Fallen off the Wagon

Or the mountain bike. Whatever.

I think I've been trying to block out this little tidbit. In rediscovering my much neglected blog, I realized I wrote an entire post about our trip to the Syllamo without mentioning something very important.

The Syllamo Broke My Finger.
So I had a little accident about 3 miles into the all day ride. So what. I have little oopsies all the time right? Unfortunately, this one involved getting my pinky finger stuck in a pile of wood debris while sliding head first down an embankment. It's not as bad as it sounds Mom, I promise. Except for the breaking the finger part. Really, it dislocated then snapped back into place so I thought it would be okay. When we got back to the car to stop for lunch I just had J buddy tape it and we rode the rest of the afternoon. The next morning my finger was swollen and blue so I went in to the Dr. to be safe. I had an avulsion fracture. I really wish I had the x-rays. So cool! This little bone fragment floating out there in my knuckle space was causing all the trouble. It didn't hurt when I did it or during the night but man was it hurting by day 2 after all the poking and prodding. Splint and compression bandages for 8 weeks, no weight lifting and I couldn't really grip all the way or straighten it all the way without pain so no more crossfit workouts for a while.

Excuses. I luv em. I used the broken finger as an excuse not to workout. But I cooked and cleaned and even did an Adventure Race (without training for it of course) and had an awesome Halloween party that deserves its own post. And then I got the croup. Maybe the flu, maybe just a nasty cold. Whatever, it kicked my butt for a week and a half. Better now. Playing catch up.

Tonight: Pioneer Woman's Red Pepper Risotto
Tomorrow: Garlic Smothered Chicken with New Potatoes. And I'm going to attempt this. Yes the cooking bug is back in full force. I am so happy to have family and friends that can appreciate.
Excuse me, I have to go infect cells with a nasty cow pox now. Later.

Experiments in the Kitchen, AKA- Mom's Science Fair Project

So the other night I had this 5lb pork loin that I had thawed with no real plan as to what I was going to make with it. Somewhere I had recently seen a recipe for a slow cooker pork roast with amber beer. Hmm. J had some questionable amber beer in the beer and deer down in the garage and I had a pork loin. Perfect. But where did I see that recipe? Never mind, I'll just wing it. So I looked in the spice cabinet and see my collection of Dizzy Pig rubs. PLUG warning: I love these rubs! I coated my lovely loin, the pork I mean, with Dizzy Dust BBQ seasoning and let it rest while I did some chores. The lovely loin, as it will be known henceforth, was then browned in a big skillet with oil. Then I caramalized half a sweet vidalia onion in the oil. I made the gravy with lots of Dizzy Dust mixed in with the flour and used a bottle of amber beer as the liquid. The lovely loin and the onion and some fresh slices of garlic (about 3 cloves) and the rich, dark beer gravy went into the crock pot for 4 hours on high. Of course I have no pictures. I do have testimonials though they are unintelligible because they were grunted with mouths full of lovely loin and mashed potatoes.

I hope Chris doesn't sue me for using his Dizzy picture.