Grill fail, grill success, passing sickness, sleep issues

I did very little outside this weekend. Not only was it hot, but I did not feel well all weekend. No reason for feeling poorly, I just did not have any energy. I fasted Thursday through Saturday, but that does not generally cause me any problems – at least not like I was feeling over the weekend. I kept on schedule with the watering every evening. So far it is paying off. At least it keeps the plants alive even though it is hard to tell since the plants are all wilted in the late afternoon. Mama and I did all the feeding and watering of the animals. I fixed a couple little things and gathered some rubbish the dogs and chickens had scattered in several places, but I did not tackle any real work. Mostly I sat or cooked through the day Saturday. I worked on entering receipts into a tracking system we use, which was long overdue, and I fired up the pellet grill to cook a chicken for Sunday dinner and some ribeye steaks for Saturday evening dinner.

I failed with the ribeye’s. I had them on the grill way too long. I had the grill set to smoke, which keeps the grill temperature about 195°. I thought that at that temperature the steaks should take about 90 minutes. I was very wrong on that. I should have taken them off the grill after about 45 minutes. They were still tender, not hard to cut, but they were dry. I will use the two we have left to dice up and put in eggs for breakfast burritos, but Mama and I will not try to eat them for a main course like we had hoped. Oh, well. I learned that lesson. In the future I will not overestimate the time required to cook smaller steaks. Mistakes are powerful teaching events. Don’t waste them. Use them to your advantage.

The chicken was a success. It was a whole chicken. One of the Rock hens we had raised. I took it off the grill after about five hours. It was not completely done. I knew it was not done because of the temperature probe I used to monitor the cooking process, but I wanted it done enough that a couple hours in the crockpot while we were at church would not only heat it through, but finish it off. That seemed to work out really well because when we got home from church I changed the cooker to a fast cook mode so it would boil the chicken for a few minutes while Mama and I put on some vegetables to be added to our meal. The chicken was tender and very moist. Unlike the steaks I ruined. Mama, Victoria and I thoroughly enjoyed it. We are getting used to having Sunday dinner at home since the restaurant has been closed for several months. Alex I hopeful to open his new Japanese restaurant late this week. Mama and I are ready for some good Asian cooking.

Saturday night I had problems sleeping. My hips, upper legs and my back hurt so badly that I could not get comfortable. It took me hours to get to sleep. Once I finally did fall asleep, I woke suddenly, cold and shivering. I got out of bed and got an extra blanket to cover up with, but it seemed to do little good. I lay under those covers shivering for a long time before finally fell back asleep only to wake up and throw the covers off less than an hour later. I was smothering. When I finally got a few hours actual sleep, I was feeling horrible. It was one of those Sunday mornings that I debated going to church. Fortunately, Mama and I were up very early so I had time to recover and stir around before getting ready for church.  One of those “fake it ‘til you make it” days.

Last night was not much better as far as the pain was concerned. I struggled to find a place to sleep where I could get comfortable. After I had laid in bed for about 45 minutes, I tried the recliner, the couch, the bed in the spare bedroom. (I tried lying on my stomach to see if that would give me any relief.) Nothing worked. I finally ended up back on the couch until about 3 am which is about normal when I cannot get comfortable in bed. I rarely spend all night away from our bed. I had the alarm set this morning because I needed to go to the office to prep for the classes I will be teaching this week. I’m not sure what is going on with my sleep problems, but I am praying the Lord will give me the insight to find a way to get the relief I need. Maybe I just don’t need that much sleep.

If that’s the case, I need to re-think my nighttime schedule.