1. Was the last time I went away by myself, not counting visits to Mom, for as many as twelve or thirteen days when I went to NYC and Washington D.C. in late June/early July of 2012.
Possibly.
Today I diligently packed, made lists of things to remember, and continued to firm up when I will visit what people. Not everything is settled just yet, but it's getting closer all the time.
(I'll add this: I'm eager to go on this trip to Seattle/Portland/Eugene, but while I'm gone, I'm going to miss cooking dinners and other food for Debbie.)
2. Christy assigned me to bring baked beans to family dinner tonight. The ones I've made before in the crock pot call for bacon and I didn't have any on hand, so I looked at recipes that combined pork roast with beans, especially because I have a number of hunks of pork shoulder roast on hand.
I decided to go all out and slow cook a hunk of pork shoulder roast in the oven along with a sauce made from scratch.
Before I did that, though, I baked another dozen Morning Glory muffins for Debbie to have on hand and take to school.
First I made the sauce. I combined brown sugar, molasses, ketchup, dry mustard, salt, and, pepper in a bowl and set it aside.
Next, I heated oil in the Dutch oven and then seared the hunk of pork roast.
I removed the seared hunk of pork and used the oil and grease in the Dutch oven to sauté a chopped onion until soft.
I returned the pork to the pot and poured the sauce over it.
I put the lid on the Dutch oven and roasted the meat at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.
I then took out the Dutch oven, opened it, flipped over the roast, added some water to the sauce, put the lid back on, and roasted the meat for another 45 minutes.
I then took out the Dutch oven, opened it, flipped the roast over again, added water to the sauce, put the lid back on and roasted the meat for 30 minutes.
Now, the recipe's writer and I both hoped that two hours of roasting would have the pork roast falling apart, easily broken up with a fork. It was! I broke up the pork on a plate.
So now I put two cans of butter beans and one can of pinto beans in the sauce, stirred it all up, added a bit more water, put shreds of pork in with the beans, and returned it all to the oven, with the Dutch oven's lid off, to bake for about 30-45 minutes.
The last baking time thickened the sauce and when I tested the beans, sauce, and pork, I was blown away.
On the spot, I became an instant believer in this recipe. You can look at it if you'd like. It's right here.
3. Christy hosted family dinner tonight and prepared each of us a Spicy Bourbon Pumpkin Smash. It combined flavors of pumpkin pie with bourbon, topped off with ginger beer. I'd never had a drink anything like this before and it not only tasted good, it was perfect for the season.
Molly brought a cheese ball and crackers for an appetizer and we all yakked about a bunch of stuff as we enjoyed the first stage of dinner.
For the main course, Christy combined roasted vegetables and accordion slice kielbasa into a dish called Hasselback Kielbasa. The recipe is from Ina Garten's latest cookbook, Go-To Dinners.
Carol made a fascinating cabbage salad that included black vinegar and everything bagel seasoning. I can't remember the other ingredients.
My baked beans rounded out our dinner.
For dessert, Christy make whipping cream to put on her Applesauce and Raisin cake, baked from another Ina Garten recipe.
We talked aa lot tonight about the Silver Valley and all that Molly, Christy, Debbie, and Carol are learning and have learned about this place where we live through their work, paid and volunteer. Molly writes for the local paper and Debbie, Christy, and Carol all work with local children and have learned a lot about the varying plights of local families.
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