At the end of our tour of the Hacienda Doña Engracia Distillery a couple of years ago, Jeanna, Terri, and I bought “Mexican” margaritas, each consisting of a generous shot of tequila poured straight from the bottle over ice, then filled to the brim with Sprite. So you can imagine my surprise when Stephanie Elizondo Griest
A couple of years ago, Peter asked if I wanted to take a sushi-making class hosted by the local community center. His sister and I decided to take the class. It was several hours long, we took pages of notes, bought all of the supplies, and made sushi once. It was so time consuming and we made enough to feed an army (I’m not a chef; I follow directions, and didn’t think I could down size the recipe). Every month or so since then, Peter asks me to make sushi and my response is always the same: 1) I can’t remember how and lost my notes, 2) It takes too long, and 3) I make too much and we end up throwing it away.
Fast forward to today. I woke up from a nap to the smell of dirty feet. I went down stairs to find that Peter has decided to make California Rolls! He had already purchased all the ingredients and was in the kitchen making rice and heating up the vinegar – source of the dirty feet smell. All the effort I put in to making sushi the first and only time didn’t seem to phase him. He said it would be easy, no problem. At one point, I to help and explained how to mix the rice with the vinegar and he stopped me. “That’s not what the video said to do,” he said. He was home all day today and I guess he’d been studying.
So…what took me FOREVER took him 45 minutes, and we ate home made California Rolls for dinner. They were fantastic!
I know this weekend’s race isn’t my first marathon, but it’s stressful nonetheless. I have been thinking about it all week, but today it hit me. I finished my shift an hour early at REI today, leaving nothing to think about but packing for my trip…and with the packing comes thinking about the race.
Did I train enough with hills and without hills? Did I push myself too much or not enough? Can I run in the hot weather? Will I wear a skort or shorts? Will the house we are staying at the night before have coffee for me on race morning? Remember to pack Gu’s, water bottle, shoes, tanks, visor, and running sunglasses. What if I start off too slow and am not be able to gain time later in the race?
Okay, Breathe.
I’ll be fine as long as I do my best and listen to my body.
Now, I just need to follow my own advice.
On Tuesday nights Maz is on his own for dinner and usually it’s hot dogs or chips and salsa. Last night he decided to give in to his cravings: Double Bacon Cheeseburger. Since he was so proud of his creation ,he thought it was a Kodak moment. I think Carl’s Jr. better watch their back…
It has been a miserable week. For the past week our refrigerator has been freezing EVERYTHING! We have no vegetables or lettuce. My Greek yogurt froze and our Brita water filter is a big block of ice. We have thrown away just about everything because of frost bite, and have been eating out or cooking only if there will be no leftovers. We haven’t been able to buy anything at the store that isn’t freezer friendly or shelf stable.
You could say I’ve had my fill of chips, margaritas and peanut butter. It will be nice to have a salad again….
Finally, we had someone come out today to take a look and replace the temperature gauge. Yup, that was it. The bad news is that it broke, but the good news is that we have a really, really old refrigerator that will last another 10-15 years (according to the repair man). I think our fridge is as old as our house, 1983, and from what I gather they don’t make appliances like they use to (I know I sound like I’m 70 years old!). I just laugh when I look in the door and see Montgomery Ward printed on the information sticker.
Now I am off to the store to reacquaint myself with the vegetable and milk groups.
Yesterday was my day off for the week, and since I don’t have a traditional job, I don’t get two days off in a row, and never a whole weekend.
I started my day with a quick 30 minute run at 6:30am, then dropped a friend off at the airport; on the way home, I passed the Honda dealership, so I thought I would get an “express” oil change. One hour and a half later, I was out of the Honda dealership and on my way home. By the time I got there, it was just after 10am, so I sat at the computer to do some emailing while taking care of some calls I have been putting off. Before I knew it, it 11am came and I needed to be across town in 30 minutes for a quick lunch with a good friend. Okay, out of the house at 11:10 and then to lunch. Made it by 11:40, which is pretty much on time for me…After a nice and pleasant lunch I was headed to Costco and then to the store for last minute items for dinner (enchiladas).
I made it home from lunch and errands, and then I had to tackle the house – sweep and vacuume, then a deep cleaning in the bathroom , all while on the phone dealing with health insurance issues with the HR representative for REI. No joke, yesterday was a day of multi-tasking to the tenth power. Finally, the house was cleaned and I needed to shower. By the time 3:30 rolled around, I was exhausted but clean. I laid down for about 45 minutes without the luck of falling asleep and then Maz came home…
“Did you make the enchiladas?” were Maz’s homecoming words. I wanted to kill him! As I ran down my day, his comment was “Wow! you should have just gone to work.” My response? “I’m sorry but I don’t have 3 hours to clean a gun on my day off like you do.” He kind of went mute at that point.
On a lighter note, he did make a salad for dinner. Too bad I couldn’t enjoy it because he insisted on adding a pepper/jalapeno – my mouth was burning by the second bite!
He ate my salad.
“So, what should we do while the kids are testing?” I asked Olivia.
“Mommy, I have a great idea,” she said, and motioned for me to come closer. "Fruyu," she whispered in my ear.
I text my loving spouse this shot of our princess Olivia enjoying chocolate and vanilla swirled frozen yogurt with chocolate and rainbow sprinkles. His response? “U have created a monster.”
I lucked out this year. My birthday dinner on Saturday – scheduled to accommodate the kids’ weekend activities, my work obligations, and Ted’s planned absence (from home, where he usually is) on Monday – was followed by a celebratory brunch on Sunday (for my Mom’s birthday, but my sibs gladly included me as an add-on), and my favorite home-cooked meal on Monday – my actual birthday. My loving spouse Ted, who rules our kitchen, stayed home on Monday, after all. (He had originally traded his Monday off for Tuesday so that he could ferry the kids back and forth to their Star Testing site while I was on campus teaching.)
For dinner? Blue corn tortilla chips and home-made chunky guacamole with a Margarita to start, then mole enchiladas, spicy “Spanish” rice, and corn cake. Although Ted warns that his meal has taken 15 years to perfect, these recipes will get you started:
Enchiladas de las Colonias
Chicken enchiladas with pueblo-styled mole sauce
Ingredients: 1.5 tbs sesame seeds; 2 jars (about 8.75 oz) prepared mole poblano paste; .25 C peanut butter; 3.5 C chicken broth; about 1.5 C corn oil; 12 6-inch corn tortillas; 4 C pollo deshebrada*; about 2 tsp salt; .34 C minced onion; 10 oz grated Jack or mozzarella chease; 1 C crema or crème fraiche;
Instructions: 1) Heat oven to 375; 2) Toast sesame seeds; 3) Combine mole poblano paste and peanut butter in heavy skillet over medium heat. Mash and stir until nearly melted. Whisk in just enough chicken broth to make a smooth, medium thick paste; 4) Warm .5 inch corn oil. Dip tortillas and dry on paper towels. Tortillas should be pliable but not crisp.); 5) Spoon .75 C mole sauce in bottom of shallow baking dish. Dip tortillas, one at a time, in mole sauce. Fill with “chicken,” season with salt, add onions and cheese. Roll and place in dish. Drizzle mole sauce and sprinkle cheese over completed enchiladas; 6) Bake 12 minutes; 7) Drizzle crema and sprinkle sesame seeds over top before serving.
*Shredded chicken
Ingredients: 1 4.5-5 lb chicken, quartered with giblets except liver; 2 garlic cloves; 1 tsp oregano; 1 tsp salt; .5 tsp pepper; 2 bay leaves.
Instructions: 1) Cover all ingredients with water, cook over medium heat until meat falls off of bones. Turn chicken once; 2) Remove from pot, cool in poaching liquid; 3) Drain, skin, and shred meat.
Texmati Pilaf
Ingredients: 1 C white Texmati rice; 1 ripe tomato (.5 lb); .5 C chopped onion; 2 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped; 1 medium jalapeno chile, stemmed and chopped; 1 tsp salt; about 1.5 C chicken broth; 3 tbs olive oil; 1 C frozen peas, defrosted.
Instructions: 1) Rinse rice; 2) Combine tomato, onion, garlic, jalapeno, and salt in blender. Add chicken broth to make 2.25 C; 3) Heat olive oil in saucepan, stir in rice, and cook until grains are opaque. Stir in tomato mixture and bring to simmer. Cover, lower heat, and leave undisturbed for 22 minutes; 4) Remove rice from heat. Scatter peas over rice and let stand 5 minutes.
El Torito’s Sweet Corn Cake
Ingredients: .25 C butter, unsalted; 2 tbs shortening; .5 C masa harina; 3 tbs cold water; 1 10 ounce package frozen corn kernels; 3 tbs cornmeal; .25 C sugar; 2 tbs whipping cream; .25 tsp baking powder; .25 tsp salt.
Instructions: 1) Whip butter and shortening in mixing bowl until fluffy and creamy. Add masa harina gradually and mix thoroughly. Add water gradually, mixing thoroughly; 1) 2) Blend corn kernels until coarsley chopped. Stir into masa mixture. 3) Mix cornmeal, sugar, whipping cream, baking powder and salt in large bowl. Add butter-masa mixture; mix until blended; 4) Pour masa mixture into 8″ greased baking pan. Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees until corn cake is firm, 40 to 50 minutes. Allow to stand at room temperature 15 minutes before cutting into squares. Or use ice cream scoop to serve.
And for dessert? Four-layer spice cake with cream cheese frosting. Uh huh, life is good.
Freckles are the stuff of terrific children’s literature -Freckle Juice and Freckled and Fourteen come to mind immediately – and generations of childhood angst, at least in our family. Yet my daughter Olivia remains oblivious to the literary merit of her speckled nose and my early trauma. Perhaps it’s because she knows where freckles come from: ice cream. (And who could bemoan freckles, if they’re really just an outward sign that you’re blessed with easy access to a cool, creamy treat?)
Although I initially thought that I had created a con artist, I’m now convinced I may be the mother of a scientific genius. Allow me to explain.
Olivia first articulated her theory when she was angling for a Dairy Queen (DQ) stop on our way to Colorado last week. I happened to notice that Olivia was sporting more freckles across her nose and forehead, and told her how cute I thought she looked. (Yeah, yeah, NOW I think they’re cute ON SOMEONE ELSE…) Her response?
“Well, Mom…you know I get freckles from eating ice cream…”
“Really,” I thought.
Then, on the way back home today, she observed that both my sister Terri and I have A LOT more freckles than she does because we eat CHOCOLATE ice cream, whereas she prefers vanilla – with rainbow sprinkles. While there may be no clear biological basis for believing chocolate ice cream causes freckles, I think it’s pretty clever of Olivia to recognize that two of the most freckled people she knows also ingest unusually large amounts of chocolate ice cream, and relate that to her own ice cream consumption and flavor preference.
Don’t you?
Sometimes I find myself wondering where I missed that fork in the rode that would have landed me on Elfin Forest Rd. in elite Rancho Santa Fe, California. Now, I’m beginning to think it may not be me at all. I think I just may have chosen the “road less traveled”; it just took a while for everyone else to catch up.
Take eating locally, for instance. Suddenly, it seems, everyone’s kitchen is sporting a box of vegetables and other farm products, thanks to a boom in CSA memberships. CSA or Community Supported Agriculture has become a popular and increasingly convenient way for ordinary consumers to buy and eat local, seasonal produce. Consumers purchase a share/membership/subscription and receive a box/bag/basket of seasonal produce each week throughout the farming season. In addition to supporting local agriculture and eating “better,” both in terms of nutritional content and sustainability, share-holders/members/subscribers typically gain access to local farms via tours, opportunities to work, and/or ability simply to visit.
This is great. Really. I’ve been a mostly hard core advocate of “slow food” since before it was a movement. I whole-heartedly support CSA and all the nutritional and social benefits associated with it, and even belonged to the first CSA operation available in our community. I wasn’t trendy…no, just a really healthy “kook,” as far as friends and family were concerned.
Then there are the barefoot runners. Granted, I “fell” into this one because I’m one of the lucky few who naturally run “on their toes.” The growing popularity of forefoot, if not barefoot, running in the wake of Christopher McDougall’s best-selling Born to Run
Former war correspondent turned barefoot running guru, McDougall argues that humans evolved for long-distance running - on bare or barely protected feet, which prompts a softer, forefoot form than contemporary running shoes permit. McDougall one of among many currently teaching runners how to run “naturally” – if not barefoot, then in Vibram Five Fingers or other minimalist shoes, including my own favorites: Nike Free and Newton. Their success has prompted me to consider modifying my teaching portfolio to include forefoot running clinics…
Or maybe “baby wearing” workshops would be more lucrative. Deborah Netburnrecently reported in the LA Times that moms are giving up new shoes in favor of filling their closets with baby carriers! Baby carriers support attachment parenting, a philosophy that promotes the psychological and physiological benefits of establishing and sustaining a close parent-child bond. I carried all four of my own children for the first three years of their lives for these benefits, in part, but also because it was simply easier and more convenient than the then-popular infant-seat/hand-carrier/stroller “transformer.” (While I can understand a stroller, I still do not “get” why anyone would willingly haul around a bulky plastic seat!).
Instead of kudos, I got stares…
Today, women are paying up to $120 each for carriers intended to suit their own and their child’s moment-to-moment attire and mood…and taking classes to learn how to wear their babies! Instruction typically covers how to select among the wide variety of predominantly cloth baby carriers currently on the market, how to adjust the carrier with baby on-board, and how to incorporate baby wearing into mom’s daily activities.
In contrast, I had to search for my first baby “sling,” via tiny ads in parenting magazines and the telephone – not for lack of Internet access, but rather due to the paucity of manufacturer URLs. It cost $40 and was designed by Ms. Sears – yes, the famed doctor’s wife. My choice consisted of roughly six different fabrics, and, when baby arrived, I just threw it over my shoulder, popped him in, and winged it from that point.
Again, it’s all good – but please…even baby-wearing in the modern age isn’t new.
That gives me an idea. My own mother – get this – simply carried all NINE of her children by shifting us from hip to hip throughout the day, adapting over the years to working with one hand at a time. She kept us close and became ambidexstrous. In this economy, I bet could make a fortune with “no prop” baby carrying!
Elfin Forest, here I come.
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