Tour Of My Home Office, Cross Rib Roast Beef

 

Tour Of My Home Office-

We hit 17 degrees last week, now it's in the upper 60's! Down again in a few days with "wintry mix" and rain forecast. Much colder next week, so time to cozy up the house more! Anyway, when I first started working from home in late March I wasn't sure how long it would last. I started tweaking things over time after I realized this might be while. Now it's "permanent", but time will tell. Anyway this used to be a home office of sorts with a spare computer. Now it's a dedicated "work space", except for all my other stuff!  Here's what I've done, for little money! For the colder weather I recently I added a $10.00 Ikea fake sheepskin throw on my office chair, nice and toasty!  I used a giant safety pin on the top back so it stays put. We already had the chair-

Nice view out the front window, I can adjust the blinds as needed- 

My messy area, avert your eyes! We had this desk before but wasn't big enough for two monitors. I asked Dave to take the keyboard tray and attach to the desk. He added a leg and it works great! 

South wall to my right when I'm sitting, radio/CD player, printer, kitty bed, heater and canning rack-

I spent $10.00 and bought Anya a new kitty bed, she loves it! Keeps me company- 

I bought this radiant heater this summer knowing I'd need it. Trying to keep the house heating bill down. I turn it on in the morning and pre-heat the room a bit, then turn down the thermostat in the rest of the house. Anya lays next to it most of the morning- 

Top of my desk-

Farm sign to my left, moved in from another room- 

wall color way off, it's a whiter sage green, weird lighting that morning

Cabinet behind me, I brought more white accents in from other rooms to lighten it up-

I bought the faux barn door and then decided to add a clear command hook. Now I can add something seasonal, like my Happy Fall Y'all sign-

Wall calendar on the right on the wall, nice floor lamp we already had there, nice even lighting! 

Top shelf on my left-

Middle shelf-

Stuff

Bottom shelf- 

That's it, and I really like it! The only things I actually bought were the faux throw, farm Fall sign and heater. 

Cross Rib Roast Beef -

This summer I got a nice beef roast for $8.00 and stashed it in the freezer. I thawed it and roasted it this weekend. It came out super juicy and very tender. Plenty for leftovers! It's about a 4 lb. roast and here's a recipe I used Cross Rib Roast w/ Garlic and Herbs Really simple, and I made it rare so we could re-heat some without over cooking-

Coming out of the oven

I roasted multi colored small potatoes and onions with olive oil, salt, thyme and pepper. Wonderful!

Record Cold Coming!

 

Record Cold Coming!

We had almost 70 degree weather last weekend. The low tomorrow morning is supposed to be in the 20's and then in the teens on Monday! Winter is definitely rearing its head. These are record colds if they come thru.  The snow was flying on the infamous Cabbage Hill today in Oregon and the mountains here will get snow for sure. It was 51 degrees this morning when I got up at 7 am, then rained a bit off and on in the morning. It went from 51 down to 46 over about four or five hours and then the wind kicked in. Can't show the wind but the tress are whipping around!

A big cold front from Alaska is hitting us. My husband Dave was talking to his brother this afternoon and he said they were having their coldest weather so far in the Portland, Oregon area. So we wrapped things up in the garden. When it hits 18° mowing is done! Davis did his last mow of the season. We moved most of the potted plants that we can winter over into the garage and composted the rest of the annuals. I decided to try and winter over my Rosemary in the garage this year so I'll see how it does. I've never had much luck wintering over inside the house, so I thought I'll try a cool, but warm area, and let it go slightly dormant. I went out in the coop today and added more pine shavings on their upper roosting area. We have the heated chicken waterer plugged in. I'm going to watch the temperature closely tonight and I'm a turn on the heat bulb since the three new hens have never had weather this cold.  Maybe tomorrow night as well. I'm ready for winter! This local weather guy below is always WAY ahead of the local weather TV folks. He's smart enough to not rely on just historical weather patterns! Gee maybe because the climate is changing. 

Anya is warm so she could care less! 

Covered my French lavender with 4 layers of row cover, worked great last year to winter over. I'll harvest my herbs in a few minutes that are left in my herb box mostly Thyme and Oregano-

Making Traditional Chow Chow

 

Making Traditional Chow Chow-

I always love learning new things! A few months ago I was watching a new series called Somewhere South hosted by the southern Chef Vivian Howard on PBS. One of the recipes it showed was Chow Chow, which I had never heard of, not being a Southerner. One of the segments was about how Chow Chow is made traditionally in Appalachia. In Appalachia in the fall, before the hard freezes came, everything would be gleaned from the garden. Things like green tomatoes, onions, cabbage, peppers, etc. The idea was basically take whatever you had on hand, chop it up, add spices in a tangy vinegary brine and make a relish. From what I have read traditionally Chow-Chow would be served with Pinto beans to brighten up the flavor. I had never actually heard that Pinto beans were a favorite in Appalachia. I tend to associate pinto beans more with Mexican food, but as we all know beans are a good source of protein, fiber and are cheap! 

There was a really interesting episode that showed the traditional Lumbee Tribe recipe of fried thin cornbread stuffed with collard greens and topped with a little Chow Chow-

From PBS.org

Video here of the couple on Somewhere South making the dish (if you can't see on your phone scroll to the bottom of the page and click on "view web version")-

Really fascinating information! I decided to make some Chow Chow just to see what it was like. One of the main components is cabbage, so it's a very different flavor profile than something like Corn relish. Also a bit less on the carbs. The Ball Blue Book has a traditional recipe in it which is basically listed above. I did add some red pepper flakes, and a little bit of garlic powder for extra flavor. After I salted the vegetables I just gave the mix a toss a few hours later. It actually tasted pretty really great as is! On Somewhere South they had a person who created fermented Chow Chow. I decided to make the traditional brine though since I didn't want to risk losing a batch. I made some Kraut a while back, I was thrilled it was really good! About six weeks later it was mush and I had to throw it out. I have no idea what went wrong. Fermented things can just be touchy, a science and an art.

Basic Ball recipe (minus the cauliflower) but you can certainly tweak Morningchores.com Chow Chow  I added a second red bell pepper and six sweet yellow Gypsy peppers. I used Apple cider vinegar but have seen recipes that used white vinegar. I omitted the cauliflower, since most other recipes I saw didn't use those. I doubled the brine, glad I did! I used a few more green tomatoes since they were small. I took the idea of using a food processer, what a time saver! You do need to pulse and not over-do it, or it could be mush. It was mazing how much juice came out of the green tomatoes right away-

I did each vegetable separately to keep an eye on the size.  I did the cabbage last, in smaller batches, as some of it got stuck-

After it sat overnight, salted, there was a lot of liquid-

I used my giant spoon-

then put it into a strainer and squashed out the liquid-

Lots of juice!

Next I rinsed in cold water and stirred well-

strained again-

I used just about all of the brine, which I DOUBLED luckily! Simmered 10 minutes, cooked the chow 10 minutes. I put in jars for the fridge. Not enough to really can. We'll use it up and give some to my kids. So far I love the flavor, very tangy!!!

UPDATE- After letting sit overnight and chilling, it was really crunchy, I loved the texture! I might go a little lighter on the sugar next time, but that's me. Nice otherwise!!!