7ToF: awakened by cat fighting at the last minute

1. The biggest challenge of being home alone for a week? No, it's not the lack of conversation. No, it's not the tiny bit of worry I can't quite escape. It's the damn pets. The dog is bored to death. The cat just woke me up having a cat fight under the window. The chickens really, really want to wander the yard, in spite of the frequent appearance of the neighborhood fox and disappearance of another hen (we're down to three now).

2. But at least now that I'm awake, I've remembered that I completely forgot to write a Friday post, and since I can't go back to sleep, I might as well knock one out, right? At least it will be short. Probably.

3. The mini-reading challenge isn't going very well. I think I'll have finished five books by the time my boys get home, which would still be too much reading in a week except that a couple of them were really short. Have been listening to David Sedaris read his latest, Calypso, so if I drive somewhere tomorrow, I'll get that one done, and it is good. I think especially hearing him read it.

4. Can a book be too long? If there isn't enough plot to make it work, then yes, I think so, but sometimes I suspect I'm just a slacker. Why would I want to read a 700-page book when there are so many good 300-pagers? But this week's interesting read is a blog post by a guy who agrees with me, so it seems like a reasonable opinion instead of laziness: Farewell Inspector Lynley. For all the times I've finished a overly long book with draggy bits and really wished the editor had more guts.

5. Have any of you tried sous-vide cooking? (actually, I know at least one of you has!) It's this gizmo that looks like a stick blender but is really a water heater. It heats a bin of water to a temperature of your choosing and then you can cook food in it. Perfectly cooked chicken breasts have an internal temp of around 150 degrees (fahrenheit). If you bake them in a 350 degree oven, it's easy to overshoot and dry them out. But if you cook them in water that is exactly 150 degrees, it may take a little longer, but at least you know they won't get any hotter than 150. I got mine for Mother's Day, so I'm definitely not an expert yet, but I've turned out perfectly cooked chicken breasts several times and steak once. I'm a fan.

6. Except the meat comes out bland and colorless, because it hasn't been seared. So you can (esp in the case of steak) sear it after you're done. Pro-tip from my friend who has been doing this a lot longer than me: if you're going to sear it after, set the sous-vide for five degrees below the desired temp since it will be cooking further during the sear. If you have more hints, let me know.

7. My favorite bookstagram pic from this week (account @bookspate): Terry Pratchett's Wee Free Men. I was about to do a much more elaborate setup when i noticed that the wooly throw pillow on one of our living room chairs almost exactly matched the cover art. That was easy.

And that's it for me. Back to our regularly scheduled mayhem next week.