Day One Of 365

It may be a brand new year, but I started it off the same way I have for the past few years.  Still coughing and snuffling.  Things are looking up however!  If Sam Elliott happens to come to town, I finally have a recipe that will WOW him ... and it WORKED!!!  Can you believe it????  One out of one ... I'm on a roll!!!

The sunrises have been pretty spectacular in between rain clouds, ice and chilly temperatures.  I'm hoping my PG&E bill doesn't cause a heart attack.  I've been keeping it a little warmer than the normal 64 degrees.

Feeling kind of lonely through Christmas and New Years, but not wanting company AT ALL, I decided to treat myself to a nice New Year's Day Dinner.  I put on my dark glass, cowboy hat and the biggest coat I have and drove to the little Mexican store in town for milk.  I was bound and determined to have a decent Mac 'N Cheese.  To be sure I didn't run OUT of milk, I made it the night before!!  See ..... I was thinking ahead ..... in spite of being sick!!

For some reason, chicken parmigiana had been on my mind, so I decided to whip up a batch.  It's time consuming enough to keep me busy for awhile, a distraction from being sick.  I pounded the chicken and got ready to bread.  Big sigh!!!!  I didn't have enough parmesan cheese to do all the chicken.   No problem, I left half of it plain.

I just LOVE my cast iron pans ... don't they cook that chicken perfectly?  There was a huge mess on the kitchen counter, a nice gooey mixture of flour, egg and cheese, but the cutlets look yummy!!

Here's where the ingenuity came in.  I had four big pieces, too large for the frying pan.  So I took one of my small deep cookie sheets to place the pieces on, then smothered it in Marinara sauce.  I tented it with foil and stuck it in the oven to cook for 40 minutes, hoping to make it nice and tender.  When the bell went off, I placed (way too much) mozzarella on each piece and broiled it until brown.  

This was a meal worthy of Sam!!  I probably won't be able to duplicate it, but maybe I can come close.  It was just so NICE to have my first cooking experience of the year come out so well!!  It gives me hope!!

This was the view for the balance of the day.  Actually it's been the view for the last TEN days.  You can barely see Jessie buried on the left. 

I received a nice text message yesterday saying that if I keep using gigabytes on my phone, I "might" see a slowing in download speed, especially in high usage areas.  I sent a return message saying I was pretty sure I had an UNLIMITED data plan and I didn't LIVE in a high usage area ... were they purposefully going to limit the speed on my data?   I haven't heard back.  

At any rate, here's the latest baby picture.  Mom spent quite some time cleaning the food off his face.  Dad wasn't as careful as he should have been.  Isn't he just a cutie patootie??

Back to packing.  I always hate the last few days before takeoff.  It always seems like I'll never get it all done.  The rig is packed to the brim with all things "rally", including pancake mix and six bottles of syrup.  I was also able to get one of my dutch ovens in for some experimental biscuit cooking in the desert.  LOTS of places to bury things there!!

My own personal flock of eagles came back to roost yesterday ... more than I've seen in a long time.  I'll have pictures tomorrow.  Bet you can't wait for THAT!!!