The Martini Steak

Tomorrow is the last day of classes before finals start. There is a frenzied pace to everyone and everything at school. I have successfully kept within my records and managed to have one kiln mishap at the end of this semester. It seems to be standard practice, although this time I don't really know what happened. It amazes me that I can literally fire the damn thing 25-30 times in a semester and not loose a single piece until crunch time. With that said, I also have my own firing to worry about next week. Work is mostly done awaiting my glazes but in the scheme of my hallway turned waterslide incident last week I think I have managed to mangle my wrist (I see the doctor in a few days). Its mighty swollen and painful and didn't start bothering me until Monday completely out to the blue, no immediate trauma.

Its been an exciting few days since I last wrote. I spent time

with Diane after she was caught up in the Mahopac HS bomb hoax (imagine being locked down at work on a Friday afternoon after school for 3 hours for a cardboard box and a bunch of CD's and wir

es). Kenny and I also ventured to the city to see Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. We managed a street fair (yea cheap jewelry!), half price sushi (yes, we were feeling adventurous). On Sunday, despite the anvil that implanted itself in my head, I managed a bunch of studio work and an

afternoon of Greek food at Dan and Mary's. Yesterday I

went for a walk with Roseanne and we spotted this northern

water snake by the lake. He was an old bugger, a good 4 ft long, black with purple and coppery bands.

I came home from school this afternoon and made my way to the track to run a few fitness tests on Chris. It was a rough workout for him. and I felt bad making him do it, but we learned he was in great shape, covering 3,375 M in a Cooper test (15 year olds average 2200). He jumped 9 ft vertically (net 24 in) and nearly 10 ft laterally (both from standing). WOW! So how did he finish his workout by chugging a slurpie of all things.

Tonight, I made a martini steak, and as the gin based rub hit that meat and became instantly fragrant I was thinking about an episode of Cooking with Julia I once saw when Justin was little and we lived in the Bronx. She was de-boning a chicken and drinking quite a

bit while doing it. I wondered how "Julia" would have approached this one. I think it probably would have been one martini for the steak and two for her?

Martini Steak?

Create a rub using 2 shots of gin, 2 tbsp honey, smoked paprika, 3-4 cloves of crushed garlic, basil, pepper, salt, and a couple of tbsp of olive tapenade. Run into steak and allow it to marinate for about an hour. Broil or grill to taste.