A pork chop for you

Well. Here I am, having woefully neglected y’all once again. Mea Culpa. But hey, it’s Christmas.

I actually have had a post written since last weekend, but I just haven’t downloaded and edited the photos and inserted them. It’s about Christmas dinner. Perhaps you will see it before then.

At present, I am working on Day 2 of sloth, accentuated by a nasty sinus flare-up that has me croaking like a frog, popping steroids and Benadryl and Sudafed and Zyrtec and some antibiotic pill that’s approximately 1.5 inches long, and doing only the minimum necessary to get through the day.

Which means yesterday was NOT a good day to try out my Christmas present to me, a FitBit Flex activity tracker. Now my sloth is measured electronically. Sleep, too. It tells me I had 57 minutes of restless sleep last night, 1 hour of “awake” time divided among 16 separate awake episodes, and 7 hours and 12 minutes of sleep. (I think that includes the 57 restless minutes.) It also tells me how many steps I have taken, and how many calories I have burned. I am not going to share those with you, as I am somewhat ashamed of them.

Think sloth.

I can also track what I eat with this critter, which I wear around my wrist and which synchs with my phone and my laptop, and will with my tablet when I get around to doing so. I can log it down, and it will calculate calories for me. I did not take in an enormous amount of calories yesterday, but I did not offset them all with activity, either, which means I gained a fraction of an ounce.

Oh, well. I got on the scales at the doctor’s office and discovered I weigh about six pounds less than I estimated I weighed, my scales having disappeared in the move. So I guess I can afford some Christmas goodies before I get on this getting healthy thing somewhat seriously afterward.

Seriously. I realize I’ll feel better and be healthier if I’ll get off my lazy butt and do something, and if I’ll lay off the sweets and the rich foods and so on. This is a means of holding myself accountable. We’ll see how long this latest exercise in self-discipline lasts.

So last night, I had a pork chop. And it was a good pork chop, and, I think, a relatively healthy pork chop. It was an organic JV farms porterhouse chop, and I sprinkled it with salt, black pepper and coriander, seared it in an iron skillet in a bit of vegetable oil, and then dumped about a cup of orange juice over it. One has to cook organic chops longer than grocery store ones, because the pasture pigs have wandered about and developed muscle vs. standing still in the feed lot and developing flab. And orange juice was about the only thing that I had I could simmer this in, so I figured I’d do that very thing, and coriander would go well with orange.

People. This was good. Try this. Sprinkle, sear, simmer. While sweet potatoes (also healthy! And I didn’t use a HUGE amount of butter…) are baking. This is a good, good dinner that requires little effort.

Speaking of butter. Came home to find the TOP to the butter dish…but not the bottom. Child A disclaims any knowledge of the whereabouts of the butter dish bottom. I may have to find another one. Sigh.

Today, I’m making a pot of red beans and rice, because I can. And because Child B is coming to Memphis Saturday, where we are to meet her and take in Zoo Lights with all the Amazing Grandchildren, provided it is not storming, and I can freeze a container of them and take them to her. And because I have really good Andouille sausage I got from the Cajun place in Bald Knob.

And then I need to wrap Christmas presents, though I’m not certain if I will do so or not.  And I need to make some Christmas candy, though I’m not certain if I will do so or not.

Or you and y’mama ‘n ’em could come on over and be slothful with me.