My Adventures in Cooking: Pin's Pot Roast

Today I went grocery shopping and found a $25 beef roast on sale for $6 so naturally I just had to buy it.  I called Mom and had her clarify some of the finer points of her recipe (really it's her father's recipe), and got to work.

So here it is: Pin's Pot Roast!  I'll put the recipe here in case any of you want to try it.

Pin's Pot Roast

Beef  roast

sunflower oil

4 onions, sliced

Bay leaves

Whole allspice

Potatoes

Salt

Sear beef in hot sunflower oil. Remove from pot, and brown onions in remaining oil. Return beef to pot, add boiling water to half cover, add salt, bay leaves and allspice berries. Bring to the boil and simmer for about 30 minutes. Add peeled, quartered potatoes, and cook for another hour, turning meat occasionally. Thicken gravy with cornflour.

My roast, and my nicely sliced sweet onions - and the big pot that is pretty much my pride and joy for cooking right now.

 As you can see, it was an extremely fatty beef roast, so I had to spend a considerable time trimming it.  Note to people trying this recipe for the first time - trim BEFORE you put the oil on to simmer...yeah.

 Like I said, it was a LOT of fat!  I considered rendering the fat and using it for something else for about six seconds and then my common sense took over and I tossed it all.

 Me browning the onions.  I tell you what, moving that roast in and out of the pot is damn difficult!  The next thing I'm coveting to increase my cooking potential are a very large knife, fork and spoon like Mom has.  I had to use a regular fork and a spatula, which worked out quite well, but still.  I now have a new page over which to drool in the Williams-Sonoma website/catalogues/stores.

 Once I've added the roast and the boiling water.  It looked a little weird, but don't worry, it looks yummy once it's cooked.

 I used four potatoes...I LOOOOOOVE me some potato-heavy gravy, and mealy soft potatoes to pair off with my pot roast.

 Everything in!  Now I just had to wait, and turn it occasionally.

 I let it sit for precisely eleven minutes.  Because I'm a crazy person, and ten minutes to let meat rest just won't do.

 My soft, delicious potatoes, and goopy, oniony, mouth-wateringly awesome gravy.

 Once I finally cut the roast up - I have to say, I am NOT gifted at carving.  I need lessons from Dad or something.

 DINNER!  Everything a girl could want in a meal.

 [insert]satisfied-belch[/insert]

Now I just need dessert.  Do I do pineapple?  Strawberries?  Oranges?  Or be evil and have ice cream?  Talk about the best decisions a girl ever has to make!

Everything I ever wanted

So it's 3 o clock in the morning and I'm at my desk, listening to NPR.  To my right, half-a-dozen paintings are gleaming with fresh paint, and my water cups are dry and holding newly cleaned brushes.  My bedding is "turned down" with my teddy bear waiting patiently, and a water glass and my kindle are set ready on the bedside table.

I haven't had a very good week.  Let's be honest: this hasn't been the greatest year thus far.  I've been ill for most of these three months, my work has been kicking my ass, and I haven't been exactly graceful through it all. 

But tonight, I talked to my friends (albeit online instead of in person), I watched silly television shows, I painted paintings and sketched potential cover art for the book I plan to (self) publish this week...I listened to NPR's Wait Wait Don't Tell Me and knew most of the answers, and I cooked myself a yummy dinner in my quiet studio apartment.

And it hit me - this apartment, this education, the painting, the writing, the rinsing my paint jars while listening to the news on the radio...that part was everything I ever wanted when I was younger.  I wanted an apartment and independence and art and culture...and now I have all of that...well, independence of a sort, I still feel awful about the fact I'm not earning right now, even though I have some work coming up in April. 

Of course, the things that are going badly are what I really need to work on.  But I'm taking my mom's advice and taking this weekend off.  And on Monday I will start tackling my thesis again, even though it is my spring break.  And maybe I will drive to San Diego and go to the zoo.  And if that "winter storm" stays away I'll go to the beach.  And maybe I'll do a nature walk at a nearby national park.  Or find somewhere I can pan for gold - there must be a touristy place to do that somewhere.

I have to say though, I still want that super hot, caring, loving, smart, funny, interesting boyfriend.  One who likes sports, and music, and will at least tolerate plays/ballet/the opera enough to take me once in awhile.  God, are you listening?  Please have him be dark-haired and have a decent name.  No Neptunes or Septimuses.  Oh, and have him like junk food AND real food - and be open to expensive beers and wines.  And if he can not like coffee and tea like me that'd be awesome.  If he likes HGTV and home renovations and gardening that would also be a plus. 

Yeah, that list could go on for awhile...I'll say goodnight now!

Squirrel Apocalypse

So, on my way to class today, just minutes after my last post, I got attacked by a squirrel.  Yes, you read that correctly.  ATTACKED by a squirrel - a SQUIRREL!  You know, if you type a word often enough, it looks funny...

Anyway, I was walking down a sidewalk (minding my own business) when a squirrel darts out of the bushes, jumps on my food, scratches my big toe, rebounds off my leg and disappeared back into the bushes!!!

When I got to class I put my stuff down and washed my toe with antibacterial soap in the girls' bathroom.  Hopefully the squirrel did not have rabies or the Black Death or anything like that.  I don't think it did, and it didn't break the skin either, so I'm not particularly worried.

Class was pretty good today - Dr. Lee was very pleased with my dogged persistence towards testing and retesting each NDVI to see which works best.  It was a little hard not to laugh when he praised my "determined focus" because I've felt so horribly unfocused for the past month.  But praise is a real relief, and it was so nice to feel like I earned some for real!

So I'm home (excitedly awaiting the Project Runway: Allstars finale!) and my spring break has officially begun.  Woo!

Blue, a thousand times blue

Today is one of those California days of brilliant blue skies, palm trees waving gently in the breeze, and the temperature hovering around 64F - although the weather channel warns a winter storm of rain and wind is due this weekend.

The weather, the warmth, the sun, all remind me of why I moved here to California.  On the face of it, I moved here for my career, but whenever someone moves to California there's always another reason - to meet people. 

Sometimes I wonder if my time here would have been different if I had met "those people", because I certainly have met people.  Judy stands among them as being unfailingly awesome, and she's probably responsible for about 70% of my social life here, not to mention she got me a job last fall.

My thesis isn't going well.  My sleep patterns have gotten worse and worse.  I'm lucky if I can fall asleep before 3 am, and I wake up frequently throughout the night...and getting up in the morning requires me turning on the tv (usually I keep the remote by my bed for this purpose) and listening to the noise and seeing the light.

Yesterday was something of a red-letter day because I got two important things done: my application to renew my greencard, and another signature on that stupid form.  I just need one more and then I can move ahead with the Margaret Mead Film Festival...I hope.

Everyone says how wonderful I am for trucking ahead with Margaret Mead all by myself, how great it is I'm looking for another job, and how well I'm doing in GIS and remote sensing...I don't feel wonderful.  I feel tired.  I want my thesis to do itself and I really want Dr. Lipo to let me collect the rest of my data. 

I have to go get ready for class.  Hopefully the job hunt will go better tomorrow.

It's Wednesday already?

Where the heck has the week gone?  Where has the month gone?  Where has the time gone?

I've been something of a mess over the past month...I just don't know what on earth has happened or how the time is gone.  I've been so tired all the time and I've been having such a hard time focusing, and I'm only just barely getting over being sick - still coughing a little.  And even though I've been tired all the time I've had a hard time sleeping too.

So, my plan has been to start taking caffeine pills again.  I've been feeling awake during the days, so we'll see how my sleeping adjusts. 

I managed to go to the meeting yesterday, my doc appointment today, and I need to get up early to go to a special lecture tomorrow.  And then on Friday I have a 2:30 meeting and I'll need to go to the bank for quarters and do laundry...let's hope I get all my laundry done so I can enjoy my Friday afternoon at least!

And somehow I have been gaining weight again, so I need to figure out a new diet plan.  This is incredibly annoying.

Not to mention my job at Bowers has ended and I need to find a new one asap...I can't believe Petsmart didn't want me.  That's so uncool, I really wanted to play with all the puppies, kitties, and rabbits they keep around.  And talk to the birdies and teach them cute one-liners.

Que sera sera...whatever will be, will be.