Tuesday Triumphs and Failures

Yesterday, when Frank came home from work, Bella did not run up to greet him.  He came inside and asked if she were in and I responded I had last seen her about half an hour earlier.  We went out and called and searched and drove around.  We called the local police department. We shared (and all of our friends) shared her picture and information on facebook and one of my friends shared it on a site called Love for Louie which is just for lost pets.

We had a very restless night, taking turns going out onto the deck to yell for her.  This morning Frank went out in the car looking again and then he decided to walk and look in the ditches because we knew that if she could come home she would.  He came in and we were feeling pretty low when the phone rang and it was a wonderful woman who had our Bella Baby and had gotten our number through Love of Louie.  She brought her home and the shock collar is back on Bella after a full year of not needing it.  She is a smart dog...she knows that shock collar is there....she goes out, does her business and comes right back in.  She won't even go exploring on our acres while she has that collar on.

This all happened in time for me to still be able to have time to get to Zumba class.  This is the first time I have exercised since my dastardly fall during roller skating.  It was not easy, the squats and lunges are still very painful for me.  I really damaged myself with that fall. But I got through the class with the saddest looking squats you ever saw and I am back on track on My Quest for Fitness.

Our little pig still is not doing well but our friend, Cindy's daughter is a country vet and she called us. We told her what we were doing and how the pig was responding.  She told us to up the dosage of antibiotics and administer twice a day. She said that if it is an inner ear infection it can take up to a month for the pig to get well.  That seems like a lot of antibiotics in my meat but the piglet still has 3 months of growing to do so even if it takes a month to get better it will still have 2 months to grow before market.

While doing my Weekly Menu this week, I went through a binder that contains all the recipes that I have pulled out to try.  The keepers remain in the binder and the others get removed once they are tried.  I came across this recipe that I decided to make for Try it Tuesday today.

As you can see, I copied from a book, but nowhere does it give the book info on this page so I am unable to credit the author of the recipe.  I followed the recipe as written which is pretty unusual for me but I had all the ingredients called for and the recipe sounded appealing as written.

It looked good.

The meat was fork tender.

But it was pretty bland.

I am including the recipe for those of you that want to try to doctor it up but, as for myself, it is not a keeper.  I have too many great Asian recipes to waste time and energy on this one again.  It wasn't bad, our plates were emptied but it wasn't anything that made us say "Wow, this is good" and so it won't be made again here.

Chinese Beef and Tomatoes

1 med. onion, sliced

1 small green pepper, cut into chunks

2 ribs celery, sliced

3 T. soy sauce

1/4 t. garlic powder

1/4 t. pepper

1 lb. round steak cut into strips

1 T. butter

1/2 c. water

1 t. beef bouillon granules

1 T. cornstarch

1 T. cold water

1 1/2 t. sugar

1/4 t. ground ginger

1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved

Place vegetables into a slow cooker. 

Combine 2 T. of soy sauce, garlic powder and pepper into a shallow bowl.  Add steak and toss to coat.

Brown meat in butter in a large skillet over med high heat.  Pour over vegetables.  Deglaze the pan with the 1/2 c. water, add the bouillon and bring to a boil, scraping up any brown bits stuck to the pan.  Pour over the meat and vegetables. Stir, cover and cook on high for 4 hrs.

In a small bowl combine the remaining T. of soy sauce, water, sugar , cornstarch and ginger.  Stir until smooth.  Stir into liquid in slow cooker.  Add tomatoes. Cover and continue to cook on high for another 15 minutes.  Print Recipe

One year ago--Monday Moaning