I looked up Mom's recipe, got the 2 lb chunk of chuck roast from the freezer, and got to work.
I used the microwave to defrost the meat, then cut it up into chunks and browned it. (The meat, not the microwave.) Once browned it went into the crock pot with a can of mushrooms, 3 cans of diced tomatos, a diced medium onion, and a whopping tablespoon of garlic. I added some pepper and paprika and started 'er up.
My back is less than happy about it.
...but when I went out to the kitchen to check on it, just now, and give it a stir, my God, the smell is ABSOLUTELY HEAVENLY.
I have to go to the store for a loaf of ginzo bread (AKA Marconi's Italian bread) but that's just a detail. This is going to taste so good....
* * *
The chuck roast was well-marbled, so I cut out the suet. My technique is less than surgical, so there was (as usual) some small bits of meat stuck to the fat I'd cut out.
I pared these shredlets off, divided them, and put them down for the cats...who immediately bellied up on them. Stuffed to the gills with beef, they disappeared and didn't bother me for a couple of hours.
Beef is the only meat I can safely give them raw, of course. Can't do that with chicken and definitely not with pork.
As for the "you're giving good beef to cats?" crowd: what I gave the cats might almost have made a decent McDonald's quarter pounder hamburger patty, total. You know, "weight before cooking" and all that.
Anyway, it made them happy, and it made me happy to see them being happy, and minding their own plates and not going to see what the other was having; and then individually walking away from them too full to worry about what the other cat got. (The pecking order games annoy me.)
It also reminded me of one Thanksgiving when the whole famn damily was here, and my sister had brought her cats with...and we had a big prime rib roast instead of the traditional turkey. My sister's cats were given some, too; after the meal one of her cats was sitting on top of the TV, looking groggy; and all of a sudden *hurk!* and out popped a single piece of prime rib (mostly fat) after which the cat curled up and went to sleep.
* * *
This pot of goulash will probably last me a couple of days, which is also fine. I wouldn't be cooking this if I didn't like it, and I wouldn't be looking forward to it if it hadn't been so long since I last had it.
Sing along: I haven't had it since before Mom died. *sigh*
I still have to get some green pepper out of the freezer, let it defrost, and cook it; but I'm not even going to start on that before 5.
* * *
Ace is a guy like me. Read Part I. I know exactly where he's coming from, because that's me to a T.
When you're like that, plenty of people end up assuming you don't like them. If you seem uncomfortable, they think it's because they're bothering you, because you don't like them. Usually it's not the case--it's just because you're worried that you're going to say the wrong thing, or you're running out of things to say and can't think of anything else to keep the conversation going and oh my God the flop sweat is starting and-and-and.
Sucks to be us, Ace.
* * *
GOOD! Let's keep the ball rolling and extend this awesome development to the rest of the world! Let's set a goal to have the world be mosquito-free by 2023 or something! LET'S DO IT!
Extinction for Mosquitos! YEAH!
* * *
...yes I f-ing hate mosquitos. All they do is breed and spread disease. The planet can get along just fine without 'em.
* * *
I'm a bit worried about this: today I have made a bunch of stupid spelling mistakes. The problem is that I'm substituting words for other ones which make no sense.
Example: in the last sentence I originally wrote "The planet can get along just five without 'em." That's not the only mistake like it I've made today.
...well, I'm able to tell that I made mistakes, so it's probably nothing major.
* * *
Oh, it's 5 now. Time to get to work on the peppers!