OK, so how does someone who is an avid sewer NOT have twine in the kitchen for cooking? I just couldn’t ask my neighbor (someone who knows I am a sewer) for twine. A cup of sugar, yes, but twine, I would never hear the end of it!
I do enjoy experimenting with new main dishes on Tuesdays, my normal day off. It allows me time to gather the proper ingredients, set the table and welcome Steve home with a home made dinner. In the recent issue of Family Circle there was a beautiful stuffed flanked steak that looked scrumptious. Being a California girl, now being married to a meat-and-potatoes South Dakotan, I learned quickly that my lighter, healthier eating habits were lacking meaty beef and pork menu options. So I am always on the lookout for new recipes that can be added to my main dish repertoire that are “Steve Approved”.
Everything was going as planned and on time until I got to the section, “Tie steak with cotton twine at 2-inch intervals to secure.” This was the first I had ever needed twine to tie up a piece of meat. After searching through kitchen drawers, garage, and my sewing room for anything close to something I could use, I spotted an empty bobbin on the top of my sewing machine. With only a couple minutes left to get my roast in the oven to be done in time for dinner, I decided to improvise and make my own twine. Something jogged my memory that I had seen something like this many years ago.
I pulled out a spool of cotton sewing thread and made sure it did not have polyester in it. (I could only imagine the melting problems that polyester thread would add to my precious flank steak)! Threading the tail of the thread through one of the bobbin holes, I pulled about 5 feet of thread through the hole making it double the length. I repeated with a second length of thread.
Holding the four thread tails together, I engaged the bobbin winder and the thread I was holding on to began twisting. After the thread spun enough and started to pull against me, I stopped winding.
I found the half way point with one hand, folded the loose end toward the bobbin, and then I let go. The thread aggressively wrapped together forming a very strong, think twine-like cord.
Wha-La! Twine! I continued making a couple extra lengths to have plenty to wrap around the stuffed steak.
Who would have thought that my sewing machine’s bobbin winder would save dinner?
PS: I received two thumbs up from Steve to make this recipe a “keeper”!