sisu

Desk set

Breakfast is where it's at. First day of the season for hot cereal. Hey, baby, it's cold outside. Tuck had Quaker Oatmeal, and we had Cream of Wheat with banana slices, above on the mousepad as we checked out our early-morning stats.

Stats still looking good what with residual "britney crotch" google hits plus a couple of lovely things a bit more respectable, including fallout of links from Ann Althouse, Professor Bainbridge, Wretchard of The Belmont Club, All Things Beautiful, Villainous Company, Pajamas Media, Modulator's Friday Ark and the 142nd Carnival of the Cats at House of the (Mostly) Black Cats.

Beauty in unexpected places raises its gorgeous head at all hours in our little blogging corner of the world. Above left to right Estee Lauder hand lotion, our fan, a Beefeater martini, tap water in a Poland Spring bottle, the sine qua non card reader and then the iMac itself  and keyboard. If you've got the time, we've got the opinions.

Yet another reminder to our fans: Vote HERE for sisu daily now through December 15 in the 2006 Weblog Awards!

Photo ops

Baby Paws power naps after an all-nighter down Goomp's over the weekend.

Goomp's black beauty Lucie -- AKA the last of the Meow-hicans -- on the window sill beside the bed evokes Johannes Vermeer's "Young Woman with a Water Pitcher" (c. 1662, Marquand Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art).

Late-afternoon sunlight makes magic in the kitchen at Camelot-by-the-Sea.

Back home after an extended weekend Down East tending to things that needed tending to, Tuck invents the best potato salad ever -- Potato Salad a GeeGee -- a simple mixture of leftovers from yesterday's phantom cookout (no one broke bread with us but Goomp and Tuck and the poodies): our own to-die-for potato salad* mixed with thick diagonally-cut slices of leftover grilled Kayem (made in Chelsea) brats. Wicked delicious!

Updates: Modulator's Friday Ark is afloat, and the Carnival of the Cats -- #124 -- "has come home to TBIFOC."

*Amazingly, an Answers.com search reveals we've never published our elegantly simple but effective potato salad recipe. Steam together for about 20 minutes halved purple potatoes and chopped garlic. Transfer to a large bowl, chop coarsely and toss with freshly ground pepper and mayo. Proportions are up to you. As our favorite ex-brother-in-law David said about our astonishingly delicious cole slaw -- coarsely chopped cabbage and shredded carrots tossed with mayo -- the other day, in answer to how come it tastes so good, "It's because Sissy made it." We aren't about to argue.

Shell game

Beauty in unexpected places turned up on the kitchen counter this morning after we crushed a few egg shells in a paper towel, turned it around and then looked at what we had wrought (above).

Hippity, hoppity, Easter's on its way, and if you don't like it, don't immigrate! If you want to make Eggs Benedict, though -- as we did for breakfast this morning -- you've got to break a few eggs. Above, crushed shells in the morning light -- with a flash assist -- are candy for our camera's eye.

Here's the beef

Beef Stroganoff is a favorite of both Baby's and Tuck's, although Tuck decided the pasta this evening was too al dente for his taste. That gave us a chance to clean up the plate after he and the Babe were through.

The strogie itself, originally handed down by Mummy as one of her signature recipes, is now our number one favorite dish. Here's our own version for your dining pleasure:

Beef Stroganoff

Marinate sirloin tips for an hour or so in a mixture of A-1 Sauce, soy sauce and tomato juice. Just before cooking, slice on the bias into bite-sized pieces.

Chop one large shallot and five large cloves of garlic, and slice eight mushrooms.

Heat heavy-duty skillet on high, add one tbsp butter and 2 tbsp oil and sauté beef, stirring. Add freshly ground pepper and then toss in shallots, garlic and mushrooms and continue cooking over medium heat until done.

Add marinade, cook about a minute and then finish off with a cup of sour cream.

Serve over pasta of your choice.

We can never get enough. Great as leftovers if there ever were leftovers.

It's what's for dinner

Garden salad with romaine, thinly sliced onion, coarsely chopped tomatoes and shredded carrot, tossed with Ranch Lite.

Thanks to Goomp, a special treat.  The usual scrambled burger and sausage with linguine, tomato sauce and parmesan, and then the pièce de resistance:  Sliced filet mignon (center of photo) cooked with bacon.  The other day as we were packing up to head back down from Camelot-by-the-Sea to Chelsea-by-the-Sea, Goomp asked whether there was anything he could pick up for us at the market. Well, since you asked, Goomp, we said, how about some filets? It's so nice to have filets around the house. They go with everything.

After all was said and done, Tiny finished the job, licking the bowls clean.

Dinner in a bowl

Giant Salad with Chicken and Sausage is the new rage around here. Babe demonstrates the technique for extracting chicken and sausage bits from the bowl.

Salad with Chicken and Sausage

Place half chicken breast (with skin, if you're into living longer and running the extra pound) and one large or two small sweet sausages on baking pan lined with foil.

Bake one hour in preheated 350o oven, checking every 15 minutes to turn sausages.  Small take 1/2 hour, large, 1 hour.

How sweet it is.  Eschewing veggies, the Babe goes straight for the chicken.

Meanwhile, prepare your favorite mixed salad:

Ours usually includes a head of iceberg sliced and chopped or a couple of heads of Romaine broken into bite-sized pieces.  Then you add your thinly sliced onion, roughly chopped tomatoes and grated carrot.  Fave dressings include bottled Ranch lite, homemade Caesar or semi-homemade Good Seasons Italian.

Slice sausages and break up chicken into bite-sized pieces. Fend off animals by throwing down occasional pieces of meat to soothe the savage breast. Add to salad bowl and toss lightly but thoroughly till nicely mixed.

Try to get in a few mouthfuls before the puddies take over.

Update:  Speaking of tasty mouthfuls, be sure to check out this week's Carnival of the Recipes at bebere. Don't forget:  A blogosphere posts on its stomach.

Saturday night and Sunday morning

Ever the opportunist waiting outside the herd, Tiny moves in for a vulnerable bit of salmon hors d'oeuvres in the battle fog of a kitchen disaster as the oven comes halfway out of the wall, taking the bean pot with it, flinging pot and contents across the floor.

Astonishingly, while the cover smashes to pieces (they always do) the pot itself -- and most of its contents -- are spared, the pot landing on its head and contents cushioning the fall.  Elves -- Susie and Ellen -- move in quickly for recovery ops, while Ben, cat-like, goes for the jugular of a stray hot dog at the periphery and pops it into his mouth. Again, cat-like, we wash our collective paw and continue on with a triumphant triple-birthday meal.

Elves return for the final clean-up, making it look like a piece of cake.

Next morning we discover Dolly's tires are uniformly underinflated, SuperTuck whips out his trusty tire inflator to get them up to speed, and Susie is on her way in her cute little car.

Then it's back inside to the Sunday Reading Room for Captain Horatio Hornblower, His Excellency George Washington and a little Sunday-morning blogging.