So, it’s come to this. I have lost touch with my blogging muse to such an extent that I’m writing about a meal I made for myself. Ugh, I apologize. Maybe she’ll feel so sorry for abandoning me, after reading this dreck, that she’ll come storming back. For your sake, dear reader, let’s hope.
The renovation continues apace. I’ve been fully dedicated to the laundry room, at the expense of the kitchen, for the last few weeks. And even then, I was totally burned out and avoiding it for about three weeks. I’d finished the walls, ceiling, and floor, and was now faced with the slowest and most daunting part – the finish work. I liken it to filling your gas tank after pre-paying (does anyone still do this?). The last 10 cents take longer to wring out of the hose than the previous 12 gallons. Each piece of baseboard has to be cut, meticulously fitted and carefully nailed in place. Then the knots in the wood covered in shellac-based paint before everything gets two coats of primer and up to two coats of paint… all at floor level and against finished paint on other surfaces. I wanted all this done before moving in the washer and dryer, for obvious reasons.
However, after three weeks of goofing off, it looked like we’d have to wait another month before we had a working laundry room. This, I decided, was unacceptable. So, on a day when Susan was away, I, all by my lonesome, hauled the dryer up from the basement through the bulkhead over the very steep and narrow stairway I’d built last summer, and into the laundry room by way of a ramp made of a hunk of old chainlink fence. This involved much grunting, swearing, sweating, shoving, and pulling. With no one there to hear it, you’d wonder why I bothered. After attaching the vent hose and directing it at the screen door, I washed everything in my hamper, which included all my pants. You can see why this couldn’t wait another month.
This past Saturday, I put in three pieces of baseboard, vented the dryer through the wall (which required cutting a neat little notch out of the baseboard and, Susan’s favorite part, putting a hole through the exterior of our house!), hauled the washer in, and sanded/primed/painted the rusty side which would flank the toilet.
Susan was going out to have her laptop worked on by a friend, so I was left to feed only myself that evening. On nights like this, I’ve tended to try new places, usually looking for good ribs or wings or pizza – things Susan isn’t interested in. But I was beat, and didn’t feel like trolling around southern Maine in the hopes of accidentally stumbling upon something not disappointing in the next two hours, and it was already 7pm. Then I remembered the ribeye steak in the freezer. Why go out when you can have steak at home?!?!
So I threw together:
Ribeye, medium-well (it’s been a while since I grilled steak. I meant it to be medium-rare),
Cucumber and grape tomato salad with cheddar cheese curds and balsamic vinegar, and
Nachos. Yes, nachos. The lone potato in the house was bad, otherwise I would have baked it. I swear. Aw, why am I making excuses to you? You want nachos!
All this was eaten while watching the first half of Fiddler on the Roof, which seems horribly inappropriate, as Tevya’s family is too poor to afford any of this, and it was most certainly NOT kosher.
And to top it all off, I finally opened the beer that I’d been waiting months to drink with Susan, but for which we never set aside the opportunity. It was, hard to believe, my first time having this beer, and it surpassed my expectations:
It was just perfect. I’ve been told not to let beer sit too long, or it will spoil, but this was in our fridge for months, and I can’t imagine how much better it could have been. Of course, when you pair anything with a steak after a day of renovation, it’s bound to be good!
Really, this whole post was a setup to say that I’ve decided that, whenever possible, I’m going to have Sam Smith beers in the 18.7 ounce Victorian Pint. Why mess with the smaller bottles? It’s not like I’m not going to drink the whole thing before it gets warm…
Stay tuned to Susan’s blog for renovation updates and pictures! I’ll be over here, staring at an unfinished spot and scratching my head.
