October 21, 2018 a week on the east coast

On the road

We arrived home late last night. Julia and I have been to the east coast for a week. For that reason this post will be short. I will write more and give you many more pictures next week. There really was quite a bit in those 8 days.

First, we went to Chincoteague, a little island off the shore of Virginia, over in that part near Delaware, that is east of the Chesapeake Bay. My father was born there. We said hello to the ocean.

We left Chincoteague on Thursday and went to Longwood Gardens. Longwood is just about the best garden we have ever visited. We discovered it about ten years ago and try to get there when we go east. It is located about 30 miles west of Philadelphia. Actually most of those places on the east coast are not that far from each other, particularly if you are used to midwest distances.

This is one of the rooms in the very large conservatory at Longwood.

Longwood lived up to our expectations, and beyond. In the old days I would have said I used up all my film taking pictures. Now I say I took so many pictures that the battery on my iphone was almost gone.
Much more about Longwood next week.

Our final stop before we flew home was a visit to the American Visionary Art Museum, in Baltimore. These are two of the floats they have for a parade each year. The big pink poodle has been joined by a big blue Babe the ox.

We had a good time. I really look forward to sharing some of that with you next Sunday.

Julia's recipe

Beef and Pepper Stir Fry

Beef and pepper stir fry is a good thing to make on a weeknight during the time of the year when there are lots of peppers at the farmers' market. It's pretty fast, and it's tasty, and it lets you practice your chopstick skills. This recipe is a little bit fussy, as it is from America's Test Kitchen which has a tendency to overthink things, although in a good way.

The ingredients are: about 1 lb. of beef (more about this later), 2 bell peppers (I used 1 yellow and 1 red), some scallions (5 or 6), garlic, ginger, and regular (not olive, not coconut) oil.

And a bunch of ingredients for the sauce: 3 tablespoons soy sauce, 3 tablespoons dry sherry or rice wine (or other dry white wine, really), 1 tablespoon cornstarch, 1 tablespoon oyster sauce, 1 tablespoon brown sugar, 2 teaspoons rice vinegar (or white wine vinegar), 1-1/2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil, and black pepper.

Also water and a smidgen of baking soda.

First let's talk about beef. ATK wants one to use flank steak, which would be fine. If you use flank steak, cut it with the fibers into slabs, then cut across the slabs (i.e. against the grain) into strips that are between 1/4" and 1/2" across and about 2" wide. I used skirt steak which worked fine, like flank steak. I have used flatiron steak. Not so fine: too chewy. OR you could save yourself a world of trouble and use top sirloin steak which is not really steak steak (like T-bone or strip or ribeye) but steak-ish and less expensive that steak steak. It is also tender and flavorful.

If you use top sirloin, slice it into thin strips across the grain and set it aside. If you use flank steak or skirt steak, take the strips and put them in a bowl. Mix a little bit of water (1 or 2 tablespoons) with 1/4 teaspoons of baking soda, and pour that over the beef. This will tenderize the beef. Or so ATK would have us believe.

While the meat was sitting (as I said, I was using skirt steak), I mixed together 1 tablespoon of soy sauce, 1 tablespoon of wine, 1-1/2 teaspoons of cornstarch and 1 teaspoon brown sugar. After the meat/baking soda mixture had been sitting for 5 minute, I poured the soy sauce mixture over the meat and let it sit for another 20 minutes.

While the meat was sitting quietly, I prepped rest of the ingredients. I cleaned and cut both peppers into thin strips. I cleaned and cut the scallions in two ways: the white parts into thin slices and the green parts into 1" slices. I smushed several cloves of garlic so that I had about 1-1/2 to 2 teaspoons. I grated some ginger until I had 1 tablespoon.

By the way, it is good to keep ginger in a plastic bag in the freezer. It grates just fine frozen. I don't peel it.

Next, I made the other sauce (not the meat soaking sauce): I mixed 1/4 cup of water with 1-1/2 teaspoons of cornstarch with a whisk then added: 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, 2 tablespoons of wine, 2 teaspoons of brown sugar, 1 tablespoon of oyster sauce, 2 teaspoons of rice vinegar and 1-1/2 teaspoons of toasted sesame oil. Plus 2 teaspoons of black pepper. Yes, I know that's a lot of black pepper. It's part of the flavor package in this stir fry.

Bowls with all of the prepped ingredients: it really is true that you should not turn on the stove until everything has been prepared.

I

I cooked everything in batches in a large non-stick skillet. I put a little oil (2 teaspoons) in the skillet, heated the oil until it sizzled (when I put in a drop of water) and added 1/2 of the beef (including the sauce it had been sitting in). I cooked the beef for about 2 minutes. I let it cook for about 1 minute, then flipped it over with a spatula and cooked for another minute.

I put the cooked beef in a biggish bowl and cooked the rest of the beef in another 2 teaspoons of oil.
I put the second batch of beef in the bowl and added another 2 teaspoons of oil to the skillet, heated it to sizzle point and added the peppers and scallion greens. These cooked a bit longer - about 3-4 minutes, and then they went into the bowl with the beef.

Next, I put the another 4 teaspoons of oil in the skillet and when the oil was hot, I added the white parts of the scallions, along with the garlic and ginger. I cooked these vegetables for about 2 minutes stirring frequently until I could smell the garlic and ginger.

Then I added the beef and peppers back into the skillet. Then, when the food was heated through (which did not take long), I added the sauce, stirred it around for less than a minute to let the sauce thicken and that was it.

The prep time takes longer than the cooking time. The sauce is sweet and salty and vinegary and peppery, all at the same time. And pretty too.

Odds and ends

Back in Iowa the anticipated freeze mostly passed us by while we were gone. I did check the zinnias in the dark when I got home last night. They had in fact been toasted by whatever happened last week.
But this morning left no doubt. A hard freeze welcomed us home. As I finish this,  one thermometer outside says 28.
This week, and today, I will start moving things in from the two garages.

But take heart. Spring is only 5 months away. Really. Think about it. In 5 months it will be the first day of spring.

Philip