Late Nights and Cooking

Today is day four.

Four days in a row that I haven't gone out in the morning for a ride on my trike.

One of those mornings was far too wet to even consider it, but the other three have been because Adoring Husband has brought my coffee to me in bed and then I have lazed in bed with my iPad, sipping take-away coffee with not a care in the world.

Suddenly I miss my morning routine. I miss seeing the boys at the Seat of Knowledge. I miss riding along the river path and soaking up the fresh air and beautiful water views. I miss sitting outside the local shops drinking my coffee and chatting with the locals.

It's time to get energised again and start my days with a bit more enthusiasm!

When I climbed into bed last night .. well after midnight (Yes I know! Much later than my new rule allows!), I was flicking through the channels on the bedroom TV to find something to fall asleep to, when I stumbled across the beginning of a movie.

I recognised it immediately. The opening scene is a huge indoor concert arena with the audience chanting and spotlights moving through the darkness. A frisbee sails through the air and it glows under the spotlight.

It was the movie "A Star is Born" with Barbra Streisand, Kris Kristofferson and Gary Busey. Another one of my favourite movies of all time and one that I've watched about 30 times.

I was 16 yrs old the first time I watched it and I still sob during the same scenes almost 40 years later!

Of course, I had to sit up in bed and watch the entire movie and it was 3am when I turned off the TV and immediately fell asleep!!

Adoring Husband made us a delicious fluffy omelette this morning with cheese and mushroom and onion and capsicum and snow peas. A great way to start Sunday.

After we cleared that mess away, I made a fresh beetroot, carrot, apple and lemon drink for Adoring Husband and then began preparing dinner:

• I browned 1.5kg of ox tail in a skillet
• Placed it in the slow cooker with celery, carrot, garlic, apple cider vinegar, himalayan salt and ground pepper and lots of filtered water, for 5 hours on high.
• I removed the bones from the cooker and took all the meat off, placing it in a bowl and then setting it aside, putting the bones back in the cooker.
• I also removed 3 cups of the broth from the cooker and put it in a saucepan with a big splash of red wine and half a cup of freshly squeezed apple juice (which I just happened to have in the fridge) and a little more himalayan salt.
• I let this simmer on the stove for about 20 minutes until it reduced a little, added some cornflour to thicken it and then added the meat from the ox tail.

I served this with a delicious cauliflower/broccoli au gratin, the sauce for which, I invented a few weeks ago and froze, so I can't share that recipe, because I can't remember it, and I steamed some snow peas as well.

Adoring Husband ate seconds, he enjoyed it so much.

In the meantime, I added more water to the cooker and the bones and vegetables are still in the slow cooker for another 7 hours. It will be a delicious stock/broth that I will freeze. I should get about 6 or 8 chinese containers out of it.

Sadly, I did not take one photo of my concoctions, but I do have plans for some more cooking tomorrow, because I didn't make AH's breakfast cereal today and I have some muffins to make for his desserts and snacks, so I will take photos tomorrow.

I feel like I achieved 'something' today anyway.

Nite all.