Hot Right Off The Griddle: Saturday, February 27, 2010
Thankfully, things have calmed down here to a reasonable degree. Life isn’t back to normal quite yet, but it’s close and getting better every day. Sure, our stove isn’t working and we’re missing some of the creature comforts we had, but we’re alright and after-all that’s the big, important thing.
Speaking of the stove, one interesting thing that we’ve come up against in ordering a new one is that most, if not all of the stores, don’t actually have any stoves you can physically look at any longer. Which really came to me (and Sher) as a surprise.
I admit that it’s been awhile since I’ve bought a stove, but the last time I saw them on display was in a Sears, in Rutland, Vermont. We thought this weekend we’d go out and buy a new stove, and deal with the insurance company later … but at least we cook.
Friday morning, when I left for work, I suggested to Sher, she call a few places around the area to find out who and what was going to be open, and what they have in the store that we could look at, figuring we’d hop in the car this morning and go searching.
I’ve made too many long, cold trips to stores here in Vermont, in the middle of winter, only to find out they didn’t have what I wanted, or they were no longer in business, they weren’t open that day, or any of the other things that can change with time.
I left for work fairly confident that we’d have a list of places we could chose from, and what the heck, we’d make a day of it. Take our time, have lunch out, pick up some other stuff while we were out.
It’s hard, if not impossible for me to go shopping like this any longer. I can’t just “cruise” through the stores at ease like I used too. So accuracy in the research of where to go was going to be a big part of our trip … and besides that, we are in a hurry to replace it. There’s nothing to really cook on, well we have the BBQ and fireplace, but that gets old quickly … nothing like the stove.
Anyway, later in the day at work Sher IM’s me (instant message on the pc) and says that none of the stores have cooking ranges that we can go look at. I said, I know the Sears in Rutland has them because I’ve seen them before and not “that” long ago. She said they told her that they no longer carry stoves in the store, but invited us to come up and order from the catalog.
However, I don’t know about you, but for for me (and Sher), I like to see what I’m buying first when it comes to something like a stove or oven. Believe me, we do a lot of shopping online …a lot, but when it comes to something I have to use three times a day, seven days a week, for the rest of my life … I want to see it first.
So in light if that, she again started to call other stores around our area, but this time we added all of Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts to the mix. What she found was … there were no stores in this huge area, that had any stoves (ranges) on display. None, nada, zip … nothing. I have to assume that they don’t do that any longer.
Honestly, I’d rather buy a automobile online, before I bought a stove. It’s something we usually only buy a few times at most during our lives … so being comfortable with it, is of the utmost importance … at least to me.
So, this evening for dinner, I tried something different. I bought 2 rib-eye steaks, a dozen shrimp, some broccoli, a sliced onion, and a couple potatoes.
I trimmed the fat off the steaks and sliced them (raw) into very thin slices and mixed it with a little oil and seasoning, peeled the shrimp, cut them in half length-wise and seasoned them too. For the potatoes, I washed and peeled them and sliced them very thin also. Took the flowers off the broccoli and cut them in small pieces too.
I heated up a griddle (like a pancake griddle) and placed it in the middle of the table, took all the raw foods and placed it around the griddle and cooked right at the table. Kind of like a Japanese restaurant! We ate it hot right off the griddle and it was fantastic! Both Sher and Al loved the whole idea and each turned and cooked their own items to what was perfection for them.
Each item was done in a few minutes … even the potatoes cooked in a few minutes and browned beautifully. The thin slices of lightly seasoned beef were so tender they melted in your mouth. Alberic loved the idea of being in control of his own dinner too, he cooked like a pro and eat like one too! He even ate broccoli again, but this time he cooked it too!
I wouldn’t want to do this all the time, but for a change it was fun and made the best out of a crummy situation. Hopefully, this coming week we’ll get settled with a new stove (and other items) and get our lives back to normal.
Over the last few days, I burnt a lot of extra energy, and experienced a higher level of stress then I normally would have. So lot’s of sleep is the next thing on my agenda. Between the activity in the house, all the snow that’s had to be moved, and more trips to the store then I want to admit I made … I’m burnt out and in need of good nights sleep. Besides all that, I went to work on Thursday and Friday while Sher once again dealt with our insurance company and all that stuff. She was not a “happy camper”.
Topic change:
I’ve been feeling reasonably well lately. For the first time since treatments I can actually feel the lump from the tumor in my hip, with my hand. Which kind of took me by surprise when I first realized it. My guess is, between all swelling going down, and losing a few pounds, the actual tumor is easier to feel then it had been before … which is kind of interesting really.
I can’t see any change, but I can definitely feel it. At the moment it’s not causing any real pain or anything like that … but I’m aware that there’s a lump in my hip that doesn’t belong there. While it is slightly sensitive to the touch, it doesn’t seem to be affecting sitting (I usually use an extra cushion or two anyway), or walking for that matter. I guess it’s simply a matter of awareness.
I have been feeling a slight degrading in my ability to walk, by that I mean the distance I can cover seems to be getting shorter rather then the longer I was hoping for … but I’m not complaining by any means … at least I “can” walk. Also seems standing time is reducing (have to assume there’s a relationship)… I notice this on nights when I cook dinner, sometimes I just can’t stand by the stove and wait while things cook. What I’ve been doing is bringing a chair into the kitchen with me and sitting down while waiting.
If you remember a while back there was no guarantee that I’d be able to walk or stand, so I’m still ahead of the game. I’ve been watching this closely and will continue to do so over the next few months. Of course between winter in general and the almost fire we’ve experienced, I quite tell if it’s over use or if it’s actually getting worse. So I want to give it a few more weeks before looking at this again.
Quite a few folks have sent emails and letters and I appreciate that and will return your letters early next week … it’s just been another crazy week!
Last weeks radio show was a lot of fun and hopefully, I’ll have things ready by Tuesday for another go at it. We also lost two computers, a router and a modem during the storm so that stuff needs to be up and running in order to broadcast!
That’s it for today … hope all of you have a great weekend, and stay safe and warm … winter is almost over!
