Wednesday, July 03, 2013

On a Wednesday that is a Friday, sort of

One of the things I like best about my job is all the time off. Between vacation, paid holidays, the "gift of time" extra days at Christmas and summer hours, I figure I've got about a month and a half of paid fun days. I took this coming Friday as my floating holiday for the year; combined with next Monday's summer day, it means a nice five day weekend. Yay, me.

But how to fill it?

In a fit of insanity a couple of weeks ago, I bought a four and a half pound eye of round roast. It was cheap, which is rather the point of eye of round. It's a lean cut, notorious for cooking up dry and tough. But if you treat it well, you can have a tender, flavorful roast.

Treating it well means treating it the same way you would prime rib - exactly the same cooking method. Rub the roast with your favorite herbs and spices. Roast it in a blazing hot (500 degree) oven for 5 - 7 minutes per pound. Then turn off the oven, pour yourself a glass of wine and watch a long movie. Do not open the oven door for at least two and a half hours. At the end of that time, check the temperature of the roast. It should be around 145 degrees. Let it rest ten minutes before slicing.

Yes, there will be beef this weekend.

All of the flowers are marked down to "please, save me from being thrown on the compost heap" prices. This is probably my last realistic chance to plant flowers out on the patio, unless I wait until September and pick up chrysanthemums. I hate chrysanthemums. Watch - as soon as I plant, all of the rain we've been getting this year will disappear. Within a week of putting in the flowers, we will be in a drought again, and it will be all my fault. Still, I need to try.

Yes (she said with confidence), there will be planting this weekend.

I'm about a third of the way done quilting a small kid's quilt. Once that is done, I'd like to put together some household pretties. Four pillows, to be exact. Two 18" pillow forms are waiting for covers, and two 12" decorator pillows left by the previous owners are ready to be stripped, to check if the insides are forms that can be reused. It will be nice to have throw pillows in the living room again.

The goal is to use stash fabric, though I'm not above visiting the local Joann Fabric if need be. I don't need quilt shop fabric (at quilt shop prices) for pillow covers. I may also need cording, if I can't find the half inch stuff I know I have somewhere in the stash.

So yes, there will be sewing for fun this weekend.

I finally found some grommet top curtains I like, at a reasonable price, in a color that works with the fabric I've got for a valance for the sewing room. So part of the weekend will involve cutting up very wide pieces of fabric, piecing them together into a very long piece of fabric, hemming it on three sides, making a casing on the fourth and pressing it well.

So yes, there will be sewing for necessity this weekend.

Sleeping late, going to the farmer's market, enjoying some watermelon, sitting on the patio with a book (and lots of sunscreen), cleaning a bit...will fill the rest of the moments.

2 comments:

mrs_fooko said...

Sounds heavenly! I generally cook my roasts in a bottle of red with a little tomato paste and the trinity in a crock pot for the entire day. I'll have to try this method and give you a report. Have a great long weekend!!

Diane said...

One warning - this is only for this specific cut of meat (which is huge). It won't work for what we generally get at the store for a regular pot roast.

I do my regular pot roast much the same as you, though I don't put the vegies in - I really, really don't like them mushy. I can roast them in the oven at a high temp for half an hour, while I'm making gravy.

There is no real reason I crave winter comfort foods on what will be hottest days of the summer so far....