Well, the first of two pork roasts are done.  I let it rest for a while (in a cooler) to hopefully keep the juices in.  I think depending on how it is in the morning (when I’ll slice it), I might cook the other one to a slightly lower temperature.  Like most pieces of meat, there was a thinner piece and a thicker piece.  So with the thick piece cooked to 160F the thinner piece was well over 170F.  The original recipes I looked at had various temperatures from 145F to 160F.  Again, I’ll know more when I slice it tomorrow.  I had a small piece today when I was wrapping it up in the foil and it seems to taste quite good.  I’ll get a second opinion tomorrow as I’ll slice it in time for my mother to have some for her lunch.

Not much else went on here today. We had a swim in the afternoon and I did some laundry.  I started organizing some of the audiobooks I have on the hard drive (will convert them to m4a/m4b format, then back off a copy, update the database) and then pick some to listen to over the next little while.

Food for the day:

Total: 2012 calories (23% fat, 35% protein, 42% carbs)

Breakfast: breakfast bake, cracked wheat oatmeal bread, jam, orange (364)
AM Snack: beef jerky (108)
Lunch: beef barley mushroom soup, parmesan cheese roll, apple (446)
PM Snack: hummus, flatbread, pisco sour, roasted pork loin (350)
Dinner: tandoori chicken, mixed veg, butter, salad w/dressing (443)
Evening Snack: peaches, protein shake (300)

So today’s adventure is smoking a 7-ish pound pork loin on the grill. I put it in a marinade last night consisting of apple cider vinegar, molasses, soy sauce, hot sauce, ketchup, water, and brown sugar (I used the splenda version since I had it handy). I cut the marinade back (half recipe) and poured most of it off, but I’ll see when I’m done how I decide to count it. I’ll likely count half the calories in the marinade to be safe. I thought I’d wait until I know how much cooked meat I get out of it (since I know how much raw pork I started with).  I should admit now that I bought two of them yesterday so I’ll be repeating this tomorrow!

I have to say that I’m loving the new toy we bought in the winter though. The local kitchen gadget place had a 20% off sale and I broke down and bought a barbecue thermometer. Partly because I’m never sure how hot the barbecue is getting, and partly so I don’t have to keep opening the lid to check on the stuff we’re smoking. Today I could confirm that on low (at today’s outdoor temp) the BBQ runs just about 225F (where I wanted it to be), and right now my pork is 71F, which is quite a bit away from the 160F that I’m aiming for.

It looks slightly different than this, but it also is wireless. I can walk around with the temperature readout. Although I haven’t tried it on the opposite side of the house, it works nicely downstairs by the computer.

I don’t really need to walk around with it, especially with slow cooking. It will be nice to know the temperature without lifting the lid though (as you lose all the smoke that way).

Anyway, it’s kind of a gray day out again. I think we’re supposed to have rain later in the day. Kind of wish it would get it over with. Our mainly sunny forecast for next week has changed to off and on again rain. I’m officially bored with summer. I don’t think it has much to do with the weather and more to do with having nothing to do. There are things that I could do, but just don’t feel like. If it were August I could take in some clothing for the fall, but I don’t want to do it too early. At the moment there isn’t much to do in the garden on a daily basis. There are stiff a couple of clean-up jobs I could do, but I’m not entirely into that.