110 - Happy 2013

Well, we made it through the last year of 2012 without incident. Had lunch. Refilled a propane tank. Attempted to get a replacement cord for our satellite - most depressing RV dealership in the world... was a nice building, but all the people inside just looked like they wanted to wake up dead rather than work there another day. Then grocery shopping to get our New Year's supplies and movies. Oh the horror...

I cooked dinner... crab cakes and steak that we bought from Certified Steaks earlier, with a baked potato and pan-fried mushrooms. Mike wanted to try prepping the steaks by salting them first (kosher salt), the salt draws water out and then the liquid sinks back into the meat and tenderizes it... some sort of chemical goodness happens with the protein fibers that makes the steaks nice and tender. Then you rinse the steaks, dry them really well, and fry them in a pan. I think it was good, they were indeed tender, but the cut and quality of the meat also probably had something to do with it. Then I made chocolate bread pudding for dessert. Too much food, too much yum.

We watched the latest Resident Evil... I never watched that series before because (while I know it's odd given my borderline obsession with The Walking Dead) I don't like zombies... at all. It was kinda dumb. I guess if you play the video game it makes more sense and holds more entertainment value. All I can say is, when the zombie apocalypse happens... it had better be TWD kind of zombie and not the RE kind of zombie or we're done for... the latter can shoot guns, operate motor vehicles, and they have some crazy cognitive skills for dead things... Then we watched Neighborhood Watch. Not at all what I was expecting. It was decent but I wouldn't recommend it to my parents because of the orgy scene... for a minute there I thought we rented Eyes Wide Shut. This morning we finished watching The Raven. It was pretty good, kinda gory in spots. I wasn't sure about John Cusack in that role, but I think he did well. He's one of my favorites in a quiet sort of way... he doesn't come to mind when people ask who my favorite is, but when I see that he's in a movie, I'm pretty much going to watch it.

For lunch we had cabbage, cornbread, black-eyed peas, and hog jowls. I am determined to adhere to the guidelines so we squeeze all the good luck we can out of 2013. I had never cooked the peas before, or cornbread for that matter but they turned out pretty good. The hog jowls were the surprise hit. Instead of pan frying them like mom does, because I remember the last time I attempted that my house was filled with smoke, I put them in the toaster oven for 20 or 30 mins on 400. They came out perfect, crispy and light but not tough, almost like a pork rind but more dense. I don't think Mike expected to like them, but he snarfed them up and said they'd be perfect with couche-couche. So... guess what I'm making for dinner? I've never made couche-couche before... sounds kind of like grits... cornmeal and oil stirred together with milk? I think. I'll have to go over it again with him.

Last night it was pouring when we went to sleep. It made me a little nervous... flashbacks of Ike I think, can't really say because I can't figure it out. There's no real chance of it flooding here since there are hills for it to run down. Anyway, it was still raining this morning when we woke up, not nearly as hard, but dang... I didn't know it rained this much in Mississippi! The ground is just saturated at this point. Once again reconsidering adding pontoons to the side of the RV so that if we ever do encounter high water, we're set. :p

All in all, good New Year so far.