Broken Sauce

Wednesdays I am usually off from work and do a small mid-week grocery run to get whatever we are out-of or forgot to get on the weekend "big shopping". I had just seen Surenna's cross country meet and she was probably on my mind when deciding what kind of fish to get for dinner. Wednesdays are great for fish since I have time to cook and can get them fresh the same day they will be prepared. Anyway, the girl has long complained about us always having salmon, the monkfish looked good...(it was in fillet form) and variety is the very spice & etc.

I had a vague memory that this was one of the few white-fleshed fish where the meat does not go flaky when cooked. I like to grill and flaky fish doesn't really work but I figured I could look it up when I got home and if I have to bake it or fry it this will not be the end of the world. When I looked it up, the internet tubes all agreed that the fish has the texture of lobster. For this reason, I decided to serve the grilled fish with Hollandaise sauce on the side--it is mostly butter and lemon juice, both of which go great with lobster. It ended up being a big hit with the kids and I liked it. The wife, not so much.

One odd thing was the making of the sauce: I have made Hollandaise many, many times with no problems. I pre-melted the butter and allowed it to cool before adding the lemon juice and egg yolks and only then turned on the double cooker. I whisked continuously and then all at once it broke and became all grainy. I took it off the heat and whisked rapidly; the sauce thickened and became creamy. Whew!

It got me thinking about the seeming randomness of my being sore and injured from sports. I can understand it when it is weights. There are lots of ways to hurt yourself when dealing with free-weights, especially something like the clean and jerk. But I don't think I can run wrong. I ran 13 on Sunday, barefoot and fairly slow. Yet on Monday I powered through a short 3.5 mile run at 7:32 (which is fast for me). Tuesday, again I felt fine and did a 6-miler safely under 8:00, finally on Wednesday an 8-miler under eight, but it was a struggle and was only slightly under. I am still sore now--a couple of days later.

What is the "take-home" here? Just run everyday? I could barely walk on Thursday, let alone run. It would be glib to try and see the parallel between the broken sauce--just keep whisking--and being sore/injured. some things are just different.

It is almost enough to make one shout, "We are Nihilists! We believe in nothing"! Almost, but not quite.