Slow Moving Sunday, Chilly Winds, Laundering, Puzzling and Playing Games

I woke around 7:00 on Sunday, Feb. 17^th and got up soon after. Bill heard me get up and then must have dropped off before I slipped out the door. It was very bright out so I had no hesitation going for my walk. At 48F and with no wind at that time, I enjoyed my walk. On the way back, I considered taking our sheets and duvet cover up to be washed. There were 4 washers available.

Now this looks like a pretty day coming our way

When I returned, Bill was up and was making my tea. Sweet! We sat together and read some blog posts before Bill hopped in the shower. His plan was to visit the Yuma RC flying field this morning. He had a quick breakfast and was on his way with Rob by 9:30 or so. I had my shower and a piece of rye toast with jam. I’m still eating the strawberry rhubarb jam that Rob and Pat made for us. It is almost all gone so I am eating it sparingly!

I got very lazy and just sat at my laptop searching for a recipe or two for the Instant Pot. Even though I belong to a couple of groups on FB, I find it almost as quick to Google when I’m looking for something specific. “Hey Google” works wonders. Once I find what I’m looking for, if the ingredients are in our kitchen, I copy and paste it into a Word document. Works for me!

I did find a ‘how to’ cook a beef roast on the Facebook group though and with a couple of alterations planned that for supper. I stripped the bed and the duvet of its cover and walked back to the Laundry Room. All washers were in use but with only a short 7-minute wait to obtain one, I stuck close by. Soon enough, I loaded it up and then went around the corner to the puzzle room.

One of my favourite puzzle people was there and Jules was also helping Robin with the cheese puzzle. Yay! The cheese puzzle wasn’t finished. I lent a hand in between my wash loads and when Jules said ‘toodle-ooh ladies’, Robin and I dug in. “We’re not leaving until we finish” she said and that was what we did. It was a great, fun one to work on with very strange shaped pieces, so a real puzzler for sure. We finished it without getting ‘cheesed’ off. Hardy-har.

This was a fun puzzle to work on, challenging but fun

Back home with the bedding, Bill and I sat for a bit before asking Rob and Pat if they wanted to play an indoor game. The wind was too unpleasant to try for bocce ball or shuffleboard, so we all settled on Wizard at their place. For a couple of hours, we played and Pat came out with top honours today. Way to go, girl! At 4:30 we returned home and I peeled carrots, onions, washed and cut potatoes and Bill turned our power back on.

Following general instructions, not to the letter but close enough, I browned the roast on all sides. Removing the meat, I added water + beef broth, scraped the brown bits, placed the trivet and meat back in the pot. The veggies were added, spices and a bay leaf finished the prepping part. Now the rest was up to I.P. I didn’t have a 7 lb. roast as per the recipe so didn’t set it for an hour. Instead, I set the cooking time to 40 minutes. I hoped that wasn’t too much. It seems unreal, ya know?

The best roast beef ever

Bill and I went upstairs and turned an exerting job into an easy task. We shared making the bed and then the duvet cover. I’ve struggled with doing that last job and it truly is a chore by myself. I know, I know, there are all kinds of people who have ‘just the trick’ but for me, forget it! It’s a pain. The good thing is that now everything is refreshed and we’ll enjoy slipping into the warmth and scent of clean sheets.

The Suite started to smell good immediately, I just love the scent of onions and carrots cooking. I took Clemson out for his walk and on the retractable leash, it is so much less stressful. He can go where he wants (within reason), stretches his legs, does all his business stops and is usually very ready at the door to go back inside. Those walks I don’t mind taking him on.

After 40 minutes, I.P. beeped and switched over to Keep Warm/Cancel. The Natural Release took longer than I expected and when I noticed that the valve stem had dropped, I lifted the lid. Everything smelled yummy! I lifted the roast out into foil, removed the potatoes and carrots. It is so easy to make gravy right in I.P. by turning on Sauté. It gets hot almost instantly and the liquid boils ready for thickening.

And finally a beautiful sunset again

I boiled some corn for Bill and carved the meat. Well, not much carving was really involved. The small roast almost fell apart. There was no bone but if there were, it would have fallen off. This was truly a wonderful Sunday night supper. Just like days of our youth, Bill said, referring to his family dinners and mine. I’ve never heard Bill go on about a meal I prepared so I know I can’t take credit, but I.P. can. It was delicious! Proof on the platter, no leftovers except for gravy.

We cleaned up dishes and vowed to only cook beef roasts in I.P. from now on. I sat and worked on my post and Bill and Clemson sat in the recliners waiting for me. The wind is still rocking our sign and our flag. We are hoping for a calmer day tomorrow as we know the temperature is dropping below 60F for a couple of days. This has been a good day of rest. I hope yours has been too.

Thank you for stopping in to see what we’re up to. I always love to hear from you if you choose to leave a comment.