Friday, and back to work

I got up 10 minutes late to the insistent blaring of the alarm clock. I got up, got to work and got busy...

It started snowing here around 8:00 AM. We're supposed to get 2-3 inches today and tonight, but the real kicker is the high winds. For example: By lunch time, the edge where my neighbor had plowed (what, just yesterday?) was now three feet over, due to drifting...

But, before I went home at lunch, I braved the wind and snow and went to Westborn to get some fruits and vegetables. I bought some more grapefruit, some green seedless grapes, some red seedless grapes, some Granny Smith apples, some Gala apples, zucchini squash, four Italian (or plum) tomatoes, a chunk of Pinconning cheese, two 14-ounce cans of Chinese vegetables, a loaf of French bread, a small tray of fresh button mushrooms and four ounces of Ghirardelli chocolate.

After work, I made my way across town and picked up two new valve stems for the faucet at Lowe's (that way, if the first one doesn't work, I have another. If the first one works, the second one will be hung up in the garage for next time.)

Back at home at 6:00 PM; I talked to my friend, B___, who gave me a few tips about the faucet. Thanks buddy!

Now onto dinner: I have to use the last three pork chops or throw them out. So, I took them out and cut off the bones and the fat. The meat I cut into 1/2-inch cubes.

I cut half the button mushrooms into thick slices and saut�ed them in my larger saucepan with butter. While they cooked down, I made two cups of rice (white, because I couldn't find any brown in the house. My bad!)

When the mushrooms were ready, I added the pork. I got out the gravy and saw there was only about 3/4 cup left. Hmmm... I decided to err on side of caution. So, I drained the first can of Chinese vegetables and added them with the gravy, but the second can I added un-drained (is that a word?). I slowly brought that up to temperature (I want the veggies still crisp, you see).

When everything was done I plated it in a shallow bowl (come to think of it, maybe I "bowled" it), added some good soy sauce and went in to watch the Olympics, already in progress.

The food was excellent! It was, however, a bit soupier than I would have liked. I should have drained the second can of veggies. Also, as I put away the leftovers, I realized it begs the question: If leftover meat is only good for four days, when you make it into another dish, is that good for another four days? Doesn't really matter, because I think the little bit left is a weekend lunch. But, it does make me wonder...

As far as the Olympics went, all the past week late nights seem to have caught up with me and I fell asleep early. So, I'm jonesing!! Who won what? Worse yet, I forgot to tape the Friday Night Fights!

I woke up at 4:00 AM (way too early for a Saturday) and tried to fall back asleep. When I couldn't, I cleaned up the kitchen, posted the Blog entry and then tried to fall back asleep around 5:30. I'll let you know how that turns out...