Fadedwords

Courtney gave me this recipe. The meat comes out extremely tender and flavorful.

Ingredients:

• 1 eye of round roast or bottom round roast (3.5lbs)
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 garlic cloves, pressed
• 1 can condensed beef broth (10oz)
• 1 cup ketchup
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup lemon juice
• 3 tbsp steak sauce
• 1 tsp ground pepper

Preparation:

• Place all ingredients in slow cooker on high for 7 hours.
• Serve on kaiser rolls or without rolls

Jake and I both agree that next time we make this, we’ll do like half a cup of ketchup. Neither one of us likes ketchup too much, so there was a bit too much. I’ll replace that with a little more steak sauce. It was a very good dinner. I served it with steamed broccoli and cauliflower, and Parmesan noodles. Yum.

I got this recipe from a magazine I found at Courtney’s.  The muffins are absolutely delicious.

Ingredients:

• 3 tbsp butter (softened)
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 4 tsp sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup sour cream
• 2/3 cup flour
• 1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/3 tsp baking powder
• 1/3 tsp cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp baking soda
• 3 tbsp milk
• 1/3 cup chocolate chips
• 6 tbsp marshmallow cream

Preparation:

• Cream butter and sugars
• Add egg
• Add sour cream
• Combine dry ingredients in separate bowl.  Add to creamed mixture alternately with milk.
• Add chocolate chips.
• Fill muffin cups 1/4 full.
• Add one tablespoon of marshmallow per cup, and then top with the rest of the batter.
• Bake at 400 degrees for 14-16 minutes

They come out all gooey and very yummy.  Only down side is that the recipe only yields 6 muffins.  It’s easy to prepare though, so doubling the recipe or making it twice wouldn’t be an issue.

Later tonight I might be sharing a recipe for slow cooker bbq beef sandwiches.  Courtney gave me the recipe, so I’m sure it’s going to be good (and it smells outstanding) but I want to be sure we like it before I pass on the recipe.

I slept very poorly last night… this is the third night in a row that I haven’t slept well.  It’s taking a toll, let me tell you. 

I also don’t feel well this morning, likely a combination of just being overtired and whatever else has me feeling under the weather. 

I absolutely don’t want to be here today.  I have a lesson with a kdg class at 2:15.  It’s tempting to take half the day off and then come back in the afternoon.  I have to take pictures for ‘Character Trait’ student of the month though.

Tomorrow I go to an all-day workshop on suicide prevention, and I’m looking forward to it.  I love learning new things regarding issues like that.  Plus, it gets me out and doing something a litle bit different. 

Working out is going well.  I decided, based on how badly my ankles were hurting during and after working out, that I would go every other day for the first few weeks.  I think this is the best decision for my body.  I’m doing two and a half miles each day… 45 minutes each day.  I’m also doing some light weight work and whatnot.  In October I’m hoping to join the kickboxing class they offer there; I took karate for quite a few years and I really loved it.  On weekends I think I’ll go on Saturdays for sure… and I’m thinking of going on Sundays too.  I may not do the full work out, but I know myself well enough to realize that two days off is going to make it really hard to go again on Monday.

I’ve been writing a lot lately.  I put up some of the new poetry.  NaNoWriMo is coming up in November… still no clue what I want to write.  I have two stories that I have 2-3 pages in that I could try to work on.  I’m not sure either one of them is going in a ‘50,000-words-in-30-days’ kind of direction though.  We’ll see.  I wish I had gotten the idea for ‘Guilty’ in November.  Would have been easy to reach my word goal. 

As I wrote, last Thursday was Merlin’s birthday.  Then this past weekend was Courtney’s.  Here are a couple of the best photos

Me and Merlin on his birthday

Me and Courtney

Me and Paul

A Cotton Field in Jamesville

This will be a busy week for me at work.  I’m also hitting the gym every day after work and walking 2 and a half miles on the tredmill and easing in to some weights.  I meet with a personal trainer soon.  It’s a start.

This weekend was spent celebrating Courtney.  We had a surprise birthday party for her last night at the local Mexican restaurant and then went back to the apartment and drank until 3am.  I love partying with the P-Town crew.

I bought the Daughtry album today, and I liked all but one of the songs on it.  I’m particularly fond of the song ‘Crashed’ at the moment.

Back to work tomorrow.  I have a busy week ahead of me.