So in the end I never did get on the treadmill today (bad girl). I spent the morning running around doing errands, then some last minute stuff for the people that were coming in the afternoon. Oh, and I hauled some wood in from outside, and then covered the woodpile as it seems like we’re supposed to get a storm tomorrow. Oh, and I discovered that the garage is warmer than the fridge in the garage (sad) so I’m now thawing the turkey on a shelf in the garage. I did put a small portable thermometer out to make sure that it wasn’t too warm (and it isn’t) and the good news is that it’s finally showing some progress. I put the thermometer in the fridge and it’s as close as dammit to freezing (0.2C - 32.4F) which is probably why the damn thing wasn’t thawing. I’m hoping that by tomorrow it will be thawed enough to put it in the brine tomorrow night and then smoke it on Saturday, although if it has to be Sunday that’s fine. If we do get snow tomorrow I’ll have to keep the barbecue area clear of snow as it comes down.

What else… oh, I roasted an eye of the round roast yesterday and it turned out beautifully. Since I’d bought two of them on sale, I did the other one this evening. I found the method online (with enough comments to make it work for me). I took a big (~7lb) roast and preheated the oven to 500F. I sprinkled it with pepper, salt, and garlic powder - placed it on a rack in my big roasting pan. Then I turned the oven down to 475F and cooked it for ~5mins/pound. The online recipe said 7 mins, but that was for smaller roasts, and comments said it didn’t work for larger ones. At this point I turned the oven back to 200F and cooked for ~ 3 hours. I did check the first roast twice, and ended up having to cook it longer, but tonight it was just perfect at three hours. It turned out evenly pink and really moist. The only real pain was trying to slice it thinly. I understand that a new slicer might be in my future as a delayed Christmas/birthday gift in the new year. I ended up with 19 lunch portions for the two of us (I can’t get my mother to take a larger portion, so I do 1/2 portions and whole portions). The roast I did tonight was a little smaller, but we’ll have plenty of beef to start off the new year. We’re actually almost out of the previously smoked beef and turkey, so the timing is good.

So tomorrow I’ll slice up the other one, and using the drippings and some soup bones will make some stock. We’re down to only 8 servings of soup in the freezer, so it’s time to make more. I’ll likely make more turkey soup next week once I’ve smoked the bird on the go and made some stock.

Oh, and the HR monitor experiment from today shows a total calories burned (10pm to 10pm) of 3659 calories, which makes more sense because I moved around more today (shopping, carrying wood, etc.).

Food for today:

Total: 2009 (36% fat, 32% carbs, 31% protein)

Breakfast: egg/egg white omelet, honey oatmeal bread, jam, clementines (332)
AM Snack: none (0)
Lunch: whole wheat tortillas, mustard, eye of round (368)
PM Snack: cookie-fest* (387)
Dinner: turkey/beef burgers with condiments, edamame, salad w/dressing (692)
Late Snack: protein shake, fruit salad (231)

* I really hadn’t planned so many, but, at least the macros/calories were still in line. I had originally planned to have a protein shake before people came (to keep me from picking at the food), but I didn’t. And then I just said ’screw it, I’ll deal with it later’, but it ended up being a really ‘hungry’ day, which is bad. I’m still a little peckish, but off to bed without eating anything more!

Speaking of school… okay, I brought it up.

I got my grades today. I suppose I’ll officially get them through the mail in a little while.

Damn I’m good. 

Of course, this just means I’ll have to work harder next semester to keep the grades up.  (yikes)