sugarcookies

I finally feel like I’m ready to try this again! Now that we’re a little more settled in our new place, and almost everything is unpacked (still VERY unorganized, though) I’d like to start keeping things clean. Small steps:

• Keep dishes under control
• at some point this week, clean the kitchen floor.

The kitchen was our dumping ground for supplies and tools while we were ripping up carpet and refinishing the floors, and it shows. We’re going to replace the kitchen floor at some point, but in the meantime, I’ve got to clean it. It’s embarrassing – I’ve just been ignoring all the dirt!

This was amazing! I was really excited to find this recipe, because I love coffee but rarely drink it anymore for health reasons. The gravy doesn’t taste like coffee, but the addition of coffee really enhances the flavor (I’d be more descriptive if I could, but I’m bad at describing food).

I made this on Monday, and I wish I’d taken a photo, but here is the link to the wonderful recipe:

http://closetcooking.blogspot.com/2009/11/roast-beef-with-coffee-gravy.html

I used a round roast instead of a chuck roast, which may have affected the cooking time a little – the thermometer popped up after only an hour, and the recipe said 3-5 hours. I almost panicked and took it out, thinking it would dry out and burn in there, but I remembered some questionable advice an ex gave me: never trust my instincts. My instincts are always wrong. This sounds mean, but has actually been proven true on several occasions. So I forced myself to leave it in for a little under 3 hours, and it turned out great! It was way more tender than it had been after only an hour of roasting (I know because I cut some off the side early on, bewildered that the thermometer popped up, and it was a little tough at that point).

I’m very happy with how it turned out! I’d never made roast beef before; I was a vegetarian until this past year. I’d definitely make this again.

Write something. Anything.
Brainstorm about the Americorps personal statement (no idea what to write at this point)
run
and whenever I catch myself procrastinating, go declutter the office or something