Sunday's Story

I woke up at 4:30 AM on Sunday. I really need to get a good night’s sleep or my eyes will be permanently bloodshot! I upped the thermostat after hitting the head, and then got back into bed to wait for the house to warm up. I programmed the thermostat to warm up at 6:00 AM, you see.

So, when I judged it was warm enough, I got up and posted the Blog entry. Then I warmed up the coffee and had a cup (I know, I know...)

Carla had asked me yesterday what the rest of my weekend plans were and I told her I was going to deep clean the kitchen (take everything off the shelves and wash each piece, clean any grease off the shelves, etc.) But, Sunday morning, I just wasn’t feeling the love, if you know what I mean.

I did do the last load of laundry, swept the kitchen floor and washed it. But the kitchen shelves remained untouched.

Around noon, I made up some snacks for the hockey game at 12:30 PM. I was going to suggest these to Jake before he told me they were making the appetizers (besides, Lu wouldn’t have eaten them). I had gone to the deli counter and asked for five slices of boiled ham. So, today, I smeared each one with softened cream cheese. Then I wrapped a dill pickle spear in each one of them and held it together with a couple of toothpicks. I stuck a black olive on the toothpick because, well, it looked cool (trying for food porn) and I like black olives. Then I cut the roll in half. I took a photo for you.

I watched the hockey game (we won in the shootout after a tied overtime) and then switched to the Daytona 500. My company didn’t win, but it didn’t matter. I was rooting for Mark Martin (who used to drive for my company). He’s a really nice guy and I’ve met him several times over the years.

About 3:00 PM, I took a bathroom break and it was snowing hard, here. By 6:00 PM, I would guess I had about three inches and it was still coming down. The snow doesn’t really bother me (I live in Michigan, for God’s sake) but one inch of freezing rain scares the hell out of me! I don’t need broken branches falling on the roof or power outages.

I started making my Sunday supper. Now, I normally make a pot roast in the slow cooker. It was easy when I worked down the street. I’d come home at lunch, throw everything in the slow cooker, turn it on high and when I got home after work, dinner was served.

But, today, I thought I’d use the oven to roast it. You know, like real “roast” beef? So, I patted the blade roast dry, rubbed it with Montreal Steak seasoning and, using a small knife, cut several slits in it. I filled those with cloves of garlic and set the roast on a rack in my big pan.

Then I put some quartered red potatoes, some peeled carrots cut into chunks, some peeled parsnips cut into chunks, and some quartered onions into a bowl. I drizzled them with olive oil and added some dried herbs (thyme, rosemary and parsley), salt and pepper. I tossed them around a bit and added them to the roasting pan.

I put the pan in a preheated 400 degrees F. oven and set the timer for one hour. When the timer went off, I turned the heat down to 325 and reset the timer for two hours (low and slow, baby, low and slow!)

When the timer went off, the roast was done, but not the veggies (I was winging it with the times and temps – guess I should have pulled up a recipe). So, I covered the roast with tin foil (it had to rest, anyway) and stuck the veggies back in the oven.

After another 15-20 minutes, I was afraid the roast was getting too cold, so I pulled out the veggies and plated some of the roast and the veggies.

Hmmm... The roast and the potatoes were good, but the carrots and parsnips were still a bit crunchy. I guess I either need to research this better or stick with the slow cooker.

I watched my usual Sunday night shows and went to bed at 11:00 PM, after a quick peek outside. It had stopped snowing and I didn’t see any freezing rain. I would guess we got nine inches of snow! So, I suspect the increase of snow (remember they predicted 1-3 inches of snow) was because we didn’t get any rain.