Burned and Raw

Yesterday was busy, but actually pretty good. I got lots of work accomplished and avoided feeling like I was spinning my wheels to no good purpose, and I managed to get to the gym which both got my blood moving and got me outside (if only briefly) to appreciate the fall weather.

So I was in a really great mood, right up until I got home.

Which is when I tried to make dinner. I thought I'd try some roasted carrots and parsnips, since it's fall. I've never had parsnips before, and thought it would be fun to try them. So I got home, cut them and the carrots up, and put them in the oven. I let them go for twenty minutes or so, and then started on the pork chops. I didn't want them to be anything too fancy, so I thought I'd just bread them and then pan-sear them.

Except that the breading started burning before the pork was even remotely cooked. It set off the smoke alarm, in fact. I scraped off the burnt stuff and kept going, and eventually, they were finally done.

Which is when I took the carrots and parsnips out of the oven (which had been in there for well over half an hour, by this point) and discovered that they weren't fully cooked yet.

So we had our plain, slightly-burnt and (as it turned out) over-salted pork chops with some raw carrots (and the kids had applesauce), and we had it a good 20 minutes late. Sigh.

On the plus side, I found what sounds like a lovely recipe for carrot and parsnip soup, so I'll stop at the store on my way home today to pick up an onion and some celery and make that, and I can have it for lunches or something. (And if I like it as much as I think I will, it might become a fall/winter staple for me, because it sounds wonderful.)

Note to self: Bake pork chops, not fry, if they're going to have breading on them, and save the roasted root veggies for the weekends, when I have time to get them started a full hour or so before we're going to eat.

The rest of the evening was better, though. I did a little more writing -- not the impressive chunk that I managed Wednesday, but a fairly solid amount for me lately, plus made notes for future improvements, so that felt good. (Also, I threw some twitter silliness back and forth with Braz and Vicki, which is always fun.)

So, all in all, a pretty good day, craptastic dinner aside. (And yet, I chose to whine at you about the dinner. It wouldn't do for anyone to think I was feeling happy, after all...)

Today, Penny has a half-day at school, so I'll be packing up just a smidge after 12 so I can pick her up. And then we'll head home and I'll set up my laptop and work from home for the afternoon. I might have to work a little this weekend, but we'll see. Most of my stuff for the proposal is done, and what I'm down to now is reading other people's stuff and suggesting edits.