It may not have been the holiday we planned for, but...

 

Well, what can I say about a holiday other than it's best when you can be with the people we care for.  In my case, I spent the day at home with RQS, rather then getting dressed up in nice dresses to go out to a fancy restaurant and then to see friends.

But first....

RQS was recovering from being in the hospital.  After two nights in medical prison (that's what I'll call a hospital which won't release a person when the doctors say she's ready to go home), she needed a good night's sleep.  And that's what she got - at least twelve hours of it.  So we weren't ready to go out for an early Turkey dinner at a local diner.  This forced us to fall into our backup plan which I had prepared for.

My backup for Thanksgiving was to cook some sausage based stuffing (technically, dressing, as it is never inside of a bird during the cooking process), a 2 1/2 lb. Turkey Breast, and make some Bananas Foster for dessert.  (I even had another level of backup, as I had purchased 4 Large Chicken Breasts 2 days before, as I couldn't find a bird small enough to cook for 2 people.) Luckily, we had the key ingredients for a Holiday Feast, even though we didn't have the Cranberry Sauce to go with our turkey.

Around 12:30 pm / 1:00 pm, we started to make the stuffing.  And this was the most labor intensive part of the meal, as we had to dry out fresh bread to ready it for use, cook the onions and celery, then cook some sausage, then mix everything together before baking it for 90 minutes.  Of course, we should have started the turkey at this time, but I delayed an hour.  By the time dinner was ready, it was a little after 4:00 pm.  And then, our plans to visit friends in Yonkers were shot - we were both way too full to even consider getting dressed and being in a position to even have a small bite to eat with friends.

Yet, with all being said, this was a good holiday.  RQS saw that I am more than willing to go out of my way for her, and I had a little fun doing the cooking for a change..

Slow cooking some ribs - a short post

 

Ribs!  Yum!

The other day, I saw a rack of vacuum packed ribs selling for a reasonable price.  So, I figured that I might have some fun with the slow cooker and have some "fall off the bone" good stuff for dinner tonight.  Since RQS was coming up, I didn't want to waste much time preparing the ribs and dealing with my oven.  (The less I use my oven when the weather is warm, the more comfortable my apartment will be.)  So, I took my crock pot off the shelf, cleaned it up, and started to prepare the ribs.

Slow cooker ribs are reasonably easy to prepare.  I do them in a simple way:

1. Take a full rack of ribs and cut them up into portions of 3-4 ribs each.
2. Pour a full bottle of BBQ sauce (whatever type I like and have in hand) and pour it in the pot.
3. Place the ribs in the pot, making sure all are covered by the sauce.
4. Turn the crock pot on high, and let it cook the ribs for 5 hours.
   Note: One may want to adjust the ribs occasionally to keep them all submerged.
   

If I want to further caramelize the ribs, I may place the ribs on a ridged stove-top grill and cook them a little more on the stove.  But I usually don't bother doing this, as I like the results fresh out of the pot.

Is there a better way to celebrate the unofficial start of summer with Ribs?   If there is, I'll enjoy it later on.... 

Game Night - Not much to say tonight

 

It's the first Thursday of the month, and it was time to play games again.  For me, it's not whether I win or lose the game, or even play the game itself, it's being with people who accept me as Marian.

- - - - - -

Today was a day that I spent doing nothing, save cook some ribs. Knowing that the ribs had to be cooked today, I made sure to start cooking them right after I made breakfast for myself.  It was nice to have some home cooking for a change, even if I cooked my meal itself. Later on, the ribs were done.  And they weren't as good as the ribs I cooked last week. Next time, I'll place them on a rack, so that the fat doesn't keep my glaze from sticking to the ribs.

Around 5:30, I decided to get ready for game night. I decided to get into the dress I got in the Mystery Box, as it was warm enough to wear a short sleeved dress. And then, I went to game night - late.  Unlike most game nights, I didn't have the chance to get into a game.  Instead, I was gabbing with people who just finished their game.  

As I said, not much to say tonight....

My refrigerator overfloweth

 

One of the problems in living alone is that it's hard to get enough variety AND small enough quantities of food at a reasonable price.  Either one has to over stuff a refrigerator, or pay too much for the small quantities one needs.  For example, I only need a tiny bit of celery to make a decent tuna salad for sandwiches.  Yet, I always end up wasting food by buying too much to feed only one person.  

What makes things worse is that it's so hard to plan my meals.  I'm lucky that I can buy my lunches at the local supermarket and heat them up in a microwave oven.  But this is not the healthiest thing to do, as I will always end up eating more than I should.  In certain ways, this is a problem not unique to single people.  Most of us are on the go, and don't have the time to do any serious meal planning.  Given that my mother was a horrible cook, she was not the person from whom to learn either cooking or meal planning.  This is where I wish they gave "Home Economics" to both boys and girls when I was of school age.

Over time, I may get the hang of things.  But the one thing I am grateful for is the rotisserie chicken found at many supermarkets and warehouse clubs.  A whole chicken can easily be made into 3-4 meals. And the trick is making at least one of those meals a lunch.  Chicken Salad sandwiches are always a good way to use an "old" chicken.  And I've done this more than enough times over the years.

Well...  Enough for now.   The pork tenderloin that's been in the freezer (and just thawed out) is finally ready to eat.  It's enough meat for two people, but I can always use it tomorrow night - as long as I'm not cooking anything else....

I keep making lists, but nothing comes of them.

 

One of the things I do at work each day while not looking at a computer screen is to make a list of things to buy and things to accomplish.  Some of these lists I make involve things I need to do now, and other things I need to do in the future- such as blogging about my future vaccinations.  This helps to keep my mind focused enough to get through the day at work, and to help set my priorities for the near future.

Some of the things on these lists involve people I want to call, so that I can arrange my social schedule for the next couple of weeks.  This can involve setting up an occasional date or two. Other things involve cooking, and and the ingredients I have at hand.  Often, I plan to buy salad and eat it, but I never get around to it. Other times, I plan to cook some pudding, but I never get around to it - the milk I have in the ice box always seems to go to waste. Very little of these things to do and things to buy ever get checked off.

With this being said, I feel that making these lists is a good thing, as I know what my priorities are.  The things I did not buy or did not do are not that important at the moment, but the ones I checked off the list were the ones that were needed to be taken care of most. 

So I will continue to make my lists and see what happens next.

Sometimes, I even go to church.

It's hard to believe, but this was the second week in a row that I've attended a church service.  No, I don't expect to become a weekly participant in services.  Instead, I intend to use this opportunity to become part of a larger community as Marian.

Some would say that getting out and about as Marian took a lot courage to overcome my fears of being seen as a "Man in a Dress".  To me, it's more of my need to present as my authentic self overcoming the resistance that prevented me from being authentic.  Yet, I sometimes feel as if I'm an impostor.  But with more and more time spent out in the world as Marian, with more and more time perfecting my feminine presentation, the more natural and comfortable I am when presenting as Marian.

- - - - - -

After church, I might have gone to a local diner for breakfast.  Since I've been running lower than usual on folding money, I decided to go home to have something to eat.  For the first time in a while, I cooked something on my stove top -  a couple of eggs with some corned beef hash.  This time, I made sure that the hash lost enough moisture that it had a little bit of a char - yum!  And then I took it easy for a while.

Later on, as I was preparing an update to this website to add a page where people could download some voice samples I've recorded over the years, I got messaged by one Trans woman I wouldn't mind meeting again.  We chatted for well over an hour, and this took away time that I had planned spending on searches for voice recordings.  However, before I was to leave for my 5:00 Meetup, I was able to get showered, dressed,and out the door as Marian to be early for a Fun Time Friends meetup in Ridgefield, CT.

We had a room to ourselves at the restaurant we were meeting at, and  yet, not enough seats at the table.  Luckily, enough people were no-shoes, and we had enough stools for us to sit on and enjoy a non-pretentious BBQ dinner.  Yum!   The conversations were good, and I'd gladly go back to the restaurant again - but this time, at a normal table.

- - - - - -

Just before dinner ended, I got a call from Maria.  She was totally discombobulated - her daughter is having trouble with her life, her husband is finally home from the hospital, and her computer's hard drive had crashed, leaving her without important photos and documents she had neglected to backup over the past couple of years.  So I walked her through things, telling her what to do, and giving her a game plan of how to deal with the loss of her computer.

When I was done with Maria's call, I was too tired to bother to shop for supplies that my cleaning lady needed. So I called GFJ to chat on the way home.  We agreed to meet at 6:15 at a Hudson Valley Restaurant Week establishment for dinner.  It'll be nice to have a nice meal with her before she goes away to Florida for a vacation.