Saturday

I woke up early on Saturday and read my book until 6:00 a.m. when the morning news came on. It was 5 degrees in Detroit. But according to the weather station off of Schoolcraft (about a mile from me) it was 4 degrees here in Redford. The only saving grace was that the wind had died down to 1 mph.

I had a cup of coffee and then made scrambled eggs. Then I shaved, showered and got dressed for a shopping trip. Before I left, I stripped the bed and started another load  in the washer. Then I got on my down jacket, gloves and knit hat and waddled out to the truck.

First stop was Kroger's for some groceries. I didn't think I bought that much stuff, but it cost me $86.72!

Next stop was Home Depot for wood molding and more "stuff." That cost me an even $50.00. Can't remember when a bunch of stuff added up to an even amount.

Then I went home. I left the truck outside to unload it. Then I locked it and still left it outside, so I could work in the garage.

Before I shut the garage door, I started the bike (been meaning to do that). Unlike the last time, it fired right up. I must not have had the battery tender plugged into the bike all the way or something, the last time. I ran it for at least five minutes. It felt good to be sitting on it again, LOL!

Sidebar: Only 2017 New year's resolution I made was to ride the bike more.  I would love to take it to B___'s or (eventually) ride it up to West Branch and hook up with Tracey, Heather, et al... I love those crazy biker bitches!

Back inside, I started my dinner, Beef Stroganoff, in the slow cooker. First I sprayed the inside with canola oil.

Then I sliced my steak. I was supposed to get 1 1/2 pounds of round steak, but Kroger's was out of round steak. So, I bought four beautiful boneless eye of round steaks. I trimmed off what little fat was on them and sliced them about a half inch wide. The steak strips went into the crock pot.

I added 8 ounces of sliced crimini mushrooms. Then I diced half a medium yellow onion.

Sidebar; I nicked my left thumb with the Shun knife. WTF? I haven't cut myself in years. I put a band-aid on it, secured that with some tape and put a latex glove on my hand.

I minced up two cloves of garlic. Then the mushrooms, onion and garlic all went into the pot.

In a medium-sized bowl, I mixed together 1 1/2 cups of beef broth, one tablespoon Worcestershire sauce, one tablespoon Dijon mustard, one tablespoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon black pepper and one teaspoon of dried thyme. I whisked that and then poured it over all the ingredients in the slow cooker and stirred it all. At noon, I covered it and cooked it on low for six hours (or you could cook it on high for four hours).

I decided it was just too damn cold to work in the garage today, so I pulled the truck in.

Sidebar: The goal here is to paint the downstairs bath with a coat of Kilz this weekend. Bit, I need to put some trim around the window first. It never had any and always looked "unfinished" to me. So, I need to use the table saw and the compound miter saw and they are in the garage.

Instead, I did household chores, remade the bed, read a little, and so on.

At 6:00 p.m., I added four ounces of softened cream cheese and 3/4 cup of sour cream. I stirred that in (not easy) and continued to cook it for another 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, I made some wide egg noodles. When I drained them, I added in some butter.

I put some of the noodles in the bottom of a bowl, added in the beef Stroganoff and topped that with fresh parsley (cut with my Brother Carl's herb scissors - I'm getting better at using them).

I ate at the kitchen table. OMG! The sauce alone was fantastic!!! The only thing I didn't like was that some of the mushroom were too big. But that was my fault. I bought the pre-sliced ones and should have cut the big ones in half.

Really, if you have a slow cooker, you should try this recipe.

It was back to reading after cleaning up. Then it was time to watch the Lions play in the playoff game. I should have stayed with the reading...