"You've spent the best years of your life in prison"

 It makes me sad I had to cut myself off for so long.  

My orange glop turned out very well.  I had some for breakfast and I'm still not hungry at 4 PM.  It's not heavy though but it does have a lot of fiber.  

I think I put the recipe up already so I won't, again.  

Friday I think it was, I was wanting a veggie stew, some beans, potatoes, carrots, in a rich broth.  I am working on that now.  I didn't figure it out until after I started it but it will be great for those nights when I come home from work wondering what the hell to have for dinner.  

I have potatoes, carrots, barley, diced tomatoes in it.  The nice thing about cooking for myself alone I can add or remove things according to my taste.  I don't like cooked celery, for instance, so I don't have to use it.  I have bay leaf, thyme, oregano, and sage in it.  A little black pepper.  

This is another nice thing about living alone.  I have a nice, 4 ounce, jar of black pepper.  We have some great, regional, spice companies in addition to the imports and national brands.  This was Bolner's, they're headquartered out of San Antonio.  Spicy World actually imports spices and repackages them for retail sale in Houston - good stuff.  Bolner's is a good spice brand on single spices but I have found many of their blends have MSG.  Anyway, I got a nice jar of pepper from them.  

My cheaper spices have a screw cap.  Undo the cap and there's a flimsy shaker top.  The top is easy to remove and stick my measuring spoons in there.  The Bolner's has a very stubborn shaker lid.  The main lid unscrews easily but I have spilled the pepper twice now trying to get it off.  

So, when I got it off, I threw it away.  I don't shake pepper on my food.  I use measuring spoons to get it out and put it in what I cook.  Why keep the annoying lid and spill all my pepper?  So I threw it away.  No one's going to object.  

That's the kind of thing Ron would have been livid over.  

I'm watching NCIS reruns on ION.  After Ron died, the first thing I did was turn off the cable TV.  I have internet of course and it's Rico but very reliable.  I watch TV on my day off (one day) while I cook.  It's over the air tv with my antenna.  

Anyway two characters were talking.  A terrorist tells Ziva "You've spent the best years of your life in prison" and I thought, wow, that's entirely true.  But I still have a good 30 years left and I'm going to enjoy them.  Share the Gospel.  Be kind.  Love my cats.  

It's been very nice today and Scrappy has been out more than in, but when he comes in he meows very sweetly, finds me (I talk to him), gets some pets, checks out the food situation.  

My washer was making very unhappy noises and then got out of round on the spin cycle.  Horrible noises.  I've decided I'm going to do what I can to fix it.  I'm very sentimental when it comes to things, my fridge, the washer, my vending machines.  It's 8.5 years old but maybe I can fix it.  I'm going to look into it, at least.  

Ron called an appliance repair company to come work on the fridge.  They charged us $200 and didn't fix it.   So much for that.  He found a commercial refrigerator repair technician who thought it would be great fun to work on a household fridge for a change, especially when he found out it was made in 2001 (my food is still cold!).  It was having an icemaker issue.  He came out, had a look at it, and said "It's going to be cheaper to replace your built in microwave" (when he saw it was dead) "Than repair it.  Also they don't make parts for this fridge anymore.  Just use it as long as you can if ice doesn't matter to you."  It didn't, to me.  Ron and I had some bitter arguments he wanted to replace it.  I wouldn't allow it.  

I don't have his number.  And I have zero faith in the appliance repair guys in Houston, now.  So I'll call the Sears Repair #.  They are about $200 to come out I think.  But I want to at least try.  

Sentimental, I know.  If I really do go full time (boss says she wants it) I will be able to afford it.  I think I'll do that first, Scrappy is OK for now.  

Then I'm getting his little furry butt neutered, a chip, shots.  He's not full grown yet I'd say between 6-9 months.  Old enough.  

Of course he'll get fat once I do it but that's OK.  I love black cats and he is very, very, sweet.  

I have been talking to Spotty who is conflicted about this and we had a good nap together today.  

Orange Glop

 I decided to make red lentils today, with sweet potato, carrots, and pumpkin (all orange vegetables).  I'm going to season it with cinnamon and Kashmiri Chili powder and finish it with a little coconut milk.  I think it will be fantastic.  If it's a fail it isn't a lot of groceries.  

I also bought a 10 pound bag of chicken leg quarters, the old poverty special.  Basically every bill I had came due at payday.  Even with vegetables and work snacks my total only came to $15.  That will last me a while.  I really love lentils, they are filling without being heavy.  It's a wonderful meal at work, heats up quickly and sticks around without making me sleepy.  

I'm also going to make a veggie stew with pretty much all my favorite veggies (no meat).  Sometimes I just don't want meat.  I grew up in a household where Dad wanted very heavy, meat and potatoes, type dishes every night.  I am not afraid of fat in my cooking but not all the time.  I like lentils, whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables.  Stir fries, soups, etc.  

And the budget grocery store came through on that.  I even got some good work snacks, pretzels, little cups of flan, and lemon sandwich cookies.  

I'm going to take a nap, I got a late start.  

I forgot about the pork chops.  I got a package for $5.  It had 6 chops.  I took the first one out, threw a little lard in my skillet, cooked it and cut it up for Cleo.  Scrappy had some, too.  A lot of rescues got accustomed to eating people food in their street cat days.  

Pork chop photos: 

I made "pilaf" with 1 cup white rice, some leftover chicken broth, water, about a cup frozen mixed veggies, a teaspoon of salt.  Rice cooker.  

I basically just pan fried the chops in the skillet, in lard.  I had plenty of drippings left so I made gravy: 

I do love a good gravy.  I just used cornstarch I don't like flour gravy.  

I had 6 chops.  One to the cats, one for dinner, one in the fridge, and 3 meals prepped for work.  

For the glop: 

I used old lentils so it took about 3.5 hours to cook.  It probably could have been half an hour if I used fresh.  

.5 t Kashmiri Chili powder
1 t cinnamon (this was fresh if you use older I would go up 1/2 t)
2 T fresh ginger root, chopped (or could use 1 t dry) add this at the start
1/2 t powdered ginger root (add later)
1/4 t salt
I/2 can plain pumpkin puree (find on the baking aisle)
I measured - 6 ounces (or about one medium) chopped carrot. Make it as big or small as you like for boiled carrots. I made mine pretty small.
1/2 medium (or 6 ounces) chopped sweet potato (I left the skin on)
1 cup red lentils (the mistake I made tonight I used older ones, you want fresh ones for this). I have gas issues with beans if I don't soak them first so I did soak them. That removed some of the red coloration but again, these were old.

I soaked the lentils and poured that water off (really cuts the gas I even do this with split peas). I cut everything up and got out my spices and measuring spoons. I boiled 4 cups of water in a larger pot (4 quart). It expands a lot I wouldn't use anything smaller than a 3 quart saucepan if you follow this to the letter.

Once the water was going I added half the cinnamon, all the chopped ginger, and half a teaspoon of chili powder. I added the vegetables (can use more by the way but make sure they are orange), waited for the water to boil again.

Once it had I added the lentils. If you use fresh lentils this will be over in half an hour. I used lentils that "expired" 4 years ago. Fresh.

Cook until lentils are soft and falling apart, adding water as needed. Add the rest of the seasonings about halfway through.

They have an amazing kick to them.  

As you know I get a lot of migraines, many food related.  So I tried a little "glop" with some coconut tonight.  If I get a headache it probably won't be awful, and I'll know not to use the coconut milk.  It was amazing, though.  If I can do coconut milk I'll use half a can.  

When finished: 

Saturday morning

 "What is it with Friday?"  I asked the lady behind me on the bus "It's always the crazy train!"  She agreed as we watched the manic homeless guy bouncing up and down the aisle screaming about being A Solider Of The Lord.  We had him for almost a half hour.  

Work was pretty uneventful.  Other employees are saying they like the way I teach how to to "the thing".  "It's so much easier when Heather shows you" said one employee who's been there over 10 years.  Another employee, right next to her, also a 10 year veteran, agreed.  The Team Leads are thrilled I am teaching them.  It is getting back to them and they have always liked to come by and watch what I'm doing.  

I figure, knowledge is meant to be shared, the more people who can do this, the better.  

About an hour before quitting time (they had adjusted my schedule so I worked 11-8) my Team Lead called me over (she's top dog and the one who is in the computer as "my boss").  She asked if I "could" work full time.  

Many associates are on some sort of benefit that's adversely affected by additional work.  I am not.  I told her that.  She said "Good, do you want to be full time?"  I said yes.  She said "Good I'm putting you down for 11-8".  

That is great to hear but I'll believe it when I see it.  Right now I am still getting 32 hours on my schedule.  I didn't get a chance to talk about days off, I'm going to tell her I don't need the weekends off and would rather have 2 weekdays.  Just 2 days together, please, I don't care which days.  

I talked to Ace about it on the way home, he said 8 is great for him.  "What I'd like to do" I told him "Is call you 1-2 days a week, that way I can keep doing the evangelism on the way home" he chuckled because that is exactly what I'd think and said that was fine.  Good.  

If I'm off at 8 I can take the bus home now and then.  

I got home OK slept pretty well and woke up at 4 with a moderate headache, took something, went back to bed, woke up around 7.  

I'm going to take a look at my budget, take a shower, do my God Time, and go get a few groceries.  I have a lot of components to make some delicious meals.  Take a nap today, relax.  It's going to be a nice weekend.  

It's still pretty cold right now, in the 40's.  I got the schedule for the week of the 15th, they have me working the weekend and 2 days off I think Wed-Thurs.  That works for me.  I still have Valentine's off so I can do the Handout.  

That's it for now!