Zebra car

Out and about on the town and what do I find?













A zebra car.

Project BLT

I am digging this.

You must check it out.

Discovered via Michael Ruhlman's Blog and his BLT from Scratch Challenge.
I am into this.


Project BLT

I am into making things from base ingredients. This probably stems from my fascination with the pig bladder balloon I read about in the Laura Ingalls Wilder series as a child. I wanted one of those balloons.

As you will note, Jared Dunnohew was the overall winner. This is his blog.... One Hungry Chef.

Check it out.

Motherhood is a roller coaster

Sometimes you read something that totally hits you in your gut.

That is what happened when I read a recent post of Ree Drummond's from her Confessions of a Pioneer Woman website/blog. Her post These Are the Days reminded me of some of the care free moments from my kids' early days.

My kids are now either teens or tweens and heading down their own path. This often translates to willful, stubborn and sassy. Don't get me wrong, they are amazing and wonderful but gone are the days of their carefree innocence.

Here's to yesterdays grins and tomorrow's adventures. Thank goodness they're still cheeseballs...

Chili is good

Soup.... Stew....Chili.

These are three of my favorite things about fall.

My coworker, Mike, makes good, simple chili. He brings it to team potlucks on a regular basis. The last time he brought some, I was tied up with a meeting and when I finally arrived, with bowl in hand, the chili was gone.

Enough was enough. I needed that recipe.

The story he tells, is that a roommate of his in college (I suspect he was in college about 35-40 years ago) created this simple, but delightful recipe.

It is simple. It is delightful.

The recipe he provided didn't use many measurements. I have amended the recipe, as is my way, and alter it a bit every time I make it. For example, adding tomatillos, experimenting with a variety of different peppers and amending the spices here and there.

Miguel's Chili

Ingredients

2 lbs ground chuck, lean

2 anaheim peppers

2 jalapeno peppers

1 large onion

2-3 cloves of garlic

2 14.5 oz cans of diced tomatoes

2 15 oz cans of tomato sauce

3 15 oz cans of kidney beans (dark and/or light)

chili powder

cumin

sugar

canola oil

Dice the onion and garlic, set aside in separate piles.

Chop the peppers. I use a course chop on the anaheim and a fine dice on the jalapeno. (if you wish to minimize heat, de-vein and seed the jalapenos)

Over medium high heat in a large pot or dutch oven.

Brown the onion in 1-2 TBS of canola oil.

Add the ground chuck. Drain. (If not using lean, drain the majority of the excess fat)

Add the garlic.

Add the peppers.

Add the cans of kidney beans, tomato sauce and diced tomatoes with their juices

At this point stir and add spices.

The original recipe didn't call for measurements and neither do I. Sprinkle approximately 1 TBS, enough to cover the top, of the chili powder and about half that amount of the cumin. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add approximately 1-2 tsp of sugar to cut the acidity of the tomatoes and to even out the flavor. Sample and adjust spices as needed.

Stir and bring to a boil, reduce the heat and let simmer, stirring occasionally, for at least a half hour before serving. If I'm serving several hours after putting it together, I bring it to a boil, let it simmer a bit and just leave it covered and turn off the heat.

I have used poblanos in place of the anaheims, added red/yellow/green peppers for a bit of color, and have added 5-6 chopped tomatillos, all on different occasions.

At this point, it's up to you. Tell me what you add.

Enjoy.

La Perla Tapatia has simple, good food

Enjoying a simple day.

Bob the Cat

Bob is my cat.

Bob loves behind the ears pets.

I love Bob.

Weekend mornings are all about soccer

Soccer is an integral part of fall in my household, whether one of my kids is playing or one match or another is on the telly. That's just how it is.

San Xavier Mission del Bac

An amazing church in Tucson, founded in 1692 by a Jesuit priest. The present church was built in 1783.

Now that the weather is beginning to turn I once again remember the wonderful warmth of Tucson in spring.

The Killers 9.24.09 ~ My daughter's first concert

.....fall

Anyone need any leaves? I've got a few extra.

I live in a lovely older neighborhood in South Central Salem surrounded by lovely old trees. In my yard alone I have an old Butternut tree, a Maple and a majestic Oak. I cherish these trees.

I remember while growing up and wandering through these older neighborhoods (I grew up in a new subdivision) I was amazed by the permanence of those grand trees. I remember watching movies which depicted neighborhoods with tree lined avenues. I wanted that. I wanted those trees. Now I have them.

Guess what, those trees are now mine and so is the associated maintenance. (Well, I guess I have to give credit where credit is due, the associated maintenance falls into my husband's lap. Thank you J.)

We knew the leaves would fall. We didn't realize how many other things would fall and the stages that fall would go through. We've got whirly birds, sap drip, acorns, butternuts along with some other fluff and stuff of one type or another. None of these things falls at once, oh no, it's conveniently staggered for fall weekend work-out's.

This year, with a little research we have learned that our funky walnuts are in fact butternuts. Thank you internet. We are attempting to harvest some of our butternuts this year but I'm sceptical of our success. The yield has been amazing and suspect it has something to do with the hard winter this past year.

For the next research project, I'd like to determine what type of Maple is out there.

I could complain about this fall clean up but really it's such a small price to pay for these amazing beauties. I love my big trees.