The Calm Before the Storm

I woke up around 5:00 AM on Sunday, too early to watch the news. So, I finished the Blog entry and posted it, after making a cup of coffee.

Then I stripped the bed and put the bedding in the washer. Next I ran through the usual Sunday morning routine: watering the bay leaf bush and the orchid, winding the clock, refilling my pill box, etc.

I ate my oatmeal and trail mix as usual, not having any good ideas for a Sunday morning breakfast.

I moved the key box from the closet to the back room. Now I just need to sort through all the keys I have (and I have a lot) to see which ones are still needed. There are padlocks on both fence gates, one on the flatbed trailer and one on the boat trailer. The rest I’ll just pitch.

I shaved and showered. Once I got dressed, I put my bathrobe and all the towels in the washer for the last load. When Flashpoint (a local News talk show) came on, I turned the TV off and turned the radio on to “Sunday Morning, Over Easy.”

Next I dusted the bedroom and cleaned all the glass surfaces. I swept the floor and remade the bed.

The washer had just stopped and when I was walking through the kitchen, I noticed Caley was playing with my knit hat (I had stupidly left it on the table). So, I took it away from her and went to put it in the front entryway closet. That’s when I saw that “someone” had barfed on it. Damn! Had I known, I could have put it in what I “thought” was the last load and not had to waste the water.

So, I put the load in the washer in the dryer but didn’t turn it on yet (no sense wasting electricity on top of it). Then I put the rug and the little rug that lines her Cat-O-Matic in the washer.

I started making a double batch of that tomato sauce I’ve made before (the one by Fabio Viviani). I heated up about six tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil on medium in the Dutch oven while I crushed 12 cloves of garlic with the flat of my knife. I put the garlic in the pan and watched it closely. I want it light brown, but not burnt.

Meanwhile, I opened two 28-ounce cans of whole tomatoes. When I thought the garlic was perfect, I dumped the tomatoes in along with two generous pinches of salt and a lot of black pepper. I let that cook until it thickened (about 10 minutes).

Meanwhile I made some “cheater” meatballs. I had thawed out two packages of sweet Italian sausages. I took the skins off and rolled the meat into balls (slightly smaller than a golf ball). I put those in the oven after preheating it to 400 degrees. I let them bake for about 10 minutes (just to firm them up a bit, they’ll cook in the tomato sauce).

Speaking of which, I added another three tablespoons or so of extra virgin olive oil  to the sauce and turned the heat on the burner up to medium high. I crushed the tomatoes with the back of a wooden spoon.

I let that cook until the olive oil turned red (that’s how you know its done). When it was ready, I added in my meatballs and, instead of turning the burner on low (though I want them to cook low and slow), I turned the oven down to "warm." After covering the pot, I stuck the whole thing into the oven.

As an afterthought, I opened it back up and added in a good pinch of red pepper flakes (his recipe doesn’t call for that, but I thought a little heat might be nice, since I was using the sweet Italian sausage). I covered it back up and walked away from it.

All this cooking made me hungry, so I took a couple of the hard boiled eggs and made egg salad out of them (I used some Dijon mustard instead of the usual yellow prepared mustard – not bad!). I added the egg salad to some lettuce on sourdough bread.

I ate lunch watching a DIY show. When it was over, I went outside and refilled the bird and squirrel feeders. We are supposed to get a couple of inches of snow tonight, then it will switch to freezing rain overnight and finally just rain (hopefully before I have to drive to work). So, I thought the wildlife might need to fill up before the weather gets bad.

Back inside, I emptied the dryer and put everything in its place. Then I tried to take a nap. That didn’t work, so I ended up watching TV until 5:30 PM.

I went out to make the rest of my Sunday dinner. I heated some water in my pasta pot and salted it when it began to boil. Then I added in what I guessed was a single serving of spaghetti and cooked that al dente.

I took out the sauce from the oven and topped the spaghetti with it and some meatballs. I sprinkled grated Parmesan cheese on top and cut off a slice of that Rustic Italian bread (mostly to sop up any remaining sauce). I took a picture for you and then feasted.

It was pretty damn good!

I washed the pasta pot and the utensils I’d used and left the sauce out to cool. I went back in to watch the news (in particular to see if the weather forecast had changed any. It hadn’t).

Then I watched the Red Wings lose in overtime to the Chicago Blackhawks. I put away my meatball and tomato sauce in the fridge and then went to bed.