Weekend Update, February 10, 2014

Last night I neglected to mention

 something that bears repeating.

Ron Fairly

That's baseball great Ron Fairly, providing the thought that twists the ribbon and ties the bow on a weekend of mild ironies.
Because I was going to write last night. About repeating, and restarting. But I didn't- because my faithful laptop refused to restart.
So I carried my ailing computer across the house, where we watched Winter Olympians snowboarding....

and ice skating.......

 and skiing.....

"See?" I said to my little laptop 

"Sometimes, you get to the top of the podium because you've learned to fall down and restart better than anyone else"

In answer, the laptop clattered something that sounded an awful lot like

"You ought to know. You've spent a lot
more time going downhill than I have"

So I tried posting the news of this week's perpetual roast beef replay via my extremely smart phone.

But, alas, my phone cannot make (or take) a joke. 

Having been cosseted and carefully protected from wear and water for its entire life, my phone has no sense of humor. My phone might be able to find a picture of, say, Einstein, but it's my sturdy laptop, that workhorse that has survived virus after virus, recovered from spills and hard restarts galore, and types on unashamed of its worn keys

that can find for me a picture of
Einstein in fuzzy slippers. 

As it turns out, wipeouts and restarts, missteps and resets act as the compost that grows a sense of humor as well as world-class athletes.
Happily, after a night of rest, my brave little electronic trooper has agreed to rally once more, and post a few pictures of what went right and not so right this week- although it's warned me to type quickly; it might at any time decide to take a few minutes of shut down. 

We started the week here:

 

With a roast eye of round and mashed potatoes.  Which were both okay. 

But the day after, and the day after that, when that roast beef got a chance to start over and over again- that's when things got really yummy.
This Pho recipe!!! The addition of anise and cinnamon to the broth! Wow! what a revelation. Here's how it looked-

easy to make, and even easier to eat!

The beef appeared in a starring role once more, in fajitas on Saturday, and that was okay too, though I overcooked things a little, so they got a little chewy. Which is also what I did to Friday night's salmon. A great idea, ruined by overcooking. That is pretty much my perpetual fish story. 

Here's a discovery worth repeating: stirring in spices when roasting butternut squash or pumpkin. We love roasted winter squash so much that the idea of seasoning it with anything other than salt and olive oil has seemed like overkill. Until we tasted it roasted with cinnamon, alongside this (overcooked) cinnamon rubbed salmon:

The squash was the best part of the meal, even though
the salmon wasn't terrible.

The idea of using winter squash roasted in spices got another play yesterday, with a roasted butternut squash and black bean salad that was...well, it was great.  A meal as light as a salad, but with enough substance to work perfectly on a cold winter day. Packed with protein and flavor, this is a great meatless meal:

That will get a ton of replay time.

I hope that this week

all the things that could have been called falls

or failures

become a chance to restart. 

And that you receive from this week

a balance

of things that prove to you your skills

and things that prove to you your own resilience

of things that go right the first time,

and things that require you to shut down

and restart, over and over again

until you realize at last 

that you really are
a champion.