Sabbath Day

Today was a good Sunday. We made it to church on time and every girl had her hair fixed. I call that success. Although, I think we left one of London's church shoes in Denver because we couldn't find it anywhere in the suitcase that may or may not still be on my bedroom floor. It's a good thing she has cowboy boots and a dress to go with them.



I've gotten a redecorating bug lately and am working on making my house look put together, instead of just thrown together and mismatched. After my last post begging Natalie to help, she graciously came over and helped me get started. We started with the living room. I can't really do anything about the mismatched furniture, so I'll have to work around that. One day, we'll get a matching dining room set and refinish my piano. There is a lot that we can improve now, so that's where we're starting. I'll post pictures once I get it done.

I should be studying for my Anatomy class today, but instead I am blogging. I am blogging because I just got done reading Natalie's blog and she is so inspiring. Did you hear that, Nat? I want to be like you. And I want you to come decorate my house. Please?

We went to Denver last weekend and it was tons of fun. First, Jenna had her annual check-up at Children's with Dr. Maloney, who is her oncologist. She also had an abdominal ultrasound to check for any weirdness, and none was found. Because she now has five years of remission under her belt, she no longer has to have the neuroblastoma checks. Because she has OMS and we're still watching for any signs of OMS relapse or brain damage (I hate typing that), she will still have her annual check-up with Dr. Maloney for the next few years. We are so thankful that she is healthy! And it's kind of funny. She is getting big enough that I can explain her illness to her and she understands. It's probably been a year now, but one night after a bath, she asked me what the spots (scars) were on her stomach. I told her that they are where the doctors took the bad stuff out of her belly. As I've been studying Anatomy, she likes to look at the pictures in my book. I showed her the kidneys and adrenal glands and explained that she only has one adrenal because of the cancer. Fun stuff.

We stayed with our friends, Alyson and Kirk, like we always do. They are our great friends and our kids always have a great time together. On Saturday night, David and I and Kirk and Alyson went to Dave & Busters (think Chuck E. Cheese for grownups, with much better food) to celebrate my birthday. The hostess asked how many for the table and David told her six. What?! Um, David, there were only four of us. It turns out that he had gotten a hold of my friend Bethany, who lives in Longmont, and she and her husband were meeting us there. Fun! It was a great night and we had a blast.

Now I really have to go study Anatomy. And make dinner. And clean up.

Beef Brisket

I just made a beef brisket on Sunday and thought I should write down how I did it. We bought a side of beef last year and I still hadn't cooked either of the briskets, mostly because I didn't quite know what to do with it. I read recipe after recipe online and kind of settled on a method. Here it is:

1 beef brisket (mine was 3.8 lbs)
garlic powder
onion powder
liquid smoke
Worcestershire sauce
kosher salt

I started by putting the meat in a 9x13 pan and dousing one side with the liquid smoke. Then I generously sprinkled the onion and garlic powders and the salt over it and rubbed it in with my hand. I did the same thing with the other side. Then I covered it with plastic wrap and let it sit overnight in the fridge.

Most of the recipes that I read said to cook it for ~1 hour per pound, so I started it at about 12:00 for dinner (you need more time for cooling, etc.) Right before I put it in the oven, I remembered that I had forgotten the Worcestershire sauce, so I splashed it on right before going in the oven. I swapped out the plastic wrap for foil and made sure that it was on there good and tight. I cooked it at 275* for 4 hours (or until the thermometer reads 170). Some recipes said to add water/beef broth, but I'm glad I didn't because there was plenty of juices in the pan when it came out.

I let it sit in the pan for about an hour to cool and soak the juice back up. I took it out and used the meat slicer that I have to thinly slice it across the grain. Then I put it back in the pan with the juice, poured Jack Daniel's Original No. 7 sauce (soooo good) on the top and cooked it for about another 30 minutes. You could eat it plain, but we put it on big, soft buns from the Walmart bakery, along with more BBQ sauce.

It was so tender, Natalie was cutting it with a plastic fork. I have one more brisket left and I definitely plan on making it this way again! And soon!

Also, I had a hard time figuring out how many people this would serve. My 3.8lb cut, sliced up and put on sandwiches, fed 6 adults and a handful of kids, with leftovers.