Author: Elaine

Hazmat Spill near Monument Colorado

I don’t know how many of my readers know that I live near Monument Colorado.  This morning my mother woke me with a telephone call to tell me there was an evacuation near Monument due to a leak of hydrochloric acid.  A train car is leaking and there is a chance of a vapor cloud.  I had to look up the cross streets in Google maps to find the evacuation area.  I think we are a comfortable distance away but am monitoring the situation via local television.  Since I don’t normally watch local television, I am once again amazed at the the commercial to content ratio.

I hope they get the area cleaned up quickly so that 250 families that have been evacuated can return.  Trains along that track usually carry coal down from the north, or the empties from the south, but we’ll occasionally see other types of freight.  The tracks, to judge from the railroad crossing we use every day, are well maintained.  The twitter hash tag is #monumentacidleak.

Crock Pot White Bean and Sausage Soup

For supper, I made  Crock Pot White Bean and Sausage Soup from the Year of Slow Cooking Cookbook.  I substituted a pound of bulk Italian Sausage (which I fried first) for the sausage and used black beans and kidney beans.  I had some frozen chopped green peppers and frozen chopped spinach which I defrosted before putting into the pot.  It turned out very well and has gone into the keeper recipes.

Slow Cooker Pork and Bread Machine Italian Bread

Inspired by $2 a pound pork loin roasts last week, I found this recipe for Slow Cooker Brown Sugar Pork Roast.  My usual method of cooking Pork Roast in a crock pot involves dumping a bottle of barbecue sauce over it, but I wanted to try something a little different this time. The pork roast turned out very well.    We had it with Italian Bread Using a Bread Machine that Jack made.  Last night, the Italian bread was starting to get a little dry, so I made it into french toast.  I was concerned that the slight garlic flavor of the bread might taste peculiar, but it actually blended quite well with the maple syrup.

Lily Mare

Friday, I moved Lily home from the barn where she had been boarded.  Although she lived at home for about a year some years ago, fourteen year old Lily looks quite astonished by the changes.  She joins Rags, Jack’s old Appaloosa, and Magic, the very old mare I board for a friend.  Fortunately, she had been turned out with both Rags and Magic previously.  The first couple of hours she was back was very excited, and tried very hard to get the older horses to play with her.  She finally settled down without laming herself or the others, and they all are getting along quite well now.