New pic

I walked in my very first 5K with Andriana and it rocked the house! Down 40 and 40 to go!

Losing it.

I have lost 40 pounds.   It is    a w e s o m e !  I should post a picture.  Maybe later, gator.

New Blogger stuff!

New blog layout! Not that I do a lot here but new is new!  Time to play.  I play all day!  Except when I don't.

1 year ago

Almost a year since my last post.  I have lost a lot.  I lost a brother.  I lost a sister.  I lost a niece. They can not be replaced.  It has truly been sad.  These losses weigh heavily on my heart at times but good things have also happened.........  I am still thinking.

OH I know!  I lost 25 pounds and counting!  I was diagnosed with diabetes and then undiagnosed with diabetes.  How does that happen?  Well it doesn't.  And yet it does because my blood sugar is normal. So I don't have it?  Well I guess you can control the disease with diet and medication.  When I was told I freaked out. The only person I knew at the time with this disease is in a nursing home with kidney failure and every kind of bad thing that diabetes can do to you. So I really freaked out!  I read everything I could about it and I took control of it.

So, now I mourn my sister, brother and niece, it has been almost a year since my sister died and I will move on to take care of myself.  

Michael Pollan wrote a book of which the subtitle is "Eat food. Not to much. Mostly plants"  This is my mantra. Kraft macaroni and cheese is not food. Frozen dinners are not meals (to me).  I am a good cook and have learned to cook for my new lifestyle.  Cool!  I am also learning about food that I never ate before.  Like lentils! I bought them but not cooked them.  Yet. 

Pozole, pollo and chili puya

Have you ever eaten Pozole?  It is soup of Mexican origin.  There are 2 basic kinds, pork and chicken.  The pork is red and the chicken is white. What makes them Pozole is the hominy.  It is typically made at Christmas because it a long time to make. IF you make it from scratch!  The first time I ate it was at a little 3 table restaurant called Byby's.  I was hooked immediately and wanted to learn how to prepare this most wonderous soup.

This turned out to be quite the journey.  I had no Mexican friends and no one I knew had made it before.  Internet search on!  Not the results I wanted but I was getting ideas.  Like many recipes for traditional foods, each household, state, town, whatever will have it own variation.  But the basics are the same.  A mild broth with hominy and chili guajillo.  Then you top it with sliced radish, cabbage, onion and a good squeeze of lime. And if you want heat, you may add a small dry chili japones which are real hot! A woman I went to school with told me she made red pozole but with chicken instead of pork.  Her kids like the chicken better than pork and invited me over to try her soup.  It was marvelous and I liked it better than the pork also.  The lady that worked at the laundry mat where I wash my clothes gave me her recipe.  After that I would ask every hispanic woman how they made it.  Keep in mind that not every hispanic is Mexican.  But I finally have an easy recipe for red chicken pozole that is not from scratch and is a little expensive for that reason.

1 rotisserie chicken
4 cartons of chicken stock or broth
1 onion finely chopped
4 -5 cloves of garlic, more if you want, chopped
Mexican oregano
1/2 of 1 small bag of chili guajillo - maybe 5 or 6.
2 28 oz cans of pozole drained

In a large pot, saute onion and half of garlic in a small amount of olive oil, slowly. When clear, put chicken with juice from bottom of container and all the stock/broth and bring to a boil.  Add a palm of oregano to soup. But you need to rub it between your hands when you do to break it up. Simmer until chicken if falling off the bone.
Rinse chilis and remove woody tops.  Put in a pot a cover with hot water and allow to soften while chicken is cooking.  When the chilis are soft, put half in a blender with some of the water that you soaked them in along with the other half of chopped garlic.  I use my kitchen shears to make smaller pieces first.  Blend until smooth.  Strain well and set aside. Repeat with the rest of the chilis.

When the chicken is done, remove from pot and when cool enough to handle, remove skin and bones.  Cut unto small bite size pieces and return to pot.  Add strained chili mixture and the cans of drained pozole.  Simmer for about 1/2 an hour.

Serve with the following on top of soup to taste.

Sliced radish
Chopped white cabbage
Several dry peppers like Chili Japones
Squeeze fresh lime juice over all

Variations abound for making pozole.  Some women toasted the peppers before soaking them.  Some add all the garlic to the chilis in the blender.  Some saute all of the garlic.  I do half and half.  Be careful with the chilis because the can have dirt in them like leeks do.  Restaurants serve it with raw onions but I don't care for them.  I like a lot of lime juice!  Some places serve it with chopped lettuce instead of cabbage.  I believe that is a regional thing.  I serve the cabbage at room temperature otherwise it brings the  temp of the soup down real fast.  And who likes cold soup?

The Whole Enchilada

I love enchiladas! And mine are very basic and easy to make. They evolved over the years and this is how I make them now. They turn out perfect every time and I never vary from this simple recipe.

Preheat oven to 375

Grease a 5 x 7 pan

1 medium can of La Victoria enchilada sauce

2 - 8 oz. packages of Cojack cheese

8 flour tortillas

Grated cheese for top

Spread a generous amount of sauce in bottom of pan

Cut each block of cheese in to 4 pieces the long way. You will have 8 pieces of cheese.

Roll 1 piece of cheese in a tortilla and place in the pan seam side down.

Spread sauce on top rolled tortillas with the sauce making sure there is a little sauce between each enchilada so they don't stick together.

Bake at 375 for 30 minutes, until it is bubbly on the sides.

Remove from the oven and top with grated cheese and return to oven for about 5 minutes or until the cheese melts. (I use a blend of Mexican cheeses that I get at the store.)

Remove from oven and allow to sit for 10 minutes before serving.

That's it! Easy! I serve it with sour cream and serrano peppers that I simmer in a little water. When I turn them over I add salt and the juice from 1 lime.

Late in this post

I need to reconnect to the bog. Since I quit smoking all I can do is games on facebook and I am totally addicted. What a super waste of time. Watching hockey is SOOOO much better. Hockey is my favorite game. And I don't care who is playing. Blackhawks are about to start at St. Louis. Go Hawk!

WOW

I haven't been here since May. A lot has happened since then. I cut my hair and I got a new laptop. Not that I had an old one but its still new. So I guess at this point I just start over!

Andy Borowitz said " 99.9% of people who blog are still waiting for someone to comment on their post. LOL ain't it the truth. I feel so alone, sigh. lol

I spent WAY to much time on facebook playing games or rather they are called applications. But I quit smoking and needed an outlet. It saved me. I quit in April and while I still want one on occasion, I am still not smoking.

Puchero will be on the menu for Sunday, that's my oxtail soup. And probably Lasagne for Thanksgiving dinner. Tony, Andriana, Elena, Christina and Bev will round out the guest list.

Work is good and I am not as involved in politics as I have been. Sometimes people bum me out and I take a step back. That is what I am doing. But also my friend Joy had part of her foot removed because of a flesh eating bacteria. She is in a nursing home for rehab and it is truly awful. I help as much as I can but it seems small to me. I will try to post more often but I really hate to type! It hurts my hands after a while. Later...

New stuff!

Cate, Nick and Marla.  Thanks Marla for the photo.  Nick lives in Sacramento and Marla and Cate live in San Francisco and they can now get to know each other.  They had not seen each other in  12 years.  This makes me very happy.  Thank you Marla for the wonderful pictures!  I love them!

Well the trip to DC was fabulous and soon there will be photos.  Maybe I will post some but not until I get the computer back from the repair shop.  Sigh. We arrived back from DC on Saturday evening and the iMac worked fine.  But Sunday morning when Doug got up it was dead.  We don't know what was wrong.  We did not get the photos downloaded but that is okay because I am not afraid of losing them. But it has been in the shop for a week now and no word on the problem. So we are now proud owners of a MacBook laptop.  I nagged Doug in to getting this wonderful little computer.  Just like my short hair it takes some getting use to.  Small screen, keyboard in a different set up, no mouse, etc.  But I like it! Like my hair!

I thought I would go crazy without the computer.  No facebook, email, online news, access to recipes, oh the horror!  I really made me realize how much we rely on this medium.  Scary!  But now we have a network.  Once we get the iMac back, we will have 2 computers and the iphone that will all be connected. How cool is that!  For us it is very cool.  I still don't have a cellphone But I think a laptop is better!  Don't you?

  

Hair

I cut my hair.  Short.  I think I like it but I will have to play with it.  I will take photos and add them but I am getting ready to go to Washington DC with Doug.

I am real excited about it because I have never been there. I plan on going to the Library of Congress.  

Tweets

Well I started twitter today.  I am not sure why but I did.  I seem redundant to have all of this overlapping networking tools going on.  But I went to a library conference and Michael Stephens insists that these tools are necessary.  So I will tweet and play on facebook.  On facebook I have called all of my avatars Spicy Pepper.  I could not have that on twitter so I am Pica Pepper.  Same thing only different.  

I quit smoking.  No one is dead and no property destruction as of yet.  Although I do have someone in mind.

Artichoke

I love artichokes!  Yesterday I drove all the way to South Elgin to shop at Caputos.  Large arti's were on sale 2 for 1.09 so guess what I bought.  Yep and I made them for my dinner last night.  As I was making them I remembered the book, "Alone in the kitchen with an eggplant".  It is an anthology of stories about what you eat when your are alone, either by choice or design.  The stories are fun and my arti's were what I was alone with.  Doug had a Union meeting to go to and so I was on my own for dinner.  They are so easy to make!

2 large artichokes trimmed rubbed with lemon 

squeeze 1/2 lemon into large pot of water, enough to cover the artichokes. Throw the lemon in the water!

3 cloves of garlic, smashed, added to water with a splash of olive oil

Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer.  Cook about 45 minutes. 

Drain and serve with lemon butter

Squeeze 1/2 lemon into small dish and microwave for 1 minute

Add 1/2 stick of butter in pieces and stir until melted

If you have never eaten artichoke before you just peel the leaves off one at a time and dip the soft end in the butter and scrape off with your teeth. Ummmm.  When you get to the center where the choke is, use a spoon to scrape off the choke and cut the heart into pieces and eat with the left over butter.

I ate one last night with a fresh baguette, sopressata, fontinella cheese and blackberries for desert.  I was in heaven.  And I get to do it all over again for lunch today.  

And I forgot to tell you that I quit smoking.

Elections

The elections are finally over.  It is always disappointing to me EVERY election how few people vote and then complain.  I have been an election judge since 2001.  After Bush was appointed to office, I needed to do something.  So I became a judge and Doug became a Precinct Committeeman.  I have not seen the kind of horror stories that are reported about the elections so I guess I am lucky.  I am sure that they happen but just not to me yet .  It is a long day and it takes me severals days to recover.  Showing my age!  The money is secondary for me but every one of the judges I have worked with in the last couple of cycles are in it for the money.  Period.  No civic duty involved.  That's okay by me because it blurs the political lines.  The student judges are great.  When I first started, all of the judges were at least 20 years older than me and they have all since retired and many of them have past away.  They all did it to do their civic duty.  I don't see that too much any more.  Most of the judges I worked with this time were around my age.  This is a good thing because maybe they will continue to work the elections.  Or when they are better off financially, they will quit.  I hope not because I have worked with some real nice people.

Doug and I campaigned for our local candidates, going to door to door, putting out signs, mailing campaign literature to voters in our precinct and talking to friends and neighbors to vote for our guys.  More often than not people were not interested.  "I don't know any of these people" "This election is not going to do anything for me" "I am tired of elections"  were just some of the things people were saying to me.  I have thought about this and the election in November and I have decided that burnout with party politics is part of the problem. They were all willing to participate for the November election, thank you Obama, but now they were done. It did not matter that I could tell them all they needed to know about the candidates, they weren't interested.  Sigh.

Party politics is a whole other blog.  Oh the things I can tell but probably won't.  

Marla is coming in 2 weeks to visit for the weekend.  Woooooo!!!  It is a very short visit and she will have a very busy and I will have dinner with her and Tony.  I was able to get the day off so I will be able to spend a few more hours with her.  Nice. 

Snow and Crocus's

It snowed last night.  Wet and sloppy but not a lot at my house, about an inch. And since it is cold outside I am roasting some soup bones.  One last pot of soup before it gets to warm to have the oven on two hours and then a simmering pot for several more.  Ahhh, soup.  I am going to forgo the oxtails and use just the soup bones.  How can I do this you might ask?  Well the store that I buy the bones from leave a fair amount of meat on them.  And I don't want a lot meat this time. I will still have a lot of veggies so I am good.

Christina is coming over to talk to her dad about her student loans.  She is late and since he cosigned for them it is affecting our credit.  So I will also make another meal for the family.  The soup is for me!  I am going to make guacamole for her and probably enchiladas for dinner.  I'm not sure yet. I made chili and chicken fajitas this week already so i might do something different. I'm not sure what.  But I am going to go to the store now for weekly supplies so I have time to figure something out.

I still spend way to much time on Facebook.  I am playing YoVille and having way too much fun. But since I can't get anyone to play with me I am not able to go up any levels.  Oh well.

Spring

So I went from posting every day to once a week now it has been a month.  I have found that time management on the facebook is important. I need to cut back. I am still fascinate by it and I keep looking for friends.  I have been called a luddite, but also told that I post more than any one the know.  But I like that I can post news articles to my fb and not even be on it.  I play games with women I know and some I don't know.  But this too will end.  I seem to getting carpal tunnel on my right wrist from the mouse.  I use the mouse a lot at work so when I use it at home for an intense hour of games on facebook, it hurts a lot.  So facebooking will definitely have to decline in usage.  The sad part is that I really like the networking.  I have connected with people that I have not thought about in 15 years and made new friends that I probably would not know otherwise.  

But really this month has been very busy with meetings and political events. Candidate fundraisers, Party meetings, and at least one fundraiser for the homeless shelters in the area. So I really have been busy.  

I published the newsletter for the Democratic Women of DuPage County (DWDC) and I now an the administrator for our facebook page.  And I will be managing the web site for the group also.  I have caused some resentment in the group because I am impatient and I took over the newsletter.  The woman who volunteered to produce the newsletter over a year ago had not even started to do anything.  At all!  After a year of waiting I called her and volunteered to help her.  I don't what I was thinking.  Then I just got tired of waiting on her to do something, anything to produce this newsletter and did it myself.  I guess I became the Little Red Hen and I did it myself. Her feelings were hurt and I didn't care.  How awful of me but I can't help it.  If I volunteered for a task and did nothing for a whole year I would be embarrassed and would gladly give it over to someone else.  But she and I have been at odds for awhile.  So I am heartless and in this case I just can't get worked up over it.  On top of everything else, she criticized the one I produced.  I could care less.  Sigh.

On a lighter note, I made chili today even though I went out to dinner with the DWDC.  I made it just for left overs.  Think chili dogs, smothered burritos and a nice bowl of chili!  I added ground ancho chili to it along with chili powder. Yummm!

Just thinking...

I went to my doctor last Friday and I told him about my feet burning or get real hot when I sleep, he called it Restless Leg Syndrome.  I laughed and he told me to google it. I did and I have decided that he gave me a non-diagnosis. When I googled it and also looked on Medline, there is no way to diagnosis this RLS.  It is seem to be just a generic term.  What I described to him about my feet was not listed in any of the symptoms.  Now what.  There are no tests or cures.  If I don't have RLS what do I have?  I told him it was hot flashes in my feet and he laughed.

Luddite! Not me!

My facebook friend Bridget called me a luddite because I don't have a cell phone.  Was I insulted?  Of course not.  I thought it was funny because I had some people that I im with on facebook ask me what that meant.  They were all young and had never heard that word before. My answer to them was to look it up?  I love my friends who use $5 words.

I made a rocking good chili cheese dog for lunch.  The dog was a frank from Omaha Steak Company.  They are huge and a quality dog.  Onions, cheese and chili, fork and knife required.

Busy, Busy

Today is the Truman Dinner Fundraiser for the Kane County Democrats and I need to get ready very soon.  All this week has been hectic.  3 meetings, doctors, dinners and newsletter stuff.  I had another meeting today, but I'm not going. You can only do so much and my calender is full.  

So I started the newsletter for the Democratic Women of DuPage County.  Why did I start it?  We want/need a newsletter but just getting it started seemed to be an issue.  The woman who volunteered to start it became ill in November and was not able to attend very many meeting since. Well I got tired of waiting and just took over, kinda. I am impatient because things were not getting done. So now the lady that volunteered to do the newsletter can take over.  That is what she does best. Enough said on that subject.

Next week will be easier and I plan on taking advantage of it.  Well actually it will still be busy. Blood tests on Monday early then breakfast with Cookie. Tuesday is laundry day and I have a lot.  Wednesday is the Staff meeting at work which is early and I have to work late. Sigh. No rest for the wicked.

Doctors and French Onion Soup

Well, last summer I half joked with a friend that I was sporting a comb over.   But I noticed a larger and larger forehead.  But also some new growth.  So today I went to the Dr.  I hate getting old.  Male pattern baldness.  I thought it was my cholesterol medicine. But Noooo, I am just going bald.  Then while talking about my hair, I told him about the "hot flashes"  but they're in my feet. At night I wake up and my feet are burning.  So I kick the covers off and I am fine.  Are you ready for this? Restless leg syndrome!  What?  So I am going to have a whole bunch of blood work done for hormones, cholesterol and I forgot what else.  Soon I will be living better through chemical alteration.

So I need some comfort food.  I am slowly browning a whole bunch of onions, garlic, bay leaves and thyme.  The thyme is lemon thyme (from my sister in laws garden) so I know it will taste different.  But its okay.  French onion soup is what I am making because I had a lot of onions and the lemon thyme is what I have. I will add a burgundy that is not top quality but it what I drink and I am skipping the bread at the end.  Oh the horror!  But this is about what I have on hand right now.  I have some boxed broth for the soup but I also have some frozen broth from some Italian beef we had a while ago.  They always give us too much so I freeze the left overs for a time like this.

I am also going to make cheese enchiladas for dinner.  I don't think Doug will eat the soup.  But the enchiladas are a good comfort food also.  This will be the first night Doug and I have had alone since last Saturday.  I am looking forward to it.

Today's Menu

I had today off and had big plans to do stuff.  Well I did maybe 50 percent of what I planned.  I got my hair cut.  I am not sure I like it but it is what it is.  My hair is falling out so it is hard to get a good style.  I now have bangs.  I HATE BANGS.  Sigh

Today I made burgers.  They were real good because I use a real good quality beef from the Wheaton Meat Market.  My preference would be to grill them out of doors but it was too cold and to dark.  I know a lot of people grill all winter long, but not me.  Yesterday I made chili, it was good but a little bland for me. But I added a ton of hot peppers so I was good.

Bill Maher and Grilling

Countdown to February 20 when the new season of Bill Maher on HBO, if you have never watched, now is the time.  I can hardly wait.

I haven't cooked since.....um......I think Friday. Cheese enchiladas I think. A banquet last Sunday, mucho left overs for Monday and Tuesday.  So I get to cook tomorrow. Wow!  The weather is warm, 60 degrees.  I would love to cook on the grill tomorrow but it will be colder.  And I hate to cook in the dark.  Still dark at 6, so no grilling yet. I can hardly wait for grilling season.

I love meat on the grill.  Not chicken so much but beef.  Short ribs are my favorite.  But a good steak is a real treat.  It must have the bone!  I am not a grill master but I can hold my own.  I love brats on the grill.  Then the left overs I cook in sauerkraut.  Yummm.

Presidents Day Gala

For those of you not involved in DuPage County politics, the President's Day Gala in the annual fundraiser for the County party.  Doug and I have been attending for several years now.  Last year Lt. Governor Pat Quinn was the keynote speaker.  This year Dick Kay was.  We missed hearing Dick speak.  All of the politicians spoke first.  I really wanted to hear Dick, he is a great progressive.  We left just after 9 pm because Doug has to get up early for work.  Oh well. 

I saw some friends that I have not seen in a few years.  Joyce Washington for one.  She ran for Senate when Barack ran.  Nice lady, but she is not on Facebook.  Oh the horror!  Not really but I think it is funny the people you find there. 

Time Flies

My goodness, how time flies!  No posts since the first of February.  How lackadaisical when I have been spending so much time on Facebook. Interactive is such a fun thing. And of course the blog is not interactive. Networking is fun, what can I say.  

I bought "The Wiseguy Cookbook" from the Friends of the Library book sale this week.  It's great.  I love cookbooks with narrative, stories behind the recipe.  Cooking is interactive, play with your food.  Cooking with your kids, family and friends is such fun, if  your kitchen is big enough.  Mine is not, my moms was not.  I think kitchens should be large airy rooms with lots of counter tops.  In my dreams.  Mine is okay for me, enough for 1 cook.  Whenever I have company, which is not very often, someone always offers to help.  Which is very thoughtful but honestly there just isn't enough room for 2 people to move around in.  I hope to paint it this spring, of course last summer I was going to paint it.  I washed all the walls and cabinets.  Then I was tired of looking at the walls and stopped.  Sigh, now I have to wash all over again.  But I am going to paint it a pale green.

Tonight Doug and I are attending the Presidents Day Gala with the DuPage County Democratic Party.  When they first started to plan it the keynote speaker and only guest was Dick Kay.  He is a great guy.  If you are from Chicago you know he is.  Anyway, now that Barack is President, and we now have 3 Democrats elected to the DuPage County Board, State politicians are paying attention to us here in DuPage County.  As long as we have been here it has been strongly Republican.  Things are changing, thank acorns!  So tonight the new Governor, States Atty, Treasurer, Sec of State and I can't remember which other one, will be attending.  How weird, it's like they just discovered we exist.

Next Sunday is the Kane County Dinner and Doug and I are going to that one also.  Last year Senator Dick Durbin was the keynote speaker.  Also Barack Obama was suppose to be there but the shooting at the Northern campus, he went there instead.  Oh well.  So many fundraisers, so little time.

Anyway, no cooking for me tonight.  That means no leftovers for tomorrow.

Boiling the spoon

Happy Super Bowl!   I have browned some hot italian sausage and added red and green peppers, 3 cloves of garlic, my italian seasonings, 1 bay leaf and 1 can of stewed tomatoes.  It has been simmering for about 10 minutes.  I think it is ready to eat.  Yummmm.  And yes, I am boiling the spoon.

Nadal beat Federer in the Australian Open and the Steelers are up 10 - 0.  

Facebook

Facebook is interesting and addicting. I have been spending way to much time on Facebook but I cannot stop.  Finding people I know is great.  Finding the quirky stuff they have on there is fascinating.  But what do we do with it?  This morning I read an article on MSNBC about identity theft on Facebook.  Scary. I wanted to create a photo album on it and it told me the application would give them FULL access to my computer!  No way am I going to do that.  I didn't get that message when I put my photo on it.  So for now, I won't be putting photos on Facebook.

Go Hawks!

Blackhawks 3 Ducks 2.  I love Hockey!  It's not the like other sports in the trailer park (Dead Milkmen reference).  Baseball is boring, a lot of down time to buy beer.  Same with football.  Basketball is okay but it is not as much fun to me.  Soccer makes me tired just watching it and I don't understand the rules. Golf, ditto.  Tennis I put in the same category as hockey, I love it.  The action is nonstop!  

It looks like the Australian Open Mens finals will be Federer and Nadal.  I like Nadal, go figure.

The children

I have the most beautiful children in the world.

The Boys, Tony and Nick

The Girls, Cate, Marla and Andriana

Translation!

Google to the rescue!  I was able to translate my blog to Spanish.  Nice.  Bienvenido Juan!

Facebook

I started a Facebook page.  I did it to join a group that I belong to in the real world, not virtual. When I created the page, I found out the group was not global yet so I just left the Facebook sleep, so to speak.  Then last week I get an email, Peggy wants to be my friend!  I totally forgot about Facebook.  So my friend found me and now I have been finding friends on Facebook I never thought I would!  Well, only 3 but it is a start!

The best find so far is finding my nephew from Argentina, Juan Ramon.  He has a Facebook page and I spent a good deal of time this morning chatting with him.  So cool. We have exchanged photos via email and talked about family.  I have not seen him since he was a small boy.  I looked for him because of the soup I made yesterday.  In Spanish it is called Puchero.  It made me think of Argentina so I did a search for him and voila, we started to chat!  I gave him a link to this blog, but he can't read English, so I am going to post to him Spanish sometime.  Or see if I can do a Google translation or something.  If anyone who reads this knows how, drop me a line.

  

He was very happy to be able to chat in Spanish with me and I him.  I don't have much of a chance to write in Spanish so it was fun and hard at the same time.  I speak Spanish everyday at work but rarely have a chance to write it.  I am a little rusty.  But I can tell I will be doing it more often!  I have my Spanish dictionary handy.

Matt Taibbi

Do you know who he is?  He writes for the Rolling Stone magazine and also has a blog on the Smirking Chimp.  I have seen him several times on the Bill Maher show.  He is funny and a real good writer.  You should check him out.  

He also wrote a fine book called  "The Great Derangement"  worth reading.

I have not figured out how to do links yet or I would link you to the Smirking Chimp or Rolling Stone.  Maybe I will figure it out tomorrow.  Everything is new until you do it once.

Making Soup & The Australian Open

It is 12 degrees outside and I am making soup.  The soup bones are in the oven and I need squash for the soup.  So a road trip in order.  Jewel did not have any butternut squash!  Oh, the horror! While I suppose I could leave it out, I just can't. It would not taste the same.  So a trip to a store that is farther away than I want to travel, oh well.  With 4 grocery stores in town one would think that I could find butternut squash at at least one of them.  But 3 if them cater to the Mexican population.  And the other one, Jewel, was out.  

The air in the house smells wonderful.  I can smell the onions and garlic roasting.  Yummm.

While the soup is cooking (just not yet) I am watching tennis.  Roger Federer has not lost a set yet, no big surprise.  They are not showing his matches which is okay with me.  Last night I watched Rafael Nadel play, it was fun to watch.  I think Nadal needs to change his brand of BVD's.  I you ever watch him, you know what I am talking about. 

Oxtail Soup

The high today is supposed to 36, I don't think it will get that high.  For the next 3 days it will be much colder, lows below 0.  And it is really windy which makes it feel colder.  So what is a good thing to make when it is really, really cold?  Soup!!

Oxtail is my favorite homemade soup, followed by split pea and ham, cream of broccoli and leek and potato(which I do not make, my friend Joy is my supplier.)  I am going to make some Oxtail  soup on Sunday.  I don't have a recipe written down and it tends to change every time I make it. I cook it low and slow.  I learned this dish from my former mother-in-law who is from Argentina. It has changed over time but the basic recipe is the same.  You can use any soup meat to make this soup, neck bones, beef shanks, it's all good.  So here is my take on Oxtail Soup:

One package of soup bones - brown in oven at 375 with 5 smashed garlic cloves, 1 carrot, 1 onion, quartered, 1 stalk of celery with small amount of olive oil about an hour and a half.  Turning once. The amount of garlic is up to you.

One package of Oxtails,  large pieces

garlic (lot's) finely chopped (4-5, 6)

1 small onion chopped

1 tomato finely chopped

1 or 2 stalks celery with leaves diced (I use the smaller inside pieces with leaves)

1 juice carrot shredded

1 potato shredded

1 small butternut squash, peeled and cut into large pieces

1 piece of squash shredded

3 potatoes cut in quarters

1 - 2 large juice carrots cut in large pieces

parsley (optional)

garlic salt

salt

pepper (optional)

Small bow tie noodles

Trim fat from oxtails and brown on all sides in a small amount of olive oil in a large pot.

Add 1 finely chopped onion and garlic when tails are brown, the amount of garlic is up to you but the more the merrier.  Saute until soft and clear.

When garlic and onions are clear, brown not crispy, add chopped tomato, large pinch of salt and a pinch of pepper, saute until soft. 

Deglaze pot with about a quart of water or stock.  Add browned bones with the garlic and any juice from baking dish.  Discard celery and eat the carrots from the roasted bones. They are very tasty!

Fill pot with water or stock and simmer an hour or two.  Low and slow adding water if it reduces to much.

Bring soup to a roiling boil, add shredded carrots, squash, potato and celery. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Simmer until meat is almost falling off of bones, occasionally skimming fat from soup.

Remove soup bones and discard of give them to the dog.  Add stock or water if reduction is to great.

Taste for salt, I use garlic salt at this time if needed.

Add large pieces of vegetables to broth and simmer until fork tender.

Remove tails and vegetables to serving dish and cover.  May be kept warm in a warm oven. Skim any fat that has collected on the surface of soup.

If soup reduced to much, add water or stock and check seasoning again and simmer if needed. 

In a separate pot boil only the amount of noodles you plan on using for this meal.

Drain noodles and return to pot.  Add the soup to noodles.

Serve soup with grated cheese, the meat and vegetables with Chimichurri, crusty bread and a good burgundy.

Sigh, I can hardly wait.

What is your favorite homemade soup?

Here's your hat, what's your hurry!

Good Bye George and good riddance!

44

Yesterday I thought that it would be so cool to blog during the Inauguration of Barack Obama but I found that crying and typing do not go well together.  And I just could not take my eyes off the television.  It was a very emotional time and I loved every minute of it.  I am profoundly happy that Barack Hussein Obama is our 44th President.  

I could not watch the entire day of broadcasting,  things to do, places to go, so I recorded it on the dvr and I plan on watching it on Friday.  I love being able to fast forward to the good parts!

I Have A Dream

I was about 10 years old when Martin Luther King Jr. made this speech.  I don't remember listening to it.  I don't think we had a television yet, or maybe we did.  

I watched it today.  It brought tears to my eyes.  

A Smothered Burrito

Have you ever had one?  Back in the early 70's I would eat lunch at a little Mexican restaurant in Denver and they serve a smothered burrito that was to die for.  The burrito was filled with what ever you wanted and smothered with a green chili made with poblano peppers and then topped with lettuce, tomatoes, onions, sour cream and jalapenos.  It was spectacular.  So whenever I have left over chili I make a smothered burrito.  It usually has just beans in the middle with cheese and jalapenos.  I just had one for lunch, it was very satisfying.

But it's all about the chili!  I use a course ground skirt steak for the meat that I marinate in lime juice, olive oil, cilantro and sometimes serrano peppers.  My chili is different every time I make it but I am good with that.  Play with your food!

Dust Bunnies

The dust bunnies are taking control of my house!  So I will succumb to the need to do something about it.  I hate to dust.  I usually wait until my husband writes "Clean me" in the furniture.  I laugh when he does this because he cleans more than I do and he also hates to dust.  He vacuumed today so I guess I can dust.  Blahh!

I finally figured out how to add photos.  I previously tried to do this and I was not successful.  TAADAA!  Here it is!  I just thought it was cool.  It was on a posting from Crooks and Liars from the Tacoma Glass Museum.  I am trying to learn more about blogging but it very time consuming when you don't have the background, education or a mentor to do this kind of stuff.  

A shout out to Rick Klau, Hi Rick!  I knew Rick when he lived in Naperville and was one of the driving forces in the local Howard Dean for President campaign.  Big changes in the DuPage Democratic Party Rick.  Good or bad is still debatable but there it is.  We miss you and the energy you brought to the party.  Dirk Enger was elected to the DuPage County Board, also Tony Michilessi (spelling) who is from the Aurora part of Winfield Township.  

Still no television.  Snow on the dish, maybe today we can do something about it.  

Denver 59, Chicago 8, Grissom and Gravy

The high today in Denver is going to be 59 according to the Denver Post newspaper.  That is the current temperature in my kitchen.  It is minus 11 outside now and the high is suppose to be 8. I need to go to the grocery store but I want to wait until the temperature reaches 0. It probably does not make much of a difference but I don't care.  WAIT, the weather report just said temperatures won't reach that until tonight!  Well, I guess I am in for a road trip with the extreme cold.  Sigh

There is snow on my satellite dish and I have not watched television since Tuesday.  I can watch the programs I recorded before the snow froze on the dish and dvds, but not live television.  I missed the last CSI program with Grissom.  My neighbor said he would try and find a 40ft ladder and go up and knock the snow off, but I can't imagine him doing it today.

I made biscuits and gravy for breakfast today.  My sausage gravy turned out velvety and creamy.  I could not make gravy for the longest time.  I just could not make it where it tasted like paste so I just stopped trying to make it for a very long time.  My mom made wonderful, velvety gravy.  But I never learned how to.  On top if that, my husband doesn't like gravy so it wasn't an issue.  No pressure to make it because he did not want any.  But I like gravy, so I would just buy the dry mixes and that was good enough for me.  I started to watch Tyler Florence regularly and I just had to try again.  It took some time, making paste again and again, until I got it right.  I ate some awful gravy sometimes but now I have it down pat.  For me this was a great accomplishment.  I can cook a lot of things with great confidence but gravy was not one of them.  I'm feeling real good about myself and my sausage gravy.

-15 that's below 0!

Cold!  Unbelievable cold!  It is currently colder in West Chicago than in Anchorage Alaska.  The door jam for my front door is covered with a thick layer of frost.  My kitchen temperature is 58, Wow!  We keep the temp for the house at 64 which is comfortable for us.  But this is ridiculous. When I came home from work today I made brownies to warm the kitchen, then I made a pot of chili.  It was toasty for a while.  Is it this cold where you are? 

Cream of broccoli soup, Yumm

What an easy and tasty soup.  A while ago broccoli was 29 cent a lb so I bought 2 bunches and made cream of broccoli soup.  I ate it at least 2 days in a row and froze 2 containers, about 8 cups. It was so delicious!  WHY DIDN'T SOMEONE TELL ME YOU CAN'T FREEZE CREAM SOUPS.  ARGHHHH!  When I thawed out the first container last week, there were little white specks in the soup.  Cream.  I thought it would "melt" when I heated the soup up.  It did not.  The flavor of the soup did not change.  It still tasted great, but the little white specks were still there.  Sigh.  I was not a pretty as the first time around.

My husband would not even taste it.  Sigh.  He will eat broccoli when it is served to him (like at a family gathering)  but it not a choice he will select as a side.  Veggies are like the parsley, decoration on the plate.

I make a kick ass oxtail soup, he won't touch it either.  His favorite soups are in a red and white can, chicken noodle and tomato.  He does not have a well developed palate.  So I make a lot of things just for me to eat and things that we both will eat. At first I thought he was just fussy, but the things that he does not like really like don't taste the same for him.  I mean really do not taste the same.  My oxtail soup is a rich broth with lots of garlic, shredded veggies and large pieces of veggies.  It is a recipe from Argentina called Puchero that I learned from my former mother in law.  It is served as 2 courses,  soup then meat and vegetables.  Someday I will write out the recipe but not now.

Tonight are the Caucuses for the Consolidated Election in April.  I can't go, I have to work. Oh well, maybe I will be able to go next time, in 4 years.  More on that later.

Happy Anniversary! Oops! I forgot!

Oh My Gosh, my husband and I both forgot that today is our anniversary.  It's on the calendar, wall and computer.  How could we forget?  We received a card from my mother in law and I was stunned.  We forgot.  How did that happen?  Doug always sends me flowers to my library for our anniversary.  I don't work today so he would have sent them yesterday.  We are dorks!  We can't even go out for dinner tonight.  I have a meeting that I CAN NOT MISS.  It is not that it is not important or special day, but we are very busy and this week between our jobs we did not spent more than ten minutes together until Thursday.  And then It was only an hour and a half.  Sigh. Next week should be better but today is our anniversary.

Next year will be better.

Merry Gentry Series

I love this series.  The latest book is "Swallowing Darkness".  I read it in about a day.  When I was finished, I decided to re-read the whole series. So now am about half way through "A Kiss of Shadows" and I am so happy.  It's the little things that do it for me.  The author of the series is Laurell K. Hamilton.  She also does the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series.  I love them a lot as well.  

I am going to do a book display at my library called, "Series-ously"  I am going to put the first 2 books of a series with a bookmark with the whole series listed.  Then you can follow the series in order.  I don't mind starting a series in the middle,  but it helps if you know the entire list so you can continue.   I love doing the displays for the library.  Saturday I am doing one with Abe Lincoln as the star.  Happy 200th birthday Abe!

Ann Coulter, Trailer Trash

My Mom and Dad taught me an important lesson at a very young age, "If you can't say something nice about someone, don't say any thing at all."   Be polite, it is very easy to do.  I might slam someone to my husband to vent, but to go around spewing such venom about people she doesn't know is abhorrent.  I can not stand her and her ugly lies.  I could go on and say bad things about her but that would put me at her level,  Of course she is doing it for money.  She has found a niche selling hate and lies.  What amazes me is that people buy it!  And believe it!

I would feel the same way about her if she were a liberal/democrat doing the same thing.  I am very happy the Today Show canceled her appearance.  She should appear on The Soup.  I love Joel McHale and he would do her justice. 

The reason I refer her as trailer trash, is my daughter-in-law is much the same way when talking about things she knows nothing about.  She is self proclaimed trailer trash and thinks Coulter is great.  Sigh.

Al Franken Wins!

The new Senator from Minnesota is Al Franken!!  Yahoo!!  Go Democrats!   Now they need to seat Burris.

Politics

After the November election, I was just worn out.  All the campaigning for our local candidates and Obama, well I just had to take a break.  I used to get about 40 emails from campaigns and various blogs about the election.  Mostly asking for money.  We gave as much as we could.  It paid off.  We got 3 Democratic candidates elected to the Dupage County Board.  Wow!  Bill Foster as Congressman for the 14th and President Barack Obama,  super Wow.  At least the emails have dropped off.

Anyway, now that January is here one would think that the we can just all rest.  Not so much, the January caucus is just around the corner.  I have been asked to be a candidate for Winfield Township Trustee.  It is part time but I am afraid that I am not qualified to do it.  Are any of us qualified to hold a public office?  We should be.  I mean there should be qualifications to be able to even run.  Do I have the qualifications?  I don't know.  I still don't know if I am going to do it.

Where did it Go?

Yesterday I posted a picture of glass from the Tacoma Glass Museum.  Where did it go?

Glass from the Tacoma Museum of Glass.  Pretty cool!  Found on Crooks and Liars, I love those guys.

Happy New Year!  I forgot to start the first post with a Happy 2009.

Just finished up dating a website that my husband maintains.  Ok, he maintains it and I updated it.  I wanted to refresh it with new colors.  He told me to go for it because it is a pain in the ass to do.  It was fun to playing with color schemes.  I did not change content because it is not my site.  The site is for the Winfield Township Democratic Organization or we just call ourselves WTDO.

Last night for dinner I made cheese enchiladas with serrano peppers on the side.  I really like them.  They are so easy and the serranos are HOT.  The more heat the better for me.  I love hot food.  I only have 5 different hot sauces on hand right now.  But I am out of some and I won't replace them until I get a craving for their particular flavor.  Habanero hot sauce is an example.  I am out for now but each hot sauce has a unique flavor so when I jones for habanero, I will replace it.  But for now, I am good.

I just bought some Frank's Hot Sauce.  I haven't had it in a while.  I forgot how good it is.  It is thick, which is not what I want all the time.  But I made chicken tenders on New Years Eve which I needed chicken wing sauce for.  It was on sale and I had a coupon!  Perfect.

I boil my wooden spoon when I cook.  My Mom told me that my Dad did it too, but I don't remember.

I love to cook, but I question how well I do it.  But I love to talk about cooking.

I also love to read.  I work in a public library so my career is perfect for me.  Although I know a lot of librarians who don't read.  Go figure.

I am a Democrat.  I am involved in politics and it is very frustrating. 

I thought I would try out blogging to just vent and see what and who is out there from my computer.