Last night, Ted was hell bent on watching some baseball thing on TV so I went in the kitchen and made a huge vat of beef stew, then in a weak moment, invited everybody over to eat some for dinner today. Tony's family will be here in about an hour, my parents and Mike a little while afterwards. Nick is now in Vancouver. Tony won't be staying to eat as he has to be at the airport for a 5 o'clock flight back down to LA again for week 2 out of 3.
Yesterday we spent running around including a trip to the big shopping mall, and from what I could see, the place was packed and people were buying like mad. Some weird recession, lol.
I'm not doing much today. Just the usual-watching the race and football. I cleaned the apartment from top to bottom yesterday, and did all my grocery shopping, so I'm just relaxing today.
Not much going on over here, except that we're sick from sodium and junk food!!
Our son came over to watch the Redskins game with his dad, and of course they wanted chips and dip. Then, they wanted an early "dinner" of goopy nachos with everthing piled on.
Jim, of course, has absolutely NO BUSINESS eating this stuff, but I allowed him his one indulgence today. He says he "hurts" now. Oh, wah...
I did finish reading a book called The Thirteenth Tale this morning that was really good. It's a first novel for this author (Diane Setterfield), and I thought it was very well written, and really kept me hooked! Parts of it are rather sordid and disturbing, but because the writing is tasteful in its descriptions about certain things, it doesn't offend. It's a borderline ghost tale, with lots of twists, and is very different...
__________________
"It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities"
(Dumbledore to Harry Potter)
That book sounds good...I just looked it up. I think I'll give it a try. Right now, I'm going through a romance book phase, but they're romance books set in NASCAR. Cheesy, yes, I know.
I go through different phases with books too until I become saturated, and then I have to switch.
Sometimes a person needs something trashy, and sometimes a person needs something intellectual, and sometimes a person needs something in between!! I don't judge because I'm quite sure that not everything I read is going to appeal to others either.
__________________
"It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities"
(Dumbledore to Harry Potter)
I agree that the goopy nachos sound really good. Though so does the stew. The stew really sounds good. I had a pretty uneventful weekend. Had a little kids party to attend for a little friend of Jolene's. She had a good time. And in typical New England fashion the house that the party was at was just gorgeous and the yard was gigantic. I think that you could get 2 Navy housing yards into that one yard. And then Saturday night I went to what is called an Arbonne party and once again the house was gorgeous.
We now have about a week and Vinnie will be gone. I tell myself I am ready but I don't think I am ready for how Jolene is going to react. I just pray that Thanksgiving comes fast because my sister and niece are coming up and that will help distract Jo from not having dad around.
I know this is the Sunday post but I didnt feel like starting a new day post, so whats new everyone?
It's kind of a dreary morning here. I spent the better part of it so far going into the city's property assessment files online to see what other houses on my street were assessed - always FUN navigating a government website, lol. My iMac couldn't access the maps, so it was particularly frustrating.
Other than a quick shopping later this afternoon, I'm taking it easy today after serving dinner in 3 shifts last night. Gah. Interesting watching a one year old eat stew with his little hands. Nice mess. Good thing we have a dog to lap up what hit the floor.
Moore, silly men and their dietary whims. Did that Mc-feeling last all night long?
KaeEll, Jim managed to survive the night, and would probably eat another plateful of nachos again tonight, if I put it in front of him! His tastes range from escargots in garlic butter to garbage-gut anything. Pretty easy to cook for when you think about it!
We have two verisons of nachos (with variations) in this household: goopy and so-called "gourmet", although I'm not sure that there IS such a thing as gourmet nachos! Guess which version the guys wanted with their football game yesterday. Yep. They wanted the junky, goopy version.
JUNKY, GOOPY NACHOS:
Nacho chips (we like spicy) a jar of Tostitos queso cheese (medium hot) a large jar of salsa hamburger a packet of taco seasoning a couple of cans of refried beans sour cream scallions or a red onion avacado
Dump the contents of the cheese sauce into a very large measuring cup or glass bowl. Add some of the salsa, and mix. Zap in the microwave for about a minute on 50-60 percent power until it's hot.
In the meantime, you have browned the hamburger, mixed in the taco seasoning with a little water, and added a can or two of refried beans to the pan. Mix thoroughly. You could also add a little salsa, or dump in a small can of chopped chilis, or a can of Rotel tomatoes with chilis and lime, or whatever else moves you...
Spread nacho chips on a plate, and pour some hot cheese all over it. Plop on a glob of the hamburger/bean mixture. Sprinkle some sliced, pickled jalapenos around the chips.
Add a large spoonful of sour cream on top of the meat, put a little salsa on either side of the sour cream, and sprinkle the top with chopped scallions (or chopped red onion), and some diced avacado, if you like it. Our son doesn't...
"GOURMET" NACHOS:
hamburger 2 - 3 cans of black beans fresh cilantro fresh lime nacho chips (or whole wheat tortillas) salsa scallions sour cream shredded cheese (mixed Mexican cheese, or Cheddar) avacado Rotel diced tomatoes and green chilis chipotle (if you want) fresh jalapeno (if you want)
brown hamburger and add chili powder, cumin (one of my favorite spices), lots of crushed fresh garlic, cayenne pepper, salt, and chopped fresh cilantro to taste. Add Rotel tomato combo, and cook until mixture has thickened a bit.
Put the black beans in a separate pot, and add more garlic, more fresh chopped cilantro, cumin, and the juice from a fresh lime. Heat through.
You could also add some diced chipotle chilis to either the hamburger, or to the beans. You could do the same with fresh diced jalapeno, just depending on how much layering of flavors and heat you want. I would be inclined to add the diced jalapenos to the beans, and the chipotles to the meat, but it isn't rocket science.
Spread the nachos on a plate (or you could gourmet it up even more by cutting whole wheat tortillas into pie-shaped slices, and lightly toast them in the oven), and sprinkle with cheese. Top with hot meat mixture (will melt the cheese a little bit, and add some of the black beans. Sprinkle with more cheese, if you want...
Top with salsa, sour cream chopped scallions, and avacado, as before, and sprinkle on a little extra fresh cilantro...
By the way, corn and cumin are a perfect combination. I always add just a little bit of cumin to corn, and it's also good when added to melted butter, and then used on corn on the cob.
Do you all have stomach aches now just from reading all of this??
__________________
"It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities"
(Dumbledore to Harry Potter)
Yes. Theoretcially... It has less junk in it, and hopefully slightly purer, and more layered flavor. As far as nachos can have such a thing. If you use the toasted whole wheat tortillas rather than the chips, you've bumped it up yet another notch!
Aren't delusions great?
__________________
"It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities"
(Dumbledore to Harry Potter)
Yeah, a little bathroom humour to spice up a blah Monday.
So, I've got AMC on now and Bianca's new baby is the daughter of her sister's husband? Isn't that a bit out of character for Bianca? What are they doing? Gah.
It's RIDICULOUSLY out of character -- for both Bianca and for Zach.
Zach apparently visited Bianca and her partner Reese in Paris. They all had a little too much wine, and Zach agreed to be the sperm donor. Bianca, however, never bothered to tell Zach the the sperm donation "took", and no one has bothered to inform Kendall about the plan.
So Bianca's baby will be little Ian's cousin and half-sibling.
I have NO IDEA what these writers are smoking, but I think it's been cut with something really bad...
__________________
"It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities"
(Dumbledore to Harry Potter)
It's dark, cold, and rainy here today. Jim has an art class tonight, but has asked for STEW for dinner tonight. That means YOU have to make nachos tonight, KaeEll. LOL...
__________________
"It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities"
(Dumbledore to Harry Potter)
It's dark, cold, and rainy here today. Jim has an art class tonight, but has asked for STEW for dinner tonight. That means YOU have to make nachos tonight, KaeEll. LOL...
__________________
"It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities"
(Dumbledore to Harry Potter)
I am still at work and having the hardest time not taking a little nap. Whats worse then being tired is when you aren't busy because that just makes you more tired. Anyone have any fun websites I can explore.
You know, if the writers would stop the silliness and stick to writing compelling stories without gimmicks, the ABC soaps might just have a chance. This nutty stuff with Bianca is almost as bad as the non-aborted baby for Erica. There ARE other ways to write a good story, lol.
Nice to see VI back, though. He was on Y&R for several months but he got killed off after he was turned into a gambling addicted liar with mob connections. Ugh.
