Sunday

Woke up today at my normal workday time, 5:30 AM. Started back on yesterday's work, cleaning out my files. I normally do this at Christmas, but missed it this year. I always save last year's bills (in case I need something) so I have to shred one years worth of bills (2005), shuffle the files around and get ready for 2007. By the time I was finished, I had two bags of shredded paper for the trash. If there was less snow, I would have put them on the compost heap.

Made breakfast. I bought a can of those steel cut oats I told you about before, so I am trying to cook them for the first time. 30 minutes later, they were done. I topped them with buttermilk (it's traditional). Excellent (but FILLING!) so, I have a whole container to use during the week. I can feel my cholesterol going down as we speak!

Luanne called. Her goat herd is growing by leaps and bounds (there's a joke in there somewhere) but it sounds like doing the chores in the cold is not much fun.

Next it's a shave and shower. Then, I got to work on the stuffing for my Stuffed Pork Loin. I may post the recipe if anybody's interested. Then I realized I did need something I didn't have in the house. So, a quick trip to Farmer Jacks at 11:30 AM was in order. On the way back, I stopped at the quarter car wash and rinsed off all the salt from last week's freeway drives to the courthouse and back. I checked my wild rice upon my return. Still not soft enough... Then I changed my furnace filter.

Finally the stuffing was done. Letting it cool a bit. Finally, filled the pork loin, then tied it with cooking twine. Heated up my two burner grille pan to screaming hot, then seared the stuffed loin. In spite of the vent fan on high, I did manage to set off one smoke detector. Oh well, the carmelization will be worth it.

Put the rest of the leftover stuffing in a greased cake pan (oh, I WILL eat this sometime), and cut two acorn squash in half, deseeded them and put in a chuck of butter and a chunk of dark brown sugar in each. Here's a tip I figured out: If the squash doesn't sit flat (and most don't), I take my knife and cut a flat in the rind. This makes for much less spills inside the oven. So, stuffed pork loin is in the broiler pan, doused with the reserved cup of apple juice, along with the acorn squash and the remaining stuffing in a cake tin, all at 325 degrees F. I've got the digital thermometer set at 170 degrees F. and plugged into the roast. I set the timer on the stove for an hour. We'll see...

Washed the bathroom floor and threw the bathroom and kitchen rugs in the washer. I have the Daytona 500 on TV and, while I should be a loyal Spacely Sprockets Racing, er, I mean Spacely Sprockets-Fenway (Mr. Spacely sold half of Spacely Sprockets Racing this year) fan, I am routing for Mark this season (hey, us old guys have to stick together!) In 19 seasons with Spacely Sprockets, Mark's never won the Daytona 500, but maybe driving a Chevy instead of a Ford, he can do it!

Ate dinner in front of the TV. Not bad, but not as great as I'd hoped. The squash was excellent, and so was the pork loin, but the stuffing (pork sausage, mushrooms, Granny Smith apples, wild rice, onions, garlic and herbs) did not have that WOW factor I was looking for. On the other hand, it was interesting to do!

Two laps before the finish of the race, my daughter M_______ called. While we talked I watched Mark get beaten by another driver on the last corner (two tenths of a second difference). Damn! So, me and Melissa talked a long time. Then I went back to the TV and then to sleep.