Translate

Sunday, October 8, 2017

a quiet Sunday... more or less

DH went off to buy a Sunday paper and pick up some hot Krispy Kreme donuts this morning. I had awakened early (around 4:30 or so) hungry. I had been to the pottery studio from 9 to about 4 Saturday with only a cup of tea and toast before I left. This isn't unusual as I don't generally eat while working, and did have some chicken wings and home-made garlic coleslaw at 4pm. But I guess that by 4 Sunday morning, I needed another cup of tea. So after making myself one, I sat with the cats in the den and watched re-runs of Murder She Wrote until about 6:30 when I returned to bed until 8.

For once it wasn't my 'monkey mind' keeping me awake... but my stomach wanting food (or tea). 

So perhaps my hunger prompted me to make a roast for Sunday dinner. DH had purchased a 2 lb eye of the round at Central Market Friday... so I defrosted it, stuffed it with garlic cloves, browned it in bacon grease, and added Yukon gold potatoes, yellow onions, fresh carrots, sliced green pepper, a bay leaf, basil, parsley, and S and P. Cooked it in the 450 oven for 15 mins, the 350 oven for 30 mins, and then left it all in the covered casserole in the 250 oven until about 5 pm when we took out the roast, cut it up, added gravy, and put it all back together until 6... when I served it over brown rice. Needless to say, it was very tender and delicious. We don't eat a lot, so have dinner for at least one if not 2 more nights.



Sunday roast and veggies

For those of you who may not remember, the reason for the oven changes is that we have an AGA... which is a little different way of cooking.  There are no knobs to control temperature. It had 4 ovens which are always heated to 150, 250, 350,  and 450. 



our AGA


I did text our family in New Orleans and on the coast of Mississippi to check on how they fared with Hurricane Nate... and all did fine... no flooding thank goodness. 

Spoke to my son and grandson in Hawaii and they are all doing well too... enjoying the weather and culture on Oahu... and getting used to a slower way of life.

Decided to make a few more clay chickens and after thinking how to make them 'different'... came up with making a mama hen and some baby chicks under her wing. I already did a mama on her eggs in a nest...


mama hen and eggs on nest



but this would encompass a mama hen with her little ones under her wings  (I should do one with her baby chicks climbing on top of her... my daughter has sent me pictures of this from her own hen house).

This is what I came up with... again still greenware. Clay has to dry, be under-glazed, fired, blackbird added, then fired again.  



view 1

view 2

Think you can see them better in view 2. They will be more obvious once underglazed. 

That's about the news here.  (Well, we almost took in an old dog that was going to be euthanized at the Animal Shelter this week. Someone saw him there and put his picture on our neighborhood website asking for a foster home for him until a permanent one could be found. His name was Chester and he's apparently an old beagle (with heart worms to boot). But look at this face... our cats would not have been happy, but they could live with it. I was working on DH when another post came in that someone had taken him.  



Isn't that the sweetest face?


Have a wonderful week! And as always, thanks for reading...

(oh, almost forgot... when I was up drinking my tea at 4am, I went to the front window to look out and see what the weather was like... and there in the front of the house running up and down the street in the dark was a coyote... very thin, but a fairly good size. I knocked on the window and he stopped, looked at me for a minute, and then took off in the opposite direction. We see them quite a bit around here since the creek and greenback run behind the houses.) 









 

11 comments:

  1. love the chook & baby chicks, very cute, can't wait to see them finished

    well i did rescue a furbaby tonight, my daughter contacted me about a poor 10mth old cat (who had had some kittens but they couldn't find them) who was going to be put down tomorrow, so i said i'll take her, if it saves her, she is a lovely tortoiseshell.
    glad the old beagle found a place.
    thanx for sharing

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kudos for rescuing young mama cat! We had a wonderful tortie (Molly) for 22 years. She was a kitten our son rescued from the area around his apartment building many years ago.

      Delete
  2. your oven sounds complicated, never heard of one of those, love your chickens

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Actually Linda, it's very simple... no knobs to turn, no temps to set... and never needs pre-heating as it's always on and ready to go. Keeps me and the cats warm in the winter too! Used to be used in England a lot and you can see it on old PBS shows.

      Delete
  3. You always make the yummiest food....The mother hen with the chicks is adorable (so is the little bunny in the background of the pics).

    Thank goodness someone took the dog! He deserves to live out the remainder of his life in comfort and surrounded by love.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, Kim, I'm so glad someone took Chester as he was preying on my mind. Couldn't get that sweet face out of my head. I agree he needs to live what's left of his life being spoiled and comforted.

      Delete
  4. I love your chicks, all of them. And yes, I couldn't have resisted that dog's face, either. You have a very kind heart, Rian, and I enjoy slipping into your posts and peeking into your quiet full life. :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. As I do yours, DJan. You have created a very full comfortable retirement life for yourself and I love reading about it.

      Delete
  5. I always wondered about the AGA cookers. Now I know, thanks! I love when beef is "fall apart" tender. -Jenn

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We love our AGA, Jenn. It's not for everyone as your kitchen can get hot in the Texas summer, but it's sure great the rest of the year. The cats, myself, daughter, and grand daughter sit on the floor and lie against it while talking in the winter... so comfy.

      Delete
  6. I am quite impressed with your chicken collection from the previous post. I'm sure the flock will love their new members. (I do!) Since we lost Sylvester Kitty a couple of years ago, we only have barn kitties, all of which head for the nearest shelter when Millie, our shelter pup, comes near.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for reading and commenting! It makes my day...