After dinner visitors
Temperatures finally went into the 80's here in the Pacific
Northwest. DT was golfing today, so I kept myself busy cooking and tending to my
little Grand Dawg, Reese. I was so excited to prepare a cold main-course
salad for dinner.
I grilled a lovely piece of flat iron steak. (Yes. Me. I
actually do know how to grill, even though I lack the Y-chromosome.)
While the steak was grilling, I prepared a marinade/dressing
with fresh lime juice, soy sauce, garlic, and spicy Thai chilies in my
mini-food processor. I poured half of the dressing over the hot steak and
when it had cooled a bit, I popped the steak and sauce into a zip-top bag to
let it marinate all day in the refrigerator.
Before dinner, I chopped sweet onions, red pepper, cucumber and
tomato for the salad - plus a little romaine lettuce - and chopped fresh basil,
cilantro and mint.
Thai Beef Salad is a bit time-consuming.
I'm pretty-sure you can order it to-go from every Thai restaurant in America.
But the result is well-worth all the grilling, marinating
and chopping. The rest of the dressing goes over the salad vegetables, and
the sliced steak goes over the top of the salad. Dinner is ready.
Dave and I dined on our deck for the first time all year! So
lovely. The only sound was from the birds in the trees and the occasional
buzz-by from a hummingbird looking for a snack from our feeder.
The salad was devoured, and we were discussing the important matters of the
day (i.e. DT's golf outing) when he suddenly noticed we had visitors in the
tree behind the house.
A momma raccoon.
And her babies.
We actually saw four baby raccoons at one point.
I know they are cute, but I really do not like raccoons. Could it have
something to do with living in the country with a beagle for 15+ years? Do
you think? I can't count how many times Our Hound had a run-in with these
masked rodents. How many puncture wounds the vet had to clean-up. How many
checks we had to write to the vet. Stupid beagle never learned his lesson,
but the vet's kid is at Harvard.
Then Reese, from the safety of our enclosed deck, noticed
the little critters. He barked, and the babies dove into the hollow part of
the maple. Momma stood her ground... er... tree. Reese is well-aware of
raccoons. He has to protect his home in Los Angeles from raccoons and
skunks! Reese growled at the Momma.
Did she snarl back at him? It certainly does look like she
is hissing at Reese in this photo, but she is actually yawning! You
don't scare me, you spoiled little lap dog.
I'm just here checking-out that Thai Beef Salad.
Dang. Looks like the humans ate it all. Oinkers. Help me
out here. I have four mouths to feed!
We brought the dishes inside the house and the raccoon family
high-tailed it into the forest. Hopefully never to seen again.
Until my next update, I remain, your un-neighborly correspondent.