Psalm 63:1-9


O God, you are my god, for You I long;
for You my soul is thirsting.
My body pines for You
like a dry, weary land without water.
So I gaze on You in the sanctuary
to see Your strength and Your glory.

For Your love is better than life,
my lips will speak Your praise.
So I will bless You all my life,
in Your Name I will lift up my hands.
My soul shall be filled as with a banquet,
my mouth shall praise You with joy.

On my bed I remember You.
On You I muse through the night
for You have been my help;
in the shadow of Your wings I rejoice.
My soul clings to you;
Your right hand holds me fast

God bless us, everyone.

Well, He does, and He certainly did yestreday! We were fortunate enough that the temps only got into the low thirties and the wind wasn't bad, so I was able to make a fire and grill our CHRISTmas dinner!

I marinated our bone-in ribeye steaks over night in Italian dressing, and then only seasoned both with a little fresh cracked black pepper. 145 before the sear for my sweetie and 115 before the sear for mine, then the blackening for about 10 minutes to get both up to temperature. I threw in  a bundle of asparagus and mushrooms to complement our meat and potato dinner. What a treat!!

Our boiling potatoes with the skins on, these get butter, sour cream, and a bit of cream cheese. MMMM-MMMMM

Strawberry sauce for on top of the cheesecake

The beginnings of our stock, to which i added the beef bone for our stroganoff later in the week

Corn sliced from the cob -sweet and crunchy!

onions to go with the...

...mushrooms, which I cooked in butter, garlic, and red wine

Bella mushrooms: hearty, meaty, full of flavor

The best steaks I've ever had! (Dad's on the grill when we were kids notwithstanding).

125 for the perfect rare done-ness and delicious-ness

CHRISTmas goodness for which we were most thankful; God be praised!

21 December 2018

The days will be not be getting shorter any more, here in the northern latitudes! I am thankful for this change.

I cannot see as well as I used to and it is sometimes difficult for me to drive at night. We use more electricity and gas in the winter months; longer days means (generally) warmer temps and (gradually increasing) longer days.

Longer days means we are on the way to spring - not that I am wishing the CHRISTmas season away by any stretch of the imagination!

I work until 5:00 now, and not 3 some days and 10:30 some days. I sure loved the three oh five done times because it meant for more afternoon drinking time! But now that I'm really not drinking, I would still like to be off earlier, even though it meant getting up earlier. I lounge around nowadays until 7:30 or 8:00, hitting snooze all willie-nillie while the sun gets up and higher and higher!

It has been raining and foggy for the past couple of days, but we may have a little snow for CHRISTmas day! I just talked to my sweetie and she is looking forward to my spaghetti tonight. We may also have shepherds pie and sugar cookies this weekend. And maybe I will make a cheesecake to give away :-)