Sunday Evening, Coming Down...

I woke up early Sunday morning and couldn’t fall back asleep. So, I read my book instead.

I finally got up and out of bed around 7:00 AM. Well, I actually got up earlier to go to the bathroom and make a cup of coffee. But, now I ate breakfast, ate my pills, shaved and showered.

I left about 9:00 AM to get some milk and bread and pick up the fixin’s for my Sunday supper: corned beef and cabbage. I was going to grill brats (I should have yesterday, dammit) but one look outside at the wind and the cold, gray sky and I decided grilling was not as appropriate today as comfort food.

So, I breezed through Costco (for more coffee) and then hit Kroger’s for the corned beef, cabbage bread, milk and a few other things. On the way back home, I stopped and filled up my gas tank.

I treated the cats and then unpacked everything. Since it takes 6-8 hours to cook on “Low,” I started the corned beef first.

I put two peeled carrots, cut about two inches long and two medium onions, quartered, in the bottom of the round slow cooker (later, I would regret not using the larger, oblong one, but I purposely bought a small piece of corned beef so it would fit in the round one).

Then I put in the corned beef, after rinsing it off and scoring the fat cap. I added one cup of water and two cups of apple juice and then sprinkled the packet of seasoning on top of the corned beef fat.

The recipe called for a small head of cabbage, but I couldn’t find one. So, I bought a half of cabbage (they do sell them that way, covered in cling wrap.) I took out the core and rough chopped it. But, I couldn’t fit all of it in the slow cooker! (should have used the bigger slow cooker). So, I saved the rest for coleslaw or something.

I turned it on “Low” and went about the day, after I washed the knives I had used.

I took the suitcase up into the attic. Since I was up there, I brought down the Styrofoam rose covers I use for the winter and the tarp that covers my patio furniture, wheelbarrow, etc.

I grabbed my coat, the pruning anvil pliers and my work gloves and headed out back. I cut down the roses and put the covers on, secured by the patio stones I always use.

I noticed that a large amount of leaves had been caught by the branches the lawn cutting guys had thrown on the upper platform of the play structure (I told them to do that). I was concerned that they would trap moisture up there and rot out the platform. So, first I went up and got down all the branches. Then I went back in the house for a leaf rake and the garage broom.

I raked off the leaves and then swept the platform. You’ll notice in the photos I took that there was a large wet spot. It supposed to rain most of the coming week (starting Monday night) so I think the rain will wash off any remaining soil. I took a photo of the rose covers from up there as well, not noticing until I processed the photos that they were in one of the platform pictures as well.

On my way back into the house, I saw the suet cage was empty, so I got out a cake and refilled it.

I had gotten my coat (the one I wear to work in Fall and Spring) dirty, so I started a load with it. This is the first time I ever washed it, so I followed the instructions on its tag and put it on a gentle cycle.

I had a cup of coffee to warm up and watched some TV until the washer signaled it was done. I put the coat in the dry on low heat and hoped it wouldn’t come out wrinkled or worse.

Finally, I took the laundry out. Coat looks and fits great! I called B___ on the phone and we caught each other up on our week’s activities.

About an hour before I thought the corned beef would be done, I started on my Herb Buttered Potatoes (this all is a Sandra Lee recipe, BTW). I took a bag of baby redskin potatoes and cut each in half (the bigger ones I cut into quarters. I put them in cold salted water and turned the heat on high (that’s a Michael Symon trick I learned). When they started to boil, I turned them to a medium simmer and set the timer for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, I went out and cut some fresh, flat leaf parsley. I chopped that up until I had about two tablespoons. Them I finely minced about a tablespoon of garlic.

When the timer went off, I checked and they weren’t done (I didn’t figure they would be, I just wanted to remember to check on them as I was watching TV). About five more minutes and they were fork tender.

I drained them and put them back in the hot pan. I added a half stick of room temperature unsalted butter, the garlic and the parsley. I seasoned them with salt and lots of fresh cracked black pepper. Then I carefully combined everything with a rubber spatula (so I didn’t break up the potatoes).

I put the potatoes in a bowl and some of the veggies in the slow cooker on a platter. I sliced some of the corned beef and put it on the platter as well. See photos.

I plated it and ate my dinner. It all was pretty good. The cabbage was a little underdone, but the potatoes made up for it. In fact, the potatoes were excellent!

I let everything cool down while I cleaned up. But the leftovers were still too warm for the fridge so I went back to the TV and left them until later. I started watching the Tigers in what turned out to be the last game of the World Series, which I sincerely regret this morning as that meant I stayed up until midnight and we lost, anyway!