Polar Bears in the Sunshine

Wednesday evening already. This week is really moving along. After having a day of snow yesterday, we had sun today. We have a tinge of white stuff in front of the car but the rest has disappeared. 

The temperatures are not warm enough to be celebrating by laying near a pool or river to keep cool by any means, but rather cool enough to remain in jeans or sweats, sweatshirts and boots or tennis shoes. It is nice not to have the snow leaving nothing but slush in the streets however. 

Another two files finished today and my sweet man is home for his weekend. It has been a good day overall. I am worried, yet excited to see what happens at the surgeon's office tomorrow in regards to the cast replacement. I am supposed to be receiving a cast with a heel to give me some leverage in terms of balance. That is if all is healing well. We'll see then I guess. 

My daughter Dawn is driving down to attend the appointment with us and to help Terry set up the ramp for my exit. This is going to be the first time I have tried the metal ramp, so we'll see how well it all works out. If I don't end up on my ass in the cold grass, then I guess it works. 

Marina flew to Texas to meet up with Katie, Elena, and Spencer, her new daughter-in-law and two grandchildren. My great grandchildren live in Texas now, but with Marina's assistance will be flying to meet up with Keenan, their father, who is working as a lineman in Arizona. 

Keenan was offered good work in Arizona a couple of months ago, after being left without available hours in Texas. So off to Arizona it is, leaving behind his wife and two daughters. Katie and the girls stayed behind because Keenan and her were locked into a contract in the place they live, but now they are free. 

Keenan searched for a nice place to live in Arizona and found one he thinks will make everyone happy. Marina offered to come to Texas and help with the girls as they fly into their new home state. Long story short, she is traveling and won't be here to come with us to the doctor. We will miss her, but look who she gets to play with!

Yesterday I was craving some veggies, along with a hot meal. The snow had me wishing for some stew, but I wanted it to be a homemade stew. Being in a wheelchair slowed me up a bit, although it didn't stop me from getting a few groceries and putting all of them together to create that homemade deliciousness. So off to my laptop I went, as fast as I could spin the wheels of the chair. 

Bought spinach, onions, stew meat, tomatoes, fresh green beans, a bag of mixed veggies consisting of corn, carrots, and peas, bag of potatoes, and some garlic. Within a few short minutes I had the food on its way via DoorDash. Opening my cupboard, I grabbed one of my Dutch ovens out of its place of storage and struggled to get it on the stove. 

The Dutch oven is a Lodge brand large cast iron Dutch oven, coated with enamel. I got it for my birthday in December, along with two other cast iron Dutch ovens from Brandy and Marina. I have been unable to use them much due to the accident in January and here I am, still in the chair. But today was a good day to try it all out. Off I went, pushing myself across the house to the kitchen. Let's get this veggie party started!

Groceries arrived and I was soon unpacking the bags, with Kit's help, of course. He is one nosey cat. Once he realized mom purchased mostly vegetables, he was out. The only thing left that impressed his highness was the bag. Climbing in, he tore it up within moments. Poor bag. 

First I pulled the stew meat out. It was a pretty big package, but that's okay. I love meat in stew. This meat was nice looking and I knew it would be great in the final meal. The cost of meat is so high lately. It's really crazy how expensive groceries are getting overall. 

The first step I took was taking the meat and throwing it into a large bowl. I've never tried this method before, but thought, "Eh, why not?" I began to pour some basil pesto on top of the meat, then sprinkled pepper heavily onto the surface. Then I added the flour to thicken and brown the meat.  I grabbed my avocado oil, onions, and we were now in stew heaven. 

Stirring the meat around in the bowl, I rubbed the pesto all over the pieces to generously coat them. They were looking better than a princess in a fur coat, heading for her throne. Once it was all slathered in pesto and pepper, the meat was dumped into the avocado oil, along with some garlic salt and onion. The mixture was sauteed until it was perfectly brown and smelling delicious!

Now that the meat was smelling heavenly, the tricky part was cutting all the veggies. My wheelchair has me sitting right below the kitchen counter surface. This means a lot of stretching to slice the veggies for the stew. I have a brand new KitchenAid food processor that my awesome hubby got me for Christmas, but can't reach it. Standing on my one leg for that long would be quite impossible or at least unsafe, so I stuck with the hand slicing from the wheelchair. Hey, whatever works in these first-world problems, right? 

And slice I did. After about an hour of slicing, cubing and dicing celery, onion, tomatoes, spinach, breaking up green beans, then chopping some potatoes and other vegetables, and smashing some garlic into oblivion, I was ready to put it all into the pot. I threw in the small bag of mixed vegetables I purchased too, put the lid on the Dutch oven, and placed it on the middle rack at 350 degrees. Low heat, slow cook, and wow. My mouth was watering just thinking about it. 

One concern surfaced right before I closed the oven door. The oven rack. My very heavy Dutch oven bowed the rack. These are regular metal oven racks too, but it was bending in the middle from all that weight. I just hoped it hung in there until the project was complete. I shrugged and went back to work, sending all the good wishes I could onto that poor, drooping oven. 

After about an hour and a half, the aroma was too much to bear. I couldn't wait for this meal. You could smell the pesto, the veggies, and spices all marrying into one lovely smell. I was drooling on myself. Great. Just writing about this stew is making me want more. 

Lifting the lid, I was truly impressed by how awesome it was turning out in this amazingly helpful Dutch oven. Definitely one of my favorite cooking vessels now! Having relationships with all of my household products might just get me into trouble, but I can't help it. I believe my husband may decide I need some mental health checkups soon. Definitely need a bigger, more accommodating bed with the washer, dryer, food processor, Crosswave, and now Dutch ovens thrown in. 

The fresh green beans, meat, spinach and potatoes sat on the surface, but there was so much more under the first layer. Stirring the other veggies to the top really brought out more of the aroma. This was going to make it difficult to ignore the stew until Terry gets home, but wow. 

If you've never tried a Dutch oven, it's the way to cook! That lid holds in all the deliciousness, the moisture, and that lovely flavor. Meat tends to fall off the bone. It's all so moist, flavorful, and nutritious to cook from scratch. I have to say, this is one of the best stews I have ever made. No, not patting myself on the back, but the Dutch oven really works its magic. 

With a growling stomach, I stirred the stew and very carefully set it back in the oven. The rack bowed again and I cringed. I had a mental image of all that stew going ending up on the oven floor, with a broken rack sitting in all of it. I couldn't bear the thought and my medical situation I'm in right now would make it impossible to clean it. 

Prayers will be said, chanting and smudging with a large bundle of sage will happen. Prayer beads will appear. Buddhas will be placed about the kitchen. A huge bag of crystals will be hung on the overhead fan to appease whatever spirit or energy we need to make happy. Calling on the angels to make this task easy and doable. I will be calling upon an army of entities to keep this pot of stew safe in the oven. Maybe stew is more work than it should be? There is the Instant Pot for the next attempt at stew ...

But the stew came out beautifully! Hubby Mac was impressed and ate a lot of it. We were both pretty quiet as we gobbled the meal down, without remorse. Blueberry loaf followed for dessert. No, I did not take on the task of baking that loaf as well as cutting up a ton of veggies. I ordered it through the store. It's a "no added sugar," while the blueberries held onto the only sugar in the loaf. It had an excellent flavor, was very moist, and we loved it. I will order that again. 

These slices are filled with blueberries and are so moist. Great flavor too. Awesome snack or dessert. At Albertson's, this package is kept in a cooler in the bakery department. The cost is about $4.99. You get about 10 slices. Good stuff. 

Terry and I happily embraced the warm, delicious stew. Wow, it was great! I'm going to do the coating of pesto and flour again. The combination really added the thickness, but the flavor was amazing. Better than any packaged stew seasoning or any broth and seasoning added. Best method of making stew I have ever used. I will definitely continue with the pesto!

After eating stew, we climbed into our nightly positions to watch an episode or two of our favorite cop and writer series, Castle. We're almost finished with the show. We are in season eight. Love the series, but once again here we are with our favorite TV series complete. 

I smiled as I snuggled into the blankets and lay my head on my pillow. My leg took the usual 10 minutes of getting comfortable with the weight of the cast slamming into my other leg. I finally lay on my back with my foot raised high above my body, and I rested it on the back of the couch. It was fairly swollen from being down for so long while I made the stew. It's never 100% pleasant, but some lucky nights I can position it to where it does feel better. Tomorrow is my appointment and maybe, just maybe I can get a lighter cast on ... Hey, a girl can dream, can't she?