Pork Chops With Red Cabbage

The other night as I was posting all those meals on Facebook I was thinking about this one. Seasoned pork chops, browned in bacon grease, and then simmered with red cabbage and bacon pieces.

So,,,,I took a package of boneless pork chops of out the freezer and once they were thawed I covered them with a dry rub and let them sit, covered, in the fridge all day.

I went upstairs and found a jar of red cabbage that I had made over the summer.

I took some bacon out of the fridge,,I used 3 whole slices for the 3 pork chops. I cut the bacon in half before I freeze it so it looks like a lot more than 3 slices.

The bacon got chopped up and put in a frying pan to render out the grease. I had to add about 2 teaspoons of olive oil to the bacon grease.

Once the bacon was crispy, I took it out with a slotted spoon and set it aside to cool. I browned the pork chops on both sides in the bacon/olive oil mixture.

When the pork chops were nicely browned I removed them from the pan and poured off the grease. Then the pork went back into the pan and I added 1/2 of a pint jar of homemade red cabbage (you can use store bought), and then I topped it with the bacon bits. I lowered the heat and covered it to simmer for a few minutes while the broccoli cooked.

The end product with some broccoli and a glass of wine, YUMMY!!!

New Life

A couple of days ago our heroine heard something she never thought she would hear and it totally shattered her heart. Since she had already scheduled to take 2 days off and enjoy a 4 day weekend she made plans,,,,,,,,

After the first few days since hearing the terrible words, our heroine realized she had been living on stuff like macaroni & cheese and linguini with creamy garlic Alfredo sauce but no fruits or veggies. So not good! So she made herself an artichoke and had a stuffed baked potato to go with it for dinner one night.

In an effort to help her heart heal she decided to make some changes in the house, make it "her" home and no longer "their" home. She started in the kitchen where she packed up all of his stemware and replaced it with the crystal she got decades ago when she got married. She loves these glasses.

Our heroine moved all of his coats upstairs and brought the coats of hers that were stored up stairs down to the hall closet. For the first time in 5 years all her coats and clothes are on the same floor.

Next she started moving art work around. She had been given this pin flag for Christmas a few years ago and it had been hanging in the front den. They never really used the front den so she seldom saw it. It now hangs in the front hall where she sees it a lot more often.

Her Norman Rockwell had been hanging in the bedroom but is now in the living room.

Her Alexander Krysnasky (sp) that had been in a seldom used upstairs bedroom got moved down and put in the master bedroom where the Norman Rockwell used to be. She figures that if she spent all that money on these pieces of art she should be able to enjoy them.

By the time Saturday rolled around our heroine was ready for a break. Her neighbor picked her up and they went out for lunch together and then saw a movie. When she got back home our heroine traded her clogs for her hiking boots and set off on an hour long hike with her "kids" She sees this house often and wonders how long it has been since anyone has been there. Considering this shot was taken from the foot of the driveway it must have been several years. One time she will get brave and walk up the driveway to peek in the windows.

On her hike our heroine noticed that the public works crew had been out and put the hydrant indicaters up for the winter.

Here are the kids enjoying being out.

Morgan is just so darn cute.

As our heroine got closer to home she took a street shot. If you look carefully you will see Kele running back toward her mom.

Soup and Cookies

Last weekend I decided to do some outside clean up in preparation for the snow that I know will be coming.

On Friday afternoon, with a little help from my tenant, I got the log splitter off the tractor and then got the yard rake on. I did not take a photo but I got one side of the driveway repairs,,no more ruts.

Then I cleaned off the back deck. I moved and stowed all the furniture and covered the chiminea and tied the cover on the grill.

Sunday was a chilly, raw, miserable day in the mountains so early in the morning I built a fire to keep the house warm. A good fire can get the living room up to 70 degrees, and that keeps the heat from kicking on.

I had found a recipe for a German Barley Soup and decided to make a pot of it for lunch for the week. I need brats, barley and chicken broth.

Also required celery, carrot and a leek. I am proud to say the leek came from my garden.

It is interesting how some trees are almost bare and yet others have all their leaves.

While the soup was simmering I started peeling kisses for cookies for my co-workers.

As the day went on the temperature dropped. Here it is at 39.7. That was the high for the day.

I took this photo so you all can see the deplorable conditions I work in :-)

In no time at all the cookies were done and cooling.

The clouds rolled in and by later afternoon this was my view,,,nothing.

Just Because,

Just because the outside work is done does not mean our heroine has nothing to do indoors.

Saturday morning she opened the closet on the front porch to stow a bag of trash until Monday. When she opened the door she saw that some mice were thinking about moving in for the winter. After she pulled out the three pairs of wellies this is what remained.

The little buggers had even gnawed a hole in one of Richard's wellies and not one of the cheap ones. It brought to mind a question as to why do we have 3 pairs of wellies? Our heroine got even however and got one mouse in a trap by Sunday morning and another one this morning. She hopes that is the end of them but will keep a trap baited and ready just in case.

After cleaning up from the mice our heroine went out and picked the last of snow peas and some of the green beans. She then blanched and froze them.

That done she headed up to her sewing room. She is still not sure what got to her but she tore the room apart to clean it out and re-organize it.

She eventually ran out of time on Saturday and after her Sunday morning coffee this was the view as she walked in to the room. It was not a pretty site. But filled with her morning coffee and a good breakfast our heroine went right to work.

A few hours later she was very pleased with her work. Richard's mother's sewing machine is in a space to itself and ready to be used.

The monster machine is also ready at a moments notice. Our heroine found the old Jolly Roger that they used to fly on their boat and realized that it made a pretty neat curtain.

She took metal shelving she had and put it in the closet, after she moved all the wood and other stuff that had been stowed there.

Our heroine was so please with herself that she headed downstairs for a treat only to find out that she had eaten all the pumpkins that were in the bag of Fall Mix, bummer.

She promised a friend a picture of the trees. There is not much color at our heroine's home yet.

It was now getting late in the day and our heroine had promised her co-workers an apple pie on Monday morning so she got right to work.

While the pie was in the oven she scrubbed, oiled and salted two potatoes for twice baked potatoes

As the pie and potatoes baked she ran down to put the seat cover on Tonto only to realize that she has not measured for the entire metal seat part. Damn!! At least it is better that it was. Our heroine also realized that using Sunbrella for a drawstring seat cover was not very smart as Sunbrella is very stiff and does not like to be used for things like drawstring seat covers.

While cleaning out her sewing room our heroine found a yard of this Hawaiian material. While the pie and potatoes baked she cut it out to make 4 dinner napkins and two cocktail napkins. She still has to sew the hems on them.

At last the pie was done.

Finally, our heroine finished the potatoes and with a sigh she sat on the sofa with a glass of wine to watch her favorite show WHEW!

If she can do this much in two days our heroine wonders what she could accomplish during a four day weekend,,,,hmmmm.

Pink Glove Dance

About a year ago I had learned of the Pink Glove Dance video and then the sequels. This year our local hospital group decided that we should do one. I was so excited to be a part of this.

The day of filming the survivor and supporter portion my friend Emily showed up in full face paint,,so cool!.

Emily did such a great job on her face that she got to help most everyone with their face paint.

The fireman waited patiently while we ladies got our warpaint on. One of them would eventually go up in the cherry picker to film us from above.

Here was our youngest dancer. I loved her pink sunglasses with the rhinestones.

Susan was in the back of all of us dancers. She and Emily stood in front of me.

Getting ready for our dance,

At the beginning,,,,

Near the middle,,,,

Near the end,,,,

And when all was said and done a group photo.