I have been thinking about it all morning. The steak we had at Rancho Loma. It was stunning. It was sublime. It might just be the most perfect steak ever. And I want some more. Short of a return visit to Rancho Loma, I might just have to find me a meat market here in Houston.

It isn’t like I haven’t looked before. I have. I just haven’t found an old school butcher like I am looking for. Ideally I want a neighborhood place that is actually in my neighborhood, but I am not oddosed to driving across town if I find the right place. It isn’t like we eat beef often, but I want to know what I am getting and where it is coming from. I want local well cared for beef.

I know the farmers’ market has a few local ranchers hawking their wares. As far as I know, a quantity of beef needs to be purchased. I will look into it further when we go tomorrow morning.

Also on the shopping list is some fresh local tomatoes. The ones at the store are hit and miss. While they aren’t dreadful, what we had at Rancho Loma was superb. There is a standard that has been set. The salad course of our meal was heirloom tomatoes from their garden with fresh mozzarella and basil with a flavored olive oil and white balsamic granita. I am not about to be making any granita any time soon, it is more laborious than I care to be, especially when I have made a close enough approximation with the aged balsamic vinegar I already have on hand. I just think we need better tomatoes and I think it won’t be a challenge to find them at the market.

The other fresh meal we have been having is guacamole salad. I hesitate to call in guac because I don’t use the traditional spices. Again it is a close approximation. Last time I made it I added the corn cut from three ears, pre-cooked. Heavenly. and Gone.

I think we will have the guac tonight and the tomato salad and steak tomorrow night.

Life is good.

I am soon on my way to the grocery store to stock up for a weekend of eating crap. I haven’t had a total crap binge in quite a while, and the last time, I noticed I would have a few bites of something and then move on, so even though I am thinking binge and saying binge, it really won’t be a binge. Yay for me…

The list so far? Cheddarwurst, Velveeta mac and cheese, Pepsi, chips, sushi, ice cream(maybe), and I am thinking of maybe having a nice juicy burger for dinner unless something else catches my eye. I think I might actually walk the aisles and see what else sparks my nostalgic indulgence radar.

Adios muchacha…

There is a tea house we favor called House of Te. By we I mean Elizabeth and me, but also my group of knitter peeps. We often meet up there for tea, knitting, conversation…

A while back I discovered a drink on their board called Immunitea. The description went on to say it was in general, a good immune system boost. One thing I have learned through acupuncture is that I have Spleen Qi deficiency (my general area of treatment) and that anything natural that boosts my immune system is a good thing.  So I ordered it…

I definitely choled down my first glass of this. Macha (green tea powder) is not a friend to my taste buds. I didn’t think I would be ordering it again, but with nothing else being different, I felt noticeably better later that afternoon and the next day. Since then, I have had it at every opportunity and actually become accustomed to the slightly off taste.

The last time I was there I asked what kind of tea it was and if I could buy it to take home. They didn’t sell it other than by the glass, but I was told it was just 100% natural apple juice, pomegranate juice, and Macha.

I didn’t think to ask if they sold the Macha, because in all likelihood they do, but I finally found some at Whole Foods last week. So last night the trials began, and actually, I hit the target right off the bat. 16 ounces of apple juice, 16 ounces of pomegranate juice, and 1/2 Tbs of Macha powder. Shake good and shake before pouring. Yumm.

What a weekend. I think what I am feeling has a deja vu quality to it, mostly because we had no heat two weekends in a row. The first weekend was by choice in that it was a holiday and all sorts of expense would be added to the final total because of that. It wasn’t brutally cold, nor was it forcast, so we decided to tough it out until Monday. I think 55 degrees is the coldest it got indoors, and that was quite manageable. If it would never get colder than that, we could totally survive without heat.

This past weekend, the heat went out again and when I called the heat dude, he told me there were several calls before me and that really, he likely wouldn’t be getting to us. That was Saturday. I tried guilting him a little with the fact that he was just here on the previous Monday, and that to me, that seems like maybe he wasn’t really done with us and we ahould be shuffled to the top of his list. He wasn’t buying it.

I called a friend whose husband does heat, a/c and electrical. We would have called him initially, but when it is an unexpected expense I would rather use a credit card to not skew our budget. He is cash and check only. He told me he could come take a look and we could go from there. At least we would know if it was the same problem as last week and if we should wait for the other guy because of warranty. I decided to just deal with whoever showed up first.

It was our friend, and it was a different problem. He fixed it. But then when the heat was caught up, it didn’t click on again. When we went to bed it wasn’t too bad, it was still 62 degrees in the house. When we got up Sunday morning, it was a rousing 47. BRRRRR.

Our friend came back over and did some further troubleshooting. It might be something else. If nothing else, he showed Elizabeth how to reset the unit and for now, that at least has it coming back on. We went overnight without incident after deciding to just not touch it. We’ll see when we get home if we still have heat or not. Our friend will prorate what we spent toward a new and better system, and we can shoot him some cash here and there before we would need it again next winter and we are still contemplating that.

All this made for two lazy weekends in a row. New Year’s weekend turned into a 4 day for me because I was home waiting on the heat guy. Last weekend was just lazy enough to feel caught up.

We were able to enjoy some spicy meatballs and mandarin orange cake all weekend. I interspersed that with some knitting and am now pretty much relaxed in a detoxed sort of way. Most of the weekend we watched Lost season one and the one time Elizabeth went out, she picked up season 2. Time to play catch up and rewatch to see what else we might have missed along the way.

In the knitting department, I have been working on my Fleece Artist Lady of the Lake sweater kit. I want to finish it befor I begin another sweater and I have three that are currently waiting in the wings that I hope to knit this year. Must finish this one first before casting on for the next.

Other smaller cast0ons are of course permissable. Since the beginning of twenty ten, I have finished two pair of Maine Morning Mitts and one Just Enough Ruffles scarf. I started another Multidirectional Scarf with some yarn I bought in Los ANgeles when we were there visiting GFI. I will get some pics posted soon. Still not sure how to best catalog the knitting on this blog. Maybe a new flickr account, maybe something else. Ideas and recommendations are always welcome.

Maybe it’s the cold weather, maybe my efforts to treat my disease with acupuncture and herbs are finally catching up and paying off. Whatever it is, I once again have an appetite and am finding I want to be cooking more. I guess I have always cooked a lot, because I like it, but lately I have been wanting to really be one with the food. No shortcuts.

During this past week, I haven’t been able to shake the desire for spaghetti and meatballs. I don’t want to order it from somewhere, I want to make it at home and have it until I am sick of it (not all at one meal, but in a way that is reasonable satisfying, having a reasonable portion, but maybe for every meal all weekend. Reasonable, yes?

The other thing I have become obsessed with is Bangkok Blend from Penzey’s Spices. I first bought a small one inch jar (maybe .5 ounce?) to try it out because it smelled good. Last weekend I got an 8 ounce bag and it’s already got a serious dent in it. It is awesome on most anything and has a subtle back heat that sneaks up on you as you eat.

I went to the store on the way home and got a family size package of lean ground beef, a pound of store made bulk sweet Italian sausage (no casings),  a couple cans of plain tomato sauce and a couple cans of diced tomatoes, large cans all around, and some thin spaghetti.

When I got home, I diced up two onions and got them to sauteing in some olive oil. Once they softened up I threw in a few cloves of minced garlic. I pulled about half of it out for the meatballs, and to the other half I added some s+p,  Italian seasoning blend, some Bangkok Blend,and  a small can of tomato paste which I stirred to combine with the onions. Then I added a can of the diced tomatoes and two cans of the sauce. I usualy let this all cook down for a while, but I had to get a meatball in there to start cooking to see if my meat mix was okay.

The meat mix was the beef and sausage I bought, some more of all the same spices, the onions and garic I had pulled aside and three eggs. I normally would have also added some fresh grated Parmesan and maybe some bread crumbs, but I forgot to get them, hence the desire to check the mix.

Omigod. It was awesome and right on target, so I started pinching off little bits to roll into meatballs and drop into the pot. I really need to get a large stock pot so I can do this all in oe pot and not have to do it in batches before I get a wild hair to make this again.

Elizabeth’s sister Kathy and her husband and kids are coming over tomorrow for haircuts and I thought this would be a good lunch. Since we are having it then, I suggested meatball sandwiches tonight. Success!