Wonderings of a Working Woman

I made my first loaf of meat. Aiko was so happy. He said, “No one’s ever made me loaf of meat”, and it turned out great.

Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 lbs ground beef
• 1 cup cracker crumb
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1 large egg, beaten
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1/2 cup tomato sauce
• 3/4 cup ketchup
• 2 tablespoons firmly packed brown sugar
• 1 cup water
• 2 tablespoons mustard
• 2 tablespoons vinegar

Directions

1. Preheat oven 325 degrees.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine ground beef, crumbs, salt, pepper, egg, onion and tomato sauce.
3. Mix.
4. Shape into a loaf and place in a baking dish.
5. In a small mixing bowl, combine the ketchup, brown sugar, water, mustard and vinegar.
6. Pour mixture over the loaf and place in oven and bake 1 hour and 15 minutes.

After my first attempt, I see now that I should have used a 9×13 glass pan and formed the loaf. I had a little bit of the sauce leftover.

Friday night I made Sweet Potato Curry soup (one of my favorites) and today I am making Chicken Noodle (Aiko’s favorite).

I found this recipe on the web and modified it.

For the stock:

• enough water to cover the chicken in a large soup pot
• 1 (4 -5pound) whole chicken
• 1 large onion, peeled and quartered
• 3 bay leaves
• 14 whole black peppercorns
• 2/3 bunch celery, leaves reserved
• 1 pound whole carrot

For the soup:

• 2-4 cans of chicken stock (if needed – sometimes the stock evaporates and needs more liquid added)
• 1 pound carrots, peeled and sliced
• 1/3 bunch celery, chopped and leaves reserved
• 1 pound package of fettuccine noodles broken into 2 inch pieces
• Salt and pepper to taste (I start with about a teaspoon of each and add more until I like it)

I’ve survived the surgery. I’m now stuck in bed for a couple of weeks. Surprisingly I am not getting bored. I have my laptop, toonces, aiko, tele, phone and the machine to occupy my time.

I am using a Continuous Passive Movement machine. It is this contraption that I am strapped into (literally) and it very slowly moves my leg from 3˚ to 83˚. I bump up the numbers every day, I need to be to 90 on Wednesday and 110 in a month.

On my home from work tonight, I stopped at the grocery store to pick up some beer, peanut butter, laundry soap and cheese products. As I stroll through the isles gathering my supplies, I find myself getting very hungry. Now we all know, you should not shop for food while hungry, this will fill your cart with cookies, chips, pringles, chocolate and a pleura of snack foods.

Those who don’t know me well, do not know that I have recently found sushi (about 1 yr ago) and find that I crave it often. Sadly, Aiko does not like it, he says there is a fishy surprise hidden in every bite that he detests.

So as I round the bend heading for the checkout – I see a sushi station… I stop, look, drool and buy.

This was fully cooked sushi, so I felt pretty safe about it being in a cooler. It included a soy sauce packet, wasabi paste and even a few pieces of ginger! I was pleasantly surprised. So if you are ever in a sushi pinch – the sushi in isle one might do the trick.

I finally start PT this Thursday. I can’t wait until my left knee gets stronger, and maybe the back issue will be resolved to! Hooray.

This weekend we turned our camera into the store to be repaired. We were hoping they would just let us get a new one, that’s what the initial salesman told Aiko when he bought the warranty. Alas, they said it could be serviced – boo-hiss – and now we are without camera for 2 weeks. I’m not sure how we will survive!

Hello! Thanks for checking out my new and improved site.

What you will find here in the future:

• Images that I think are fun
• Randomness
• Some of the thoughts from my brain
• Support for GRRG

Thanks – WK