8/2/10

I had a bright idea this morning.  Then my bright idea didn't quite work as expected, so I came up with another bright idea.  This one went nicely according to plan.  Since there was no dog at my folks' house when I got there, I needed something else to keep me entertained.  Cooking is fun sometimes, so I decided to give that a shot.  I had seen a recipe in a magazine a while ago and today seemed like a good time to put it to use.

My mother doesn't have a food processor, so I spent a good bit of time chopping fresh basil, fresh rosemary, and fresh parsley by hand.  (I think the recipe called for some other kinds of herbs, but I went with what sounded good to me.)  I wanted the flakes to be as tiny as possible, but I didn't want to use the dried stuff that they sell in shaker bottles.  Ergo the chopping took quite a bit of work.

Then I mixed the herbs with butter (not margarine), lemon juice, and some dried grated lemon peel.  I scooped the mixture onto a sheet of plastic wrap and then used the plastic wrap to help me form the butter into a log.  With the log of herb butter in the freezer, I had time to kick back and relax for a while.

Once my butter had firmed up but not completely frozen, I took it out and cut it into disks. Then I balled up the hamburger meat and pressed a disk of herb butter into an indentation in the center of each ball.  I worked the meat over the butter and pressed it into patties, keeping the herb butter disc centered in each patty.  The burgers went in the fridge and it was time for me to go to bed.

Only I didn't go to bed.  For one reason or another, I wasn't tired.  I should have been tired.  I had been awake for around 24 hours, but I wasn't ready to sleep.  Whatevs.  I got my call with tomorrow's work assignment at some point in the afternoon.  My pull time is set for noon, so I concluded that I may as well not go to sleep during the day today.  This way I can sleep tonight and then get up for work tomorrow.

I woke on my parents' couch at 2am tonight.  According to my sources, I fell asleep even before Dad did.  That never happens.  Guess I really was pretty tired, eh?  I remember having a delicious dinner, then taking some of the extra food over to a friend's house.  I then went back to my parents' place and sat down to watch TV for a while, as my last load of laundry was in the dryer.  Then... lights out.  I don't even recall deciding to close my eyes or anything like that.  I just crashed.  Fortunately for me, I had awakened to use the bathroom at a pretty good time.  I was able to get my shit together and make it home by 3am, so I'll get plenty of sleep before I head to work tomorrow.

A day off twice a week... I don't hate it.