Aches, pains, need for sleep.

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Rough.  And, yet, not?  Down at 8:30, up right at 20:00.  It got cooler, out there.  Still, very nice for spring, mostly.  A bit darker?  Cooler for certain.  As well, health issues just linger.  Will try to get things arranged, tonight.  Clean up the kitchen, or at least start.  Get a shower.  Figure out some food or other.

The hope is that sometime this week I will be ready to cook again.  Then, will get to the store.  I must admit, roasts, in the crockpot, really work well.  Though, rather than cooking during the day, now that I have an idea of how long it takes, and how to cut root veggies so that they don't turn to mush, I may set up the crockpot at night, put it on a timer to start a few hours into my sleep, so that by morning it is done, or a few hours after waking.

Very good.

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I was wrong, in my assumption.  The bone-in roast took less time to cook.  Odd, in the oven, if memory serves, it works just the opposite?  Or... did I just make a mistake in comparing via memory?  Who knows.  Then again, maybe I just lost track of time tonight?

It isn't mush, still pretty good.  But definitely done.  So I added everything back into the pool, and will eat in a half hour.  Well, the twenty minutes left of an half hour warming.  Uhm, hungry.  Quite looking forward to  a nice slab of pork roast, a potato or both, some rutabaga, carrots, and onion.  Well, and some of the juice.  I should make gravy but... I won't.  Or... maybe?  Do I have a small saucepan?  I do... a bit of cream, thickener, and butter would get that done well, quickly.  Maybe?  No... I'll do it for my next meal, though.  Just... a bit tired, from this long cook, and else, through the night.  Bleh.  Next time.  I'll even add sweet peas.  Yes I will, to the gravy.

A new brew?

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Not really a brew.  A bit more beef froth, half of one of the cauliflower heads broken down to somewhat larger bites, and the rutabaga sliced as apples... and sampled.  Turnips are good, fresh.  Rutabaga are just a bit sweeter.  One is closer to a neutral potato taste, without that dusty flavor.  The other is closer to an apple, just not quite as sweet.  Even with a bit of that crunch I miss.

Set to go, on high, in the crockpot, with the liquid from the previous 'brew' cooking poured in as well.  I'm giving it two hours.  Then will test. If things seem reasonable, I'll add the meat and any other veggies back into the pool.  I am hoping that the cauliflower will make a solid potato replacement.  Cauliflower can be a bit solid, in my gut.  But I have been mostly eating it raw, or just slightly cooked.... blanched really.  I'd like to see what a longer cook time will do.  Mash and butter, have with beef, or pork, or else.

Chislic?

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Had to look that up.  Oh, yes, sounds very good.  I made a beef form of it, with the leftovers of my last steak.  My problem?  I chopped the dices too small.  So, they were a bit overdone.  Not horrible, but... just... not as good as it could have been.  Like?  Yes, yes I like.  Lamb, beef, pork... deep fried, or solidly seared, cubes, I'd say closer to half to full inch squares, or half by inch bits, I'll... be working on sizing, and how to fry it better.

I am burned out on steak, as whole cuts.  But could still eat it this way.  Lamb would be fine, too.  If that is pretty pricey.  Pork as well.  With beans?  In a soup?  With lettuce in keto tortillas?  Lots of ways you could do that.  A simple salad, with these added as the crunchy salty bits.  Oh, yes, I think so.  Sort of... excited.

On a scale of one to ten?

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I'd give that roast, the meat, a six.  Maybe a seven.  With a caveat.  Pot roasts can't be a ten.  Maybe a nine?  Maybe.  So... middling or a bit better?  The meat had texture.  It wasn't falling apart.  The flavor wad good enough.  I was satisfied with the effort.

The veggies?  Really surprised me.  The turnips, I thought, might well turn to absolute mush, being sliced into apple like wedges.  No, they held together well, but too weren't crispy.  Just... done.  The potatoes, being new potatoes, were done, and a bit too soft.  But... that is how new potatoes go.  I would count them as creamy, rather than mushy.  The mushrooms, carrots, and celery, were... good.  Solid without being crisp.  Soft without being mushy.  And they all took to butter well.

Sure takes a while.

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It smells like roast in here.  Of course.  At about two and a half hours in, I checked it.  I mean, it could be called done.  By how I usually do things, this would be called done.  Overdone, really.  And, yet, that isn't how pot roast is down.  My way, to date, has been to take a chuck and turn it into something between a prime rib and a ribeye steak.  It has a lot more bite to it, my way.

Do I even like pot roast?  I'll... find out.  Though I will go to the less done side of things?  Will see.  Hoping to have the pulled beef sort of texture, without it having no structure whatever.  I'm not sure if that is possible.  I really do want to have pulled beef, for tacos, taco salads, and such.  Burger is... just... off, lately.  I think they have started filling it with the bone slurry they pull from the carcass.  Or is it just that they store burger, or the meat they grind it into, too long, sometimes?  I just can't be sure.  Just that burger isn't very good lately.  It seems... off... too squishy.

Well, will see.

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A bit of investigating.  But... I already know how to cook these things.

I pulled the veggies, peeled the turnips, portioned the carrots, loosely cut a few of the celery ends and a few stalks from the last of that pack.  I could slice the carrots.  They are baby, though, so not really worried.  Besides, I'll be checking the veggies, per.  So pulling them when they are roughly ready.

Steak.

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Baked, at 350, for fifteen minutes.  Just to... get it up to temp.  Then, five minutes on medium high, to high... flipped and the heat turned to a medium low for three minutes... in a thicker pan that holds the heat.  Pulled it, set it for five minutes, then started in.  Very good.  Not as absolutely rare as I like it, but for pan frying, this is as good as I can cook a steak.  The limit being that it is a a new york strip, and the fat on some of them (including partially on this one) is off.  I was able to cut the outside eighth of an inch off, and the fat under that was good.  I... love the fat, save on new york strips.  At least I didn't have to cut it all off.  Rancid, or something.

I ate half of it.  The rest is for tomorrow.  Very good though.

Gonna have to get the griddle going.

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It's that time of the year.  The propane shouldn't freeze up.  I have to clear and clean the thing, and put a new tank in.  Eggs, corned beef hash, but this... this has been on my mind.

I wanted to make cheese steak phillies.  And may, from time to very rare time, or with the keto, or a, keto bread... homemade or otherwise, or just regular, sometimes.  But this?  I have found (if flour) keto tortillas that not only taste good, hold up, but also don't cause blood sugar spikes.  So... this one?  Yes.  It's more a matter of finding cheese with actual rennet.  I'd like to find cheddar, gouda, and a hot pepperjack or other hot spiced cheese.  But only with real rennet.

In digging.

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I found my sous vide equipment.  Never did use it.  Thinking about it.  My only real problem?  I am not sure, at what temperature, plastic begins infusing the food.  Yes, it's... a concern.  Does it infuse food at any temperature?  Is it a time thing?  I just don't know.  But, yes, I do think about it.  With the dishwasher, I may go completely glass, for fridge containers and else.  Washing those things, to now, was simply too much.

Though, while pondering, and considering doing research regarding plastics, what is safer (honestly, if maybe they don't know or would simply lie), various notions about this and that, I found a video about how to optimize the use of the system.  And... an older video about why not.  Just... to add a few other opinions.

At least there was that.

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The chicken was... okay.  It was edible.  Not tasty, not really juicy, but the way I did it left it moist enough... even the breast meat.  My main problem?  Everything tastes like cardboard.  Meat... chicken, steak, pickled pork, meat sticks.  Tastes like cardboard?  Okay, no?  No... it does.  But there is more to it than that.  It also feels, in my stomach, as if I ate cardboard.  Bread and canned corned beef, I'll bet even sardines... tasting very bland, and feeling like I have what of my stomach I can fill, filled with cardboard.

Why?  I can't say.  No nausea.  There is that.  But there is a sense of hunger.  I WANT to eat, feel full, get nutrients in there.  But it's as if I really don't need it.  Want versus need.  But the want is almost rising the the level of need, just... not an actual nutritional need?  The need to be fed, to eat, not to get vitamins and minerals, fat, protein, and some carbs in.  Though, maybe there is some need for that?

Still awake.

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Six o' five, as I start this.  A bit of work, some gaming, and a blood sugar check.

Dishes.  I got a bunch of things in.  Things I... thought I might end up having to throw away.  And, may still, or gift.  Half gallon jars.  And some quart jars.  Had been using them for kefir... Which... with some thing arranged, I may get back to... that really helps with... the body, and the gut.

Up, and rather early?

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My days have been in a serious spin.  The goal has been to make it back to morning.  One forty eight hour pull in there.  A few off time wakes.  This and that.  And... to bed by 23:00 last night, or nearly.  Up at 9:30 this morning, give or take.  I started waking around 8:30... ish.  Working on it.  Headache, from sleep being so wildly off and changing schedule so fast.  If one of those headache types that will pass before lunchtime.

Back to carnivore, enough anyway, to lower blood sugar.  It is 129 fasting this morning.  The first sub-140 (mostly, and I think) in months.  Since I started experimenting with more veggies and some keto stuff.  Those things, in any amount whatsoever, just don't work for me.  I have to do, mostly, carnivore.  Thankfully, herbs and spices are fine, salads are fine (assuming the dressings are made from clean fats and clean ingredients), and just a few veggies are fine, if more rarely.  Even cabbage has to be on a limited basis.  But... that is true of cabbage no matter what else?  It's a self-limiting food.  Once, or twice, a month... then spread over a week per head, or such?

Finally.

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I got out, to the post, and that.  Then remembered to check the steak.  It seemed okay so got the grill going.  Wow.  Took all day to do that little bit more.  No, haven't looked out how to set up a cabinet, or thereabouts, solo.  However... if I can find a hammer, and heavier nail?  I might be able to craft a swivel point, and, then, maybe put a holding point on the other side... leveling it as I go.  Then... maybe... get that working?  Maybe.  Still, I'll look.

I am planning on crafting homemade ketchup, and then barbeque sauce.  Of a keto nature.  Not sure it will work, but I have some recipes, and some of the ingredients in... some on the way.  Why?  Because sugar really will screw with you.  Those who only drink a few sodas a week?  Cool.  but when sugar is in everything you eat, or effectively the carb counts?  You might as well be drinking three or four sodas a day.  It's bread, breading, past, many vegetables, all fruits, honey, other sweeteners, and so much else.  Just... saying.

It's struggling to warm in here.

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The furnace is up a bit warmer.  The electric heating in here is a touch higher.  I have had a fatted coffee and a tea and chia seed breakfast to help warm me.  Am dressed warmly.  Am using the hand warmers, mostly keeping them in my pockets.  Hmm, though you know?  With my hands warm, and pockets a bit too toasty?  I just put them in my croc's.  With socks on...  Yes, laugh.  I'll take warm and socks over bare and frigid... if it only helps a bit.

Oh, and I almost always wear socks, anymore, for another reason.  When leaving my legs bare, the old wound started coming back.  Got scaly.  Couldn't seem to get that to heal.  Socks... stopped the deterioration, but couldn't fix the problem.  Which is why I used sandpaper on my leg, to remove the scaliness.  Right down to bleeding.

Right.

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That was a lot of cat litter.  But, finally, got the litter boxes emptied, and that out to the bin, then the bin out to the roadside.  About killed me.  I... have gotten weak.  Still, all good.  As well, I reset the best litter boxes.  I am considering keeping all three in play now?  Or just two?  If I keep up on them, they aren't too bad.  Though, perhaps three would just be too much to juggle?  I'm... thinking.

I enjoyed the last of the soup, and coffee.  Water until just a bit ago, then I went in for tea.  I played the game a bit.  But... ran out of steam for even that.  So went to reading, looking, listening.

Sleep schedule is weird.

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Not sure when I went back to bed.  Early afternoon?  Later?  I... just can't recall.  Awake at around 22:30, give or take a quarter hour.  Sassy was fed, coffee was brewed, and toast.  The new keto bread.  But, with cause this time, not just because.  I purchased keto jam, strawberry.  I wanted to give it a spin.

It's called Choczero, ChocZero?  Something.  It has 6 carbs per tablespoon.  I only used a teaspoon, on three slices, though tablespoons are... difficult to get exact.  The idea was to use just one serving.  It spread easily enough that that wasn't difficult.  As a fact, as I was practicing, I started cutting the dose.  I would say an half teaspoon will do well enough.

Strange.

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Coffee and cream and water else.  Blood sugar is up three points, to 181.  Something is very wrong.  Not sure what is happening.  I do know, no more cream and coffee, if that was going to be changed out anyway.  For now.  I have been eating more vegetable stew, if with chicken and salmon.  Surprised blood sugar is up.

Well the crackers, but even four of those is only 22 net carbs, and eaten with canned corned beef (not with potatoes or else, either).  Hmm... not sure what the problem is.  I haven't been eating steak, or meat in general.  I did cut cream for this last while.  Not sure what the problem is.  Will... continue to explore.

A bit... stout.

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Chicken and veggie soup, with a touch of spices and herbs, both hot and... standard?  Savory?  Is good.  Add in a can of salmon?  That's... a bit stout.  It really pushes my fish capacity.  No, no, I was careful with the purchased of the canned salmon.  Wild caught, the right kind, etc, etc, etc.  No, it's just that canning that particular fish seems to make it much stronger.  Plus, my ability to handle fish of some sorts is already limited.

Until the wife of a very kind, forgiving, neighbor cooked some, for me?  I didn't think I liked the stuff.  I don't know what she did, but that was as delicious as any of my favored fish, without any weird... flavors, or fishiness.  So, I sort of began stretching.  Canned salmon takes me back to why I didn't think I could handle it.

Boi, was that HOT.

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I had put together an 'italian' dressing a while back.  Forgot it, and the romaine.  Strangely enough, the lettuce is still good.  The dressing is fine, having been put into an airtight container, if left at room temp.

Olive oil, the best and surest I could find at an affordable (enough) price, apple cider vinegar with the mother, salt, both black and white pepper, several italian favored spices and herbs, and of course some heat.  I think I even used the older hot spice, just a bit more of it.