Saturday's Story

I got up at 5:30 AM after another miserable night trying to sleep in that chair. It's raining (not very hard, maybe I should have said drizzling).

Since its Saturday and I have more time today, I decided to make breakfast (that was a joke, BTW). I put one 12-ounce package of bulk pork sausage in my big cast iron pan and slowly began to brown it.

I really didn't want to get flour all over the counter, the floor and probably my sling making biscuits, so I dug out my emergency can of Pillsbury crescent rolls (you really need to keep these in the fridge. They give a quick nice touch to a last minute meal). I rolled each up, put them on a half sheet pan, covered with parchment paper, and preheated the oven to 375 degrees F.

When the pork sausage had cooked through, I pulled it out of the pan with a slotted spoon. I added two tablespoons of flour to the rendered fat in the pan and, whisking continuously, cooked it for about a minute. Then, still whisking, I added two cups of milk. I was whisking with my right hand in the sling and adding ingredients with my left, BTW. When that began to boil, I turned it to "Low" and let it simmer for another two or three minutes.

The crescent rolls were done, so I took them out to cool. I added the pork sausage back into the pan, liberally seasoned it with fresh cracked black pepper and stirred it all together.

When the crescent rolls were cool enough to touch, I broke three of them up on a plate, topped it with the white sausage gravy and ate breakfast.

After lingering over a cup of coffee, I got to work and cleaned up the kitchen. I started the load in the dishwasher and wandered into the bedroom to watch the news.

I called out to the cottage and talked with my sister-in-law Kathy. She said my Mom had a great day yesterday (this always seems to happen when I'm NOT there) and she was comfortably sleeping this morning.

Then I called my friend B___ as he was replacing the two thermostats on his boat motors yesterday. It seemed that solved his problem and, other than his being all screwed up from working in that little space, the boat is good to go.

Then, I went outside and took off one hose. I coiled it up on the patio, shut the door to downstairs (to keep the cats out) and hooked it up to the hot water heater. As I may have mentioned, the hot water tap in the sink is plugged up again. Well, according to my friend B___, you are supposed to drain your hot water heater once a year to avoid sediment buildup (who knows that kind of stuff?) I've never done that here so, and since it such a problem, I figured its time.

I opened the tap and let the water blast out onto the patio. I don't see any really heavy sediment output, but I let it run until the water was cool (I washed down the patio while waiting). Then, back inside, I turned off the tap and unhooked the hose. Oh, oh... the tap is now dripping. So, I got a bowl and turned it on and off again and again, until it "seemed" I had the problem fixed. I put a coffee cup under it to catch any drips and will check on it later.

Back upstairs, I shut off the hot water at the sink and disassembled the "on-off" faucet. When I did this last time, it was pretty easy, but with one hand, I'm affeered. So, I wrapped the sink area in heavy bath towels.

Meanwhile, I took about 1/4 teaspoon of sediment out of the faucet workings. First I used a toothpick and then I blew it out with the air compressor. Before I reassembled, I put a coffee cup over the opening and turned on the hot water.

Yikes! My bad! I had water shooting up to the ceiling before I could get my clumsy left hand to turn off the tap. So, I cleaned up the mess, wiped off the cupboards and the window and reassembled the hot water faucet. Then, I gingerly turned on the hot water again (no leaks) and tried the faucet. Bingo! The hot water is now as pressurized as the cold!

Before taking my shower, I took a break as my right shoulder was hurting. So, I popped a pain pill and watched some taped TV. I was watching Nigella Feasts when I was stuck by a childhood memory. Nigella Lawson is a "major" English food star, BTW. She was talking about comfort foods and mentioned her mother's favorite comfort food, hot milk and bread.

Now why is that important? Because, when I was a young lad, my favorite breakfast was to cut two or three white bread slices into one-inch cubes. I would cover them with whole milk and sprinkle them with sugar. True, I never thought about warming the milk. But, it was my favorite breakfast food.

Sidebar: I love how English chefs never say "bring it to a boil." What they say is "bring it to a bubble." It's sort of self explanatory, you see. So, it was almost 1:30 PM when I went in to take my shower.

So, I shaved and showered. And then, I took a nap. Lu woke me up with her phone call. She filled me in on how Mom was doing today and who was out there.

It's very cool today (like most of this damn summer) so I have the AC off and all the windows opened. I supposed I should be doing something but I didn't feel like it (fixing the faucet was enough accomplishment for today!) So, I watched TV, sitting up in bed, instead.

For dinner, I searched the fridge. I noticed I still had a container of mashed potatoes (from last Sunday). So, I made Fran's potato cakes. Now, as I've said before, there is no "recipe" per se. You add in enough eggs to loosen them up (this time I used two) and then enough flour to bind them. When they had the right consistency, I put 1/4 inch of peanut oil in my cast iron skillet and heated it up. I used the wooden spoon handle and bubbles method to know when it was good to go.

Then I spooned them into good sized patties and fried them until golden brown. I flipped them and, when I judged they were ready, put them on a rack over a paper towel-covered cookie sheet. I immediately hit them with some salt (the hot oil helps the salt to adhere and this method is used from fish to French fries).

I ate four of these with about half of the remaining cold cucumber salad for my dinner.

I watched some very mediocre TV until about 10:30 PM and then moved to the living room, a pain pill and sleep.