it doesn’t get much better than this …

One of my favorite meals to make is posole.  It’s a Mexican stew.  Some people spell it pozole and some people (me) spell it posole.  Either way, it’s delish.  It’s also very easy to make (at least the way I make it) and I make so much of it when I do that I eat it for days for every meal.

I thought I’d share my recipe with you but then I realized I don’t really have a recipe per se.  I mainly throw together the same ingredients each time in somewhat varied quantities.  It kind of drives Ray crazy because each batch is an experiment and may not ever be repeated, but that’s the way I do things around these here parts.  Here’s how I make it and feel free to substitute, add, change or completely ignore my recipe and find your own!

Start with a few fresh jalapenos.  I dice up between 6 to 8.  This time I used 8.  Notice my lovely cutting board.  I just got it and I luuurve it!

I throw it in the most gianormous pot I have and add a butt load of chili powder.

Hominy is by far my favorite part of this soup.  You really can’t add too much hominy.  I use the biggest can I can find which is around 208 ounces from Costco.  I rinse it out and get it all umclumped.

On medium high heat I start boiling chicken stock.  You can use either chicken stock or broth.  Our Costco only sells chicken stock in large quantities so that’s what I use.  I’ve used both and really, can’t tell the difference.  I used four 32 ounce boxes of chicken stock for this batch.

Another reason why Costco is so awesome: they sell already shredded(ish) rotisserie chicken breast in vacuum sealed bags.  Sometimes they’re in the premade meal section and sometimes you have to ask for them.  They use it in their chicken salads and whatnot, but they’ll sell it to you if you ask nicely.  It’s already cooked so you’re really just warming it up.  You can shred it more or just leave it as is like me (lazy).  If you can’t get it from Costco you can either buy a rotisserie chicken and shred it or buy a whole chicken and cook it yourself.  To do that I would pour in the chicken stock and whatever kind of chicken parts I bought and boil it until the chicken pieces were cooked.  Then I take them out and get to shredding.  It is the only difficult or annoying part of the process so that’s why I buy it already done for me.

Now add 3 to 4 cans of diced tomatoes.  You could use fresh tomatoes, but again, I’m lazy and this works for me.

Heat to boiling and stir occasionally.  Here’s where I’ll add some hot sauce.  You can use whatever you like, but I use Lime Cholula.  It’s my fave.  Once it’s boiled for a bit I turn it down to low-medium, cover it and let it simmer.  I’ll check the broth after about 20 minutes to see if it’s spicy enough or if it needs anything else then I just let it simmer for as long as I can stand waiting for it.  Sometimes I’ll start it in the morning for dinner just so it simmers all day and makes my house smell yummy.

While simmering I listen to some tunes.  Right now I’m obsessed with the second Country Strong soundtrack that has the rest of the songs Garrett Hedlund & Leighton Meester sang in the movie. 

You can garnish your bowl with all kinds of stuff.  My father-in-law likes his with shredded cabbage, my hubby likes his plain but he wouldn’t complain if I had some tortillas.  I like mine with lots of lemon juice and cilantro.

Doesn’t that look purty??  Enjoy!

becoming a locavore

I’ve wanted to sign up for a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) and here in Morgan Hill it’s even more tempting because we’re so close to so many farms selling local produce.  If you’ve never heard of CSA let me explain.

Every week a box is delivered to a specific location.  The box contains whatever fruits and veggies are in season at that given time.  You sign up for a membership, pay your dues and pick up your box on that given day.

When I looked into it last year the only one I found (I didn’t really do a very thorough search) delivered once a week and it was $35 a week for what they called a family share. When they broke it down it really seemed like a lot of produce and I wasn’t sure if we could go through that much.  At the time, the only people I knew who lived nearby was my sister and her family and they’re not the biggest veggie consumers so splitting it with them wasn’t really an option.  So I let it pass.

Then a week ago I was talking to one of my friends who was also interested in joining.  It got me thinking about it again.  Then I was looking at Swank Farm’s website and saw they were part of a CSA called Timptations.

Timptations offers both weekly and every other week pick up and they will substitute items for you as well.  Every week they send out an email newsletter listing what will be in that week’s box.  If there’s something there that you know you don’t like then you can choose something off their sub list.  You can also add things to your order off their a la cart menu like olive oil or extra produce.  The portion sizes are a little smaller and they only charge $24 a week.  Perfect for us!

So I was thinking about it when we came across their booth at a local festival this past weekend and it just seemed like fate.  So we signed up for the every other week trial membership for a month and today we picked up our first box!

I was so excited to see what was inside even though I already knew!  Carrying it in from the car I could smell the strawberries and it made me so happy!

So we got strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, cherries, asparagus, broccoli, butter leaf lettuce (both green & red), radishes, English peas and an heirloom tomato plant!  Everything looks and smells wonderful!  I’m not sure yet what to do with the radishes, but I’ll figure something out!  Out of the eleven items eight of them are organic.

I’m hoping this will encourage me to fix us some healthier meals and try new things.  I used to cook a lot.  And not just whatever meals, but I experimented a lot and considered going to culinary school, but I’ve been lazy for awhile and I really need to get back into that.  Here’s hoping this helps.  And it definitely doesn’t hurt that I know we’re supporting our local farmers too!

i want

I saw this awhile ago and thought it was cool & fancy.

I thought that it would be cool to have, especially with a 5 year old around who loves popsicles.  But it wasn’t really necessary.  We used to have an ice cream maker and I think I used it once.  We also have a waffle stick maker, again used once.  Gadgets are always fun to have but I have a really bad follow through.

Then I saw these:

You make popsicles with FACES!!!!!!!!

Now I really want this.  Reallyreallyreallyreally.

That is all.

tell me if i’m crazy

Well, first of all, I guess paying $20 for sugar is crazy, but bear with me here.

We buy tea at Teavana, a tea store in the mall.  We’ve spent quite a bit of money there over the last few years and continue to shop there despite their pushy, slightly snobby salesclerks & slightly expensive tea.

I make a really delicious iced tea blending a Rooibos & a Herbal Tea and ran out of some the other day so we went out there today to get some more.  It’s about a 20 minute drive, not far, but certainly farther than Safeway.  While there we decided to restock the German Rock Sugar that we also get there.  It’s a three pound container that lasts about a year, give or take.  This time the sugar was packed in Teavana’s large tea tin containers instead of the glass jars that they’ve previously been sold in.  Each had been individually weighed and priced.  There was a price tag on the side that stated the sugar in that container was $23.52.

The salesclerk said that the glass jars had been discontinued by the company and they would probably have new jars  sometime in July.  We mentioned that we already had a jar and he said if we wanted he could pack the sugar in a bag or something or we could bring the jar in and they could refill it for us.  Since we weren’t planning on coming back to the mall for awhile so we just purchased the sugar & teas and went home.

When we got home Ray was putting everything away and looking over the receipt he noticed that they charged us $23.52 for the sugar and an additional $7.00 for the tin.  Not once did either clerk tell us that the tin was a separate charge.  There was no signage on the table with the sugar and no price tag on the tin except for the one that said the sugar was $23.52.

Am I crazy for being pissed about this?  It’s not that we can’t afford $7, but it’s the principle.  I feel like the clerks were getting away with something by not mentioning that the tin was not included with the sugar even though the sugar was IN THE TIN.  Even when he told us that we could bring in our jar and have it refilled he didn’t say anything like ‘then you wouldn’t have to pay for the tin.’

I sent an email to the company just to vent my frustration.  It’s not worth it to drive all the way back to the mall to return the tin, but I just feel like I want someone to say, ‘yes, you’re right, that was wrong.’

So … am I crazy?

let’s talk about blogs

Yes, let’s.

I read a lot of them.  When I discovered RSS feeds and that I could get them on Outlook like emails it was pretty much all over for me.  I spend entirely too much time reading them, but I love them so.  I’d like to tell you about my favorites.

Busy Bee Lauren – Lauren’s blog was the first blog I ever followed and read from just about the beginning when she was just a wee little lass.  She’s super talented, honest, hilarious & a sweetheart to boot.  I think I’ve posted my favorite post of hers before, but just in case I haven’t here it is and you should read it because you’ll laugh.

My Blog Is Boring – I admit, the title of this blog is what got me reading.  Well, that’s not true.  She wrote a guest post for another blogger who happens to be Mormon in which she repeatedly uses the word ‘whore’ and I laughed so hard and promised I would use ‘shut your whore mouth’ somewhere very soon.  I went over to her blog (which, for the record I DO love the title) and read from the first post to the last and knew I needed to be friends with the lovely Natalie.  I can honestly say that I call Natalie my friend, in fact she is my Notie and I would have it no other way.

Illusion – I found Ixy on For the Love of Blogs – a blog that feeds my blog reading addiction.  She also always has a kind word to say or a bit of encouragement when I need it.  She writes funny & honest posts about stuff I can relate to.  I find myself thinking, I wish I wrote that post!  She also shares my love of books.  How can she NOT be awesome.

Minute Man’s Wife – Completely candid about her marriage and the issues that have come up since saying ‘I do’.  Besides that she is hilarious and completely relatable.  She’s not afraid to write about the difficult things in life and she doesn’t sugarcoat them, but she doesn’t fall into some whiny, sad character.  She’s strong and someone I admire immensely.  Now she’s doing an advice column and it’s FABULOUS!

The Meanest Mom – This woman is AMAZING!  All you need to know about why I read her blog is because of this post right here.  I cannot wait until Emma is old enough so I can use Jana’s tactics on her.

This is such a small sampling of the blogs I read, only 5 out of the 50+ I read.  If you read them you’ll notice they all have the same things in common – honesty and laugh out loud moments.  They’re 5 incredibly admirable women all in different places, but they're all women I’m grateful to have found.

emma the artist

Yesterday for whatever reason, Emma drew a picture of me on her whiteboard.  I’m sitting on the toilet.

It’s not the most flattering picture of myself.  She drew a very disturbing look on my face.

She’s pretty proud of it.  It’s been up for two full days now. 

Yay.

Freak Out

Awhile ago Emma started seeing commercials for Aqua Pets.  

She really wanted one.  For her birthday she got lots of Target money so we took her on Sunday and let her pick out some stuff.  She decided on a Play Wonder Kitchen.

And she looooooves it.  She also got an Aqua Pet named Fretta.

By the time bedtime came around excitement turned into dread.  She asked if she could not put Fretta in her room because she was afraid it would make noise while she was sleeping and wake her up.  I told her that it would only make noise if she pushed one of the buttons.  She hesitated for a minute and then said 'But it freaks me out.'

So Fretta spent the night on Ray's nightstand and then came out in the morning and Emma attempted to play with her again.  Bed time comes around and she asked if Fretta could stay in our room indefinitely.  Now she's decided that Fretta has to go away because she just 'really, really freaks me out.'

*sigh*