Sunrise and Beef Piquant

It was an ominous pre-dawn sky yesterday morning -- suitable for the day I'd marked down to get our tax information together.

We're approaching the equinox -- the sun's almost in the middle of our due east view.

But that's not what I'm here to blog about. I want to tell you about a recipe that has stood the test of time. 

It's from The Gasparilla Cookbook -- produced by the Tampa Junior League back in 1961 and still in print.  It's the food of my childhood -- Southern, Spanish, Cuban, Italian, Greek. 

I got my first copy in 1962, the year before we got married, and it was my go-to cook book for a very long time. I wore that first copy out and got a replacement in '89 -- it's fairly stained and battered now. And the thing is, all these years later and the recipes are still terrific.

 

Bef Piquant is a good thing to do with a cheap cut of meat -- add in the potatoes and carrots and you've got a meal.  I also served some buttered broccoli and a salad.

After this was well underway, I realized, with something of a shock, there's no garlic in it. Another time, I may add a bit but honestly, it's awfully good just this way. 

The smell filled  the house for hours and when it was time to eat, I totally forgot to take a picture of the finished product. Oh, my, it was good.  The meat falls off the bone and is a big mouthful of flavor. 

Try it -- you'll see.

 Beef Piquant - in preparation

2 to 3 pounds chuck or round steak, at least 2 inches thick

1 lemon

2 tablespoons prepared yellow mustard

Salt and pepper

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

2 teaspoons brown sugar

3 generous dashes Tabasco sauce ( I used quite a lot (2 tablespoons, maybe) of Sriracha hot sauce instead for more heat)

2 medium onions, sliced and sauteed in 2 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon capers

Optional -- potatoes and carrots

Place steak in center of a large piece of heavy-duty aluminum foil  in a shallow pan. Rub both sides of steak with cut lemon. Spread both sides of steak with mustard.  Place under broiler and brown both sides. Remove from oven, salt and pepper, squeeze lemon juice over the steak. Sprinkle with Worcestershire, brown sugar, and Tabasco. Add capers and onions, which have been sauteed. You can add in  potatoes and carrots, if desired. Bring foil up to seal in an airtight package. Bake at 300 for 3 hours.

Wordless Wedneday

Silent Sunday

A Light Touch

The profligate sun

Lavishes his gold, gilding

Even the clothesline...

He strikes his image --
 Day's new-minted coin, shining

In the blue pot's glaze . . .

Teasing the white wall

Till it blushes rosy pink

Behind my shadow.

Even a small dog
Seems to enjoy the light touch
Of the morning sun. 

  L'aube se profile
prodigue son or, dorant
Même l'étendoir

A son effigie
Frappe monnaie du jour sur
L'émail du pot bleu

Taquinant le mur
Blanc qui *en devient tout rouge/or /Blanc *qui pique alors un fard
Derrière mon ombre

Même un petit chien
Semble aimer la touche d'or
Du soleil levant

.............................
In French, we say "Piquer un fard" (familier)for "to blush"

Courtesy of Miss Yves, who renders my haiku into French, making them sound much lovelier.

An Excuse

Sunrise Sequence

Yes, I post an inordinate number of sunrise pictures. I can't help it. Our bed faces due east where three uncurtained windows fill the wall. Every morning the growing light whispers that another show's about to begin.

I roll out of bed, grab my camera and start shooting.

If there's time, I dash upstairs to my workroom and take advantage of the slightly higher point of view that raises me and my camera above that tree that obscures part of the horizon -- on this day I got there just as the sun poked its head over the Blue Ridge.

There, that's better.  More sky in this next shot.

You see, matters are complicated a bit by the bird feeder recently installed in the window I prefer to shoot from. Now I can only open the window from the top and then only about eight inches.

  So I have to hold the camera above my head and shoot blind, then check the display to see how my aim was.  In picture number three, I just barely got the sun.

There were some other oddities but I liked these last two. I think, however, I'll treat myself to a little step stool so that I can look through the viewfinder when shooting out this window.

La Donna e Mobile

Monday's sunrise was a warning.

 "It's like living in Mordor," my husband said, as we watched the black clouds, like malevolent birds, blotting out the sky above us.

After all that irrational exuberance back on the weekend -- crocuses, daffodils, Spring, tra la -- Mother Nature dope-slapped us on Monday.

Rain turned to sleet; sleet turned to snow.

A good day for bird-watching . . .

Or watching Miss Susie Hutchins bird-watching...

But. . .
By mid afternoon on Tuesday, the snow was gone, the sun was out. . .

And Maggie and Dan decided to enjoy this pleasant side of Mother Nature . . . 
who, being feminine, is fickle.

Apocalyptic Sunrise

We do get some goodies in the sunrise department . . .

Straight out of the camera -- no fooling about with color enhancement -- honest!

It really seems as if the sky holds a message . . . and not just the old weather forecast, 'Sailor, take warning.'

What might the message be? The visual could use some audio -- great organ chords and a massed choir singing a Dies Irae . . . or maybe Leonard Cohen in one of his grimmer moods.

Sundry Snaps

The black walnut trees are loaded with nuts -- which sound like gunshots when they fall on the metal chicken house roof and act like ball-bearings when you step on them en route to feed the chickens.

A Japanese Anemone blooming in my friend Josie's yard makes me think of a Pheasant Eye daffodil.

Evening sunlight

A young turkey -- the 'beard' on his chest suggests he's probably a male and thus called a jake -- he'll be a tom when he matures. For more about turkeys -- go here ,

X-rated okra. Enough said.

A shy young possum, out on his own for the night and making the best of the dog food that I forgot to cover. Look at those sweet white-tipped ears!

And yes, another sunrise -- this one really made me think of early Technicolor -- as in Gone with the Wind. And no, I didn't fool around with the special effects -- it's as it was.