Home Alone

The phrase “Home Alone” (which I apparently have used once before) best describes my weekend. However unlike on previous occasions I am not whining about this, rather I am celebrating it.

My Only Saturday/Sunday Excursion
Saturday morning I hopped into the M6 and took 285 around to Buford Highway; my destination was the Buford Highway Farmers Market. I wanted to go to the BHFM in hopes of getting quality food for cheap prices. While the former is certainly still true, the latter is debatable.

Being semi-strict about what ended up in my basket I bought the ingredients for two meals, and as a bonus I bought a tube of mortadella sausage (YUM! Where have you been all my life?) and some rolls on which to eat it. Lunch on Saturday and Sunday were simple mortadella sliced and put inside a roll that had some mustard slathered in it. Delicious!

Since I was on Buford Highway and was smart enough to pack a small cooler and an ice block to keep meat purchases cold, I stopped into REI on my way back to East Atlanta. I did it, I purchased the Yakima HoldUp 1.25″, though I’m still curious to see how easy it will be to install and uninstall on demand. ITP-Reader Barb, do you keep yours on the Crosstrek at all times? As an added bonus I got to say hello to an old hasher friend, Afterbirth, who was entering REI as I was leaving with my booty (the bike rack and not the pleasant REI employee who helped me purchase it and then wheeled it out to the M6).

Look Who’s Cooking (Again)
You may have rightly guessed that the reason I drove all the way up to the Buford Highway Farmers Market was to buy ingredients to cook. This was a weekend of eating in, eating well, and having enough leftover to last me the four days that I will be in Atlanta. While I’m certainly pleased to have some leftovers, I really need to start halving recipes because they are clearly not written with one person in mind.

On Saturday night I cooked a new-to-me Irish Stew recipe, which stated made four servings. This would be accurate if the four people eating were Irish rugby players! Here it is in the assembly stage:
I Might Have Some Leftovers
BTW- That’s a 7.5 quart Dutch oven.

The meal (the first of many) was good, though I slightly overcooked it. Also, the recipe called for two pounds of lamb stew meat (which is expensive and was not sold boneless so I wound up paying for things I can’t eat!) but I went 75% beef stew meat and 25% lamb stew meat. In the future I may just go 100% beef stew meat to save some money, even if it means that I am not making a traditional Irish Stew.

On Sunday morning I started another new recipe in the crockpot, a cauliflower and potato stew. I decided to cook on Low so the base of the stew cooked all day while I putzed around the house doing some cleaning and organizing. By 5:30pm the soup components were ready for a blitzing with an immersion blender, followed by the addition of a cup of heavy cream. As I let the cream incorporate into the soup I fried up some cauliflower as a garnish. (Photos of the final product exist, but they are on my Nikon V1 and I’ve yet to transfer them onto a computer.) The soup was good, not great, but good enough to try again in the future. This recipe also made far too much soup, so I will have to see about cutting it down in the future as well.

I’ve come to realize that I don’t have that many years of cooking/experimenting left, so I best do it while I can and want to do so.

Look Who’s Doing Housework (Again)
If I were to have identified two tasks that needed to get done this weekend but clearly don’t fall into the category of “fun” they would have been:

  1. Get on the roof and blow off the pine straw and sweet gum balls stuck in the valleys of the roofline
  2. Wash the M6

Yesterday’s weather was so nice that I nearly did both chores. Early in the afternoon I climbed onto the roof and blew off all of the debris (I wonder how much returned last night after a rainstorm I didn’t even know would occur did so). I had the energy and desire to wash the M6 too, but not the supplies. The car washing kit in the basement is ancient and insufficient for a new vehicle so I need to make a Target run before giving the M6 its first bath.

Baby steps…

Cheers,
Paulie [eatl/ga]

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9 Responses to Home Alone

  1. Steve says:

    Car wash supplies are ancient? Does soap expire? I believe not…

    We have good news- we might not be homeless!! The folks with the 5 acres and man-castle finally called back and reported they are still interested in selling. They don’t expect to return from Floriday until April, but if needed, can come home more quickly. And we now have a good phone number for them. No additional news on the potential buyers- either bunch.

    A lovely, low key weekend spent packing, and celebrating a 20 year anniversary at the good sushi bar in Newnan, followed by music at 2 different places. We are party animals- and I think we were home by 11:00- maybe a bit later.

    Sunday was lunch with Debbie’s fam at the Longhorn in Griffin. Nice to get together with them and not be surrounded by their progeny- many of whom are on the fast track to the penitentiary.

    -FP

  2. The soap is very old and the sponge potentially older than it. All in all I’d rather start with fresh supplies, especially because I remember how bad the Jackmobile looked toward the end and when I was looking at it in the sunshine it appeared as if the hood had circular scratches in it.

    If I decide to procrastinate it won’t be too bad, or I splurge and take it somewhere for a hand-wash.

  3. Steve says:

    Debbie went by the hunt Saturday, which was along the Chattahoochee. I’m glad she wasn’t pulling the trailer, as I think she almost managed to get the truck stuck by itself- and just a little muddy. OK, a lot muddy.

  4. Stacy says:

    Oh that stew looks good! For all the time I spent at home this weekend, you’d have thought I would have fired up the crock pot or oven myself. Grrrr. Will have to follow your lead next weekend.

    Actually ended up going back to Hob Nob on Sunday….the guitarist was JUST THAT GOOD and had to see him again! Hahahaha no. It was just the perfect stopping point on an 11-mile walk and used the Scoutmob to finally try the fried green tomatoes. Excellent choice; should have gotten them Thursday night instead of the wings. But the guitarist WAS there and he was still pretty good.

    Ever wonder where the Jackmobile is now? *sigh* This is where I start getting sappy…. I imagine my old girls in bits and parts around the city. Either that or smashed into a lump o’ others in the car cemetery.

  5. I like to think that I’ve donated the Jackmobile’s organs to science. 🙂

  6. Bro. Bill AKA Ronnie says:

    I think you should write a “Home cooked meals for 1” cookbook. Who knows maybe it will lead to a revised copy of “Home cooked meals for 2”! (the “2” can mean anyway you imagine).

  7. Barb says:

    Just passed Gainesville a little while back, almost to GA

    We never leave the rack on the car, it hanging on the wall in the garage.
    It’s easy to put on, I just use a ratchet thing to tighten it up. Swing by, we can show you what you need. Didn’t cost much at Northern tool.

    We ate & drank plenty all weekend, but not too bad. I learned to shore fish yesterday, caught two small fish, nothing worth keeping.

  8. Steve says:

    Looked to me like you and Allan caught the same fish… slow learner.

  9. Barb says:

    My fish as bigger. Not much, but it was bigger.

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