Sue, I am so happy we started our little website twenty years ago as I have memories I can refresh on almost any page. The amazing thing is you always had a smile, sometimes mischievous, but a smile! I remember every picture like it was yesterday, even the ones from Easter 2000. I love you so, it is lonely now, but you should know our family and friends have been and continue to be incredible!
New Years was always special for us. Before we danced a lot, we would go somewhere on an adventure. I remember being at sea with our family in 2000, in New Orleans watching the sky explode, whizzing around New York City in Times Square, Paris, London, and of course, Disney World in Florida where we rented a forty-foot motorhome for a week (with Rita, Diane, and Pat) and saw the sites and visited family. I did not need fireworks in the sky; I was blessed to have the fireworks in her beautiful eyes.
New YEars will never be the same without that magnificent smile and excitement in her eyes!
Right on time at 9:00 AM, I had a visitor! It was a friend of Zack’s who is an electrician. He examined my power distribution box in the backyard.
To the garage I go, and my mind’s eye sees an uncluttered workbench. That may, or may not, occur depending upon many things. I studied my paint cans, and I had three separate gallon cans with perhaps a quart left in them, so, off to Lowe’s, I go to get one-quart containers. Mission accomplished, plus I got a new paintbrush as next week I plan to repaint the baseboards around the house!
Returning home, I continued the garage efforts, but it seems that when I am gone, a big blue monster comes in a messes things up! I plan to watch the security camera next time I am out. I will catch the blue devil in the act!
OK, time for breakfast. My secret formula, three-parts berries, and one part cereal! The method works well as my anti-accident count goes up because of the blueberries. Several studies even suggest that blueberries contain the highest amount of antioxidants among all commonly consumed fruits and vegetables. Also, research from test-tube and animal studies has shown that the antioxidants in blueberries may delay the decline in brain function that tends to happen with age (and God knows I need as much of that as I can handle!).
Time for more healthy nonsense; the walk! I decided that since none of the ladies look at me when I wear my sequined thong to walk that they would not look if I wear my noise-canceling Bose headset and tie my sunblocking hat onto my head (because it won’t fit with the headphones on). I was correct again, no one look. However, three ladies pointed toward me and giggled! I didn’t care; I was listening to The Statler Brothers with no outside noises!
Take a listen to these great singers! They have been my favorites for forty years!
Spring is definitely here, as evidenced by the magnificent flowers I am privileged to see on my strolls through the hood. The sign below is typical of the many posters I see placed in the yards around our fair city.
Signs in the neighborhood were thanking people for their efforts during this pandemic!
We have an amazing gardener down the street, who is also quite a creative artist. She changed her garden around a bit this week removing the Easter Bunny and adding perhaps ten small cars arranged as if they were off routing. I always have to stop at her yard for a few minutes and take a look around because many of the changes are quite subtle.
The little trucks are going off routing in the middle of this garden.
This sign sits in her garden, and she must believe there’s going to be tomorrow based upon everything she’s planted.
Free with the owner plant a garden, it means there will be a great tomorrow!
I turned the corner and headed east, where there are several houses with beautiful displays of roses. The one below stood out like a sore thumb, just begging me to take its picture.˜
This pink is almost the color of one wall in my living room!
Did You Know? The meaning of pink roses can stand for femininity, elegance, refinement, and sweetness. A deep or hot pink rose can convey gratitude, appreciation, recognition and is a great way to say “thank you,” while a light or pale pink rose conveys grace, gentleness, joy and happiness.
I am always amazed at mother nature can come up with the “color” white, and such a pure white. According to scientists, white is the absence of color? Looks like Mother Nature may not believe that. The white rose had a significant meaning during WWII.
Our fair city has an abundance of white roses throughout the tract!
Did You Know? The White Rose organization was a non-violent, intellectual resistance group in the Third Reich led by a group of students, including Hans and Sophie Scholl. They attended the University of Munich. The group conducted an anonymous leaflet and graffiti campaign that called for active opposition to the Nazi regime. Their activities started in Munich on 27 June 1942 and ended with the arrest of the core group by the Gestapo on 18 February 1943. They, as well as other members and supporters of the group who carried on distributing the pamphlets, faced show trials by the Nazi People’s Court (Volksgerichtshof), and many of them were sentenced to death or imprisonment.
Today’s walk was close to three miles, but after I added in the walking I did from earlier this morning around the house, I had close to five and a half miles today! That translates to over 10,000 steps, my daily goal.
Another two and three-quarter miles were under my belt today.
In order to cool down, I wandered into the backyard and examined my garden. With all of the recent rains, I have weeds, so I am arranging for some help to pull the little suckers out. This will be good as it gives someone a job that is needed during this pandemic Enjoy my favorite hobby, watching someone else work.
I have a whole lot of small grass to pick out of the garden as a result of not waiting long enough for the bales of straw to mature.
Around mid-afternoon, I decided to stop messing in the garden and proceed to work in the kitchen. This morning I went to the refrigerator and found I had a 3 1/2 pound chuck roast that needed to be sold by today, so I decided I would instead cook it by today. I looked online for a recipe and found a reasonably simple one complete with its video. Lee Drummond is one of my favorite chefs. She’s a very pretty lady and explains things so that I can understand them. She lives on a farm in Texas so a lot of her meals are what we used to call, “stick to your ribs”.
I pulled out my brand new Dutch oven, gave it a quick cleaning and then proceeded to sauté onions and carrots in the bottom of the bowl. I then added a little olive oil and browned all sides of the meet. The piece of meat was so big; I decided to cut it in half so it would fit into the Dutch oven easier. After deglazing the Dutch oven, using a cup of good red wine, I might add, I proceeded to load the new oven with goodies. I added the meat, onions, carrots, and then went outside into Sue’s herb garden and cut some sprigs of rosemary in thyme just like she used to do.
I set the timer for 3 1/2 hours at 275° and then forgot about it until I needed to add potatoes, courtesy of the suggestion made by Colleen.
Time to cook and pot roast which was on my target list today.
After cleaning up the mess from the pot roast, I proceeded to disassemble the HomeFresh kit needed to make the “Cheesy Beef Tostadas”. Check, check, check; everything is here. It took about 35 minutes to make the beef tostadas us from scratch. I added some of the hot sauce provided me by our cleaning staff as she said that would “spice things up a bit “! She did not misrepresent her hot-sauce, that’s for sure.
This display is the beginning of the beef tostadas I made this evening.
How’s that for tostadas we’re coming together, I set the table using my new found lemon sugar cookie candles. They were very fresh smelling, and their color fit with the decor of the current table setting.
Ralph’s last week, I picked up candles that matched the table cloths that I purchased recently.
Just like magic, the tostadas came out looking much like the instruction sheet said they would. What was more interesting was the fact that they tasted outstanding! Now that I know how these are made in the ingredients that are used, I see more of these for my future meals shortly.
Not too bad for a beginner, what say?
I’m still trying to lose weight, but if I keep cooking all these goodies, it’s going to be a fight to get below 200. Next week I did not order the food kits from HelloFresh. It is my plan to go “off routing” using new recipes and the ingredients I have stashed away.
Below I am making a toast to my beautiful wife, and the many years we spent together in our kitchen cooking together. I still do the preparation and clean up quite thoroughly, and I’m working very hard to get better at the real work that goes on between preparation and cleanup.
Here is the galloping gourmet circa 2020!
The picture below is not a great picture from an artistic sense, but it does send a message. I am so glad I did not make all six of the tostadas tonight, but if I had, it is likely I would have probably eaten them all. Not a great idea while trying to lose weight.
There was a little doubt about it, tonight’s meal was outstanding if I don’t say so myself.
While I was doing the cleanup, the timer went off, indicating that the pot roast was ready. After watching Lee Drummond, the chef who’s recipe I was using, explain that the timing was not critical, I decided to let it continue cooking while the cleanup was underway.
I got the Dutch oven out very carefully. I knew I had a winner on my hand just by the smell emanating from the vessel as I slowly lifted the lid. I let it sit for a good hour while I watched TV so I could put the contents into the refrigerator. I found two large plastic containers that I brought to the counter and carefully split the contents of the Dutch oven. Note to myself, use twice as many onions next time. I carefully put the containers into the refrigerator, and I can hardly wait till tomorrow at lunch when the first one of these containers gets opened and reheated.
My excitement level was so high I had to call someone and I decided it would be Lee. We used the Bat Phone and talked for about twenty minutes. She decided I actually got a “rump roast” based upon my description of the shape of the meat and the fact I had to cut it to fit into the Dutch oven. Whatever it was, it came out perfect!
After four hours in the brand new Dutch oven, at 300°, the results look pretty good. I cut off a small bit of the meat and it was “melt-in-your-mouth” tender! Success!!
Time for TV, so I made a selection of a comedy for the evening. By 11 PM, I was ready to crash so I spent 30 minutes on the daily diary and headed for the bed. I was dragging and tomorrow will be more work around the house as I plan to either paint the front entrance-way or begin examining the contents of the Christmas boxes. Welcome to being a home owner!
