Wicked Weather

We're still in the middle of this crazy weather we've been having. There was a bit of a break yesterday, but then this morning, we experienced thunder and lightning. Apparently, the worst of the flooding is over, but I'm still staying in. The quilt displays at the local libraries are going to have to wait until next week.

Instead, I spent most of the day sewing. All the cutting is done for my Icy Blues table runner. Here's the picture from the pattern.

The largest of the flying geese blocks are made.

Today I'll get the smaller flying geese blocks made from these fabric scraps.

I thought I had something appropriate for the back in my stash, but I didn't like any of my choices. This morning I went shopping online for some backing fabric. I liked the one below.

And since I could get free shipping with a purchase of $35, I selected this one too. It just caught my eye. I seem to be in a tree fetish right now.

On Tuesday, I was all set to start dinner in the Dutch oven when I realized that the recipe I'd chosen was much more time-intensive than I'd realized originally. If you've been reading for a while, then you know I don't shy away from overly-involved kitchen projects, and this one was no different. I need to back up a minute, however, and tell you how this all got started.

For one thing, I'm a stalker at the bargain meats counter of my local grocery store. It's possible to pick up some bargains on cuts of meat that would cause me to keep my hands in my pockets if I had to pay full price. So when I went through my freezer recently, I discovered a bargain hunk of brisket hiding near the bottom of the pile. It was still within the safe-to-use period, but it had a pretty good case of freezer burn from lounging in the freezer a little too long. It isn't surprising that it sat a long time given how difficult it is to make a brisket tender enough to use for anything other than tire chocks.

So enter this recipe for Brisket Braised in Porter. It looks pretty good in this picture, doesn't it?

(image source)

It starts out in the Dutch oven and ends up in a roasting pan. In between, it's in and out of the oven several times. Actual hands-on prep time is short...maybe 20-30 minutes, at most. Roasting/braising time is a whole different story. It roasts for an hour and your throw something in the pot. Then it roasts for another hour and you throw something else in the pot. This goes on for about 6 hours, and then it is cooled and refrigerated overnight. Then last night for dinner, I took the brisket out of the pot, sliced it thin, and placed the slices in a roasting pan. Then I brought the "soup" with veggies to a boil and poured that over the top. Then it roasted for another 1 hour and 15 minutes. Oy boy. You know it had better be good after all of that. And it was! Oh my gosh, it was absolutely delicious and the brisket was so tender it fell apart. No tire chocks here.

So all of that to say that if you're going to be at home and you don't mind the time involved, it's definitely worth the effort for a tender tasty rib-sticking dinner...enough for a crowd at that. I just added slices of baguette, and we had a delicious meal.

This morning I moved the hoop on the Gingerbread Square stitchery.

It's coming close to the end. I'm estimating two more moves of the hoop. Actually I did quite a bit more stitching on it this morning because I was finishing up an audio book, and so I listened to that until the end while I stitched.

Now it's closer than ever.

Today I'm going to continue on with my Icy Blues table runner, and I have some boring housework to do. Aside from that, I'm just staying out of the blowing rain and keeping as warm and dry as possible.