As the Strand has been a little quiet this week, I thought I would share this story with you, and since it concerns a ‘furry feline' – all the better.

Down in Te Kuiti, the home of the living legend ‘Tree', a certain household was not finding it easy to feed the family nutritious economical meals as there is always that balancing act between serving quality food without breaking the budget.
While fresh is always best, we all know the freezer plays an important role in the household. By having lots of goodies stashed away we are able to whip something up smartly for the drooling dog. This is great after a hard day; for the boss anyway.
Now this certain Te Kuiti household got more than it bargained for when it whipped open the freezer lid and there resting on the dog tucker was none other than the family moggy; accidentally shut in the icy slammer 19 hours earlier.
On the odd occasion I have woken up stiff and sore, but I can imagine this critter looked like his tail had been jammed in the light socket.
As you well know cats are not my favourite four legged animals and they rate on my scale of annoying things at 9.8, (just behind my crazy 'cuzz Ady” who is at 9.9) and I am all for deportation, but this is taking it a little far. The crusty feline was also stretched out in such a way that apparently it was a little difficult to get at the dog food.
I am always telling the cats under my jurisdiction, Ralph, The Ginger Bastard, The Clone of Ralph (I cannot pronounce his name), to chill out and leave me alone, but getting oneself trapped in the old freezer all night is taking it to the extreme.
This particular polar explorer, whose name is Krillen, was saved by his two-legger; who had trapped him in there in the first place. Now he was so frozen with shock to be greeted by a stiff pussy, he stuffed the frigid freezer wheezer down his jumper and took him to bed for three hours to thaw slowly.
What a bloody scam is all I can say, I am not even allowed to look at the bosses' duvet, let alone crawl under it.
I guess in times of crisis anything goes.
I reckon the moral of this story for my avid readers is keep your freezer full of goodies from my mate Johnny the Aussie butchers shop and there will be no room in the freezer for anything else, let alone a moggy in search of a perm.
Well my 'friendies” since we have an extra day off, and it looks like it may stop raining for five minutes, it must be time to dust off the barbecue, so what better way to thaw out the cat, ooops I mean sizzle a sausage or two, than to get all your meaty needs from Johnny to do just that.

'Smothered steak & potatoes'

Ingredients
500g tenderised round steak
2/3 cup flour
½ tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
2 medium potatoes, peeled and sliced
1 medium onion, peeled and sliced
1 420ml can chopped tomatoes
½ tsp garlic, minced
4 Tbsp oil

Method
Cut steak into serving sized pieces. Mix flour, salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Dredge steak pieces in the flour mixture. Heat oil in a large skillet and fry steak pieces until browned on each side. Remove the steaks to a paper towel lined plate. Wipe excess oil from skillet. Boil the sliced potatoes until crispy-tender. Drain water from potatoes and set aside.
Return steaks to skillet and top with onion, stewed tomatoes and garlic. Cover and cook on low for 30 minutes or until onions are tender, stirring occasionally. Add the potatoes, cover and continue to cook until potatoes are tender. Add a little water if sauce gets too thick. Serves six. Well, alrighty people be extremely careful out there, and don't forget do it to them before they do it to you.