Last Monday, the quarantine task jar coughed up (!) a pretty involved task that really worked me over from Monday through Wednesday, and I'll blog about it separately. But because I was laboring until dusk each night, we turned to leftovers a couple of nights and then a big pot of oatmeal one evening. By Thursday, I was ready for a good home-cooked meal, and I thought I'd try out sous vide pork chops to try to hit the perfect temperature and simplify the end stages of dinner making. Some nice crisp garlic-parmesan asparagus tips were tasty and good. I also tried out baked sweet potato fries for the first time. They didn't roast up very crispy but I still liked 'em.
Also last Monday: an unwelcome visitor to the attic entertainment area was finally set free. Sometime Sunday, it seems that a starling had infiltrated into the tiny compressed attic space in the very tiptop peak of the main roof and spent a little over 24 hours flopping around. I tried to cut out the foam insulation just a bit to make it easier for him to escape into the mechanical room and also left some bird suet pellets as an added draw. He finally emerged through the television mount outlet opening and flew around from light fixture to beer sign to recessed lighting corner to curtain rod.
Once I got a window open in the pool table area, he heard the siren calls of the great outdoors and made his escape...without pooping save for one small smear on the hardwood floors!
While my quarantine task jar is filled with an overwhelming quantity of purple drudgery chore slips, they have continued to be somewhat elusive. Thus with another morning drawing last Thursday after morning coffee time by the fireside, it was the second green (yard task) in a row, following the one that I spent Monday through Wednesday on. But at least it was a pleasant and relatively non-taxing obligation: "Petunias." I couldn't get down to Lowe's until late afternoon Thursday, and then the weather turned and we got some rain that evening. Friday was dreary and then a bit blustery and cold. I didn't get to plant them until this past Saturday, but they are going to be lovely this summer!
"Sous Vide Pork Chops," from J. Kenji López-Alt, Chief Culinary Consultant of SeriousEats.com. [Published 08 April 2016 / Updated 13 April 2020]
"Baked Sweet Potato Fries," from Tasty.
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