This is the reward a tired instructor longs for after a hard day. So.... this is the reward a tired instructor made for himself!
Beef stew.....
Everything gets cooked before combining. First, sharp white onion sauted in butter. Then, fresh sliced carrots and yellow squash sauted in olive oil. Then, chunked baby white golden potatoes browned crisp in butter, with salt and pepper. Last, big pieces of sirloin steak browned at rocket high temperature in the dutch oven, with cracked black pepper rubbed in first.
All of it gets combined in the hot dutch oven, and covered with beef broth. Simmered for an hour or so till the beef is oh-so tender and the potatoes start to fall apart. Season with Rosemary, garlic, kosher salt, more black pepper, and parsley. Mix a bit of corn starch with some vegetable broth and dump that in. Stir till it thickens, then turn off and allow to rest for another twenty minutes as the flavor permeates. Rosemary and garlic stay sweeter if not cooked long, but need to soak a while in the juices to spread their flavor.
The smell is amazing, and it tastes like heaven in a bowl.
On the work front, on this last day of the last week of school..... The boat that tried to kill me on Monday refuses to give up it's engine. The out-drive is frozen solid, but the engine may be Ok. We can't get the drive off, so the engine must come out. It doesn't want to. It REALLY does not want to. The same corrosion that solidified the out-drive has rotted every fastener that holds the engine in.
If we get it out, and if it runs decently, it will be a kick-butt 120 horsepower 2.5 liter GM engine that could make an S-10 type truck run down the road at a fair pace.
The boat..... hates me. I am beginning to dislike IT. It may catch fire.
(You HEAR that, boat?!?!)
Concerning summer construction matters, the old theory room risers are totally demolished. Stripped. Beat to pieces. Reduced to their original components, or smaller. Much smaller.
We have two piles of trashy scrap wood to get rid of (bon fire?) and two piles of usable lumber for the new construction.
But... we may not need it. Against all odds our new materials showed up today. I was shocked! It's early! I would not have been surprised if it had never arrived, and here it is early! I feel faint.
To sweeten the pot, it looks like we'll have more than enough new lumber as the plans call for double sheathing, and extra reinforcement, figured to rebuild the old size risers. We have changed that plan to better use our space, and the square footage we are covering with tiers is much less than original.
As for this old teacher... I'm tired. I'm going to eat another bowl of that ambrosia, then crack open a book and relax. Mozart is wafting through the air, the house is blessedly quiet, and soon I'll be able to talk with my best friend.
Life is good......
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