There is this old joke that went, "How can you tell if somebody owns an iPhone? Don't worry - they'll tell you."
There were variants on it as well: "How can you tell if somebody is into cross-fit?" "How can you tell if somebody is vegan?"
In fairness, the last one makes a bit more sense since it's an important distinction when one is perusing a menu, or trying to determine if an item they want to buy is made from leather or Pleather.
So I thought this would be a good opportunity to stress that I'm not vegan, nor am I into cross-fit, and I don't own an iPhone.
But that doesn't mean that we've been eating a lot of vegan/vegetarian themed meals of late. That's partly by choice, and partly because we're cheapskates and meat is expensive these days.
Even when we have meat, it's usually chicken or pork. We don't dislike beef, but chicken and pork are perfectly cromulent proteins. And - generally speaking - they're a cheaper option.
When I went shopping on Tuesday to pick out some meal ingredients for the week, I got it into my head that I would do a pork roast for dinner on Thursday. Not just a roast, but one of those slow, all-day ones. I picked out a decent-looking rump roast (which, in spite of the name, is actually a shoulder cut) and while I was in the area, I had a quick look at the beef equivalent so that I could be smug about how much I was saving by having pork.
And to my astonishment, they had a sirloin roast of about the same size for cheaper. I had a closer look at the unit cost on both pieces of meat to make sure I wasn't getting caught up in different sizes, but the beef had a lower unit cost. Huh. We'd had ham for Easter, so I decided to treat us with a nice, slow-roasted chunk of beef.
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atara picked up some cookbooks many years back that were aimed at families where both parents were working. Since we were both working full-time, they were a good fit for us. One of them had a recipe for an eight-hour roast, where you set it up in the oven and left it to cook unattended while you were at the office. The lone downside to the recipe is that if you happen to be working from home, you have to contend with a house that smells delicious for an entire day.
I also picked up some baby potatoes along with the roast, and I did them up in the toaster oven while the roast was resting. When I do these again, I'll skip the fresh garlic and just toss them with a bit of garlic powder. The garlic cloves burnt and turned a bit bitter in the high heat. Oh well - I was worried about that when I added them, and included them anyway.
The black thing to the right of this picture is a piece of garlic. The dark bits on the steak are in the gravy that I made from the drippings. I could have strained those out. But I didn't.
There were variants on it as well: "How can you tell if somebody is into cross-fit?" "How can you tell if somebody is vegan?"
In fairness, the last one makes a bit more sense since it's an important distinction when one is perusing a menu, or trying to determine if an item they want to buy is made from leather or Pleather.
So I thought this would be a good opportunity to stress that I'm not vegan, nor am I into cross-fit, and I don't own an iPhone.
But that doesn't mean that we've been eating a lot of vegan/vegetarian themed meals of late. That's partly by choice, and partly because we're cheapskates and meat is expensive these days.
Even when we have meat, it's usually chicken or pork. We don't dislike beef, but chicken and pork are perfectly cromulent proteins. And - generally speaking - they're a cheaper option.
When I went shopping on Tuesday to pick out some meal ingredients for the week, I got it into my head that I would do a pork roast for dinner on Thursday. Not just a roast, but one of those slow, all-day ones. I picked out a decent-looking rump roast (which, in spite of the name, is actually a shoulder cut) and while I was in the area, I had a quick look at the beef equivalent so that I could be smug about how much I was saving by having pork.
And to my astonishment, they had a sirloin roast of about the same size for cheaper. I had a closer look at the unit cost on both pieces of meat to make sure I wasn't getting caught up in different sizes, but the beef had a lower unit cost. Huh. We'd had ham for Easter, so I decided to treat us with a nice, slow-roasted chunk of beef.
atara picked up some cookbooks many years back that were aimed at families where both parents were working. Since we were both working full-time, they were a good fit for us. One of them had a recipe for an eight-hour roast, where you set it up in the oven and left it to cook unattended while you were at the office. The lone downside to the recipe is that if you happen to be working from home, you have to contend with a house that smells delicious for an entire day.I also picked up some baby potatoes along with the roast, and I did them up in the toaster oven while the roast was resting. When I do these again, I'll skip the fresh garlic and just toss them with a bit of garlic powder. The garlic cloves burnt and turned a bit bitter in the high heat. Oh well - I was worried about that when I added them, and included them anyway.
The black thing to the right of this picture is a piece of garlic. The dark bits on the steak are in the gravy that I made from the drippings. I could have strained those out. But I didn't.
