You just know it will be one of "those" days when the complaints begin before you even get out of bed. Tuesday was no exception for me. Before I had pulled myself out from under the warm covers and into the dark chilly room, I heard it. The way the day was going to go. Houston was sitting outside my door filing a protest. Houston is good at this and will keep it up until something is done about his issues.
Here he cannot comfortably nap in his chosen spot because Bane, the dog, is too close to my lap.
The door is not opening fast enough.
Houston used to file his complaints civilly before Bane came. He was rather like the clown in the U.S. Postal commercials. He would sit by the offending object, stare and make one noise. If you failed to comply the next time you turned around he would be much closer to you. Making another noise and so on until all was in an orderly fashion or he tripped you and caused you to fall down.
So you get the idea of how the day started. Houston's issues dealt with. next problem yesterday's debris. The DH is still laid off and the DS, which is recovering nicely, both seem to think all things of a household nature are done by magic. Go figure. Totally trained them wrong. My bad!
I thought it prudent to stay away from sharp objects for awhile. Much safer to check my email, attend to a few online things and have my coffee. That usually cheers me up. It did until it became apparent I had no patience for people and there was WAY too much fiber in my diet this day.
***I do not get mean, nasty little people. Sometimes they are grey ghosts slinking in like a putrid fog. I do not understand why they go out of their way to be shits to others. You know that takes time and energy to be hateful, mean or just plain nasty. We are only given a certain amount of time to live this life so wouldn't it be better to try spending each day learning or creating something positive or happy? Don't get me wrong, poke me with a stick and I will respond. You just may not see it coming :) Poke a friend and I feel just as obliged to poke back! I should turn the other cheek and take the high road, 'fraid that isn't always possible.
Jeez and Tuesday's fiber. I really like reading over breakfast. However, reading the same story 4,5 or 12 times even if by different people wasn't working for me. After all, I had it from a good source the fiber in the stories sucked. Given my curious nature, I had to go see for myself and do my own random survey. First inspect the ingredient list. Barf, I wouldn't feed this to anyone but my diabetic cousin. Another site stopped giving the product an endorsement for reasons I can agree with. Particularly one ingredient but I was curious about a couple of the others so I kept looking. Seriously, they can put that in our food? I'll gnaw on a tree of my own choice thanks and take a pass on the cotton balls too. And to think I could have participated in this fun also. Might regret passing on that free membership when it comes time to renew mine though. Oh well, such is Life.***
What to do? Watching the horses walking in their pen made me think some fresh air would make a world of difference in my day. Granted, I ended up cleaning stalls but hey a little exercise never hurts. Unless, while supervising the cleanup one horse pushes another into you and onto your foot. For those unfamiliar with horses, they will come see what you are doing in much the same manner as dogs and small children. There is also an enforceable pecking order. Old horse felt big young horse was getting a better view of the cleanup and since there might be food involved the need to shove the youngster out of the way was overwhelming.
The option of going back to bed being long gone, I proceeded with the day. Pretty much it went along like my brilliant breakfast idea for New Year's Day did. After a late night, I got up with the thought to make a fancy brunch based on recently viewed AR recipes and on hand ingredients. How hard could this be to make baked eggs in a cup? I have a silpat muffin "tin" so it wouldn't stick. I had bacon, bread, cheese, chervil, ham and eggs. Flatten bread quarters slightly and place in cups. OK. I want them crispy. Bake before adding other ingredients. OK. Saute bacon and chop ham. Go get fresh chervil which is finally growing. Hmm, that is chervil right? Nope. Dill. Huh, finally the summer-sown dill grows. Back into the kitchen. Why does there appear to be less ham? Perhaps, I'm mistaken I see no guilty furry faces. Onto the eggs. They have to be beaten cause DH can't eat egg whites. No problem. Toss in some leftover cheese dip (Ryan's Reverse Popper dip goes great with lots of things :) and the chopped dill. The bread crisped nicely so above it I'll wrap the bacon and ham. Perfect. Pour in the egg mixture and top with leftover croutons. Now the tricky part. Getting them baked properly. First time out they were looking good but not cooked enough for my crew. Back in. Darn it! Then they were over done. My baked eggs were eaten without enthusiasm. Oh well, I tried. The leftovers would make breakfast for me later or they would have if they hadn't disappeared during the day.
Now if anyone can tell me how to get cooked but not overcooked baked eggs I would appreciate it. I would really like to make this again but how to get soft but not runny or hard boiled eggs as the end result?
So you see I am used to having days like my torqued Tuesday. And this day was fast approaching the dinner planning hour. What to do with hamburger and potatoes? I''d looked at different recipes and was coming up blank so I asked a cooking guru for ideas. She comes back with the perfect recipe. Well, it was perfect right up to the point I told the guys what I was going to make. "EEeeeeewww is that like the crap you made 4 years ago for Christmas? That was awful. Yeah, I hated it." Deep sigh! So plan B and I still got nothing but hamburger and potatoes to work with. I refuse to waste the guru's time looking for another recipe. We've already gone thru all the Tex-Mex recipes. Had hamburgers and fries. Had pizza. Gotta be something different. Even deeper sigh....
Okay, an AR recipe called for hamburger and hash browns. Hmm, doable... maybe. Thanks to a reviewer suggesting making their own hash browns the light bulb went on. It must have been all that fiber in the morning that made me think of the Galloping Gourmet.
Yes, I'm old enough to remember when he cooked with butter and wine but it was his later show that gave me that rewarding DING DING moment. I'm guessing this was at
least 15 years ago when he started making his recipes more healthful. Back then, that show didn't inspire me to cook any different but I appreciated his efforts to reduce fat and calories while keeping his dishes flavorful. After all, even if cardboard were good for you it would still taste like cardboard. Can't think of any additives that would change that.
So what's the light bulb flashing over? The hash browns. The reviewer suggested rinsing thoroughly and then drying the hash browns well on paper towels. Not going to happen, I'm down to my last roll. Thank you, Galloping Gourmet, for reducing salad dressing calories by spinning salad and dressing together in a salad spinner. Salad to hash browns? Remember it is a torqued Tuesday after all.
Shredded the hash browns in my lovely food processor. Rinsed thoroughly. Then spun by handfuls until dry in my great thrift store find salad spinner! Look how much water came out. Yeah!
So thousands of others have probably already had this light bulb moment but on this day, it was MINE and it WORKED!
Browned hamburger with garlic and onion. Tossed now dry hash browns with EVOO, chopped fresh rosemary, garlic, salt and pepper. Made 3 nests on my silpat. Topped with hamburger, chopped onion, green pepper and cheese. Baked until cheese melted and potatoes were crispy.
Did I get any compliments on dinner you ask. Are you kidding? There are days I feel the only way to get a compliment around here is to surgically remove it!
And so went my Totally Torqued Tuesday. How was yours? :)(:
