Thursday, January 26, 2006

A pain in the cornea

The ophthalmologist took a look at my eyes this morning. He concluded that I do have keratoconus in my right eye. He also said my left eye was fine. He said that the keratoconus shouldn't worsen given my age.

He didn't present me with a lot of treatment options. Given that my left eye is perfectly correctable, the doctor said the only option he'd consider is to do nothing. He could have prescribed a hard lens for the right eye only, but he said that patients who use only one hard lens tend not to use it at all, since it's uncomfortable. That solution, as I mentioned before, does not fit my lifestyle.

He ruled out surgery or implants because I don't need them to function.

So I'm stuck living life as if I have a clear sandwich baggie (both layers of plastic - I checked) permanently welded over one eye. It's a huge pain in the ass.

The three and a half good eyes of Nearmiss and myself finished the "72 Virgins" outline. It's in the producer/director's hands. News as it comes.

Bonus recipe:

It's cold and snowy out. Steak under a broiler is just too gray and lifeless. I don't have an indoor grill.

When I need a wintertime beef fix, I tend to go out or fry it at home. I cook a bit, so it's occasionally more sophisticated than slapping it into a cast-iron pan and letting it sear on both sides - although that has its place.

I tried something different this week and thought I'd share - it's ludicrously simple and delicious. My local Iranian grocery sells huge boneless sirloin steaks for C$11/kg. That's US$4.33/lb. I had to do something with it. This came out wonderfully. Scale as necessary:

2 lb sirloin
1/2 cup light soy
1/2 cup rice wine
3 tbsp green peppercorns (canned; I'm estimating how much I used)

Cut the steak into strips a half-inch wide. Mash half the peppercorns. Dump all ingredients into a bowl and mix. Let it sit and marinate an hour or two.

Heat up a wok or large skillet (I have a huge frying pan) with two tablespoons of peanut oil. Drain the meat and peppercorns of excess marinating liquid; keep as many peppercorns as possible for the cooking. Once the oil is hot, dump the meat and peppercorns into the pan.

Chow/stir fry the meat until it reaches the proper level of doneness (which is rare, of course). Dump into a serving dish and pour the masterful, naturally-produced pepper gravy over the meat. Serve.

This dish has one of the highest taste/effort ratios I've ever managed. Let me know how it comes out for you.

4 Comments:

Anonymous Barnes said...

Happy birthday, old man. Sorry aboot the cornea. I stubled onto your blog whilst hunting through the results of googling "thunderdome montreal". Don't know why, exactly, just a 12:28am bout of nostalgia, I suppose. It led me to the Ilana post, and ultimately, here. The "aboot" isn't a typo. I now type in the kind of Canadian spoken in South Park.

-Barnes

January 28, 2006 12:30 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I think you mean 'highest taste/effort ratio'. I spent fifteen confused seconds wondering what was so hard about heating up the beef, then I realized it was the *horrifying innumeracy* of the thing. :)

Ch-cheers,
Wally

February 8, 2006 3:46 PM  
Blogger Webs said...

Doh!

Yes, indeed. Ratio is now fixed in the motherpost.

February 8, 2006 4:32 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey dude,
I actually just had a corneal transplant becasoe of that disease...i still have to do the other eye and i am only 16. Getting that sugery was probably the best thing taht ever happened to me.

May 7, 2008 12:00 AM  

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