Had another couple we're friends with over this evening, and made some new dishes (a maple glazed pork loin with Swiss chard & carrots; roasted broccoli; and lemon & parsley quinoa). They turned out well, for the most part, and were well received. The broccoli was a trifle overdone in spots (overly hot burner while pan roasting), but still tasted good. Then we played a couple riffs on queer versions of apples-to-apples that we picked up at the end of the year. Fun time.

Last day of work for the week was good. Nice chat with a new coworker, talked over some stuff that's going on with transition, and made plans to address at least one of them with a couple quick meetings next week (because, putting on my former information lawyer hat, one should never create more written records when a conversation is better suited to the topic). Also talked about how I'm not completely clear on what my role is going to be going forward as a big part of my portfolio is moving over to another attorney who just started. I'm okay with the hire, just in a bit of limbo over the scope of my duties at the moment.

In my head I was preparing for the worst scenario yesterday, and feeling like absolute dreck yesterday, today, and possibly tomorrow. I went to go get my seasonal flu and covid booster yesterday morning, and in my head I was conflating that with last year, when the husband and I got those and the monkeypox vaccine all at the same time. That three-shot combo laid me out for a day or two, so that's what I was mentally preparing for this year. The two-shot combo wasn't nearly as bad. I did end up taking a nap (which the female cat appreciated), but I stayed up to my normal time, no nausea, just a little tired. So yay for that.

While waiting to see if side effects would kick in I grocery shopped, set up soup in the slow cooker (sweet potato & apple soup), and finally seasoned (or in one case re-seasoned) all of my new carbon steel cookware. So it wasn't like I was sitting around just waiting to feel tired. Should've knitted some, too, but you can't do it all.

Up far too early this morning (this is becoming a bad habit that I need to break), so I decided to try my hand at adapting a biscuit recipe (Butter Swim Biscuits) to my particular dietary needs. Substituted Buttery Sticks for the butter (my favorite margarine - doesn't have a lot of excess water like some others do), and Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free 1-to-1 Baking Flour for the all-purpose stuff, because that's what I had on hand (we try to keep King Arthur's Gluten-free Measure For Measure in the house, too, but we haven't done a good BJ's run in a while). And last but not least, almond milk with apple cider vinegar for the butter milk (and for posterity, the ratio is one teaspoon vinegar per cup of milk, which works with both dairy and non-dairy milks when you don't have buttermilk around the house).

Made it this time according to the recipe, and cooked it for the maximum time (25 minutes). Not bad, the flavor bones are definitely there, but a little too gummy/moist at the end. It did have a lovely thin crust on the edges. I'll try cooking them for longer next time, and letting them sit for a little bit in the pan before I cut them to let the bake finish. Gluten free biscuits are something of a holy grail, because the flour just doesn't react in the same ways that wheat flour does. This, though, came closer than most other recipes I've tried. I think with some tinkering of the baking times, and perhaps a tweak to the amount of liquids (butter and milk), that we'll have a winner.

Tried a new recipe this evening, from Taste of Home; Half-Homemade, a cookbook the husband got me for my half birthday last week.

( Recipe behind the cut )

Very tasty. We did not have it with syrup, and I already had a larger box of mix on hand, so I just split it and made some mini muffins in the toaster oven while this baked. Definitely recommend.

With the in-laws here, our female cat has been crashing in the bed with me, which I love, but I'm a couple years out of the habit of sleeping with her there. She likes to curl up on top of my legs, where the male cat just curls up at my feet, so it's been an adjustment to have her back there (that was her normal spot back at the apartment, but not really since we moved to the townhouse). So I've needed to take some naps to keep going.

Lunch was a spiral cut ham, warmed in the sous vide (no glaze, because nah), melting potatoes, sautéed green beans, some stove top stuffing (family tradition for the in-laws), and rolls. Dessert was an apple crumble from the slow cooker (apples & spices cooked down for several hours, with a nut/oat/honey topping that you [quickly] bake separately in the oven). Breakfast was an attempt at a yeasted cinnamon roll, but it didn't want to rise very well, so they were a little dense. I later found a recipe for a yeast-free version, which was basically the same dough recipe but used baking powder and baking soda for the rise, so we'll probably try that in the next day or two. Tomorrow will be leftovers, with maybe some sautéed zucchini thrown in since we finished off the green beans. Or we order pizza. Who knows?

My normal morning routine is to get up, wander downstairs, make coffee in the Keurig and take my daily medications (allergies, reflux, vitamin D since I’m a home body who never gets sunlight), do some mobility work (shoulder spin up, 27 squats), then wander back upstairs, plug in various devices (phone, watch), open the laptop to read comics, sip coffee, etc. That’s a fair approximation of most mornings. This morning I disrupted that by making oven bacon and French press coffee. Almost forgot to take my drugs because it threw me off my rhythm. But both the coffee and the bacon were worth it.

Tried putting the bacon on two aluminum baking sheets, one on the lowest rack, in the cold oven, then setting it to 425. Once it hit 425, timer for 12 minutes, and done. The lower rack made very crisp bacon as the husband likes it, and the upper one was slightly softer like I prefer. I think we may have a winner. And of course it produced nice clean bacon fat to pour off for later cooking.

Decided this was the year to upgrade our various i-devices, so we’ve both gotten new iPads (a mini, in my case - I like the smaller size for caring around the house), and we picked up watches yesterday (walked into the Apple store and basically asked what models they had in stock; thankfully the red & green ones they had matched our favorite colors). Waiting to order phones for another week or two to make sure they don’t arrive while we’re out of town for Thanksgiving. We’ve skipped several generations of updates in each of these, so it was time. Expensive, but fun to have new toys to play with. I’m still getting used to the pen with the iPad, and I think I’m coming down on the side of “nice, but totally unnecessary”.

In the vein of "of course, you idiot", when I plan out meals then we eat better. Duh. Tonight was melting potatoes, sautéed green beans, and some ham steak. Made the melting potatoes in a new 9x13 cast iron baking dish the husband got me for my birthday (I am a big fan of cast iron), and they were To Die For. Definitely a fantastic inaugural use of that dish, and most definitely husband approved. On the sautéed green beans, I tweaked the recipe a little (from ATK's Vegetables cookbook), in terms of ignoring the recipe's 'suggested' times, and just paying attention to what the food was doing, and they turned out much better this time. Yum all around.

(if the link to the melting potatoes doesn't work and you want the recipe, drop me a note and I'll email it to you)

Talked the husband into starting Midnight Mass on Netflix, and it was a shame that we started it so late, because after three episodes we're hooked, but the bed call and I've learned not to ignore that.

Minor win at work this afternoon. We have this automated document approval system, that's supposed to be used to document the review process for things, moving the document from one reviewer to the next in order, and showing when they signed off. I'm on a team along with several other lawyers and staff in our agency head's main office who get certain documents for review as a group before they go in for formal concurrence, so a group of roughly 8 people get these certain documents at the same time using a group email alias. Lately the program offices have been "assigning" these document to this group in the system with two days to review, or sometimes a single day, which would be fine except the system then emails you ever day reminding you that you have a task that's "overdue", meaning all of us are getting these annoying reminder emails daily. When we got one mid-afternoon today with a due date of Sunday the 31st, I decided I'd had enough. Poked around the system and discovered we could "reassign" the task back to the originator without clearing or approving it, so I did that, with clear instructions to bounce it back to us with a due date at least a week out. I plan on doing that every time some moron "assigns" me something with an unreasonable due date. Best part, since it's now reassigned back to them it doesn't show up as being with us at all, and they get any 'past due' reminders (though I set their due date for Tuesday because I'm not that vindictive. Yet).

Had a friend over for dinner this evening (well, as we joked about it after, dinner and therapy - the husband works on him whenever we meet). Made a new recipe for the second time, adjusting it as needed for my lazy self (because, really, who's going to use half a pound of ground turkey when it comes in a 1 lb container, and similarly, why just use 2/3 of the box of pasta? make it all and give me leftovers, please). Turned out pretty well. Pasta with turkey 'sausage' (ground turkey plus spices), fennel, and broccoli. Yum. And chatting with our young friend (aka therapy) was fun as well. He's so bright, and so curious, but he keeps trying to limit himself to jobs/schooling where it's plain to see he's not going to be happy. Hopefully the talking helped.

Lots of work on and off this weekend as the Hill works on new authorizing legislation for the Small Gubm'nt Agency. Every time I thought it was calming down it would pick up again. Blech.

Talked on the phone for an hour with one of my nieces while I walked her through some of the finer points of Diablo 3 for the Switch. ;) That was a lot of fun, showing her how to advance and get some of the rewards that come from seasonal play, and explaining why I'd told her to save or get rid of certain in-game items. Hopefully she'll help her younger sister with some of that, too. And Diablo 2 gets re-released this summer, so the husband will lose me to that when it's out.

We're prepping for our annual anniversary trip next week. Missed last year for the pandemic, so very much looking forward to getting out of town this year. Have to remember how to pack for this. Or just how to pack, period, since it's been so long since we travelled last (maybe Xmas 2019?). Wild.

As I said to a friend today, there's only so much time I can spend in Animal Crossing. I enjoy the game, though sometimes the 'gotta check in daily' part gets old. I've scrapped all of the mobile games I had going, save a nonogram one I've been playing on my iPad mini for forever, and the NY Times crossword (mostly the minis, occasionally the big one if the mood strikes). I looked around in various game store today, and while there are a couple coming out that I've put on the Xmas wish list, there's really not a lot out there that's exciting me (that I don't already have). I find myself drawn to cuter, slower-paced things more than the drag-you-in-for-hundreds-of-hours mega-sagas.

So, quiet day today. I cleaned out some more things that had been tossed under a bathroom sink when we moved in, putting some out, tossing some that were dead or wouldn't be used. Made popcorn on the stove (1/2 cup oil, 1/3 cup corn, medium heat in a dutch oven with the lid slightly askew so it can vent [or cheat like I do and use a different lid that has venting holes]; shake it occasionally until it's done popping, toss it all in a bowl with 1/4 to 1/2 tsp salt [no more than 1/2 tsp; that's almost too much for me and I'm a salt-a-holic], enjoy). And played a lot of video games. The female cat would've preferred if I had read so she could have had my legs as a bed, but she curled up next to me anyway.

'Twas a nice quiet weekend. The biggest (?) thing was finally finding a copy of Ring Fit Adventure for the Switch. As with their previous forays into exercise, this thing was no joke. I just did the first round yesterday, but found myself having to back off the intensity so I could get all the way through the level (running in place too quickly is a bit too tiring, even for this runner). Past that I enjoyed leftover cupcakes and generally being a lump around the house.

Today has been watching people ask me a question via email, then in the ensuing chain of back-and-forths, coming around to the proper answer before I have time to turn to it, research, and respond. Thank you, client offices, for making my job easier by doing it for me. LOL I get that sometimes you just need to put things in writing for them to start to make sense, but this was a bit silly.

Discovered yesterday that we can in fact cook sausage in the sous vide straight from the freezer, as long as you give it some extra cooking time. It's not quite crock pot easy, but if you set the stuff up in the bags before you freeze them, that's not a bad way to cook. Leftovers were very tasty for lunch today. And now that lunch is over, back to seeing if more clients have done my job for me. :)