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Cleanup Sunday...
Mar. 13th, 2005 06:19 pmSo by the time I got back home yesterday after closing the store and making some last-minute purchases at the market, I was behind schedule on making dinner, assuming that chore was to take three hours or so. (Most of the recipes for corned beef and cabbage I'd looked at online started with "Get out your slow cooker..." and ended with something like "... Let this cook for 10-12 hours." Ri-i-i-ight!)
By the time I started, I had almost three hours left (assuming company was going to be 20 minutes late :^), so I adapted a recipe I found for cooking corned beef in ale (Simon Smith's Nut Brown), which invovlved small red potatos, onion, carrot, and a dash of mustard. (Of course, I also added the spice packet that came with the beef, along with my usual standby: chopped garlic.)
As the main course was softly burbling away, I swirled around the place like that cartoon character who claims to be from Tasmania. However, given the sheer volume of what I had to do, it was clear I was not going to be able to do all the cleaning, vacuuming, etc. that needed to be done. (Of course, having the vacuum cleaner conk out on you tends to "solve" the problem of vacuuming, and stinks up the living room with the aroma of burnt rubber, as a bonus.) So, in the last few minutes before dropping into the shower to clean off, I did the whole "Potemkin village" gig (i.e., I simply hid all the ugly stuff).
I'd never made corned beef before, so I didn't know what to expect. The guests declared the effort tasty, and backed up the opinion with appropriate chewing, swallowing, and a second helping. This morning, I chopped up one of the leftover slices along with one of the leftover potatoes and made some home-style corned beef hash (which probably canceled out most of the last two weeks of cholesterol-lowering oatmeal consumption, not even counting the ham breakfasts on Fridays). The only thing that was missing was the usual stop-an-elephant-in-its-tracks parcel of salt you get in the canned stuff.
I've been chasing paper and cleaning around the house today, with more of the latter than the former. I've emptied four boxes, if that's any measure.
I am also ravenously hungry. I should probably go cook that salmon I bought a couple of days ago.
Cheers...
By the time I started, I had almost three hours left (assuming company was going to be 20 minutes late :^), so I adapted a recipe I found for cooking corned beef in ale (Simon Smith's Nut Brown), which invovlved small red potatos, onion, carrot, and a dash of mustard. (Of course, I also added the spice packet that came with the beef, along with my usual standby: chopped garlic.)
As the main course was softly burbling away, I swirled around the place like that cartoon character who claims to be from Tasmania. However, given the sheer volume of what I had to do, it was clear I was not going to be able to do all the cleaning, vacuuming, etc. that needed to be done. (Of course, having the vacuum cleaner conk out on you tends to "solve" the problem of vacuuming, and stinks up the living room with the aroma of burnt rubber, as a bonus.) So, in the last few minutes before dropping into the shower to clean off, I did the whole "Potemkin village" gig (i.e., I simply hid all the ugly stuff).
I'd never made corned beef before, so I didn't know what to expect. The guests declared the effort tasty, and backed up the opinion with appropriate chewing, swallowing, and a second helping. This morning, I chopped up one of the leftover slices along with one of the leftover potatoes and made some home-style corned beef hash (which probably canceled out most of the last two weeks of cholesterol-lowering oatmeal consumption, not even counting the ham breakfasts on Fridays). The only thing that was missing was the usual stop-an-elephant-in-its-tracks parcel of salt you get in the canned stuff.
I've been chasing paper and cleaning around the house today, with more of the latter than the former. I've emptied four boxes, if that's any measure.
I am also ravenously hungry. I should probably go cook that salmon I bought a couple of days ago.
Cheers...
