What a delicious day off!
That lovely bowl of yum you are looking at is stewed okra and tomatoes over rice, with some slow cooked pork on top. It started life as a chop, but once rebby put it in the slow cooker with beer, apple cider, maple syrup, smoked paprika, and I'm not sure what else (I wasn't around when she was doing her magic)for about 5 hours, it just melted off the bone. Oh good lord. I put the okra, cut up tomatoes, onions, garlic, water, cayenne pepper, oregano and some gumbo file in my tiny little "Crockette" crock pot, and then I topped it off with a little bit of bacon I had cooked up until just done. That stewed for about 5 hours too, until the okra was just falling apart and the tomatoes had turned themselves into sauce. It was the most amazing sweet and spicy, earthy, chewy, soul satisfying dinner I've had in a long time. AND, I was listening to a profile of Ian McKellen on NPR while I was eating it. Apparently Sir Ian is currently staring in King Lear for the Royal Shakespeare company, AND doing a bit part in The Seagull...for an ENTIRE YEAR.
He's amazing.
So, besides making and eating that sweetheart of a meal, would you like to know what else I did with my day? I'll tell ya. I made a big long list of things to take care of (currently numbering 35) and took care of 5 of them. To be fair, the list is primarily for the weekend and primarily things for rebby and I to do together, but I decided to use my day off to get a head start. So even though that's a pretty small percentage, I should still be commended. Plus, the things I did--like hang up some pirate stuff in the pirate bathroom, and organize my cookbooks, and clean and organize the pantry shelves--have made a huge improvement in the quality of life already. I also took care of some business email, and ate a lot of cookies. I only baked half of the cookie dough I made Tuesday night, and I think that's a good thing because I will probably have eaten all the cookies by the end of the day. They are just that good. Oaty and salty and sweet and chocolately. And so good with coffee!
I found out yesterday when reading through the CP that the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus is peforming at the Rex on Friday (that's tomorrow) and that their tour is sponsored by Magic Hat and that there is going to be beer drinking contests. Despite all those pluses, the $18 door price coupled with the fact that it's the South Side on a Friday night are going to prevent me from going. Plus, I really need to spend the evening rolling grape leaves. Plus, I have an important garage sale to attend early Saturday morning. I can say no more.