Sunday

I woke up at 5:30 AM on Sunday. I had a cup of coffee and then another while filling in the Blog. I made soft boiled eggs for breakfast and then did the Sunday morning chores.

Finally, I showered and shaved. I headed out to CVS at 10:00 AM (when the pharmacy opens). I had a robo-call yesterday that I had a prescription ready to pick up. Now, I hadn’t wanted to go out on Sunday at all, but I also needed some new batteries for my kitchen scale. They are the flat, round ones that look like  quarters and I knew that CVS had them.

That done, I filled up my gas tank (since I was out anyway) and drove home in light snow.

I needed more bacon than I had left for my Sunday supper, so I baked another pound of it in the oven. I only need 1/2 pound for dinner, so the rest can be BLTs, I guess.

Since it is supposed to rain off an on the whole coming week (Sunday was supposed to be the “best” day and, as I said, its snowing) I thought I’d get the bad spots in the lawn reseeded. I had one big dead patch in the front and long with the usual bare spots over the area where the original huge pine was. There are also bare spots in the area that I had the maple cut down and planted the rose bush last year.

I took some before and after pictures for you and one of my hyacinths coming out for my Brother Carl (just to make him jealous, lol). I also took a picture of the many pine cones out front.

I was using the Scott’s patching grass seed in the front. Why? Because it has not only seed, but fertilizer and mulch in it. I am good at reseeding, but bad at watering (especially out front where I have no faucet), so I thought this might help. I dug out the dead grass, raked the spot and filled it in with some garden soil. Then I put down the patch.

I don’t think I’ve used this before, but it looks a lot like blown insulation. It was a bugger to get out of the bag and I had to break it up with my hands to install it. I planned on picking up the pinecones that are littering the lawn, but the snow convinced me it would be okay to do it another day.

I was also going to water the grass patch with a watering can, but I thought the snow would be enough to dampen it, so it wouldn’t blow away.

Then I went out back and raked up the usual bad spots in the lawn. Here I used grass seed. If it does rain all week, it should be fine. If it doesn’t, I’ll have to put my hose box and hoses out and water it myself.

Back inside, I took off my jacket and clothes (which were covered in the patching mixture dust) and put them into the washer. I added my brown work coat (that I’d been doing all the sanding in) and started the last load of weekend laundry. Then I ate the cold pizza for lunch. The sun finally came out around 3:00 PM, BTW

Melissa suggested that I say here, “I was going to take a nap, but my daughter Melissa called.” Well, I thought about a nap, of course, but I wasn’t really trying to take one when she did actually call. We did talk long enough that, when we finished, it was time to start dinner and naps were out of the question.

I had taken out the sirloin tip roast about an hour before to let it come up to room temperature. I mixed together a tablespoon of olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 1/2 teaspoon of fresh ground black pepper, a tablespoon each of fresh fine-chopped parsley, thyme and rosemary (just because that’s all the herbs I had that were fresh) and a large clove of garlic, minced. I smeared that all over the roast and let it sit for another 1/2 hour in my roasting pan on a rack.

Meanwhile I started my prep for the potato bacon casserole. I got out four cups of frozen shredded hash browns and finely chopped an onion (you need 1/2 cup). I took the half pound of bacon and cut it into thin strips (it wasn’t crunchy enough to crumble, which is what the recipe calls for).

I got out a bag of shredded cheddar cheese and one large egg from the fridge. I lightly scrambled the egg in a bowl, added in 1 1/2 teaspoons of seasoned salt and a whole 12-ounce can of evaporated milk. I mixed that all together.

I greased my 8 x 8-inch Pyrex baking dish and assembled the casserole. I made a layer of half of the potatoes, topped with half the onions,  half of the bacon and a half cup of the cheese. Then I repeated the layers. I poured the egg and milk mixture evenly over the top of it and covered the dish with tin foil.

I preheated the oven to 325 degrees F. (the temp needed for the roast – the casserole should be baked for only an hour at 350) When the oven was ready, I put the roast in on the top shelf and the potato casserole on the bottom and set the timer for 75 minutes (or 25 minutes per pound of roast).

When the timer went off, I checked the internal temperature of the meat and it was 140 degrees F., which is what I wanted. I pulled it out, covered it with foil and let it rest for 15 minutes Please note: A sirloin tip roast can be a tough piece of meat, especially if you over-cook it.

I took the tinfoil off the casserole and let that bake another 5 minutes. That had to rest for 10-15 minutes before serving.

I put the roast on a platter and cut some slices off. I plated them and a big spoonful of the casserole and dug in. The roast was a little tough, but delicious. And, the potato bacon casserole was excellent. So much so that I went back for seconds on both.

I was just finishing up when B___ called. He asked about the clock and I told him it was done. We both complained about the weather.

When we hung up, I went out and cleaned up the kitchen. I finally had enough dishes to run the dishwasher, so I did. Then I went in and watched the Red Wings game. This time they won!!! So, I went to bed happy.