Very Good -- Beef Stroganoff

Tonight, we made Nona’s Beef Stroganoff. I also made a Cream of Asparagus soup, using the recipe from the Moosewood Cookbook. It’s such a standard yummy recipe that can be used for any cream of vegetable. My in-laws came tonight and they gave the meal a “VFG”. Also, they brought Teddy Dereks coonskin cap bought at Frontierland in Disneyland. The tail is a real coon. 
I was trying to think of a story to tell tonight and Derek came through by putting on an America record during dinner. He reminded me and told his parents about the muskrats in Lake Okauchee and how this song had become a daily anthem during our visit to Wisconsin last summer. They stopped allowing folks to build boathouses into which they can drive their boats without a lift. So there are quite a few boathouses around the lake that have gone into disrepair because they aren’t allowed to be rebuilt once torn down. These are the infamous late night haunts of muskrats and their homes during winter.
Picture Nona and Harold, having their final martini in the moonlight- hearing those goddam muskrats eating the hoses on their boat. 
I give you “Muskrat Love”.

Muskrat Love

(America)

Muskrat, Muskrat, candle light
Doing the town and doing it right in the evening
It's pretty pleasing
Muskrat Suzie, Muskrat Sam
Do the jitterbug out in Muskrat Land
And they shimmy... Sam is so skinny

And they whirl and they twirl and they tango
Singing and Jinging a Jango
Floating like the heavens above
Looks like Muskrat Love

Nibbling on bacon, chewing on cheese
Sam says to Suzie, Honey, would you please be my Mrs.
Suzie says yes with her kisses
Now he's tickling her fancy, rubbing her toes
Muzzle to muzzle, now, anything goes as they wriggle,
Sue starts to giggle

Very Good – Beef Strogonoff

1 ½ lbs sirloin steak

Garlic

2 tbsp flour

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

4 tbsp butter

½ cup minced onion

1 cup chicken broth (or 2 bouilon cubes dissolved in hot water)

1 lb fresh mushrooms

1 cup sour cream

1 tbsp flour

1/3 cup water

Rub steak with garlic, pound with flour and seasonings. Cut pieces one by one and one-half inches and brown in butter. Push meat aside and brown onions. Add chicken broth and mushrooms. Simmer one to one and one-half hours. Add sour cream. Blend flour and water. Add to thicken.

May be cooked ahead and sour cream added later.