Friday, September 17, 2021

Out-of-town and aches-and-pains

Mrs ERJ and I are traveling this weekend.

In prior years we would join my siblings in Ludington the weekend before Memorial Day. That did not happen the last two years.

We seem to be in a lull in the Covid craziness and my youngest sister called an audible.

And. Here. We. Are.

I am turning in early.

I started my antidepressant this week. My personal flavor of Seasonal Affective Disorder seems to bite as the days get shorter. September-through-December 31. I believe that is atypical as most SAD people get hammered Nov-through-March.

The antidepressant messes with my hunger and thirst reflex. It doesn't hurt me to miss a few meals but I need to remember to drink through the day.

Another thing that happened this past week is that I had my treadmill stress test. The technician stopped it at ten minutes telling me that they had enough data for what the doctor ordered.

I wish I could say I could have lasted another five minutes but I would be lying. 

I went for a run a couple days after the stress test and went up-tempo on the speed. My distance has been OK but the speed suggested that I needed a calendar rather than a stop-watch. The up-tempo got me well below 13 minutes/mile (see, I told you I was slow) but I am paying the price.

Achy muscles are the feeling of weakness leaving your body. I would dearly love to get down to 10 minutes/mile but things are going to be what they are going to be.

Blogging might be spotty.

2 comments:

  1. Maybe the negative emotional shift is influenced by the knowledge of the awful things the Democrats and Rinos are doing to us?

    I know I am upset and it is affecting my happiness.

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  2. Let's try this again. Ive now used the sous vide circulator twice. Let me start at the beginning with the equipment. Got one of the least expensive units for my birthday. Price was in the $50-$60 range. The hope is that while its not as expensive as most other models it also doesn't have the bells and whistles the others have. As an example, my unit doesn't have wifi or bluetooth. It doesn't connect to the web and doesn't have an app.I see that as a good thing. I had read about how with sous vide you could cook a chuck roast and have it come out like filet. Yes please. That was the first experiment, the second was to take a chunk of pork loin. You know those online how to sight in your rifle? It seems that there is a bit of a learning curve to get it right(at least to ones own personal taste) The first attemp was the chuck roast. I cut what seemed to be equal size(2 inch thick)pieces and place them in there own bags, set the sous vide to 132.5 degrees which is what the online cooking sites said would be med. rare and set the machine to 30 hours. Yes, you read that right. At the 30 hour mark I removed the bags, dried the meat and gave it a quick sear on all sides.(I'll give you the after action report at the end of this) The second experiment was the pork loin, 140 degrees for 8 hours. For this I scored the fat cap and used a dry rub. Put it into the bag I intended to cook it in and tossed it in the fridge overnight. It may have been the very best port loin I've ever had. Neither experiment however was perfect. Next time The chuck roast will be left in one piece and cut after cooking. Was it filet? It was as tender as filet but wasn't med rare. It seemed to be rare and quite tasty but I will cook it at a 3 or 4 degrees higher temperature in hopes that more of the fat renders out. If it were a big enough chuck and cut right, you might be almost able to pass it off as prime rib. The second experiment the pork loin(To be transparent I've never been a big fan of pork loin, too tough and dry) 8 hours in the sous vide at 140 really tenderized the meat but I'd like it a bit juicier so next time I'll cook it at 136-137. We frequently find whole loins at a pretty good price per pound and since we all liked it,it would be economical to portion and freeze the loin. ymmv

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