Memorial Day

Dragon Mood? -- most relaxed

It's midday Monday, Memorial Day.

S and I are moving as slowly as two people can move and still be recognized as alive and breathing. (laughing) I guess you could say that we're pretty relaxed.

S cleaned out our little frog fountain yesterday and replaced the pump with a super-duper high-powered one that has been languishing in the basement for the past eleven years. That fountain really spurts and trickles now, believe me! I'm so pleased that she cleaned it out and IT WORKS!

While she worked on the fountain, I made super-duper (my favorite word today, I guess?) oatmeal-bran-banana-blueberry bread. It turned out scrumptious and extremely filling, as you may well imagine!

We also made a quick run into the nearby little town for some emergency hardware supplies and, of course, the mom-and-pop hardware store was closed. Amazingly, the local drugstore (national chain) had something close to what S was looking for and I was able to buy some colorful nail polish for my toes ("Juicy Tomato" by Maybelline). Meanwhile, the skies had clouded up and it began to rain. Not to be deterred from our in-town itinerary, however, we hit the ice cream place for the obligatory blizzard, vanilla yogurt and doggie ice cream sundae (Cisco was in the back of the car, whimpering for her ice cream).

S and I also cooperatively consulted on preparing a pork loin roast that turned out spectacularly well, if I say so myself. Lina had given me the idea of a pork roast smothered and marinaded with plain yogurt. But her roast was done with lots of Indian spices and dried fruit, which I didn't want to use. So, S and I ended up choosing a hoisin sauce (which had been languishing in our cupboard since the Y2K era), a jar of roasted and minced garlic and some dijon mustard, all mixed together, and spooned over the roast.

I baked it for about a half an hour at 425 degrees to seal the juices in, then smothered the roast with plain yogurt, covered it and cooked it at 350 degrees for another two hours. Oh yes, at S's recommendation, about an hour before the finish, we added about 2 or 3 tablespoons of brown sugar to the by-then ample gravy to sweeten it just a bit. Finally, the last half hour we baked it uncovered, marinating the roast a couple of times with the juices in the pan.

It was excellent; well-flavored and pull-apart tender. We fixed some brown basmati rice with its savory nutty smell that just begged for pork gravy poured over it. Yum! We topped off the meal with steamed brussels sprouts and a small serving of cottage cheese. UMmmmm-ummm good!

We watched movies, painted toenails and enjoyed each other's company. It was a good day!