It was a reasonably straightforward day. I slept well, got up a little before 10:00 (after getting about 2-1/2 hours the night before) and left at 11:00. I don't like driving in traffic, especially on Monday morning after a holiday weekend, so I was going to route myself through Dacono, past Hudson to highway 79 south and meet up with I-70 at Bennet, twenty miles east of Denver. I had it in my RV-Life GPS map and took off. It overrid my route as I was driving and it took me on its route, which put me on the E470 Toll Road with a vehicle with 4 axles. That will probably be $15-20. Oh well, I got through.
I turned off the interstate at Limon and there was a truck pull-off right passed the exit. It was 1:30 and I was ready for lunch. So, not being Irish, what's the best thing about St. Paddy's Day - Corned Beef. And what's the best thing about Corned Beef - Reubens! So, after having corned beef and cabbage for lunch on the day, I made two Reubens. I had one for dinner and had the second for lunch the next day. It took a week to find another corned beef in Laramie (they totally disappeared from the stores on March 18th when I first checked.) But I finally found one (I won't say where in case they have any next year) and made four more sandwiches, which I didn't eat. Instead, I vacuum-sealed them and froze them. (And you thought this tread wasn't going anywhere). I had a Reuben for lunch. Of course, the bad thing about having a Reuben long after it's been constructed is that the crust gets soggy from the sauerkraut. So, what do you do? After you take it out of the bag, you thaw it for 3 minutes in the microwave so the meat isn't frozen in the middle, and then you air fry it in the air fryer for 8 minutes, and the crust is just as crunchy as when it came off the grill. Yes, I brought my air fryer with me. (Insert Happy Face here, Child). Sadly, I didn't have any potato salad to go with it, but it was alright because I had been eating Dot's Pretzels since Longmont.
(I really should take a picture of the griddle/waffle iron I have. It has a gleaming chrome body and springs for the hinges. It was my mother-in-law's and my guess is that Betty purchased it in the early 1950's. I think that because my mom had exactly the same griddle for as long as I can remember eating waffles. Which is a long time now. So, it's around 70-75 years old now. Sadly, its temperature control is out of whack, so there is about a 1/4" of movement from off to 100% power. And 100% burns the pumpernickel bread, so I have to adjust it in 1/16" movements. Which means the first one is burnt and it's about right by the third.) (Oh, I just found one on E-Bay. I've got it on a watchlist for when I get home. It is a newer model from the 1960s because the temperature control has a newer face. That's called Product Improvement. If I find out that any of you buy it out from under me, you'll be in Big Trouble!!!
Claudia or Carol, if you still have mom's and you don't want it, I'll take it.)
Oh, I haven't mentioned the wind. It's been blowing like crazy since Longmont. It's made it hard to hear my audio book. I've been listening to the last half of "Death Comes for the Archbishop" by Willa Cather. And it ended right before I drove through the town of Kit Carson, who was a recurring character in the novel. Which, by the way, was a Historical Faction. It's based rather closely on the life of Father Jean-Baptiste Lamy, who became Bishop and Archbishop of New Mexico. He stayed with Kit Carson when he first arrived in New Mexico. Anyway, it was an interesting coincidence.
And then I got to my Harvest Host stay, the Bar UC Cattle Co. Kinda. I talked to the hostess when I got to Kit Carson and told her I was 20 minutes away. She told me some people get confused with their GPS and that the house is "the second house on the left" to the north on Road 37. So, when I turned onto Road 37, I counted the first house on the right and the first house on the left and drove on. Except there wasn't a second house on the left. So I drove to the road at the end of the section and drove along that looking for the second house on the left, except there wasn't any on the left. So I checked the address again, turned around, and read all the mailboxes on Road 37. And as I drove passed the mailbox that had the correct address, a pickup pulled out and waved me in. And then I realized what she said, "the second house, ,,, on the left." I pulled into the driveway and met Steve, who directed me to a spot in the yard to park that was nice and level. (of course, I could have driven out into any pasture or field in the surrounding 10 miles and it would have been nice and level). We talked for a bit and he said his wife would be here shortly after 5:00.
When they showed up at 5:30, she was carrying a basket with several packages of frozen beef. Traci explained that they produce "Rose Veal" beef. This is from young cattle shortly after they are weaned at a weight of 650-700 pounds. It is different from veal in that these calves are brought up on the open range, not caged, and drink their mother's milk straight from the source, not separated and force feed. They are healthy as opposed to grown with vitamin and hormone deficiency. (I've eaten veal once since I learned about it in college over 50 years ago. It's one of the few foods that I won't eat, like Brussel Sprouts. You should read what they do to them! Ha!) I bought two Ribeyes and two New York Strips. I asked if she had any that weren't frozen, and she said no, but that she thaws them in warm water, not the microwave. And that she would do it for me. And she did!
Now, I have been looking forward to this meal since January. I've only had one steak since then. I was planning on fixing it in my portable Asmoke smoker, but the wind (remember the wind was blowing?) precluded me from using that. It could have blown the smoker off the tailgate. I'll do that later. While she was thawing, I microwaved a potato for 7 minutes (it was big and after it was cooked, I split it into two.) I was ready when Steve brought the steak out. I seasoned it with Montreal Steak seasoning and then fixed it on the grill in the air fryer. I've never tried that before, so I started with 400 degrees and 12 minutes. And I fixed a salad while that was cooking. So here was dinner, entirely fixed off battery power in the trailer.
...A jug of wine, and thou!
The temperature at the bone was 138 degrees, which made it a medium rather than a medium rare, but it was still tender and juicy, with hardly a drop on the catch pan in the fryer. It was a delicious steak. Next time I'll use 450 and 9 minutes which should give more of a sealed surface and rarer. But the next will be smoked before it gets cooked.
The sun set while I was cooking. The wind died down and the clouds for next impending storm were just coming up on the horizon. It should make an interesting day for driving tomorrow.
It's a good thing nothing big happened today, except food. It was a really good steak (and reuben.)
Good night!
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