Tuesday's Tale

I slept lousy again Monday night. Didn't fall asleep until late and then woke up almost every hour on the hour. I was either too hot or too cold or had to go to the bathroom. When the alarm went off, I swear if I had a handy hammer, I would have smashed it. But, I didn't, so I got up, got ready for work, took the trash out to the road and then left.

Now, it's supposed to sunny and 60 degrees F. today, but it sure didn't feel like it at 7:00 AM!

At lunchtime, I made two stops before going home. One was the Post Office to mail a package (shhh... it's a birthday secret) and the other at Radio Shack. The batteries in the portable phone next to my bed have recently refused to recharge. So, I was hoping they might have a replacement set. Took a bit of online crosschecking and then searching inventory, but they found one! Gotta love the Shack!

I ate another piece of the strata for lunch (but it's starting to look bad). I guess I should have trusted CC and cut the recipe in half. BTW, it really is sunny and quite warm now.

Back at work, once again the afternoon was long and sleepy. Fortunately, I had a training class from 3:00-4:00 PM. Now, normally, that would be fraught with peril. You're sitting in a darkened room, listening to somebody drone on, right? Well, in this case the damn conference room couldn't have been above 50 degrees F. I should have been suspicious when all the other attendees either had an extra sweater or their jackets on. Since this was my first (I'm usually off on Tuesday, as you may recall) I was in my short sleeved shirt. By the time the class was over, I had goose bumps on both my arms and my nipples were hard as rocks! But, at least I didn't fall asleep.

Back home after 5:00 PM, I got the mail (the 2010 Census was there), treated the cats and changed my clothes. I eased into the night by looking at the circulars in the mail on the couch with a drink, after changing clothes. But that got old and I went out to wash the pasta pan from yesterday's dinner. Then I went out in the garage to grab some potatoes and a small head of cabbage for tomorrow's slow cooker dinner (St. Patrick's Day, remember?) Now, I know (as I'm sure you know) corned beef and cabbage is NOT a traditional Irish meal (the average Irish ate much more lamb or mutton), but it is a tradition here in America.

So, when I finally got off my lazy butt, I put all the ingredients into the removable inside of the slow cooker. Now you should know there are literally hundreds of slow-cooker recipes for this, but this is the one I like the best.

So, I put in the slow cooker two stalks of celery and four peeled carrots (both rough chopped), a medium onion (cut into four wedges) and four potatoes (cut into quarters). I got out the corned beef and rinsed it off. I threw the seasoning packet in the pot and then cut the brisket to fit. I added a can of beer and then enough water to cover the meat. I stuck it in the fridge for the night.

You may have noticed there was no cabbage at this point. That's cooked 30 minutes before serving so it stays crunchy.

I ate more of the macaroni salad for dinner and fell asleep early (finally!)