Rainy Day Doings
It has been raining most of the day here on the mountain and Bubba must be holed up somewhere. Anyhow, I've not seen him all day to bother me with his dreams.
I did, however, see a house mouse. As I was preparing breakfast this brazen little dude goes scampering around the back of the counters in broad daylight. From time to time he would stop to stare at me and twitch his little whiskers. What to do? Suzy Q wasn't here. Sam would make a hell of a mess of everything on the counter. The meat cleaver would leave nasty indentions in the counter. So, with discretion as the better part of valor, I just watched as he disappeared behind the refrigerator. The next time I saw that bugger was this afternoon. He had partaken of my irresistible offering of a dollop of Smucker's peanut butter and had, in very short order, died of massive blunt-force trauma to the neck. And so off he was sent to spend eternity with his cousin in the septic tank.
I braved the weather to go into town this afternoon. The garbage was piling up and I wanted to take another piece of sculpture to the Alleghany Arts and Crafts Center. This piece, entitled "Truth Plow", is a companion piece for another, named "Gospel Plow", that was already there. (I had found a bunch of used plow points at the scrap metal yard and have been on something of a plow binge of late.) So, they now have five pieces for the guild's jury to examine: "Nuclear Trillium", "Baton Rouge", "AeroSaw" and, of course, the two plows pieces, "Gospel" and "Truth".
Pork loins were on sale at Lowe's for $1.99 a pound today and I bought one weighing about 6 pounds. It was well trimmed with zero waste and I'll get 12 individual meals out of it for about a buck apiece!
I cut the loin into three roasts and froze two of them. The third was cooked for dinner. Using my cast iron Dutch oven, I browned the roast in cooking oil on both ends and all sides. Then, as an experiment, I threw in some tomato juice, orange juice and white vermouth for moisture, put a lid on the pot and simmered the whole thing on the cook top for about 2 hours until the internal temperature was 190°F. The taste of the thing was awesome! And it was so moist and tender that even after letting it cool while I cooked an ear of corn and made a lettuce salad, the roast was still difficult to slice. I cannot wait to slice the leftover portion on the meat slicer Thriller gave me for Christmas and make sandwiches with it for lunch tomorrow.
As Sam lays snoring at my feet under the table, I wonder what she's dreaming. All I know for sure is that she's smiling!
I did, however, see a house mouse. As I was preparing breakfast this brazen little dude goes scampering around the back of the counters in broad daylight. From time to time he would stop to stare at me and twitch his little whiskers. What to do? Suzy Q wasn't here. Sam would make a hell of a mess of everything on the counter. The meat cleaver would leave nasty indentions in the counter. So, with discretion as the better part of valor, I just watched as he disappeared behind the refrigerator. The next time I saw that bugger was this afternoon. He had partaken of my irresistible offering of a dollop of Smucker's peanut butter and had, in very short order, died of massive blunt-force trauma to the neck. And so off he was sent to spend eternity with his cousin in the septic tank.
I braved the weather to go into town this afternoon. The garbage was piling up and I wanted to take another piece of sculpture to the Alleghany Arts and Crafts Center. This piece, entitled "Truth Plow", is a companion piece for another, named "Gospel Plow", that was already there. (I had found a bunch of used plow points at the scrap metal yard and have been on something of a plow binge of late.) So, they now have five pieces for the guild's jury to examine: "Nuclear Trillium", "Baton Rouge", "AeroSaw" and, of course, the two plows pieces, "Gospel" and "Truth".
Pork loins were on sale at Lowe's for $1.99 a pound today and I bought one weighing about 6 pounds. It was well trimmed with zero waste and I'll get 12 individual meals out of it for about a buck apiece!
I cut the loin into three roasts and froze two of them. The third was cooked for dinner. Using my cast iron Dutch oven, I browned the roast in cooking oil on both ends and all sides. Then, as an experiment, I threw in some tomato juice, orange juice and white vermouth for moisture, put a lid on the pot and simmered the whole thing on the cook top for about 2 hours until the internal temperature was 190°F. The taste of the thing was awesome! And it was so moist and tender that even after letting it cool while I cooked an ear of corn and made a lettuce salad, the roast was still difficult to slice. I cannot wait to slice the leftover portion on the meat slicer Thriller gave me for Christmas and make sandwiches with it for lunch tomorrow.
As Sam lays snoring at my feet under the table, I wonder what she's dreaming. All I know for sure is that she's smiling!
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