All About Ptooties, Slippers and Meat Loaf

The Ridge, Priceville, Ontario

So, on Saturday, Apr. 20^th, it was not much different than Friday. It was still quite cold at 37F/2.7C. There was no rain falling when I got up just after 7:30. It was 11 when I went to bed last night so sleeping in was not surprising. It was a great night’s sleep for both of us. I need my 8 hours where Bill is good with 6 on most nights. His first question of the day is “Do you want your tea?” and it pertains to my decision of walking first thing.

Today's priority
Bringing our baby home

This morning, I stuck my head out the door and the wind made that decision for me. I’m getting lazier as the days go on but at least I’m feeling that something is missing, the walks being such a routine thing for me now. Soon I’ll be out the door more than once to take the jaunt down the familiar country roads. We sat with our drinks and read blogs before making a tie-me-over breakfast of toast. Bill had jam on his w.w. bread and I chose raw honey on rye.

There goes Rob in his pretty truck
We are all very happy with Murray and his storage facility

We were cleaned up and on the road around 9:30. First stop, RBC, second stop to pick up our buddy, Rob and then we drove to Murray’s to pick up our stored vehicles. Yay! There they sat, out in front of the red barn, waiting. We were getting our Toyota Rav 4 aka Ptooties and Rob getting his GMC pick up truck. Murray is such a nice guy, so accommodating and had them uncovered and pulled out for us. I swear I could see Ptooties smile when I walked up to her. 😊

Because I don't have many pictures, I thought I'd show you what I'm
using to hold our couch blanket in place
Notice the purple pool noodle? I need a smaller one so it isn't visible but it works like a charm
I think it was Kim who gave us this tip

I followed Bill out of the lane into the Walmart parking lot in Hanover where we both hopped into ‘my’ vehicle (hehheh) and drove to Carpet One (Cuneo) to drop off the carpet runner we purchased at Quartzsite. We want it for the upstairs hallway and it needs to be cut to length and the ends binded. This will replace the old one from the house that has since been stained with bleach splatter. It will also give us one more scatter mat for at the bottom of the stairs.

Bill has happy feet

 We drove to the Bread Place for Bill’s bread and some buns for lunches next week. He needed a couple of things at Canadian Tire for the Hangar and the last stop was back at Walmart for a few groceries. Here we parted ways and I followed Bill home. Slowly, things are getting back to normal. My only regret is that I don’t drive it much all summer long. It only makes sense for Bill to take the most economical vehicle for his weekly treks back and forth to London. During those times, Black Beauty and I get very comfortable together and I do enjoy driving the truck too.

After groceries were put away, I wrote a bit on my blog and then made us some breakfast. I’m going to put Madame I.P. to the test tonight with something different. It is a raining again now so rather than waiting until Easter Sunday to have a nice meal, we’ll have it tonight. I will be happy to get back to cooking on the Weber, gives me a bit of a reprieve from coming up with inside meal plans. Bill isn’t as into bbq’ing as others are so I’m sure it isn’t as happy about that.

We cleaned up dishes and the rest of the day was puttering around inside. I finished Bill’s slippers and they fit very snug which was better than sloppy. His feet should never be cold again! He has his moccasins for warmer days. Then we sat and read our books. I’m reading a J.A. Jance mystery. Sheriff Joanna Brady at her finest in Remains of Innocence writes about familiar territory to us now. She writes stories in the Bisbee, Tombstone and Huachuca areas.

This is the kind of day it was

At 5, Bill got up to feed Clemson at the same time I got up to start supper. As we were doing this, our friend, Keith, texted. He was so taken with our I.P. beef roast that he went out and bought his own Instant Pot! Yay! He will love it and already has prepared a delicious meal for himself. I still have Kim to credit for our purchase. Tonight, I am making Bill’s favourite meat loaf. Our own Easter dinner.

Oh Mom, more pictures?

Instead of taking an hour in the convection oven = electric power, I am cooking it in Madame I.P. The online recipe I found says 20 minutes cook time and 10 minutes natural release. I’m hoping it all works out! After 20 minutes of cooking, I turned it to Keep Warm and waited for 10 minutes. That was all it needed. All pressure was released naturally. I took the lid off and cut into the meat loaf, dead centre. Nope, not done yet.

Meatloaf wrapped in a makeshift tin foil pan

I reset it for another 20 minutes and let it go. This time, it was done perfectly! I was concerned about the glaze topping and how it would turn out. Although it wasn’t crispy or caramelized, it had filtered through the meat and came out as a delicious sauce that I spooned onto our servings. On the side, I made Cole slaw and warmed up creamed corn. All favourites of ours. Yum, Happy Easter, Sweetie-Pie!

It lifted out quite nicely

We forgot to turn the hot water heater on (we use the propane rather than electric when it is this cold) after turning it off after our morning washes. That meant a delay between eating and doing dishes so we bided our time writing and reading. The rest of the evening passed by listening to music on Sirius XM, with our books and maybe some tv later on. I’m ready to join my boys in our recliners so will post this now.

Our Easter dinner with leftovers for tomorrow night

It has been quiet, but we managed to get Ptooties home where she belongs, a pair of slippers finished and experimented with another home cooked meal. All good things! Maybe the rain will stop tomorrow and bring some sunshine for Easter Sunday.

Creamy Jell-o to clean up for dessert
I hope your weekend is going well!
Good night y'all!

Thank you for stopping by!