Rosie Gets Back Into Her Comfort Zone.

Sometimes, I must have red meat. I listen to my body. I eat what it tells me to eat. "Rosie! Go red tonight," it said. At first, I wasn't sure whether my body was telling me to go for red meat or red wine. So, to be on the safe side, I'm covering both bases and partaking of both. So's I went downstairs to the freezer and scrounged around for some beef tenderloins we'd bought on sale and vacuumed packed almost two years ago. While I was anxiously anticipating fats and proteins and dead animal, I threw caution to the wind and added starches and carbohydrates ... ... vegetables ... to our meal.

I'm making Marinated Carrot Coins. That was my contribution to the meal. Plus going downstairs and finding the filet mignons in the freezer. No mean feat there. Oh. And I found a package of croutons. Mr. Hawthorne could never have found those. Mr. Hawthorne did everything else - the steaks and onions, the baked potatoes, the salads, the salad dressing. Now, on to my little contribution- Marinated Carrot Coins.

I took my very last 4 carrots, which were rapidly passing maturity, and peeled and sliced.

I had four small yellow squash in the fridge. I peeled and diced them.

I brought salted water to a boil and dropped in the carrots.

After one minute, I added in the squash. And cooked for one more minute.

Drain and rinse in cold water.

When I want vegetables, I especially want color. I grabbed a celery, some green pepper, red pepper, and red onion.

I diced the pretty colors.

Look at the colors. The purple, the red, the orange the yellow, the greens.

Add the colors. Purple.

Red.

Green.

Less green. Toss all veggies

and begin on the dressing/marinade.My dressing/marinade mise en place: 1/3 cup cider vinegar less than 1/2 cup sugar (I used Splenda.) 1/3 cup ketchup 1 TB Lea & Perrins 1/4 cup oil Mix all ingredients except oil. Then slowly drizzle oil in, whisking, to emulsify. Season with freshly ground salt and pepper to taste.

Ketchup going into vinegar.

Whisk in sugar/Splenda.

Lea & Perrins.

Gradually whisk in oil.

Lookin' good.

Pour dressing/marinade over the pretty veggies.

And Rosie's work is done. Mr. Hawthorne did everything else.

He made the salads and the dressing. The dressing was: 1/3 cup mayonnaise 1/3 cup ketchup 1/3 cup vinegar 2 tsps sugar 1 TB oregano sprinkle of onion powder sprinkle granulated garlic salt and pepper Or thereabouts. Test taste and adjust flavors for you.

Oh. I added the croutons!

Two filet mignons I had to go out and hunt for. I caught the first filet behind the pool, hiding under the willow trees. The second filet I found lurking in the crawlspace underneath the tool shed, I took it down with one shot to the solar maximus. Went down like a hooker on crack.

Nice marbling. Mr. Hawthorne used Montreal Seasoning.

Mr. Hawthorne heated up our cast iron skillet, added oil and butter to heat, then added the filets, seasoning the other side.

Medium/high heat. The onions were added when he turned the steaks over.

Plate. Steak. Rare. Sweet Onions. Nuked/Baked Potato With Butter And Cracked Pepper. Carrot Coins. And here's a tip: If you want quick baked potatoes, nuke for two- three minutes, depending on the size of the potato, then bake in a 400 degree oven., just to crisp up the skin.

Rosie is nourished.

She's been fed.

The title of this post was "Rosie Gets Back Into Her Comfort Zone." I meant that. I needed to be balanced, and I wasn't. I needed foods my body cried out for, and I got them. I got back everything through food. I wanted red meat. I wanted starch in the form of a potato. I wanted fats in the form of butter. I wanted carbohydrates in the form of pretty-colored vegetables. I wanted sweet. I wanted sour. I wanted tart. I wanted great flavors. And I got it all. All in my carrot coins and in what Mr. Hawthorne contributed. I love a collaboration.