Apropos of Nothing v.4

I have a Puerto Rican style pork roast in the oven, and it smells so good I'm about to go crazier.

If anybody was thinking about joining the Summer Hill co-op, time is running out. A little over 24 hours left... don't miss it!

ok, what is a Puerto Rican pot roast? It sounds good.

Ok, I guess I better go have another last look at the seeds. I think I need some Petunia seeds.

Hope your birthday has been wonderful, Willow.

Lynn, glad to see you back here.....How did things go? We thought about you a lot the last couple of days.

Puerto Rican pork roast is a pork shoulder roast in an adobo marinade. I can give you the recipe if you want it. :)

must set the record straight: at 50 one becomes a Curmudgeon. Cantankerous is merely a temporary state. Example: a Curmudgeon without morning coffee becomes cantankerous. Steer clear, or bring offerings.

Lynn - hope you are well & able to run around accomplishing much.

Will the rain ever stop? Let's be clear - weekend days would be a great place to start drying out.
I loathe working dark-to-dark...makes Poop Patrol difficult.

But who can find the poop for the leaves? I'm with you, Kate. I'm counting down to December 23, when the days start getting longer again.

Hmmm...I discovered in a very tactile sort of way that neither wet leaves, nor poop, crunch. I have deemed it the PNW effect.
Discerning color with a headlamp proves lacking, too.
Shape - this is where one must have extreme visual skill. "Spot the anomaly".
Or ask your pups where the heck the piles are. Except for my Amber (Lab). She deposits while moving, so there are trails. She might have picked that up from Hansel & Gretel...

My dog is so private I have no idea where she does her business.
Dang cats are another matter. I discovered the hard way that the dry dirt in the woodshed had become a giant catbox.

I just had a young woman come visit to see about renting one of my rooms. She's only 31 & suffers from fibromyalgia. The woman who sold me this house was moving to Mexico because of her fibro. Does anyone know -- is it more prevalent here for some reason? Thirty-one seems awfully young to have that disease.

:-) Been there, Kate.

SK, I have one that used to run down the beach to find a private spot. Didn't do much to help me clean up after him. He still "goes" in the bushes.

MS is more prevalent in Washington than in other states and there is a school of thought that there are MS-causing viruses that are more prevalent here because our temperatures are more moderate than elsewhere. Might be the same with Fibromyalgia - I know my SIL suffers from it.

I know a ton of young-ish people in Washington State who have Fibromyalgia. It's rampant here.

It seems like such an awful disease. Tara can't pay the going rate for the room but wants to do work around the house as a trade-off. But I don't see how she can if her job exhausts her as it is.

She really wants to live here -- I think she sees it as a safe place to be.

They are also thinking it may be related to shortage of vitamin D. How much work this lady can do depends on how bad she has it and whether it is under control. It can be a real bugger of a problem.

Beahive! OO NOOOOOO! That is terrribbllleee! I would just lay down and cry real tears if my greenhouse blew down. I hope it cleans up well and the plants survive.

Lynn, how's the nose?

Katie59,, what is my gardening cover? I'm in the dark on that one. You mean the greenhouse?

My shredded leaves smell suspiciously like dogpoop.

Willow, hope your birthday was extra fine!

Went to my kid's opening night for his play tonight. It's just so wierd seeing my kid on the stage. Good, but wierd. I could hardly look at him because I didn't want him to catch my eye and see us in the audience, then get nervous.

Best belated birthday wishes for you, dear Willow.

"ornery"-- thank goodness for spell check on Firefox.
I always spelled varmint as varmit too.
I can't spell.
Have lousy grammar.
Lousier handwriting.
Poor communication skills.
Little on the ugly side
opinionated
slow
can't dance
backward, ignorant
and I stink.
There.
Don't want to present myself any higher or lower than what I am.
I like myself. Makes laughing at the world filled with irony and perplexity,
awe and stupidity a pleasant journey, everyday. I just add to it.
So with that introduction:
Sofer, didn't mean to disparage a wonderful celebration you can
have with family and community, its not what my experience and observation
showed me in my travels through Montana, been there a hundred times. In the winter it was anti-freeze and
in summer it was like water. After the job the friendliest people in the world -you guys- takes
in strangers as part of this big over-flowing family, add elixir and most times = good times for all
and the few other time-- well - its family.

and happy birthday and sounds like great pot roast and fibro is being diagnosed far better and called
other things earlier and use lime and Ridex on that poop.

Pony I want the adobo pork. I have friends in Juneau that rave about Puerto Rican adobo. They say it is the best food in the world.
The rest of this I am staying out of. You guys sound pretty aggressive to me. Hey how about a trip to some sunny location to get your cabin fever correted.

Here ya go, Steve:

Puerto Rican Adobo Pork Roast
----------------------------------------------

4 cloves garlic, peeled
1 medium onion, peeled and quartered
2 Tablespoons fresh oregano or 1 Tablespoon dried oregano
1 Tablespoon sea salt
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
2 Tablespoons oil (peanut oil is recommended)
2 Tablespoons wine vinegar

1 pork shoulder roast (boneless is better, I usually get a 4 lb. one)

Mix the first five ingredients together in a food processor, adding the oil in a drizzle and scraping down the sides as necessary. Blend in the vinegar.

Rub this mixture into the pork, getting it into every nook and cranny you can find. Place in a glass dish, cover, and refrigerate for at least a few hours. (I make it the night before so it marinates at least 18 hours)

Place in roasting pan with lid, and roast in a 350 degree oven. Turn and baste the roast every 30 minutes. Cook until internal temperature of meat is between 150 and 160 degrees. (Mine usually takes around two and a half hours, your mileage may vary)

Let the meat rest for 15 minutes before attacking with a knife.

Pix, I meant the portable setup you rig up so you can garden in the bad rain - you referred to it once. I imagined it was something like this:

http://www.sportsauthority.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3084229&CAWELAID=185824711

Dirt - that was pretty comprehensive. Don't forget to add the fact that you can take a mighty fine photo to that list.

Yum!

Wow that pork roast recipe sounds yummy. I will definitely try that!

I learned how to make the very best turkey gravy a few years ago from a friend who learned to cook in Paris at that famous school whatever it's called... The week before Thanksgiving put about 6 turkey thighs in a roasting pan on top of a bed of large chunks of celery, onions and carrots. I sometimes throw in a small breast and might have it for dinner. When the thighs are done, cut the meat off the bones, put the bones back in the roasting pan with the vegs, and roast for about a half hour, until the drippings in the pan are caramelized. Baste the thighs with a little white wine mixed with melted butter. I use a convection oven for this so you need to adjust time. When the bones are really brown and the juices are caramelized - you'll know it when you see it - take the pan out of the oven, discard the vegs (or eat them) and use the same pan to make the gravy. When the gravy is just about done, add a little warmed apple cider - but do this slowly and keep tasting so the cider does not overpower the turkey flavor. Let cool, and freeze in large baggie until needed. This really helps if you are using a brined turkey for the dinner, since sometimes the brined ones are a little salty for making gravy and you don't get that nice caramelization. If I throw a breast in with the thighs I slice it up and freeze it with the thigh meat in some of the gravy and voila - more to add to your leftovers. Need more gravy? Use more thighs. Since I can't eat gluten I use potato flour to thicken the gravy, and it's actually better than wheat flour since it gives a more complex flavor. So there - you can make your gravy way ahead of time!

No cabin fever here - I love this weather. Maybe I'm a vampire. That seems to be popular right now!

That roast and gravy sound sooo good. Do you bake the thighs at 350 or 325?

I am going to try making your gravy. Now I am hungry.

I use 325 but in a convection over so you might want to use 350 in a regular oven. If I use my regular oven I use 350. It probably doesn't matter! Just adjust the time.

Making it ahead really makes the big day easier, and you have more for leftovers. That's a big deal in our house! This year I'm putting my frozen baggie of turkey & gravy in a cooler when I drive to my parents house. My mom just doesn't understand that if I have gluten I get very very sick. So I am happy to bring my own pie and turkey.

Thanks I will use my convection oven also. I think I will make it to take to my daughters. I always have to make the gravy anyway. I might as well make it at home.

I wonder if you could puree the veggies and add them to the gravy? Some of it anyway. You can also use cornstarch for thickening, makes a nice clear gravy.

I have never added the vegs to the gravy but that sounds like it might be tasty. The real secret is to make sure the bones are nice and brown and the drippings caramelized. About once a month I roast beef or chicken bones and then make stock with them in a slow cooker. But it takes a lot of chicken bones!

Happy belated birthday Willow!

Glad to see you back Lynn!

Dirt-great post-please stick around!

Thanks for the recipes everyone! (Rick says Thanks & Yum, too!)

Judi, how do you make gluten free pie crust?

Apropos of nothing; I have a very dear friend who's going through an ugly breakup of a long, unhealthy relationship. I spent an hour and a half on the phone with her last night. She told me that my wisdom and strength have helped her deal with things for the past several years... my wisdom? My strength? I don't feel wise and strong. In fact, I usually feel kinda dumb and wimpy.

Weird how other people's perceptions of you can be so radically different than your own. I mean, I'm really glad that she's found the things I've said to her helpful, but.... it's just weird. I don't know.

In other news; one of my cats has decided she likes pomegranate. She chomps them down pips and all. Crazy cat.

Susybell, I sometimes make pie crust out of nuts and other flours, but the easiest recipe is to get in your car, drive to New Seasons market, and find it in the frozen case. It's great.

Look what we awoke to yesterday morning. The good thing is we wanted that darn tree down anyway. (It was dead). I still can't believe it didn't hit anything.

Pony, I get the same reaction from people out of proportion to my own bumbling life. My brother says I'm a "healer."

I'll bet that you have been just a great sounding board for her, really listening & not inserting your own ego or agenda into your advice. Perhaps?

I can't wait to try the pork roast. Maybe that is what we will have tomorrow night, if I 'm feeling up to it. My throat and nose still hurts, so I haven't eaten anything all week. I am really hungry now.I want to make Judi's gravy, Pony's pork roast, a recipe I saw for Paula Deen's cornbread stuffing, and Joey wants me to make Sweet Potato Pie ( I never made it before either) or something, made out of butternut squash.

Pony, that is g ood that you can be there for your friend in her time of need. Sometimes just the smallest interception on your part can make such a huge difference in someone's life at that moment.

What does the roasting of the bones themselves contribute to the gravy?

Ya know, Summer... I think that's about the size of it. I know I'm a good listener, and I make a point of telling people they aren't stupid for letting bad things happen to them.

Lynn, I'm so glad that tree went the direction it did. *whew* And hey! Free firewood!

All this talk of food is making me so hungry. We're having leftover pork tonight, it reheats quite nicely. Yum!

Judi, Ahhhhh, I like that recipe! (And New Seasons, too-great stores.)

Pony when I was going through my divorce my best friend kept me sane. It meant the world to me.

Lynn I hope your throat and nose feel better soon - do you notice a difference in your breathing?

Summer the roasting of the bones gives super flavor to the gravy because of the caramelization. You know those tasty little drippings in the bottom of the pan when you roast meat? That's from caramelization and when you roast the bones it enhances the flavor.