Thursday, June 9, 2011

Day Five: Almost Home


I could have made it home today, but with the heat and driving alone, I decided to stop for the night about 2 hours outside of New York. I'm in Allentown, PA with the Billy Joel song of the same name rattling around in my brain.

After temps in the high 90s all day, the weather finally broke with a massive thunderstorm which made me glad I was not driving.

One thing left over from yesterday is that I got my Sirius Radio fixed, much to my surprise and delight, by a wonderful guy in Sirius customer service. I called their toll-free number just as a last resort, really not expecting anything. The man gave me one week free -- and this is after making sure he understood I was in a rental car. He had to have the satellite zap the car which did happen and I was in business. I was so appreciative and I have to say I was very impressed with Sirius's customer service. I did have to give them my name and address, but no credit card or anything so I was quite pleased and had great radio all day today.
The scariest sign I saw today was in a truck stop restroom and it was the usual one about how employees who are involved in food prep must wash their hands. Nothing scary there, but then the sign laid out step by step how to wash your hands -- up to and including throwing the one sheet of paper toweling in the trash. Wow.

On Tuesday night at my business meeting, we had dinner at a colleague's home. It was a cookout and she made the most amazing baked beans --which I have to say is one of my favorites, but this was so good, and she brought me the recipe.

We'll call this "Annette's Baked Bean Casserole"

1 can kidney beans
1 can lima beans
1 can garbanzo beans (chick peas)
2 cans 16 oz baked beans

You drain all those beans.

Then you cook 1 pound of ground chuck in bacot fat with 1 onion and 1/2 green pepper (both diced).

Add:
1 small can tomato sauce
1 cup of ketchup
1/2 cup chili sauce
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon dry mustard

With the sugars, Annette has put an asterisk and noted "Can substitute Splenda products"

Cook for 90 minutes at 350. It can also be cooked in a crock pot for a few hours.

It looked incredibly home-made -- When I was eating the beans, I thought they had all been soaked and cooked etc. I would definitely make this for the next cookout.

One last food comment -- the following day, at lunch, we had another cookout, this time I had a hamburger which was I thought one of the best hamburgers I've ever had in my life. As I was eating it (with home-made cole slaw on top... yum!) I was thinking it must be a long time since I'd had a charcoal broiled burger as I had forgotten how wonderful they taste. When I mentioned this to the host, she said there's a reason the burger tastes so good and I was expecting her to say something like because her husband cooked them or something, but she whispered that it was a prime rib burger. Oh. My. God. It was heaven.

And finally, here's what my room looks like in the Red Roof Inn in Allentown -- first my king-sized bed...



The TV and the desk....


The microwave and the refrigerator (both empty!) At last night's hotel, there was also a microwave with two packages of popcorn which I should have taken with me, but didn't.



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