and he...he himself...the Grinch carved the Roast Beast

at least I think that 's the line. I've only read it a zillion times, you'd think I'd know it by now!

MY roast beef turned out very well. Very Well, indeed. Now some of you will say that the cooking method used for the roast beef is not all that different from my shake-n-baking and George Foremaning; in that I've said it isn't "real" cooking. And it probably isn't, but here's what I've learned so far in this little adventure. If it tastes good in the end, the method doesn't really matter all that much. The point is I am trying something I didn't think I could do and for the most part, it's working out! For me, cooking a roast by ANY method is a big deal. Like frying chicken, I somehow made it to my late 30's without ever cooking a roast!

Being the only carnivore in my house is tricky. I have to cook everything in small amounts lest I eat it for the next month. So I was relatively excited when I happened upon a one pound roast at Kroger last month. I froze it and finally, today mustered (sp?) up the courage to cook the thing. Here's the method...

Buy a Roasting Bag w/seasoning packet from Kroger (Kroger brand)
Place Roast in Bag
Add 1/4 cup of water to the seasoning mix and pour over the roast
Tie up bag, punch a few holes and cook for approximately 1hr. 15min.

Now I did scrub, cut up some red potatoes and tossed those in the bag along with some carrot chips. So I did do a bit of work! It was so easy that I had pretty low expectations of how it was going to taste. To be honest, part of that was due to the above mentioned ease of cooking. The other reason for my reservation was the NON ease of trying to thaw the thing out and have it start cooking during microwave thawing...freaking out and trying to cut off the already cooked portions...even easy isn't easy when you're me! If anyone has mastered the art of microwave defrosting, please share your secret! So anyway, I didn't have the highest of expectations for the meal. Boy was I wrong! It was really tasty! The seasoning and I guess it was the fat from the roast mixed together to make a yummy gravy that gave the whole thing a really good flavor. My only gripe was with the potatoes...I cut them too small...should have quartered or halved them 'cause they came out a bit mushy. Mushy, but delicious nonetheless. So that's my roast beef story! I'll be eating leftovers for a while, so I probably won't try anything else new this week.

I have pictures of several of my recent experiments, but my crappy computer/dial up interet won't even give me the option of loading them in blogger and I'm to tired to keep trying to fight with it, so I'll post those at a later (probably much later) date.

G'night ya'll!

Pork Chops and Applesauce...and...Your unce, tice, fee times a mady

Well there was no Applesauce, but porchops were had. My first time doing anything to a pork chop besides shakd-n-baking it! Hold on...I have bought those precooked smoked pork chops and thrown them on the George Foreman. But again, I don't think that counts as "real" cooking, though tasty they be.

Porchop number 1 was pan fried in water as sandwich fixins. Very tasty. Mom did this last weekend and those were some darn good sandwiches so I thought I'd give it a try. Of course I didn't have the same spices she did, but it still worked. Sprinkled them with some Lawrys (my current seasoning of choice, I put it on everything), used enough olive oil spray to get the skillet shiny. Browned both sides and then added about 1/4 cup of water(twice), put the lid on and let them finish up "frying" until the water cooked out. I used a skinny little 2oz. pork chop and it still was fairly juicy/tender AND it was a WW friendly 2 points. Slap it on a wheat bun and I had a 4 point sandwich!

That was so good, I thought I'd try it again sans bun and Lawry's. This time I rubbed it down with some Mrs. Dash Garlic and Herb seasoning, but cooked it the same way -- in Olive Oil Spray and H20. To go with it I seasoned up some whole wheat pasta in tomato sauce w/the same spice as well as some garlic toast. It was yummy! AND that whole mean amounted to a measly 6 points!

Tonight I'm going to attempt to cook a POT ROAST! Can you believe it? I feel like a big girl now.

I guess I'm feeling chatty today due to the fact that I've had two days mostly alone in the house due to our recent small-but-effective-in-creatng snow-days-snow. There aint nothing like a snow day...I don't care who you are! I even wake up an hour earlier than normal anticipating the announcement on TV...seeing Hopkins County rolling across the screen gets a big WOO HOO out of me every time! Then I go back to bed for a while and wake up knowing the entire day is mine to do with whatever I please. It's funny, you'd think the weekend would feel that way, but it never does. Maybe because I'm not totally alone...Mark's home on the weekend and we usually go somewhere or have some kind of *something* that has to be done, like cleaning out the garage or some other such junk. But a snow day is all mine...and It's GREAT! So Thursday I spent the day doing a couple of things...it went like this...
Make breakfast around 9:30/10:00
Watch and ep of 24
Do a little laundry.
Watch another ep of 24
Make bed, straighten up, more laundry folding, cleaning out the bill basket, you know junk that always needs to be done that you never do...
Make some lunch(this was pork chop #2, the garlic/herb one)
Watch another ep of 24
Watch yet another ep of 24 because I HAVE TO KNOW what happens next
Fiddle around the house, more laundry
24 again...OK I'm starting to get a bit embarrassed so I'll stop...

So basically that's how I spent my first snow day...watching 24 and doing small amounts of picking up around the house.

Well Kids, got news for you...day 2 wasn't much different! I did spend a good chunk of the morning with HCJ...put in the new cd Oh My Nola and cooked breakfast, then just sat there at the bar and listened for a while and watched the birds & other goings on outside my window. "Life is good"...I said to myself. I did more housecleaning while replaying the new cd...this time the yucky stuff...the floors, dusting, bathrooms, etc. I had a clean house and all the laundry finished by 12:00---good thing 'cause our washing machine died on the last load. We'll be going washing machine shopping this weekend! Back to the clean house, which meant only one thing, MORE 24! I think I watched two or three episodes during the day...I finally had to turn it off...I don't want to give anything away, but a person can only take so many torture scenes before she gives up. Had I been able to, I would have told those guys what they wanted to know just to make it stop! Whew. Intense stuff, that 24. Last night Mom and Dad stopped by for a while and then SHEA called about the TICKETS. THE TICKETS TO HCJ. Yee Haw! He was able to get online and get tickets a day early...got us some seats in the orchestra section so they should be sweet! This new CD is so fantastic that I can hardly wait see/hear it performed live. So once I came off that high I decided I was ready for more 24...watched one more episode...still too heavy and so I switched to the Best of Eddie Murphy SNL dvd and laughed like a lunatic until I was too tired to watch any more. I knew the buckwheat sketch would be on there (Mark & I usually never agree on what's funny but I MADE him watch Buckwheat's greatest hits and he even laughed at Buckwheats rendition of Betty Davis Eyes) I was also counting on James Brown..."Too Hot in the Hot Tub!" for a good laugh, which it delivered, but had COMPLETELY forgotten about Little Richard Simmons! Oh good grief...funny funny funny! Was good to go to bed laughing! So that's how I spent my Snow Days. Productive? Somewhat. Indulgent? Completely!