Plan Derailment

So, I left work yesterday with big plans to render down all of the cheap bacon clogging up my freezer, use part of the bacon for pasta, part of it for sandwiches, and to use the bacon fat to confit some lovely pork shoulder I picked up on Tuesday.

Then I got home. Begin plan derailment.

I live in a duplex with a small front lawn. Mowing the lawn is a challenge, as there is no storage space for a lawnmower. I have attempted various solutions to this over the last several years, from hiring a neighbor to mow it, to buying a manual push mower. For the last two years, I have had an agreement with the neighbors in the other half to mow my side when they mow theirs - it takes about 5 min or less to mow the front of my side.

So, when the grass started to get a bit long a week and a half ago, I asked them if they wanted me to mow it. they said no, don't worry about it, we'll mow it before we move.

So, they finished moving out at about 2am on Monday night. They didn't mow the grass before they left.

Ok, no problem. I would go borrow Dad's lawnmower on Saturday, and mow the grass.

Except for the fact that one of my neighbors, who runs a forum that my dad is a member of, was kind enough to post up pictures of all the houses in his little area of the world with overgrown lawns on Tuesday. With commentary and complaints. He claims to have mowed my lawn twice, and complained about it.

I was completely unaware he had ever cut my grass. He did not have my permission to do so, and was certainly never asked to mow the grass. If he mowed my grass, it was of his own free will. He has also never bothered to mention to me that he had issue with my grass being long, and he didn't contact my landlady about it either, to my knowledge.

Well, his post completely PO'ed my father.

So, I get home yesterday to find the grass cut. Ok, I guess that my landlady mowed the grass, or my neighbors weren't completely gone. *shrugs* Then I get to the porch, to find that someone had chained a small lawnmower and a gas can to the porch.

W.T.F.!!

So, I called my landlady to find out what was up with the lawnmower. No answer. Then I called my parents to let them know the thing I ordered was here, and I would bring it over in a bit.

And my mom was surprised that I wasn't calling about the lawnmower. ...... Mystery solved! So I asked her why there was a lawnmower chained to my front porch. Well, as previously mentioned, my dad was majorly PO'ed about the posting on the forum, so he went out Wednesday morning, found a small lawnmower, some chain, and a gas can, came over to my house while I was at work, mowed my half of all the grass, then chained my new lawnmower to the porch, and told my mom to tell me to come get the key from their place.

.........

.....

Ok. This whole situation was news to me, and I still don't get why dad even got involved other than potentially calling me to tell me to cut my grass. Whatever.

This did completely derail my plans of rendering down bacon though. I ended up at my parents house for the evening, and got nothing I had planned done. Joy. so, tonight I get to try to deal with the bacon and the marinade for the pork as well as class and everything else I have to do this evening.

*headdesk**headdesk**headdesk**headdesk*

Cleaning up!

Well, after house sitting for two weeks, then being home for two weeks, I ended up just a bit behind on the important stuff when you have your own space - cleaning.
I finally bowed to the inevitability over the weekend, when I realized that the cat-confetti that Annabelle had so graciously made (out of some sales flyers, a paystub, and various other pieces of probably-important paper that she had scattered all around my living and dining room two days before I relocated to my parent's house for two weeks) had gotten thick enough that I coudn't tell what was confetti and what was carpet. Yeah - not good. That, and I was out of silverware, as it was all in the sink, with most of my bowls and a large number of plates and coffee mugs. *cringes*

So - I started to clean the mess up. Bits of Saturday and Sunday were spend sweeping up the confetti, sorting through the class papers and junk mail, and getting the living and dining rooms back in reasonable shape. Monday night was dish night.

Dish washing is tricky in my apartment, and I tend to put it off due to the challenges involved - my sink has two spigots, like a laundry sink, with a draining area on the left side instead of a second sink. Washing dishes is a little challenging. My methodology to this point has been the "soap on a sponge and try not to scorch my hands in the hot water" method.
This method sucks. Seriously. Major suckage.

So, I did a little research on dishwashing methods. Amazing how many ways there are to do something that should be simple. The method I decided to try involved using a second container to wash and soak the dishes, piling the cleaned dishes in the sink, then rinsing the cleaned dishes and placing them into the dish rack. I happen to have a large Rubbermaid dishwashing container that I picked up several years ago for soaking my feet when necessary. It doesn't get used much, and in fact, I had to chase out a spider that had set up living quarters.
So, I filled the plastic container with hot, soapy water and dirty dishes, let them soak for a little while, then commenced scrubbing.

It worked like magic. The good kind of magic that turns everything that pisses you off into chocolate.

so, all but the most stubborn dishes are happily cleaned and put away. The really stubborn ones I left to soak overnight in the plastic dishpan set inside the sink. I had planned to finish them up this morning, but the timing didn't work out, so I will finish them up after work before rushing off to class. So nice to have all the dishes clean!

Needless to say, since I was busy with dishes most of the evening, I didn't want to cook anything elaborate. So, I made a hybrid Arroz con Pollo meal, using the methodology from Fabulous One Pot Meals (Scarborough Faire Chicken, if I remember correctly..)

In a casserole dish, layer the following:

1 cup white rice
1 cup water
1 chicken bouillon cube
1-2 frozen chicken breasts (or whatever you have that is chicken)
4 tomatoes cut in wedges
2 bell peppers, cut into pieces
season with salt, pepper, parsley, oregano and a pinch of cumin, or other spices. A few capers would have been good in this.

Bake at 400 for 1-1.5 hours, until the smell makes you salivate.

pull out of the oven, check that the rice is done, then devour.

This came out good, and the leftovers made a nice lunch for today.