Cooking, Fishing, and one day (maybe) Cooking the results of Fishing

Hey, look at me go.  Two posts in the same week.  Which is proving to be a pretty stressful week.  I'm trying to wrap up everything in my old job before starting the new one next week.  It's proving to be exhausting, mostly in the emotional way.  I'm feeling pretty anxious and having a hard time sleeping.  And I haven't even started the new job yet.  Now, don't get me wrong, I'm excited about the potential of the new job.  But the reality of the situation is that things are going to be pretty rough there for a good while after I start.  Lots of valid, and exciting, reasons for that, but still.

On to the goals update.  As I intimated in my last post, I tried a new recipe Sunday evening (#34).  We had picked up some pork sirloin roasts at Winco (can I just tell you how much I love the Winco bulk selection?) and I had no idea how to cook them without them turning out tough and dry, as they have very little internal fat.  I found nothing particularly useful on my usual go-to recipe site.  So, after a while of googling, I found this recipe.  Basically, if you don't want to see the actual recipe, it consists of coating the roast with rosemary and salt and pepper, browning it in a pan,

cooking some onions, carrots and celery,

adding red wine to the skillet,

plopping the roast on top of the vegetables and wine, and cooking it slowly at a very low temperature (225 degrees).  You are supposed to roast it to an internal temperature of 145 degrees.  This probably would have worked out better if I had placed the thermometer more appropriately.  Not that I put the thermometer anywhere inappropriate, just to clarify.  I made sure to insert the thermometer in the thickest part of the meat, but failed to put it in the center of the thickest part of the meat.  Important lesson.  Here's what it looked like before I did a little pan-frying to alleviate our fears of food poisoning:

While you're pan-frying your undercooked meat, you add additional red wine to the vegetables in original plan and cook for around 15 minutes, followed by pureeing in the blender.

Served it all with some cabbage fried in butter and called it good.  It was pretty good.  The meat was really tender and juicy, and the sauce was actually pretty delicious.  It turns out really tangy, which surprised me a little bit.  It's a good cooking technique for such a lean cut of meat, which I'll probably try again.  This time with correct thermometer placement.

In other news, I bought a fishing license this week (#70).  I ordered it Sunday evening and it came in the mail today.  I'm pretty excited about it.  Now I just have to get some fishing gear and find someone to go fishing with me.  Part of the motivation for getting it was that you get one free vehicle use permit for Fish and Wildlife lands.  So it will be useful for both fishing and birdwatching.  And maybe hiking.

I went to the gym on Monday(#4) and did the Wii Fit Plus today (#18).  I really worked out hard at the gym, which felt really good.  I was pretty sore the next day, but I love that feeling.  Bicep curls without pre or post stretching resulted in a pretty excruciating massage today, however (#45).  The main problems I've been having that got me into the medical massages in the first place have been related to my shoulders, so I had been taking it easy on the upper body exercise until this week.  I guess stretching probably has some benefits...

Whew, that was a lot of goals to update on.  It makes me tired just writing about it, although, to be fair, I was already pretty tired.  Two more days to get through this week.  I'm very much looking forward to plans for the weekend.  Ethiopian food and pie with some wonderful friends on Friday night, cocktails and appetizers with other friends on Saturday night, and seeing a movie (probably 127 Hours, despite my squeamishness) with one of my best friends on Sunday.  All low key and fun.  Now I just have to get to the weekend.

Progress on #4 and #34

I'll start with #34 (Try one new recipe each week) since I did it first.  Obviously this is just week 1 of 143, but this week I have already tried TWO new recipes.  The first was a Parmesan-Shrimp Pasta Bake from Betty Crocker One-Dish Family Favorites.  Pretty simple but tasty recipe made from ingredients that we had on hand - 20 minutes of active cooking, 40 minutes of baking, and Voila, Dinner! 

As a side, I made Roasted Nutmeg Cauliflower from The Food You Crave by Ellie Krieger.  Again, simple, low-prep recipe.  If I make this again, I'll definitely cut the cooking time by 25% or so.  I would also probably increase the nutmeg significantly or substitute cumin in substantially greater volume.  Also, this meal was sorely lacking in the color variation that I prefer to see on my plate, but pickings are slim around these parts right now.

Now that you're all caught up on what's being served for dinner around here (My LL made orange-cumin black bean chili tonight, one of my favorites), here's the obligatory update on #4 (Exercise at least two times per week).  I went to the gym today, for the first time since before Thanksgiving.  Pathetic, I know, but I did not let the prospect of the gym being jam-packed with resolutioners or my recurrent headache volunteer themselves as excuses today.  I went, and did a solid 30 minutes on the treadmill.  I'm a little wary of over-doing it with the back issues of late and didn't want to kill myself my first day back after weeks of absence and holiday overindulgence.

So there you have it.  You can all go to bed thanking god that I didn't take a post-workout photo of myself to share with you.  I'll try to limit it to pictures of things you actually want to see.  :o)