I pretty much sleep with the window open year-round. Sure, in the “winter” it’s just a crack, but I’ve got to have my fresh air! Well, last night? SO FREAKING COLD I had to have on socks, an extra blanket, shut the window, and turn on the heat! I log onto iGoogle this morning only to discover that here, in California, in MARCH (practically April!), it is 36′ freakin’ degrees!!!
Archive for March, 2008
that if you are tired enough you can sleep sitting up with your eyes open?
Don’t ask.
You know, this whole “sunny-but-freezing” thing is really starting to annoy me… Oh well, at least it’s pretty to look at!
I had a planning meeting for Cub Scouts earlier this evening. Can I just tell you, that has got to be my absolute favorite meeting? I get so excited planning all these things with these women for these great kids to enrich their lives and teach them how to grow up to be good men. It really makes life seem worthwhile when you can see how what you do affects others in a positive way.
For years I’ve been dying to go to camp with the Young Women of our ward, but I’ve never been able to because of scheduling conflicts - namely that Honey works and there was always one kid that needed full-time care while the others were at school. But now that the district has switched from a year-round schedule to a modified traditional one, Honey will finally be not working at the same time as camp is and I can go! I’m still waiting to be “called” to it, but I’m pretty sure they’ll invite me. I am so excited!!! This will also be the last time I get to spend with the sweet young woman who has been our go-to babysitter for the last six years. We have watched her grow up from a fresh-faced 12 year-old just starting to watch other people’s children, to a fresh-faced, all-grown high school senior ready to go out into the world and make her way. Having her as part of our family, and in a way being part of hers, has been such a blessing for all of us. She gave her service to us freely (or quite nearly so!) in the early days when we were trying to get on our feet after just moving here and needed a night out, and she has lived her life and conducted herself in such a way that I have never had to worry about leaving my three most valuable possessions in her care. I don’t know what we’ll do when she goes off to college later this year!
Well, I guess I should crawl into bed with one of my books. I read five novels in as many days (or thereabouts) last weekend and then I slacked off for a little bit and now my reading pile is building up again. Crikey!
Goodnight, All!
I was in the most splendid mood when I woke up this morning! The cushiness of the bed and the softness and warmth of my blanket in my cool room was just perfection. It didn’t even bother me that it was 5:30 a.m.! I’m at a loss as to why I might be sleepy from 10:30 on though… Oh, well!
The next few weeks and months are so exciting to me. Honey’s mom will be in town next weekend, two weeks after that we’re going down to L.A. to visit grandma and hit the aquarium, then hopefully not too long after that we’ll be moving! Plus my Birthday Bash is coming up!!
We went over our budget and expenses last night, and we might just have enough cash to pay for the new floor & paint plus our major appliances at the new house! I’m super happy because this means I can get the flooring I wanted to. And I’ve re-decided to carpet only the bedrooms. Honey’s mom was right, who wants cold bedroom floors in the winter?
I’m still in love with my Firefox, but somebody needs to teach this browser how to spell. It’s underlined several words I’ve used, and I know bloody well they’re correct. I’m a senior member of the Spelling Police!
I got the new Pottery Barn catalog today. I’ve just chucked recycled the last few, it was too painful to look. But of course, now that I have a new house (fingers crossed and knocking on wood), I’m “in the market” so to speak.
I need this desperately to fulfill my attractive-storage needs:
And then I found the perfect headboard to match the dresser and desk that I inherited from my Grandma Ellie:
I never really considered myself a yellow person in the way of decoration. I’m passionately in love with blue, it just screams “sleep peacefully… dream of George Clooney and Luke Wilson… nevermind those screaming heathens in the living room at 6:00 on Saturday morning…” But this dresser from Grandma is just so lovely, I swear they snuck in my bedroom and stole a paint chip to get the exact same yellow so I would have to buy the bed to match it!
So, I’ve been “gone” for awhile from here. The kids were on “Spring Break”, we visited the fam in San Jose, put together 3 - 1000 piece puzzles (Ok, that was just me doing that) and I read three novels in as many days. In that time, some awesome things happened. One, I made Posole. It didn’t work like the recipe said. I was surprised to read that the pork tenderloin was supposed to be shreddable after only 10 minutes or so, and my suspicions were confirmed when it wasn’t. Which was annoying because it was Sunday and it’s not like I can just run out for tortillas or whatever to make something else for dinner! So I dumped it all in the crock pot and we had dip dinner instead. (Dip dinner consists of refried beans covered in salsa & cheese and eaten with tortilla chips. YUM!) The next day…. it was like p@*n for my mouth. Even better, B liked it. This kid… I never thought he’d eat much of anything other than PB&J and spaghetti for the rest of his life! Then, today I was browsing something, blah blah blah, and some virus tried to infect my ‘puter. I had heard how hot Mozilla Firefox was, so I downloaded it and HOLY CRAP, everything is so much faster than when I was on IE7! I know this is all very boring and mundane, nothing exciting whatsoever for you to read here, but these are the major events happening at home and it’s the little things like this that make the world go ’round.
Here, for your enjoyment, I present:
Chipotle Pork Posole - by Everyday Food April 2008 issue
- 1 Tb. olive oil
- 1 pork tenderloin (about 1 lb.) halved crosswise
- coarse salt and ground pepper
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 Tb. minced chipotle chiles in adobo
- 2 cans (14.5 ounces each) reduced-sodium chicken broth
- 2 cans (15.5 ounces each) hominy, rinsed and drained
- 1 can (14.5 ounces) diced tomatoes in juice
- 1/2 cup fresh cilantro
- lime wedges, for serving (optional)
1. In a large saucepan, heat oil over medium. Season pork with salt and pepper. Cook until browned on all sides, 6 to 7 minutes. Transfer pork to a plate and set aside (reserve pan). Place onion and garlic in pan; season with salt and pepper. Cook over medium, stirring occasionally, until onion begins to soften, 4 to 5 minutes.
2. Add chiles, and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add broth, hominy, tomatoes, pork, and 2 cups water. Bring to a boil; reduce to a simmer. Cook until an instant-read thermometer inserted in center of pork registers 145′, 3 to 4 minutes.
3. Transfer pork to a work surface, and shred with 2 forks; return to pan. Top soup with cilantro, and, if desired, serve with lime wedges.
My thoughts:
Here’s the thing, I mostly did it according to the directions, except for the part where it was cheaper to buy a 30-ish ounce can of broth, a 30-ish ounce can of hominy, my pork tenderloin was actually sliced into 1 inch thick slices, I used petite diced tomatoes because although I love tomatoes I’m not big on huge chunks of cooked ones, and I left out the cilantro because it makes me gag. Also, I used 1 teaspoon pre-minced garlic which equals the 2 cloves. And I forgot to buy the little teeny-tiny limes.
Here’s the other thing, the meat was SO not ready to shred after all that! So as I mentioned before, I dumped it all in the crock pot and the next day it was fan-freakin’-tastic!
