Saturday slipped away without me getting much done. Dinner turned out well, though some of you would think I cheated...
One of my favorite "quick and easy" meals was always Italian Shake and Bake on boneless pork chops. I had been craving it for a while, and finally remembered to buy the Shake and Bake last week when I shopped. Either the Italian flavor has been discontinued or they were out; what I found was two new ones, a Parmesan and a Ranch.
So dinner after Dottie got home and showered was the Parmesan variety on boneless chops with fettucine alfredo and garlic toast; it was great! Dottie like it better than the Italian flavor, and I liked it as much.
She worked Sunday as well, and I rolled out early and rearranged the garage as things had been moved when I worked on John's brakes last week, so it took until noon to rearrange things and get to the carpentry tools and the wood. I had gotten the eave boards back up a few weeks back, and the soffets ripped, but needed to rebuild the ends of the eaves before I could put the soffets up. Of course, I cut the first one with the angle backwards; hopefully it will fit the other side. It took about 2 hours to cut the pieces and fit them to get the first one together. Now that the roof doesn't leak I had my little black and white TV uncovered for the first time in a year or so, and kept checking in on the IRL race, hoping to see Danica Patrick win her first. As it drew to an end I came in to make a glass of iced tea and cool off; the finish wasn't one I cared for, but at least everyone walked away!
Back outside and on to the back corner; of course, the one I cut reversed when I did the front came nowhere near to fitting the back. I measured it out and cut one; I reversed the top angle again...by the time I cut a 2nd one Dottie was backing into the driveway. She came in to shower while I put things together and then put everything away and locked up for the night just as the "vampire" mosquitoes decided I was their fix.
Dinner was leftovers from Saturday and just as good the 2nd day. Bill called as we finished and said his check engine light was on; I asked if the oil or temp lights were on and he said no, then I asked if it rattled or did anything funny. He had been complaining of a miss when he first started it, and I had told him some weekend when he had time he needed to put a set of spark plugs in it. He decided to take a night off work and come do them on Monday.
Dottie and I slipped out to see "Rush Hour 3" on Monday morning early as Bill wasn't going to be here before 2. If you've ever liked Jackie Chan in anything, go see this movie on the big screen! I don't want to give anything away, but it has some of his very best work ever, and the setting is absolutely fantastic!
Bill came about 2:30; I had already looked up part numbers and once we got the diagnostic code and looked it up (when Dottie had her Neon I bought the Dodge shop manual and Bill's is the same car a year newer) it said "number one plug misfiring". They were due at 30,000; he has 54,000 on it. We also changed the air filter, the oil, and rotated the tires. He has a brake pad getting thin, so he's supposed to get it back to me this next weekend for me to change them even though he has to work. I told him if he can get it here on Friday before he goes to work his Mom will take him back to Lawrence and I'll do the pads and return it Saturday evening...I'd rather do that than have him chew up a rotor in the next few weeks, or end up doing them after it starts getting colder outside! I had him headed back home by 5:30 so he could get some sleep before he went to work at 10.
So today it was back to work and if I get my tail in bed in the next half hour maybe I can get up in time to put another one of those corners back together tomorrow before I have to get ready for work. It's supposed to rain off and on the rest of the week, so if I get up and it's raining I'll take my truck in for it's oil change (the dealer is still doing them for free).
I had planned to blog hop tonight, but it's 4:37, so I'm not going to get too far before my eyes cross...hopefully tomorrow night I can "make the rounds".
I hope the week is being kind to each of you!
alan
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
12 comments:
Have I got a recipe for you!
It's a make ahead deal. You can store it in the fridge indefinitely.
Ready?
Tightwad Shake & Bake
2 cups flour
2 cups ground (I use generic) corn flakes
2 tbs salt
1 tbs sugar
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tbsp paprika
1/8 cup vegetable oil
Mix well and store in an air-tight container in the fridge.
Now, for the best part: you can substitute or add ANY combination of herbs and spices -- adding oregano & basil, for example, for that Italian flavor you so enjoy.
Super deluxe bonus prize: the cost is about 25% of what you'd spend on the real McCoy!
Would you like my instant taco seasoning recipe? :-)
Mmmmmm..I might use that parm one on some grilled eggplant. Yummy!
Z- I used to make a breading for chicken parmesan that was probably close to this in flavor; I didn't know the texture was corn flakes! :o) And yes, that taco recipe would be nice...
Kranki- I feel a twinge of guilt at times knowing several people who read here are vegetarian and I keep putting up things like this; using something like that on eggplant would never have occurred to me; thank you!
alan
Alan,
I can't believe you were able to sit still long enough to watch a movie at the theatre! Good for you. I'm so glad that you enjoyed it.
Your dinner sounds yummy! I need to check into that shake n bake stuff.
Tightwad taco seasoning:
6 tsp chili powder
4 1/2 tsp cumin
5 tsp paprika
3 tsp onion powder
2 1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/8 - 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (to taste)
30% the cost of store bought taco mix!
You can make up as much of this ahead of time as you want to store, and use a little or a lot, "to taste" -- keeps indefinitely!
(Note to self--copy paste Zilla seasoning recipes)
I'm with har. You're one busy man. And handy!
Still can't believe they have diagnostic codes. Were there always diagnostic codes? Tom got one of those readers once and was going through his manual. I was so impressed, but it seemed less mechanical at that point...more computer techie.
I stopped doing car maintenance after marrying him. I used to change my own oil, but apparently some cars need special tools and unusually bendy arms now. Even still, you get oil to the face and then you have a bucket of oil in the garage until you can find a place that properly disposes (and who has a bucket that keeps the oil from slopping in the car on the way to the place that can specially recycle oil??)
What a great dad you are.
My old woody station wagon had bad brakes a few years ago (13) when I went back to college. I kept driving it until I was having to pump like Flintstone to get it to stop. Midas insisted the bill was going to be $600 to fix everything (more than the car was worth).
I told him I didn't have that kind of money.
"We can take it down and send you home, but we gotta warn you, you'll probably die in a fiery crash as bad as those brakes are. Maybe you should call your parents. We can take credit cards over the phone."
Grr.
I called dad, in tears.
My father would have fixed them, but he was three hours away, so he called a friend who called a friend and before I knew it, I was at some obscure little family owned shop. It turned out to be $50 labor, plus parts. I always told myself that I would learn how to take a car apart and back together, but then came kids and blogging...
Back atcha about having a good week!
You've inspired me to get on the roof and squeegie the sunlights.
OK Alan ..another product we don't have in Canada! Parm and Rach..Sounds good!
Have a great weekend.
Sounds like a great recipe. Think I'll give it a try this weekend!
Think Dottie would let me borrow you for the weekend so I can get some things fixed around our place?!
I'm going to be trying out ZBTzahBTzoo's recipe too. Shake and Bake has always been one of my favourites too. If I was feeling too lazy, I used to cut up potatoes and sprinkle Shake and Bake over them too.
have a great weekend, paul
We love us some Shake and Bake Porkey Shnoppers (as we call them in my house). All flavors.
You remind me of my brother with all the auto maintenance(not to mention the house) he can't stand to see a friend or family member go to the shop!
He was thinking about getting a boat, but decided not to 'cause it's just one more thing he'd have to fix! :-)
that sounds delish. How great you cook for your wife.
Post a Comment