Review

I’ve been at this blog for a week and the teacher in me tells me to reflect on that week.  After all, one of my main objectives for this blog was to write purposefully, hopefully improving my writing because I am writing.  I think I have learned a few things.  It is not easy for me to keep it short and succinct.  After ruminating over yesterday’s post, which was the longest one, I realised there was a whole section I could have cut out.  It was interesting to me, but not really anyone else (it may have even offended some).  And it was off topic.  So, I went and did some editing.  My goal in the future, however, is to edit thoroughly before publishing.  I don’t want to spend hours on this project everyday.  I’m feeling pretty happy and confident about this so far.  Welcome to those who were invited to read this week.  I hope I keep it short and interesting enough that you will come back! 

Slow Cooker Secrets

Yay, I’ve been asked to share my secrets!  When I wrote the post yesterday, I thought the secret was to use the slow cooker.  But I guess I have a few more things to share.  I only really use beef and pork. I often put in some pieces of chuck roast and then a neck or something else that is mostly bone, not much meat. This adds a ton of flavour. The juices are great, even if you don’t make gravy with them, you can save them and use them as stock for something else.  I find there’s so much juice that I often make a gravy and still have stock to put in the fridge.   Sometimes I brown the meat first, sometimes I don’t.  It’s yummy both ways but I think the browning brings out another layer of flavour.  I normally choose a recipe online and then adapt it to what I have (I search under "slow cooker recipe")  It almost doesn’t seem to matter what you add, so long as you leave it cooking long enough.  Never put it on after 2pm unless you don’t mind eating after 8pm.  My favourite thing to do is eat it philly-cheese style. That is, inside a Kaiser roll with any old sandwich-y items you might like (which is not what a philly-cheese, but I was only referring to the meat inside the philly-cheese).  The tip to not making it like grandma’s soggy stew is to take out any over-cooked veggies.  You can either add them about 40 minutes before you’re ready (or less?) or cook them separately.  Don’t just slop that meat and juice onto your plate, make something nice with the juice: or don’t use it at all.  I’m aware this is not rocket science, if you have any other tips for me, please comment them!

Pulled Meat

Since thanksgiving in Texas, 2009, JBird and I have been obsessed with any kind of pulled meat.  Our buddy, Bob, made us a delicious brisket the day before we left and we enjoyed the leftovers while waiting on thanksgiving-standby at the airport.  It was a huge hunk of meat, I forget the cut, six hours slow baked and then smoked for another similarly lengthy amount of time.  The smoked flavour is one I will never forget, and the tenderness of that brisket was amazing.  We’re definitely carnivorous!  In Baltimore, thanks to a critique on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives on the food network, we discovered a diner that made a delicious pit beef sandwich.  I’m not sure what they did to make it so tender but it’s apparently a Baltimore BBQ specialty.  This year, we bought a $3 slow cooker at the local goodwill store.  We will never be able to reproduce that delicious Texan brisket. But I believe I have discovered a secret to lovely, soft, falling off the bone meat.  The hard part is making sure I use it well: there’s a fine line between soft, yummy meat inside a good sandwich with perfectly chosen condiments and Grandma’s Sloppy Stew.

A Two Year Old's Present

A little girl I look after sometimes is turning two this weekend so I crocheted her a fish today for her birthday.  It’s pretty cute, with googley eyes.  Crocheting is a pretty satisfying hobby.  You create something, give it to some kid and their mum loves it because it was handmade (or I hope they do). The kids don’t love ‘em quite so much, I don’t think, they just aren’t all that shiny and ...well...store bought.  However, I still own something my Aunty made me when I turned two or three and I really like having that so I’m hoping that will happen for one or two of these gifts. I hope I always have time to make things for others.

Baking Bread

Monday is housework day and to make me feel better about all the housework, it’s also bread baking day.  Baking bread has become one of my all-time favourite things to do.  The obsession stems from that smell when I was a child and mum baked Hot Cross Buns.  I think.  Then I started getting a bit more serious about it when I lived in a third world Asian country and real bread was not available (though many other delights were).  Recently I watched the Julia Child French Chef DVDs and got the tip from her to keep the dough super moist and not knead it quite so much.  So now I follow recipes but I never add as much flour AND I hardly knead it.  My bread is light and fluffy and delicious.  Today I made two loaves of cinnamon raisin bread – a big one and a smallish one.  Needless to say, I have gobbled the small one in less time than it took me to bake it.

Readers Null and Void

As yet, I have no readers. Not even my husband (who knows I’m trying to do this). I think it’s because I’m pretty sure I’ll fail AND it’s exactly what the rest of the world is attempting. There is a huge mummy blog collection of recipes/hobbies/pretty photos. People who’re home for their kids and are finding things to do in the meantime. I’m not even home for my kids. I’m just home. So I’ll write for a while, get a collection of stuff up, and then maybe invite a reader.  Maybe. I don’t want this to be self-deprecating. Or fluffy. I just want it to reflect a side of me that I’m willing to share. On a side note, I baked tasted-like-store-bought-chocolate-chip-cookies today. They were amazing. 

Procrastinating

I am a world class procrastinator. I treat myself when I don’t deserve it (ahhhh...15 minutes of work, time for a cup of tea!) and decide things are urgent, when they really aren’t, just to get out of doing what I should be doing. At the moment I’m trying to write a paper. 

When I’m working and busy, and writing, I always desire more time to write. It turns out that when all I have to do is write, I am still unable to just sit down and get it done. Instead, I watch shows (and whole movies), read, knit, tidy, bake, prepare dinner early, check the mail, read online newspapers, bike down the road on errands, water the garden/pot plants, redecorate the house (!) and worst of all: check my facebook page. My goal this week is to spend the morning writing but in the afternoon, I’m allowed to do all those other things. Then, if I’m free in the evening I will review my morning’s work. By putting some structure (and self discipline) into it, I hope to write a really good paper. Let’s see how I go. 

The First One

Today I read this (thanks Alana Strong for posting it). And I am challenging myself to this: Aneverydaythought...Every day I will write a paragraph. Why? 1. I’m new to this town, I don’t have many people to talk to right now, and I don’t want to bother those I love with things they can’t relate to too often (don’t worry, they will still get bothered).  2. I’m a teacher/educator and I believe in the principal of practicing in a meaningful way (I will be practicing succinct writing).  3. I don’t have a lot going on in my life at the moment but I do love a lot of things about life and would like to share those things, yet I find facebook a little more outgoing than I want to be...all these people I don’t really know being forced to read about me. I prefer this quieter way of sharing. There’s my first paragraph, with one heckuva big sentence in the middle there.  Hmmmm...