A Saturday At Loose Ends

Today was my first Saturday in over a year that I didn't have either training or a race. I'm getting ready for the La Jolla Half Marathon right now, but we shifted our long training to Sunday this week. Thus, I found myself with a Saturday with no plans. Of course, Steve was happy to suggest that I cook a real dinner while he went to train for the century ride. By "suggest", I mean look at me with big pleading eyes. (Just kidding.) (Not really.)

I decided on an easy dinner - herb rubbed pork loin, oven potatoes and roasted asparagus. First, I set myself to finding all the pots and cooking stuff I'd need. I bought my house over a year ago and there are still times I think - hey, I think the movers lost my XYZ. Today it was my meat thermometer and my small roasting pan that went AWOL. Dern movers. These are the same movers who packed my thermal coffee pot with coffee still in it. Trust me, it was a revolting little surprise when I unpacked that coffee pot after it had been in storage for 2 months.

Anyway, I went off to Costco to purchase the food and materials for dinner. Like most Californians I love Costco, but I'd never been there on a Saturday before today. Normally, I go during the week when it's not crowded. Costco is always giving away samples of food and stuff and people get excited. Dear Heavens, you don't know the type of animalistic behavior I witnessed whenever the free samples became available today. There was pushing; there was grabbing. It was like like Lord of the Costco Flies.

Finally, I got started cooking. While I cooked dinner, Steve told me about his ride. For a moment I was jealous and sad. Then I was just really happy that he'd had a good, safe training ride. I've already begun preparing myself for how happy (for him) and bummed (for me) I'll feel when he completes the event.

My major accomplishment of the day was following the pork loin recipe exactly. Normally, I look at a recipe and then use that to inspire a dish. Today, I actually followed the recipe even when I thought - Gee, that's too much sage. It was a little too much sage, but we paired the meal with a bottle of Barolo. Normally, the Barolo would have overpowered a pork dish, but the flavors were pretty evenly matched. Oh, and as I went to put dinner on the table I noticed my gravy boat is also MIA. Somewhere in the Graebel Moving storage facility, there's a bunch of my kitchen equipment. Dern movers.