November 6, 2011

Outside Temp: 31 F

What I cooked today:
Pumpkin Bread: I love this recipe (probably because it has 4 cups of sugar), but I was really in the mood for something sweet, and everyone seems to like this bread.  I made a loaf and a bundt, so I wrapped the loaf in saran wrap and left the bundt out to munch on (along with the tub of butter).  By the end of the day, 3/4 of the cake was gone... yummmm... :)

Steak and Potatoes:  So, the last time I tried to make steaks (which was also the first time in the new house), I cooked them fine, but I think the temp in the oven got to around 700 degrees, which meant that when I pulled them out, I almost burned through my pot holder. 
I cooked pork chops this week, so I thought I could pull of steaks.  I failed.  Okay, it wasn't a total fail, but the steaks were totally over cooked.  What happened, I think, is that I set the temp too low, trying to compensate for the temperature difference between what I set and the actual temp in the oven.  I think it only heated up to about 350-400, instead of the 500 I wanted.  When I went to pull the steaks out of the oven, they were sitting in a bath of water.  Instead of being seared, they were getting boiled.  Ugh, boiled steak.  Patrick tried to claim they were still okay, but I was pretty unhappy about it.  Connor was upset because there was no blood. 

Fortunately, I didn't mess up the mashed potatoes.  Of course, I'm not sure how to mess up mashed potatoes, so that's not saying much...

Update:
Allen spent the day at a friend's house (actually, the friend's grandparents ranch) in Stanford, which apparently was quite a hit.  He said he had a great time!  He started to tell me something about BB guns and birds, but then mumbled and stopped the story.  I'm pretty sure he didn't actually hit any birds, but one can never be too sure. 

Today was my laundry day.  I usually try to get at least a load or two done every day, but it's been backing up and I really needed a day to just sit and babysit the washer and dryer.  Since we all picked up bedrooms yesterday, I was left with about 4-6 baskets of laundry, just sitting there, laughing at me.  But I tackled those baskets and managed to get them all done... even the towels!  It may not be a big accomplishment, but it was something. 

Tomorrow will be a busy day, since we'll be setting up a business bank account in Stanford and trying (again) to get our driver's licences in Lewistown (with proper documentation this time).  Then it's back to Geyser for Ryan's school and a basketball game tomorrow night.