Mmm...Steak

Recently I had the pleasure (I mean displeasure) of taking care of a whole crap load of farm animals for one of my bosses.  There were cows, cats, chicken, ducks, turkeys, and worst of all, geese. I was shown the ropes by my boss's wife and left to my devices.  One of my responsibilities was wrangling the geese into their corral in the evening.  So the first night I head outside and start shooing geese into the general direction of their corral.  As you're aware geese stick pretty tightly together so I didn't think it would be too hard.  All was going well until I realized one of the calves had found its way into the corral.  Now what?!  Could the calf get out on its own, did I have to coax it out of the goose corral?  I tried encouraging the calf to abandon it's location, but I was a bit scared, even a small cow is a LOT bigger than me.  After a few valiant attempts at calf removal I gave up.  That calf could stay there for all I cared.  As I headed back to the corral gate to resume goose wrangling the geese panicked and ran away.  I regain control of the gaggle by waving my hands and what do you know, it works, they're all headed through the gate quacking and flapping away.  Then I realize, much to my dismay...four geese have missed the gate.  I think to myself "no biggie, I can handle this."  Unfortunately, the four separated geese see their gaggle on the other side of the corral netting and are determined to join them.  To do this they start running at the netting.  All their heads are getting stuck in the net and I'm starting to panic.  Holy shit!!!  I'm going to kill my boss's geese!!!  As luck would have it the weight of the geese forced the fence down and three of the four found their way into the corral and were happily reunited with their gaggle.  Now I only had to deal with one goose.  As bad luck would have it this goose continued launching him/herself at the netting, getting it's head stuck in the netting over and over.  I try holding the net down thinking maybe this goose will be able to get over the top like its buddies.  This doesn't work, so I'm thinking I'm going to have to get in close and I might even have to touch it.  I slowly work my way towards him and he starts quacking, then his protective friends in the corral start coming at me, they're quacking and flapping their wings, but worst of all they are HISSING at me!!!  That's right, hissing, who knew geese hiss?!  That's when I gave up and slowly backed away from the scary gaggle of geese.  I was not getting attacked by a goose, oh hell no!  It was at that time the remaining goose found its way back to the gate and I safely locked the gaggle away for the night.  Oh and if you were wondering about the calf, amidst the melee of my geese wrangling it found its way out of the corral on its own.  I happen to think it was just as afraid of the hissing geese as I was and ran away.  Now that I've given you something to smile about (hopefully), it's time for a new recipe.

You will need:
1 sirloin steak
2 T soy sauce
1 T vegetable oil
1 T brown sugar
1/2 tsp. ground mustard
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
a dash of pepper

Mix everything but the steak together in a tupperware container.  Once mixed coat steak with mixture on both sides and then allow steak to marinate overnight.  Once done marinating, grill steak a few minutes on each side.  I'm not giving you time estimates because in my experience people prefer their steak rarer than I prefer mine.  So grill it how you like it, rare, medium rare, whatever.  Pour a nice red wine, or a cheap red wine (if you haven't already) and enjoy!

Megan S.

Sea scallops and green beans

Have you ever noticed that Megan S is all up to date on her blogs and ahead of the game?  I know, I'm envious too.  I am clearly the slacker.  I promise I've been doing cool things to make up for it though!  Like hiking and drinking many margaritas.  Oh, and working too.

If you don't like swears and liberal agendas you'll probably want to skip straight to the recipe.  Just a warning.

As long as we're on our serious story time I wanted to voice my approval for Megan's last post.  I am a hippie dippy liberal tree hugger.  It's true.  I am vegetarian (although for health reasons), force people to recycle, drive a Subaru and FIRMLY believe that any one should be allowed to any one as long as they love one another.  People seem to have all sorts of bullshit arguments as to how same sex marriages are destroying the moral fiber of our society and causing problems but we all know that's a giant load of shit.  People are just scared of what they don't understand and need to find a group to persecute.  Well, assholes, knock it off.

And on to the food :)

You will need:

1/2 shallot, finely chopped
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
juice of half of a lemon
1/4 cup white wine (I went for pinot grigio cause I wanted to drink it too!)
1 tbsp dijon mustard (stone ground is preferable)
a dash of black pepper
2 quarts water
a decent handful of fresh green beans
1 1/2 tbs butter
1/2 lb sea scallops
1/4 tsp salt

Start out by combining the first 5 ingredients in a bowl with a dash of the pepper.  In the mean time, bring the water to a boil.  You can also use the time while your water is heating to prep your green beans by snapping off the weird ends and getting them into manageable sized pieces.  Once the water is boiling add your beans.  Cook about 3 minutes and then drain 'em.  Melt butter over medium heat and add the shallot mixture and cook for about 1 minute.  Add beans and saute over low heat for as long as it takes the scallops to cook.  In a separate pan heat up a little butter.  Place sea scallops in and lightly dust them with salt and pepper to taste.  Cook about 2 minutes on each side.  One trick with scallops is to cook them for less time than you think.  If you over cook them they get gross and super chewy.  They should be soft on the inside.

Combine everything together and eat up :)  And while you're at it, why not finish that bottle of wine you used while cooking?

Cheers!
Megan J