Slow Sprint

Sleep didn’t last as long as I needed it to. And it doesn’t seem to matter anymore, which is not good. Despite the very late night, my brain felt it necessary to be awake ahead of eight. There was no chance I was getting up yet. I grabbed the Mini and ran it dry. I watched some sports and then a plethora of YouTube nonsense. I had a theme for a jag of it but then pivoted into clips from British panel shows. I had several excellent laughs from that. By the time I’d killed the Mini it was noon. I dragged myself out of bed, donned my sweats and trudged to the kitchen, by this time feeling the effects of my lack of water and food. My little fast needed to come to an end for my physical well being. I chugged a couple pints of water and warmed up the last of the wedges with the few spoonfuls of taco meat from earlier in the week. It was topped with some shredded cheese and consumed at a dangerously rapid pace. I was definitely feeling off. I decided that I would start a culinary project, or two. There were two big ticket items on the meal board that didn’t get made this week, cauliflower bites and the infamous deuce log.

I started with the cauliflower bites. These have been missed on the board before, many times actually. They don’t look complicated but could be delicious. The picture above reveals that I made them this time. They are a recipe in the air fryer book my family uses. They are just lighted fried and tossed. Working that pile thru the egg and flour was painstaking. Even with the leftovers I was feeling off. I had to get some more water in me before I came around. While I was making the two baskets of bites I was boiling some cut up potatoes (five reds). I had previously cooked ten slices of bacon (2 rounds) in the air fryer. The bites were great, I took that smaller sample down and put the rest in the fridge for later. I enjoyed the bites with a white claw. The first I’ve ever tried. Not being a fan of sparkling water really limited my enjoyment of the beverage. It had a fairly immediate effect though. Can’t argue that side of it.

The potatoes finished cooking, actually overcooking, and were removed from the heat and drained. I very carefully sliced some garlic cloves (two fresh ones) and warmed them up in oil. I also cooked a can of Great Value low sodium small peas and a can of Great Value low sodium cut green beans. I’d need half of each of those. I crumbled and ripped the bacon into small pieces and preheated the oven to 400F. I mashed the potatoes and added the warm garlic before stirring in the bacon. I got my thawed pizza dough out and split it into three chunks on a whim. I rolled it out flat and thin as I dared, needing extra flour to tame it. After letting the potatoes rest some I more gently folded in the cooked vegetables. Next I made a mound of filling on the dough, used some leftover egg wash on the edges of the dough to help seal it and folded things up. I brushed more egg on the top and put it in the oven for twenty minutes. The first one had a bit of a blowout and was stuck to the pan. I greased a different pan for the second one. I also added some holes in the top to avoid a blowout. After twenty minutes I added some shredded cheese to the top and put it back in. What a tremendous added touch. It looked and tasted beautiful. I tried to get a bit of a cross section for you. There were some short video clips captured over the two hours of time I spent racing around the kitchen trying to cook two meals at once. Maybe I’ll edit them together eventually.

With this treasure inside me I didn’t have worry about feeling good. I turned on the living room TV in a now rare move and got the Netflix humming. Another bout of Superstore transpired. That carried me through the most of the evening. At half nine I scurried up to bed and wasted some time on the YouTube to settle me into sleep, which didn’t come until after eleven. Likely because I’d been up later the last two nights.