Slacker Monday

I basically did nothing on Monday. I’m not sure if the excitement of the past week caught up with me or I’m just a slacker, but I didn’t really do anything… REALLY!

I didn’t want another oatmeal breakfast (that’s for normal work days) so I scrounged around. I found a roll of Jimmy Dean’s  pork sausage in the chest freezer in the garage. So, I stuck that in a bowl of cold water to thaw. I also thawed out a package of Amish boneless chicken breasts.

Now, I am the first to admit, I can’t make biscuits as good as Jake does, even if I had the ingredients on hand (which I don’t), but… I had a roll of Pillsbury Crescent Rolls in the fridge.

So, I pulled them out and reshaped them into four round “biscuit” shaped things and baked them. (Hey, I was improvising here, okay?)

While the pork sausage thawed, I faced another problem head on: no milk! I checked the pantry and found I had one can of sweetened condensed milk (no way)  and (thank God) one can of regular condensed milk. So, I reconstituted it and had milk for my gravy.

I fried up the pork sausage and added in a quarter cup of AP flour and the required milk (2 and 1/4 cups). I added some salt and a LOT of pepper and let that get happy.

Then I slathered the “biscuits” with the gravy and ate a delicious breakfast (even though it was in the afternoon).

I tried to finish my airport book, but fell asleep and took a long nap.

When I woke up, I found an email from Jyl, suggesting spraying Murphy’s Oil Soap on the wall to get rid of the shadow marking the old picture. I didn’t have any spray oil soap, but I did have some in a bottle. So, I used it straight on a damp sponge and rubbed the hell out of that area of the wall. It took forever to rinse it off, but it did diminish the outline enough that I think I can work with it. Thanks for the tip!

But, it was getting late, so I had to postpone working on my pot rack and make dinner.

I poured in a generous amount of olive oil into my skillet and got it hot. I also preheated the oven to 350 degrees F. I seasoned both sides of the three chicken breasts with salt and pepper and fried them until I had a nice crust on each side. Then I stuck them into the oven to finish cooking.

Meanwhile, I put water in my pasta pot and got that boiling. I salted it and put in a box of linguine. I checked the internal temperature and the chicken was done. I took it out of the pan and let it drain on some paper towels.

I diced up a shallot and three cloves of garlic and put them in the skillet I fried the chicken in. When they were softened, I deglazed the pan with some Pinot Grigio. I cut the chicken into cubes and added them back in as well.

The linguine was al dente, so I drained it and added it to my makeshift sauce. I plated some and topped it with Parmigiano-Reggiano. Hmmm… not bad… not bad at all!

I put the rest of the pasta away after it cooled and cleaned up the kitchen.

With taking a nap, it was no trouble at all to stay up and watch the ball drop in Times Square. I probably never told him, but I always admired Jeremy for going there to experience it live (as well as New Orleans and Mardi Gras).

I stayed up until about 1:00 AM, then I turned off the TV and went to bed

Happy New Year!