Sunday Supper

I woke up at 6:30 AM on Sunday. Even though my sleep last night was in two separate block, I felt pretty good. My back is a little sore, but she said it would be.

It had rained overnight. I took a shower and then gathered up all the towels. I ran the load in the washer through the rinse cycle and then put it in the dryer. Then I started the last load of towels and my bathrobe.

I was getting my second cup of coffee just after 9:00 AM when I noticed it was raining again. That’s good, because we had the 6th driest November on record here in Southeast Michigan.

I put all the kitchen chairs and the rolling cart in the living room. Next I swept the kitchen floor and then mopped it with Pine Sol. I watched the weekend news show until it dried.

Then I swept the office, the bedroom, the hall and the living room floors. I washed them all with the Swiffer using the liquid cleaner made for wood floors.

Now I was stuck in the kitchen. So, I filled out all my Christmas cards while those floors dried. I folded the towels and set them and my robe on the kitchen table to put away later.

When the wood floors were dry, I put everything away and put the batteries into the candles I bought for the front window (one single one for each small window and a three-candle one for the middle of the picture window. The small ones take two “C” batteries apiece and the three candle one takes 3 “D’ batteries. But, they’re pretty slick and turn on with a photosensitive switch so they only come on in the dark.

About 2:00 PM, I went out back and picked up the trash I didn’t get to yesterday. Unfortunately, now it was all wet!

When I got back in with almost a full garbage bag, the phone was ringing. It was Jake, so talked for a while.

When we hung up, I went into the garage and screwed on that reclaimed tool rack. I filled it back up and I can see the top (in places) of my workbench again!

I came inside and started on my Sunday supper. I had a half of a pork loin frozen that I thawed out. Jake had told me a good way to butterfly it. So, I made stuffing for the inside.

I peeled cored and chopped up two Granny Smith Apples and chopped up a medium onion. I heated up some olive oil over medium-high heat and put the apples and onions in, along with 8 fresh picked sage leaves I sauteed them until they softened.

Meanwhile, I took the crust off four slices of bread and cut them into cubes. When the onions and apples were done, I took them off the heat and gently stirred in the bread, one whisked egg, two tablespoons of butter, salt and pepper. I added enough chicken stock until everything was moistened (about 1/2 cup). I set that aside to cool.

When it was cooled, I went to butterfly the pork loin. Dammed if it wasn’t already in two! So, I butterflied each half. I spread the stuffing thickly on top and rolled each one up. I had the butcher twine out, but decided they were too small to bother with it, so I just used wooden skewers. Had I had a full length, full width pork loin, I would have needed the twine. I put them seam-side down in a baking dish.

I got four medium-sized russet potatoes, poked them with a fork so they wouldn’t blow up on mean and stuck the pork loin and the potatoes in a preheated 375 degree F. oven. I set the timer for an hour and will check the internal temp of the pork loin then. If its 160 degrees or better, I’ll be good to go.

I went in the bedroom to watch the evening news. When the timer went off, I checked the temperature. Excellent! I took out the pork loin and let it rest. I checked the potatoes (see, I do learn from past mistakes, lol) and they were done, too, so I left the oven door opened just a little to keep them warm but not keep baking them.

I cut off some slices of the pork loin and plated them along with two of the small baked potatoes, opened up and topped with butter, sour cream, salt, pepper and fresh snipped chives.

Now, at this point, my Brother Carl is wondering, “Where’s the photo?” Well, since I was dealing with a smaller amount of meat, I couldn’t get that “jellyroll” look you normally associate with stuffed pork loin. In fact, it was downright sloppy looking. One might even say ugly.

But, it tasted damn good! So did the taters. I must admit, I went back out for seconds on the meat. The filling perfectly compliments the pork. It was a Paula Deen recipe, BTW.

The new candles came on, at least the ones on the end. The one in the middle was dark. So, I checked and, sure enough, I had the batteries in backwards. That remedied, they began to flicker, too. I went outside to check it out and liked it, so I took a photo for you.

Since I had the camera out anyway, I took a blurry photo of the branch lights in the bay leaf pot and one of my new nativity set. What caught my eye with the nativity is that each piece nests inside the other, like those Russian dolls.

I cleaned up the kitchen, leaving the baking dish soaking. I watched some TV until 11:00 PM. I was going to watch the news, but the football game was on. I watched it for about 10 minutes, hoping it would end and the news come on, but I gave up. I turned off the TV and the light and went to bed.