Early on the West Coast
Shiiiiiiiiiit, I don't get up this early. I mean, I do, for work, but even then... for whatever random reason the universe set forth, I woke up around 5:30am today... after going to bed at 1:30am or so. I guess it was just balancing me out for sleeping 11 hours or so on Friday night. On the plus side, I'll be good and tired and able to sleep on time tonight to get up on the usual work schedule tomorrow. Kinda funny, though - Saturday morning, azumauta woke up a fair bit before me and took care of all the morning stuff and closed the bedroom door for me so I could get good sleep without disruption. Today the slipper's on the other foot and I'm doing all the morning stuff and letting her get good sleep without disruption, ha ha.
Let's see... life. I like fall. The cold part sucks, but other than that, it can be pretty nice. After the warm summer subsides, it's great to pull out the crock pot and get back to cooking chili and stews and soups and other things that I can just let sit all day long and eat whenever, then have tons of leftovers. Yesterday was stew. Spent about an hour prepping everything - making the beef broth and then cutting the potatoes, carrots, onion and green beans. Then just sliced the meat a little finer than it already was and browned it like usual (didn't do such a great job on that, actually) and then tossed it all in the crock pot. It ended up full to the brim, which isn't a great thing, but it all turned out great. Added a bit more than a tsp of salt and a bit less than a tsp of pepper, tossed in a pinch of garlic powder and basil because I saw them on the spice rack and they sounded good, and let it cook on high for about four hours and then simmer on low for about two. Turned out great - everything was so tender it was virtually falling apart in your mouth. Flavor was spot on, although the stew overall was a little greasy because I screwed up a bit browning the meat. But it all turned out great, so I was pretty happy. Only downside was that some of it bubbled over the inner pot of the crock pot into the metal outer pot and so there was a nice layer of burnt crap on the bottom I had to clean up last night, but it was worth it... plus it taught me not to overfill the pot next time! Then again, I think it's just adjusting to a smaller crock pot size than the one I had when I was living with Paige and Eric. I'll have to keep that in mind. My philosophy with cooking is generally along the lines of "more is better", but sometimes your tools just can't handle that, ha ha ha.
Not too much else going on. Chugging along in general. Haven't felt great all weekend, but I think whatever was slowing me down Friday got slept off. Woke up a little groggy and rough-around-the-edges on Saturday, but feeling pretty good today despite lack of sleep. Weird though, it's 7:30am and I only have about 2.5 hours til football. I was going to play Persona 3 a bit but I got all caught up in writing this and distracting a certain durpy black cat who shall remain nameless so that he wouldn't yowl at the bedroom door and wake up azumauta. Dumbass cat. Oh well. Guess I'll probably watch the ESPN Sunday Pre-game stuff when it comes on and futz about in FFXI.
Let's see... life. I like fall. The cold part sucks, but other than that, it can be pretty nice. After the warm summer subsides, it's great to pull out the crock pot and get back to cooking chili and stews and soups and other things that I can just let sit all day long and eat whenever, then have tons of leftovers. Yesterday was stew. Spent about an hour prepping everything - making the beef broth and then cutting the potatoes, carrots, onion and green beans. Then just sliced the meat a little finer than it already was and browned it like usual (didn't do such a great job on that, actually) and then tossed it all in the crock pot. It ended up full to the brim, which isn't a great thing, but it all turned out great. Added a bit more than a tsp of salt and a bit less than a tsp of pepper, tossed in a pinch of garlic powder and basil because I saw them on the spice rack and they sounded good, and let it cook on high for about four hours and then simmer on low for about two. Turned out great - everything was so tender it was virtually falling apart in your mouth. Flavor was spot on, although the stew overall was a little greasy because I screwed up a bit browning the meat. But it all turned out great, so I was pretty happy. Only downside was that some of it bubbled over the inner pot of the crock pot into the metal outer pot and so there was a nice layer of burnt crap on the bottom I had to clean up last night, but it was worth it... plus it taught me not to overfill the pot next time! Then again, I think it's just adjusting to a smaller crock pot size than the one I had when I was living with Paige and Eric. I'll have to keep that in mind. My philosophy with cooking is generally along the lines of "more is better", but sometimes your tools just can't handle that, ha ha ha.
Not too much else going on. Chugging along in general. Haven't felt great all weekend, but I think whatever was slowing me down Friday got slept off. Woke up a little groggy and rough-around-the-edges on Saturday, but feeling pretty good today despite lack of sleep. Weird though, it's 7:30am and I only have about 2.5 hours til football. I was going to play Persona 3 a bit but I got all caught up in writing this and distracting a certain durpy black cat who shall remain nameless so that he wouldn't yowl at the bedroom door and wake up azumauta. Dumbass cat. Oh well. Guess I'll probably watch the ESPN Sunday Pre-game stuff when it comes on and futz about in FFXI.