Saturday

Well, th'Mr's cousin CC phoned yesterday to say he's in town and would like to come see us before heading home again. CC's a lot of fun; he's in his eighties but really looks like a spry fifty. Women are all the time trying to take him home with them. He makes whiskey and spins nice cups and things out of aluminum and copper, knows a lot of the old country lore and about gardening and gathering; he's fun to be around.

Our house is never the model of cleanliness, but when it's in it's best shape is never when company decides to show. If I want a few days of solitude all I have to do is make everything look nice! Not that CC cares. I can tell, because he keeps coming back. :)

It's not too bad right now. I've been home for six weeks and am slowly gathering up the crap that needs to be tossed or given to charity, and mostly repaired the neglect th'Mr gives the carpets, furniture, kitchen & bath when I'm not here, and when I'm using the sewing machine I tend to vacuum more often, so the kitties don't get a chance to swallow thread and cut their stomachs up with it. But anyway...

I haven't been up that long, let's see, it's eleven and I got up at eight thirty? Got up, made the bed, started a load of laundry, fixed myself a cuppa coffee, washed last night's dinner dishes, picked up a few odds & ends that were out of place in the kitchen, asked th'Mr to take out the compost, the trash, and bring me the vacuum (for some reason our kitchen is carpeted --this will change some day), looked out the window and said "never mind, CC's here, I'm getting in the shower," so I grabbed a robe and jumped in the shower with my toothbrush.

When I got out I got dressed and went to the kitchen, where they were hanging out drinking coffee, asked CC if he'd had breakfast yet (he had) then proceeded to fix lunch.

I soaked a pot of navy beans last night, this morning I rinsed them real good and replaced the water with some "sausage stock" I'd made a few days ago by simmering a pound of ground breakfast sausage (the kind you shape into patties; I use that in all sorts of recipes) and then skimming off the fat layer that forms on top of the resulting "broth."

I'd never been concerned about the fat & cholesterol in food, but since th'Mr's surgery I need to be. Several friends have given and/or lent me some healthy-cooking cook books, and I got the stock idea out of one of them. You simmer chicken and/or pork and a bunch of spices and vegetables, then strain out the solids, set the broth in the fridge and then skim off the fat that congeals on top, use the remaining broth wherever a recipe calls for "stock," or freeze it into stock ice cubes to use some other time.

So I thought, "why not de-fat sausage this way?" I mean, it's meat, and it's already seasoned up. It's just the fat I need to get rid of.

I think I simmered the sausage for too long --just a dip in boiling water will do-- what was left was kind of bland, but I used it in ... something; I don't remember what. Hmmm. Oh, that's right, my previous pot of beans. Okay.

So this morning I put what was left of the sausage stock in this pot of navy beans, and that's what they're cooking in. Then, as an experiment, I broke a couple pounds of hamburger into big chunks & dropped that into boiling water, just long enough for it to come back to a boil, then drained that and mixed up a couple meatloafs. Meatloaves?

When the beans are done I'll pop those in the oven and boil some pasta for macaroni & cheese. So we'll have a late lunch, probably around two.

In the meanwhile I need to do some webwork --a lady in Louisiana has me maintaining her website http://winonacross.com/ and I've got a bit of catching up to do for her. And sometime this weekend I need to start sorting my 2006 tax information. It's all in a cloth bag under my desk; if I did nothing else right last year this is one thing I did, keep it all in one place. It'll be much less of a chore this year.
I hope.

Oh, I have to do all this today and tomorrow, because Monday I'm going back to work, which means I'll be away from home at least through the week, and possibly weekends.

So, enough already. I believe this is the longest blog post I've made since opening the blog. I guess I'm making up for the time I'll miss when I'm working.