I Slept 12 Hours!

We have yet another winter storm watch this week.  Our area could get up to six inches of snow.  I was happy that I braved the chilly 27 degree temps on Saturday and ran outside.

Um, I forget how hilly my neighborhood is when you are not in a car!  Much like Shelley, it takes me a while to get into my running groove, and to get my breathing right.   Check out my Nike+ App results:

My last mile was 12:15!  Not too bad.

My store had round steak on sale so I decided to make this recipe for sauerbraten on Saturday night.  I’ve always thought of round steak as a meat that you have to cook low and slow to get tender.  The recipe instructed to sear the meat, add the gravy ingredients to the pan, then add the meat back in and cook for 60 minutes.  I tasted a piece of the seared meat and it was delicious!  I gave a piece to Tony and he said “did you make that?!”

For half a second I thought, why am I going to cook this meat anymore when it tastes amazeballs like it was, but being the recipe follower I am, I completed the recipe as directed.

The result?  It tasted like ass.  The gravy was wonderful, super flavorful, but the meat tasted like shoe leather.  Note to self:  Go with your instincts!  I will do this recipe again, without cooking the meat and I’ll share the recipe another time.

We went to bed early Saturday night – 10:30!   I woke up and it was bright and sunny.  I stretched and Tony was standing in the doorway – he said he was doing a wellness check because it was 10:15 yesterday morning before I got up!  Not to brag, but I have the gift of sleep – and there are many times I’d like to pass that gift on to Tony!

My SIL didn’t have to work yesterday, so I asked her if she wanted to go thrifting with me when she came to pick up her food for the week.  Tony and I got married in 2000.  I bought champagne glasses that I brought with us to Florida with the intention that every anniversary I would pull them out and we would make a toast.

Sadly, they broke on the trip home.  I found this though so I bought it for .99 cents!  We can share a drink on our anniversary now!

And I found this.  I love old cross-stitch, and wonder why any family member would give stuff like this away.  I joked with Tony that I should frame it and hang it above our bed.

Ever since I posted pictures of our “pet” squirrel Lyle, and Christina said she used to feed her squirrels until they started to chew their way through the roof of their shed and doing damage to her property, we have been leery to keep feeding Lyle.  But I swear he’s gotten so bold to come to the front door, it’s almost like he wants to come in!  So I fed him a few nuts yesterday – I kind of felt sorry for him.

And I literally said “hey Lyle – look at me!”  And he did!  I love this picture.

The other day I was in the kitchen (shocker) and Tony called me into the living room.  He was flipping channels and Guy Fieri was on his Diners, Drive-ins and Dives show.  The guy was making a Reuben pizza!

I made a Reuben pizza before a few years ago – it was a much longer process, I made a horseradish cream sauce, I brushed the edges of the pizza with jalapeno mustard and caraway seeds, and I made a rye pizza dough!  Wow, wasn’t I ambitious back then!

Knowing that Tony wouldn’t touch a Reuben pizza with a 10-foot pole, I decided to make a traditional pizza dough.  I usually go with my no-rise pizza dough, or use my deep-dish pizza for the dough, even if I am making a thin crust.

I found this recipe for pizza dough – it has honey in it – the only thing I did differently was reduce the oil to 1 tablespoon instead of three.  It proofs in the refrigerator overnight.  Check out all the bubbles!

I used 1/6th of the dough recipe for each pizza.  Since I wanted to cook them both at the same time, I made them long so they would fit on my pizza stone.

My pizza?  Two tablespoons of Thousand Island Dressing.  Next layer – two slices of sliced Swiss cheese.  Next up, 2 ounces chopped deli corned beef.  Sprinkle of caraway seeds.  Next was 3/4 cup of sauerkraut that I squeezed all the juice out of.  Then 1 ounce of shredded Mozzarella, and another sprinkling of caraway seeds.  Tony had sausage, bacon and mushrooms on his.

I put my pizza stone in while it was coming up to 400 degrees.  So when I put the dough on to start building it, the crust is already starting to cook. These took 15 minutes to cook.

I of course finished my pizza with pickles!

The verdict?  AMAZEBALLS!  It literally tasted like I was eating an open faced Reuben sandwich.  I was worried about the hot Thousand Island dressing but this worked on every level – the tang of the Swiss cheese, the cold pickle on top.  I ended up eating half of mine it was that good!    I will definitely use that pizza dough recipe again – I imagine it could stand a few days in the fridge and just get better as it ages.

So I can add another 3 miles to my 45 mile March goal.  Only 41.5 to go.  Depending on the pool schedule today, I may end up doing a 9 mile bike ride at lunch – we’ll see how that works out.

You know the drill, off to get my stuff together, although I do have to say, I am pretty organized – it’s a lot easier on a weekend to stuff in order for the week.

How was your weekend?  Make it a great day!