Home Happenings and OLIVE OIL

Finally got the Crock Pot Pot Roast in the crock pot!  It has taken me all week to make this happen.  Have been under the weather close to 2 weeks.
Head cold finally got me.  BUT feeling better with each passing day.

Placed the frozen roast in the fridge to thaw 2 days ago and just about forgot to get it out to cook until my daughter reminded me or we'd be having this meal who knows when.

This week I have been able to sleep in and take it easy.  I have an awful head cold and haven't been babysitting this week.  Lil miss has been sick with a horrid croupy cough, runny nose, ear infection and slight fever.  Her momma is tending to her this week.  Off to the doctor she went and got an antibiotic.

Am in hopes that the rest of the Christmas decorations get put away and more stripping of the family room wall paper takes place this week-end.  Hubby, daughter and self work on it a little at a time.  Been slow.  Very slow.  I think I finally have the color picked out to paint the paper.  The wallpaper I have is the type you paint.  At one point I had decided that I wouldn't replace the wall paper...just paint and stencil.  Before this is all done that might be what happens.

During the week, hubby and I watched Burt Lancaster in two movies.  Elmer Gantry (1960) and Birdman of Alcatraz (1962).  Bought a $5 DVD video epic double feature.  I remember seeing Birdman of Alcatraz at the drive-in theatre when I was as a child.  Remember the drive-ins?  A good one to google.

Elmer Gantry is about a traveling salesman that stumbles into a revival meeting and discovers that he can hustle money in a tent-show as easily as in a saloon with Sister Sharon Falconer played by Jean Simmons.  Gantry played by Burt Lancaster delivers demon-bashing oratories when an old flame played by Shirley Jones re-appears and Gantry is forced to confront demons of a more worldly order.  I found this old movie to be entertaining.  The character Sister Sharon was based off of the woman evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson who founded the actual Four Square Church.  There is a warning at the beginning of the film that caution should be taken before young children watch this so as to not take offense to religious beliefs.  Sinclair Lewis wrote the novel that the movie is based on after he attended Sunday School meetings on Wednesday at various Kansas City Churches.  Over the years I have had an interest in certain religious movements  and Kansas has a colorful past.







Birdman of Alcatraz is based off a real person Robert Stroud who was a convicted murderer.  How does bitter convict Robert Stroud cope with a lifetime of solitary confinement?  The answer, in a sense, comes from above in the form of a feeble sparrow he finds in the isolation yard.  After reading about Robert, I came to an understanding that this movie is more fiction than truth.  The real Robert Stroud was a victious psychopath, but in the movie he is viewed as a kind grandfatherly type.



May you have a great week-end!
Gotta run.  I need to add the potatoes, carrots, corn, green beans and stewed tomatoes to my pot roast in the crock pot.
~Deanna~

Psssst
Secret ingredient to add to crock pot meat is: olive oil.  
I let the meat brown in olive oil and chopped onion for about an hour before adding water and the veggies.