth into a light brown pasty looking mess. It was pure liquid and it didn't thicken up as usual. I wasn't about to give up, although I should have known better than to continue, and moved on with dinner.

With the meat chunks and broth in one bowl and the zucchini and noodles adorning the table I called my husband to dinner. Gone were the dinner plates in front of us, replaced instead with soup bowls. The main dish was turning out to be more like a bland soup.

All I can say is that I applaud my husband for eating a portion of the food. The stew meat was a flop and the zucchini was bitter. I can honestly say that the leftovers made it safely into the trash can. The only bonus of cooking a dinner like that is that you don't want to eat it. Perfect if I was on a diet......but I'm not.

Perhaps we'll run out for a "snack" later tonight.

Monday, May 16, 2011

What A Hoot

Out by the railroad tracks there are a group of burrowing owls that have staked a claim on a prime piece of real estate......a corner of chopped up cement. For the past five months I have taken my three dogs out nearby this area to make use of the twig pile which they like to use as their bathroom. I keep the dogs in line and give the owls their respected space while we are out there, not wanting to disrupt the owls.

As I took the dogs out for our usual afternoon outing we were coming around the end of the twig pile that sits closest to the owls domain in the broken cement when all three of my dogs noses went straight in the air. I could see their noses working overtime as they sniffed the air. I saw an owl sitting on a pipe jutting out and figured that was what the dogs were smelling. I thought it of no consequence as the dogs have seen their share of owls out there.

Just as I was reeling the dogs in closer to me I heard this horrid screeching and looked up in time to see a second owl appear closer to us as he hissed and growled at us. I've never heard those birds do anything of the kind and for a moment I feared the bird was going to take flight and claw my face. I could not imagine what we had done to provoke such a response from that bird but I wasn't about to stick around. We hightailed it out of there leaving plenty of room between us and the owls.

Such audacity!