Dear Reader,
It’s a cold, cloudy day in Canberra, with a maximum forecast temperature of eight degrees Celsius today. That’s 46 °F for any reader in the USA, Liberia, and Burma.
It felt like a good day to have the slow cooker on as well as the heating.
While grocery shopping this morning, I saw a nice lump of rump which looked like it would be perfect for this week’s meal planning.
I hope wherever you are, that you are warm and comfortable.
Have a good weekend.
Gaz
Ingredients
- Rump roast
- Barbecue sauce
- White onion
- Beef stock
- Lentils
- Potato
- Instant gravy
- Baby green peas
Instructions
Slow cooker
- Empty a tin of lentils into the cooking vessel.
- Lay the rump roast on the lentils.
- Cut a potato in half and place it into the cooking vessel.
- Cut the onion in half and put it into the cooking vessel.
- Squirt a good glug of barbecue sauce into the cooking vessel.
- Add a cup of beef stock to the cooking vessel.
- Cook for eight hours.
Baby green peas
- Cook the frozen peas with microwave radiation.
Instant gravy
- Prepare as per the instructions for use on the packaging.
Plating up
- Divide the rump into pieces for meal planning for the week. My plans include a pasta dish, some cold slices and salad for lunches, and perhaps a noodle soup.
- Divide the lentils and keep some aside for dinner putting the rest into a container.
- Slice a small piece of beef and put it onto a warmed dinner plate.
- Serve a spoon of lentils and the potato onto the dinner plate.
- Put the baby green peas onto the dinner plate.
- Pour the gravy over the meat and vegetables.
- Give thanks to the Lord for wages earned to buy food, cook food, and eat food to nourish my body and my enjoyment.
This week’s highlights in life
- Work has been good. I remain blessed to work with amazing people.
- It’s reassuring to see people in Canberra more aware of their health and safety and cognisant that the δ (delta) variant must be respected. This week, I read a paper that revealed that the viral load associated with the δ variant is about 1000 times greater than with the original virus recovered from the beginning of the pandemic. Without wanting to be morbidly crass, I’m in awe of the biology of SARS-COV-2 and the ability of this virus and the infection it causes (COVID-19) to change and adapt. I’m sure if I wasn’t in a sequestered, safe bubble, like Canberra, I’d be feeling more anxious and worried. ^
- It’s been worrying seeing what has been happening in NSW, Victoria, and Queensland.
- I started reading John Owen’s Overcoming Sin and Temptation. This book is a collection of three of Owen’s seminal works on the “Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers”, “Of Temptation: The Nature and Power of It”, and “The Nature, Power, Deceit, and Prevalency of Indwelling Sin”. It’s a challenging read in a couple of ways. Owen writes in an archaic style, and the subject matter penetrates deeply.
- I’m also reading Tim Keller’s Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God. The two works are complementary, in my opinion.
- I received a bunch of fresh free-range eggs from a friend this week. Fresh eggs are the best!
Final thoughts
- Have you enjoyed fresh free-range eggs? How do you like to cook them?
- How have you been coping this week with the pandemic?
- Are you in an area where the δ variant is circulating in your community?
- What’s the weather like where you are at the moment? Let me know in the comments how you’re enjoying the weather (or not).
^The Bible App I use today presented me with Proverbs 12:25. (ESV)
“Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad.”
Rump roast Slow cooker Rump Roast with vegetables and gravy. Served with lentils, baby green peas, potato, and mushrooms. 
Slow cooker Rump Roast with vegetables and gravy. Served with lentils, baby green peas, potato, and mushrooms. 
Dobinsons Peanut paste Brownie 
Dobinsons Peanut paste Brownie 
Kettle Sea Salt Chips
That Reeses thing looks like my family would love it! (I always think it needs a ‘c’ in there somewhere!) We had free range duck eggs at one time. We even fished them up from the bottom of the creek where they were freely laid! I used duck eggs in baking, they were too ‘hard’ to fry. This part of the US is pretty much ignoring the fact that there is a variant of anything anywhere. Very much the mentality of Eastern Oregon. And it is too hot for me. Today it reached 100 F before noon. Yuck!!! I’ve always preferred the NIV. Probably because that was what we used in college.
Wow, I’d be happy with 37.8 °C (100 °F) right now! I’ve enjoyed duck eggs a few times. From memory, they toasted very rich. I hope the authorities in your part of the world don’t ignore the variants for too long. I hope I’m wrong, but I expect there will be more to come unless we get more vaccine coverage.
I’m melting!! And it isn’t even from water!
This sector is firmly in the palm of keeping ‘my’ rights and the former president who had his election stolen and FB posts, since nothing is actually true in any news feeds. Feeds..how ironic!
I’ll swap my subzero (°C) mornings for yours anyday!
Absolutely!!!
Looked like a great rump roast, Gaz. I have bag of lentils I bought a while ago and been wondering what to do with it. Your cooking is inspiring and is giving me some ideas on how to use my lentils. The peanut paste/brownie looks decadent.
The weather here is freezing at the moment here in Melbourne. That said we have been getting some nice sunny days, which is lovely.
Thanks, Mabel. It’s good to hear from you. Lentils are great. I highly recommend them. Cold weather makes me more and more hungry 🙂
It is always good to read your posts and sample your cooking through the screen, Gaz. I always enjoy what you serve up. Hopefully I get to make lentils soon for a packed with protein meal 🙂
Please let me know how your lentils dish goes, Mabel 🙂
Yammy meal.
Thank you
mm yum looking very tasty Gary.
Thanks very much, Sherry!
Placing the meat on lentils is great! I’ll be trying this! It’s been cold where I am, -1 the other morning, but I heard it was -6 in Canberra! Bbbbrrrrrrr
Yep, Canberra has had some chilly mornings ❄️
A coincidence you cooked lentils Gary. I am making a lentil pasta tomorrow night as found a really nice sounding recipe.
Sounds delicious, Sue 🙂
YUMMMM! I’m making beef tonight too and it definitely is the weather for something warming like this. Stay warm Gary!
Another great, satisfying meal! We are enjoying the warm weather, but the dry conditions are starting wildfires in the Eastern part of our state, so we’re a bit concerned about that, but otherwise, we’re enjoying our summer together before we send our son off to college.
Yay for warm weather 🙂
I hope the fires don’t get out of hand and become wild
I trust your son is excited for college 🙂
For a change it is barbeque weather in Scotland. I’ve been sitting in the shade of various trees in my garden and have to move around according to time of day to prevent getting burned. If we could have weather like this all summer we wouldn’t need to travel abroad.
You’re making me feel jealous. I trust you will continue to enjoy such pleasant weather for a few more months.
Yum! We get our eggs delivered, along with milk, from a local dairy co-op, so the farmers are better rewarded than supermarket remuneration. I really love hard-boiled eggs mashed up with mayonnaise. Yup, we’ve got the good ol’ Delta infecting one in 90 people in Scotland… the rules for each country will be different on Monday, as Johnson has chosen yet again to ignore scientific advice. Try policing that on an island this size. The weather is super-warm for Scotland, nothing like your Ozzie temperatures but too warm for me.
I hope it doesn’t get too hot for you Emma. I know my cold is nothing like you get in Scotland. I wonder how humans can live in that sort of cold!!!