Friday, January 2, 2009

not so lazy daze...

Dinner last night WASN'T meatloaf, but it was really, really good. Here is what I did. About 1/2 lb of ground pork sausage, some sea salt, some pepper, some ground sage, some minced garlic, and I browned that up. To the ground pork add, one can of black eyed peas including the juice, add to this, a few drops of liquid smoke, and some brown sugar. Don't add to much brown sugar or it will be too sweet. Boil this for a few minutes. I split this into two bowls. THEN, add back to the pan one can of green beans and bring them to the boil so they heat through. Drain the green beans and put them over the top of the black eye peas in the bowls. Serve with bread and butter. It was very good, it was also very filling. lol. It's high fat, high fiber, high vitamins, high protien, and high taste. It also fullfilled our requirement of black eye peas and greens on New Years day. It's a Southern Thing.

Our lazy day was 1/2 a lazy day. lol. I woke up at 6:30 am, which is about when my body wakes me up every day anyway. That's when I wrote the blog and was grumpy about being awake. I also played a few turns on civilization. But after an hour or so found myself nodding back off, so I put up the computer, turned back on my sleep apnea machine and went back to sleep... Until noon. lol. Then I rousted myself and hubby decided to do some stuff too. So between noon and 7pm yesterday we got the following done:

Washed my blanket where Pan barfed on it New years night.
Emptied the turkey fryer into water jugs and refilled it with snow.
filled 2 basins with snow to put into the fryer as it melted down.
made dinner (see above).
Did dishes.
Emptied John (the small porta potty in the cabin).
Delivered some movies up to a friend, and took back his copy of "The Hulk".
Recharged the battery for my sleep apnea machine.

I know it doesn't sound like much, but we actually did do a lot for a day when we were still recovering from sleep deprivation. :D Today the plan is to take a load to the dump, get the mail, put up another shelf, and whatever else comes our way. Nothing solid yet. lol. Life today is still in the formative stage. I know that we do need to do some laundry, but I don't feel like driving into town to do it. So maybe I'll just find a way to wash some jeans here at the house. Since that is what I am out of is jeans. Would probably be good if I washed some other stuff too.

i've been reading a nice old book called "Housekeeping in Old Virginia". It's a compendium of sorts, mostly of recipes, but with some other knowledge tossed in. Edited by Marion Cabell Tyree, and the copyright is 1897. In it I found this recipe which I thought I would share. It actually sounds kind of good.

"To Prepare a Beef's Head as Stock for Soup"

"Cut up the head into small pieces and boil in a large quantity of water until it is boiled to pieces. Take out all the bones as for souse cheese, and boil again until thick. Then, while hot, season very highly with pepper, salt, catsup, allspice, and onion chopped fine.

Put into a mold to get cold. For a small family cut a thick slice, say five inches square, whenever you want soup in a hurry, adding about a quart of water. It need cook for a few minutes only, and is valuable as keeping well and being ready in times of emergency. By adding a few slices of boiled egg and a gill of good cooking wine, this soup may have very nearly the flavor of mock turtle." Mrs. A.M.D.

I know a gill is about the same size as a shot glass. I am guessing that this forms a type of aspic or gelatin, but how do you keep it? Does it dry out and you keep it on the shelf? Or in your icebox / refidgerator?

Another recipe calls for "loppered" milk.. Does anyone know what that is?

I LOVE old cookbooks. I would have a whole room full of them if I could.

Anyway, I am off to find some mischief.

Still recovering some Mrs. Treehaven

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