Rotten Pork

I have given up chocolate for Lent. 6 weeks of no chocolate. I am very excited about Easter morning. No I am not Catholic. I have done this for years. It is either chocolate or men. Anyway I am out shopping for goodies for the baskets. I spent $70 at one location and $30 at another; I carry the bags into my room and deposit them in an undisclosed location. I get up early anxious for my favorite Easter treats Reese eggs. I am loading up each basket when I realize I have gone through all the bags and there are no Reese eggs, no peeps, no cookie and cream eggs, no Easter socks. I am missing a bag. I carried out the bag she handed me. I realize Barbie at the cash wrap failed to give me one of my bags. I heard no “Ma’am you left a bag!” I saw no ne chase me out to the parking lot. I cannot believe I was that distracted as to just left it sitting on the counter. Surely she would have noticed or the person behind me.  I am soooooo disappointed, in people, in the day, and I wish I had the amount of forgiveness GOD has. 

I sent the kids to get a puzzle last night for my mom to have to mess with today. I said get a 500 piece puzzle that was not too complicated and pretty. They brought back a black night sky with a with a white and grey stripped tiger. Maybe I should have said “think old lady”. OOyyyyy!!!

I will eat one of the truffle eggs I got the girls and get on with me morning. 

It was an Omen, the missing bag of goodies. I had everything prepped for the pork loin a’ la’ Provence. I open the package which is sealed airtight. I take a deep breath and reach my hand out and grabbed hold of a slimy cold piece of flesh. I knew immediately “danger danger…get rid of it!!! BAD BAD!!!!” It should NOT have been slimy. I lean toward it to take a sniff and before I can even get my nose 6inches from the thing I can smell it. Buzzards 3 miles away probably could smell it. It smelled 3 days old dead. Now I had pulled the thing from the freezer Saturday afternoon. Let it thaw a bit and then placed it in the fridge. It should NOT have smelled that way. My stomach lurched and as I was thinking don’t do it, I hurled it the trash. My daughter grabbed the trash bag and promptly put it out side. Now what would we have for dinner? There would be 6 of us. I would make chicken Alfredo lasagna. I went to get the precooked chicken and low and behold it was ham. Rethink dinner again. Meatloaf I decided as one of my daughters looked at me in horror and shook her head. “Mom I do not like meat loaf”. Her friend Daniel looked like he had just eaten lemon peel. Fast approaching panic I remembered I had made a batch of sauce for lasagna last week. I could still make the rosemary focaccia, cabbage and carrots.

 I went to work creating,  the children went outside for a water balloon fight and I started doubting my amazing culinary skills. I had made a cheesecake on Saturday for Easter dinner. Made not unfroze, not opened a packaged mix, made. I had peeled, chopped, cooked, mashed and reduced 6 fresh mangoes into a tasty topping and slathered in on the cheesecake. 

The way things were going I imagined it would be horrible. I quickly got it out and cut a thin slice out and …… WOW! It was perfect. Dry, yet moist, firm yet incredibly soft. The mango sauce was amazing. I was relieved and grateful and said a prayer of thanks.  Dinner may be a little crazy today but dessert was brilliant. I should write the recipe down and share it except I made it up and did not measure.

My daughter Lovey and I filled 140 eggs with treats Saturday night and on Sunday Daniel and I hid 132 of them (the rest would not go back together).  The girls all showed up dressed to kill with Emma in tow and set her gathering them up.  She had a huge basket and before long it was full. I thought she might get bored or tired but at each and every egg she gently picked it up and made a fuss. Ooohs….. and ahhhs…… and total joy on her face. She would see a pink one about 10 feet from her and run passing green ones and blue ones and then a yellow would catch her eye and off she would go passing up green and pink ones. There was no methodical order just random joy catching her attention and pursuit. It was bliss.

Lady Tamara www.HighlandTitles.com will not be roasting a pork loin for a very very very long time. It will take me a while to not associate that smell with pork.  I also will be shopping somewhere else. I pray everyone had a less chaotic adventure for their dinner.

Tonight no dinner, I have an Artz Council meeting.