Saturday, January 8, 2011

Three Beautiful Things 01/07/11: Doc, Porketta, Eagles

1.  Now that things are pretty steady in the world of my physical and mental health, I can enjoy my quarterly visits to Dr. Ghandour.  As looked over my numbers, almost everything confirmed that, yeah, I should be feeling pretty good.  I have chronic kidney disease so that will never change.  The hope is that my numbers remain at a certain baseline.  That's where they are.  Whenever I say anything about my health, it's in the context of my chronic illness and given that I am chronically ill, things look really good right now.

2.  The other day I picked up a 3.8 pound porketta, a cut of pork roast seasoned in an Italian fashion, cut and seasoned by Carlton Farms.  I'd never had porketta before.  I covered it with foil, put it in a roasting pan which I covered with foil and left in the oven at 350 degrees for nearly four hours.  The idea is to pull apart the pork, not slice it.  The result:  heavenly.  It might be the best pork I've eaten.  Carlton Farms seasoned this cut of pork beautifully and it fell apart magnificently. The Deke and I couldn't believe we were eating such good food in our own home and we have plenty left over for sandwiches or to reheat.  It was a glorious discovery for us and I'm hoping Carlton Farms porketta is available pretty regularly at the local stores that sell Carlton Farms meats.

3.  Whenever the Deke and I go to the Inland Empire together, we try to get off I-90 and take a spin through Cheney where the Deke earned her undergraduate degree at EWU and where she lived with her three children.  It was a challenging, difficult time and a time that the Deke and the kids hold dear.  For me, having all this family history, before I staggered into the scene,  tied up in EWU made the fact that the Eagles won the FCS national football championship a source of happiness.  I studied French for one summer term at EWU with Madame Siefert . . . so, I guess, in some small way,  I'm an Eagle, too!  Doesn't matter.  I love Eastern Washington and North Idaho and Western Montana and I love it when teams from my favorite region in the USA prevail.

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