Elk Stroganoff

There were still plenty of NYTs at the grocery store. Yay.

Today I don't know what we would have done regularly, but Ray got $20 to see High School Musical at the High School from his accompaniast, also the grandmother of the male lead not-so-coincidentally. So obviously, we had to see the matinee. This was particularly special because it had a cast of non-Aberdeen school guys, because the need to have guys overwhelmed the population of drama-lovers at the school.

The kids were terrific, but there are a couple of structural problems with "High School Musical." First, the character of Sharpay is a snooty drama club president who never wears black and wants to play the lead against her brother's lead. In a romantic musical which presumably will require some level of macking. Ew. Also, who ever heard of a snooty drama clubber? The leads also met during a kids' karaoke night, which female lead Gabriela Montez describes as "romantic." She's a brain, allegedly.

Also, Disney obviously did not spend a lot on the lyricists. "I'm soaring, I'm flying," "reach for the stars," there are a few cliches that were not covered but I'm sure that was just for lack of trying. Well, I'm probably just crabby and old. Yeah, I'm definitely a no-fun old crab. Young people, you will be like me some day, a wet blanket.

The kids, however, were really good singers and dancers who can put on a show. Ellen's grandson was a surprisingly good dancer for such a lanky kid. We saw him in the "receiving line" after the show giving his great-grandmother an autograph. Awww.

We saw little Kallie Distler at the show. She, very surprisingly, remembered who I was and said hello. So cute and sweet.

So okay, the big thing tonight was the elk stroganoff for dinner, with a side of canned peas (yum) and acorn squash mashed with brown sugar and cinnamon and butter. There are a lot more recipes for elk stroganoff on the Internet than you could imagine. Ray was excited to have a recipe, but I said we had something better — a method.

What we did was take the elk steaks, sliver them and toss them with flour, salt and pepper, fry an onion and sliced mushrooms, add the elk, let it brown up, then add a can of beef broth and about 1/2 a can of tomato paste, a bunch of nutmeg and a big pinch of thyme. I let the broth bubble out a lot, added a bunch of sour cream and some good glugs of sherry and then, when it was all incorporated and hot, served it over egg noodles. It was really good. Maybe next time I would change the broth situation so there isn't so much sodium, but I like elk. I'm going to have to learn to hunt, I guess. It seems like it's more of a lifestyle than clamming, and the equipment is a lot more involved, too. But there you go. Besides, the world needs more liberal arts graduates who hunt.