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Po-tay-toh
Aug. 18th, 2022 08:35 pmMonday was mostly cooking.
I prepped both breakfast and lunch for work.
Breakfast: overnight oats with ground flax and high-protein milk, raspberries, Greek yogurt, and a few of my delicious preserved pine cones.
Lunch: "Tone It Up!" protein bar, slice of homemade wheat bread, low-sodium tuna pouch, Libby's veggie cup, handful of almonds, and a peach.
I got the crock pot meatloaf started shortly before lunch.
All the usual ingredients, shaped into a kind of rough oval and cooked for 5 hours.
The bigger challenge was the potatoes au gratin, which I tackled after lunch.
It's not HARD to make, just time consuming.
First I mixed heavy cream, shallots, garlic, thyme, salt, pepper, and nutmeg.
Simmered on the stove until the shallots were soft.
While that cooled I sliced some russet potatoes very thin and layered them in a pie pan.
I don't have a mandolin, so had to do it by hand. Was pleased with my knife work.
I had to work quickly because the potatoes can oxidize and turn an unappealing shade of grey.
Did a cutesy flower pattern. You can layer them any way you want, but should try to have some edges up so they'll get crispy.
Blended the cream with our Ninja (an immersion blender would be way better but I don't have that) and poured it over the potatoes.
Into the oven at 325F for about an hour and a half.
Then out to cool. It needs to cool to allow the cream sauce to thicken.
While the potatoes cooled we went for our evening walk together.
It was very hot. We talked about how we're looking forward to fall weather, and Jameson explained some workings of one of his baseball Xbox games, which has gotten controversial because some player got expelled for drug use and since the game reflects real-life activities the gameplay has all changed. It was actually pretty interesting stuff. I'm always amazed when the digital and physical worlds collide in such a way.
Back home it was almost dinnertime, so I fired up the broiler, topped the potatoes with cheese, and put them in for another 15.
Sprinkled with fresh thyme before serving.
The sticking-up edges were crispy, while the layers below were creamy and decadent.
Served with slices of this meat football, which was also pretty good.
The vegetables were a disaster, I had bought nice fresh green beans and when I opened the bag they were slimy, like cut okra.
No good! Luckily I had some boring frozen veggies so just microwaved those quickly. Ho-hum, but it did the job.
I am lactose intolerant, and also count my calories.
Potatoes au gratin, loaded with fat and dairy, are not exactly a go-to for me.
But I plugged the ingredients into MyFitnessPal as a Recipe with six portions, then gave myself 1/2 portion of both meatloaf and potatoes, and that kept me under 500 calories for the meal.
After dinner we plugged away at our escape room game, and did a great job.
We even finished one puzzle with ten minutes to spare!
-----------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday began the busyness for both of us.
I had discount court reporting in the morning.
The judge was no-nonsense, which I like a lot. It means he wants to start on time (yes, please) and he doesn't let claimants expound at great length (YES, please), and after each case he actually gives me his decisions instead of making me grovel or guess what he wants (yes, PLEASE!). So all in all it was a good and normal work day for me.
Jameson was not so lucky...I think most of his day was normal, but while loading up his car for rehearsal he bashed his finger really hard. There's a visible bruise under the nail.
A reminder that he plays PIANO. And has rehearsals EVERY DAY this week, and concerts over the weekend.
Argh.
My evening home alone was spent packing food and prepping clothes for work tomorrow, practicing trombone, making a hair appointment, ordering birth control, and jumping in on some data entry because there were some things that they wanted entered in ASAP.
Watched a little anime and thought many thoughts.
When Jameson came home we talked about our day and went to bed.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday was similar. An early morning for me, a day of court reporting (this time it was 50/50 held cases/cancelled cases), then I went for my haircut. I came prepared with many pictures which didn't matter one bit, the stylist looked at them all and then did something totally different. Sigh. Whatever, it doesn't look "bad", just not my ideal.
During our chatting the stylist mentioned that I'd booked at a good time; college starts next week (the salon is near UCF) and things would be pretty crazy once school was in session. Based on that information I decided to hit a nearby Victoria's Secret to finally get bras, because if I wait I'll be fighting sorority girls for my sizes or something. I HATE shopping in general but bra shopping most of all, so I was glad to get this over with.
Back home I spent a little time with Jameson before he had to go to rehearsal, then ate dinner, practiced trombone, packed lunch, and had a big long chat with my sister Raven. She's a writer and has been submitting samples of her work via submission events on Twitter (had NO idea that was a thing but it sounded very efficient and time-effective). Then spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to tie the neck bow on my cream vintage shirt that I want to wear tomorrow. Somehow I never get the bow right. I'm literally going to have to get up extra early tomorrow so I can tie this damn bow.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Thursday, got up early and tied the damn bow!
It wasn't perfect but just ok.
At work, a very normal day. Two canceled cases, and the timing was such that I got to take myself for two whole walks.
This added up to about two miles, so that was good.
On the way home I stopped to get ingredients for banana pudding cheesecake.
When I came back outside with my groceries it was POURING, full-on monsoon.
I shrugged and walked to my car, getting absolutely soaked.
If I had waited I'd be waiting for 30 minutes or more, and home was an hour away with perishable food in the trunk.
I got home just fine albeit uncomfortably wet.
Had a nice hot shower, and prepped a few things for tomorrow.
Mostly just grinding up the Nilla Wafers and making the vanilla pudding, and getting out the stand mixer and such.
As you can imagine, me and my lactose intolerant, low-fat self is not going to be eating loads of this cheesecake.
But Jameson is excited about it, and I want to bring joy to his life.
I'll freeze half of it. Frozen cheesecake is great, too.
-------------------------------------------------------------
After today, only four more days of discount court reporting left.
On Monday I have Tootsie orientation via Zoom.
We're supposed to get onboarding paperwork as well, haven't seen that yet.
I have much to do over the next several days.
Tomorrow the cheesecake will probably take a good chunk of my day, it's something like a six hour process.
At some point I need to weed around the house and clean again.
Debating whether to go to Jameson's show...he's not enthusiastic about it and may not want me there. I'll ask.
And of course there's packing, and practicing.
I prepped both breakfast and lunch for work.
Breakfast: overnight oats with ground flax and high-protein milk, raspberries, Greek yogurt, and a few of my delicious preserved pine cones.
Lunch: "Tone It Up!" protein bar, slice of homemade wheat bread, low-sodium tuna pouch, Libby's veggie cup, handful of almonds, and a peach.
I got the crock pot meatloaf started shortly before lunch.
All the usual ingredients, shaped into a kind of rough oval and cooked for 5 hours.
The bigger challenge was the potatoes au gratin, which I tackled after lunch.
It's not HARD to make, just time consuming.
First I mixed heavy cream, shallots, garlic, thyme, salt, pepper, and nutmeg.
Simmered on the stove until the shallots were soft.
While that cooled I sliced some russet potatoes very thin and layered them in a pie pan.
I don't have a mandolin, so had to do it by hand. Was pleased with my knife work.
I had to work quickly because the potatoes can oxidize and turn an unappealing shade of grey.
Did a cutesy flower pattern. You can layer them any way you want, but should try to have some edges up so they'll get crispy.
Blended the cream with our Ninja (an immersion blender would be way better but I don't have that) and poured it over the potatoes.
Into the oven at 325F for about an hour and a half.
Then out to cool. It needs to cool to allow the cream sauce to thicken.
While the potatoes cooled we went for our evening walk together.
It was very hot. We talked about how we're looking forward to fall weather, and Jameson explained some workings of one of his baseball Xbox games, which has gotten controversial because some player got expelled for drug use and since the game reflects real-life activities the gameplay has all changed. It was actually pretty interesting stuff. I'm always amazed when the digital and physical worlds collide in such a way.
Back home it was almost dinnertime, so I fired up the broiler, topped the potatoes with cheese, and put them in for another 15.
Sprinkled with fresh thyme before serving.
The sticking-up edges were crispy, while the layers below were creamy and decadent.
Served with slices of this meat football, which was also pretty good.
The vegetables were a disaster, I had bought nice fresh green beans and when I opened the bag they were slimy, like cut okra.
No good! Luckily I had some boring frozen veggies so just microwaved those quickly. Ho-hum, but it did the job.
I am lactose intolerant, and also count my calories.
Potatoes au gratin, loaded with fat and dairy, are not exactly a go-to for me.
But I plugged the ingredients into MyFitnessPal as a Recipe with six portions, then gave myself 1/2 portion of both meatloaf and potatoes, and that kept me under 500 calories for the meal.
After dinner we plugged away at our escape room game, and did a great job.
We even finished one puzzle with ten minutes to spare!
-----------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday began the busyness for both of us.
I had discount court reporting in the morning.
The judge was no-nonsense, which I like a lot. It means he wants to start on time (yes, please) and he doesn't let claimants expound at great length (YES, please), and after each case he actually gives me his decisions instead of making me grovel or guess what he wants (yes, PLEASE!). So all in all it was a good and normal work day for me.
Jameson was not so lucky...I think most of his day was normal, but while loading up his car for rehearsal he bashed his finger really hard. There's a visible bruise under the nail.
A reminder that he plays PIANO. And has rehearsals EVERY DAY this week, and concerts over the weekend.
Argh.
My evening home alone was spent packing food and prepping clothes for work tomorrow, practicing trombone, making a hair appointment, ordering birth control, and jumping in on some data entry because there were some things that they wanted entered in ASAP.
Watched a little anime and thought many thoughts.
When Jameson came home we talked about our day and went to bed.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday was similar. An early morning for me, a day of court reporting (this time it was 50/50 held cases/cancelled cases), then I went for my haircut. I came prepared with many pictures which didn't matter one bit, the stylist looked at them all and then did something totally different. Sigh. Whatever, it doesn't look "bad", just not my ideal.
During our chatting the stylist mentioned that I'd booked at a good time; college starts next week (the salon is near UCF) and things would be pretty crazy once school was in session. Based on that information I decided to hit a nearby Victoria's Secret to finally get bras, because if I wait I'll be fighting sorority girls for my sizes or something. I HATE shopping in general but bra shopping most of all, so I was glad to get this over with.
Back home I spent a little time with Jameson before he had to go to rehearsal, then ate dinner, practiced trombone, packed lunch, and had a big long chat with my sister Raven. She's a writer and has been submitting samples of her work via submission events on Twitter (had NO idea that was a thing but it sounded very efficient and time-effective). Then spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to tie the neck bow on my cream vintage shirt that I want to wear tomorrow. Somehow I never get the bow right. I'm literally going to have to get up extra early tomorrow so I can tie this damn bow.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Thursday, got up early and tied the damn bow!
It wasn't perfect but just ok.
At work, a very normal day. Two canceled cases, and the timing was such that I got to take myself for two whole walks.
This added up to about two miles, so that was good.
On the way home I stopped to get ingredients for banana pudding cheesecake.
When I came back outside with my groceries it was POURING, full-on monsoon.
I shrugged and walked to my car, getting absolutely soaked.
If I had waited I'd be waiting for 30 minutes or more, and home was an hour away with perishable food in the trunk.
I got home just fine albeit uncomfortably wet.
Had a nice hot shower, and prepped a few things for tomorrow.
Mostly just grinding up the Nilla Wafers and making the vanilla pudding, and getting out the stand mixer and such.
As you can imagine, me and my lactose intolerant, low-fat self is not going to be eating loads of this cheesecake.
But Jameson is excited about it, and I want to bring joy to his life.
I'll freeze half of it. Frozen cheesecake is great, too.
-------------------------------------------------------------
After today, only four more days of discount court reporting left.
On Monday I have Tootsie orientation via Zoom.
We're supposed to get onboarding paperwork as well, haven't seen that yet.
I have much to do over the next several days.
Tomorrow the cheesecake will probably take a good chunk of my day, it's something like a six hour process.
At some point I need to weed around the house and clean again.
Debating whether to go to Jameson's show...he's not enthusiastic about it and may not want me there. I'll ask.
And of course there's packing, and practicing.
