Good news! I fixed the bitter tomatillo salsa by converting it into something more like the pico de gallo I usually make. A couple of cans of stewed tomatoes, a few fresh tomatoes, and some white onion, all chopped and mixed in. The garlic, jalapenos, lime juice and salt were already in the tomatillo salsa. Much better!
With that, and some other stuff, I made the best burritos I’ve ever made. It was the best for a couple of reasons I think. I don’t usually put any kind of sauce in besides the salsa, but this time I put in a semi-spicy black bean sauce (actually a dip recipe, but it’s virtually the same thing.) Then went in some home-made shredded chicken, which made up the bulk of the filling, and some pinto beans too. Yummy!
The dip mix comes from a farm out of Ohio, I believe. I’ll have to go home and get the package to make sure. I thought it was called Smith Farms but Google isn’t finding anything like that. Anyway, they have a really good spicy Sante Fe dip mix that’s hotter than the black bean. I’d used up that already, but the black bean was a good alternative.
I borrowed this chicken recipe from Emeril Lagasse on foodnetwork.com and changed it a little. One difference is that I don’t cut the chicken up before hand. I found that with his recipe, you end up with very small pieces of chicken, which probably works best for nachos, but I usually make burritos or tacos with it. The other is that I add stewed tomatoes and diced chilis along with the onion and garlic. I also season the chicken with salt & pepper before browning and don’t add any salt later. Whatever you do, don’t skip the final half hour of cooking after it’s shredded. You’ll end up with much drier chicken. Use 4 or 5 breasts and you’ll end up with enough chicken for a few days unless you have to share it.
So in the burrito went the black bean sauce, pinto beans, shredded chicken, cheese, cabbage (adds some fresh crunch), and the salsa. My stomach’s growling just thinking about it. I tried packing away 2 of them, but when you overfill a big burrito tortilla, that’s a lot of food!
I forgot to take any pictures, so I googled “best burrito ever” and mine didn’t come up! Doesn’t Google know everything? and isn’t it always right? *sob*
Instead, this was the 2nd one to come up. Close, but I don’t have a shirt like that…or girlie hands. Nor do I print receipts and serve them with the food.
Then there was this one:
No thanks. Too crunchy.
So how was your weekend?
Monday, August 30, 2010
Salsa Saga – part deux
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Tomatillo terror
Having never made tomatillo salsa before, or even purchased tomatillos, I opted for the fresh version.
I'm not exactly sure what a ripe tomatillo looks like. When I was quartering them, quite a few were very dense and not all that green. Some were a little softer and a lot greener.
The end product isn't as fantastic as I'd hoped. It's fairly bitter. I put all 3 de-seeded jalapenos in it, so the the heat is ok. (I'll probably put a whole one in later though.) I pulled out a little batch and put some sugar in it and it's not as bad. I always thought putting sugar in anything to get rid of the bitter broke some sort of cooking rule, but hey, if it works...
Lets try the roasted version next time. That would probably have helped this batch. I've heard roasting enhances the sugars or something like that.
Has anyone else made tomatillo salsa before? Got any tips for me?
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
The Children's Park trip
A large part of the garden is a water feature with a pond, streams, and a couple of waterfalls. They're allowed to wade and play in the water, but they have a rule about not throwing rocks.Ummm...yeah, right.
They really enjoyed the water. Really really. Enough to take a bit of it home. Nobody fell all the way into the water, which was amazing, but they might as well have.
They also had this cool music maker; a series of pipes you could hit with rubber mallets. It was cool to sit on one of the many benches, watching the girls, and hearing the other kids play on it.
After the Children's Village, we walked through the greenhouse, which was smaller inside than it looked outside. The exterior garden however, is phenomenal and large. They have a retired railroad engine, that is very well maintained, a very nice rose garden with a water fountain and some cool paving designs. The camera batteries ran out before I could get any pictures there.
After that we went the the spinny park. Oh, the spinny park. I really need to get pictures of that place. We never had anything like that when I was a kid. Most of the stuff there spins and they have a climbing wall. There's a ride there that I could probably get fast enough to make somebody puke, but I haven't had any takers. I'll try to get some pics and make a whole post just for that. No, not of the puke, the park.
The spinny park is bound to eliminate my inner ear issues. I hope.
If you want to see the rest of the Children's Village album, click here. Enjoy.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Kisses from heaven
"Of course you will." I said, while thinking to myself "I'm not sure it would be heaven if you couldn't kiss me." *heartbreak*
It's the second day of hangin' with my girlies before shcool. It's almost 10:30am and they haven't bugged me about turning on the TV yet! It's gotta be some sort of record. Their mom took them to Walmart last night to get some of the now-practically-required classroom supplies. Which is all fine, more than happy to help, but it's a bit of a stretch at the end of the summer after paying childcarex3. So they got some of their own supplies and a bunch for the classroom. They also got a couple of cheap packets of hair clips.
A, my 6 yr old, is the 'fashion girl', according to her. She has an eclectic taste in clothing, but I like it. She loves the long flowing skirts and all sorts of odd combinations. G, the 7 yr old, couldn't care less so I end up being her fashion consultant. Scary, but not that scary. If only I could get A to dress G....hmmm...
I need nicknames for them in these posts, huh? They have nicknames, but they're not the most flattering. Spacey (7), Aniqua (6), and Bellie (3). Well, until I can come up with better, I suppose they'll do. Churlita gets away with 'Stinky', so hey, why can't I? ;)
So Aniqua is in the bathroom for a while and comes out with a pony tail, of her own making, and pretty little clips in the front. (I tried to get a picture of her, but apparently it's 'attitude time'.) I did get a shot of Bellie though.
Not sure why the picture looks squashed.
Aniqua was a little more cooperative after gettin' some props for the bed making.
Spacey and BellieIt's been nice staying at home. I get to catch up on my blog reading & do some posting. Haven't played a single video game though. No sweat, I'm sure I'll get plenty of that when Reach arrives.
Hope you're all having a great Tuesday!
Note to the Blogger guru's: Please, oh please, make the pictures insert at the cursor. Not the top of the post. Thanks.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Parking lot rage
I wasn't angry at all. I thought it was hilarious. She didn't look at me after the initial glance, but she would have seen me laughing if she had.
It reminded me of another encounter I had like that. Years ago in the parking lot of a mall during the Christmas shopping season, I was pulling into the lot while a young lady in this big Chevy truck was pulling out. (You know, one of those trucks that indicate some sort of overcompensation.) She had to make a really wide turn, crossing all the way through my lane. I slowed down and gave her plenty of room, but I also lifted my hand up off the steering wheel. (I don't remember why.) Apparently she took that as some sort of angry gesture on my part and practically exploded. She was waving her arms around and obviously yelling. I think she even scared her passenger.
That was one of those situations where I wish I could have gone back and apologized. She was obviously stressed, Christmas shopping probably played a large part in that, and I felt really bad for adding to it. Of course it was unintentional, but at that point her perception was her reality and I felt bad for making her reality any worse. The encounter today wasn't nearly that bad. Today, the lady's reaction was so over the top for the situation that I think it had little to do with me.
And yet it's all another one of those continuing life lessons. How people perceive what I do is almost more important than what I actually do. I say 'almost' because I really only have control over what I do, not over how they perceive it.
“We don’t see things as they are; we see things as we are.” - Anais Nun
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Boondock Saints review
So I watched one of the movies on the list I posted a while ago. Yeah, I know, I could have watched a few since then, but I wanted to finish a TV series I’d started a while ago.
Anyway, I saw Boondock Saints last night. I agree with Nikki that the end was a little strange. Not the end of the story, but what they did during the credits seemed out of character for the movie.
I gave it 4 stars on Netflix. I laughed out loud a couple of times and the crazy people were fun to watch. It seemed to lack some background though. And as for being a pop culture icon, I don’t see that at all. Whatever piece of pop culture this movie influenced, apparently I missed it.
I will say it was good enough that I’ll watch the sequel. If only to round out the story a little more. Hopefully.
We’ll see what I actually end up watching next but I’m planning on Fast Times at Ridgemont High. A lot of these movies have way too much bad language in them, so I usually have to watch on my computer with my headphones on. Not something I can do in the middle of a Saturday.
I think I need to work on my movie review writing…but I have a faucet to fix. Have a great Saturday!
Friday, August 20, 2010
Quickie
Quick update:
- Haven’t been around blogland much lately. Sorry if I missed any fantastical posts.
- I’ve put out 4 rental applications but it’s a little early to be naming any properties I’m interested in. I won’t have the money together until the middle of September. Hopefully I can get something lined up and don’t have to wait too long to move. Hopefully.
- Rent is going to be more than I’d hoped. There is a lot of low-income housing in this town that I don’t qualify for. Everything else is $750/month or more.
- I think the stbx has some fears about this whole situation. Probably afraid of just the uncertainty and change, but she keeps saying things about me trying to ‘screw her’. Like by taking her car. What? C’mon, gimme a break. I think she hears all these horror stories of other separations and is assuming the same will happen here.
- She’s planning on giving her car to her sister once she can get into a newer one. Guess who’s going to end up paying for that. *sigh*
- Work’s been busy. I started this post about 6 hours ago…(ummm…make that yesterday.)
- Stbx keeps trying to talk me out of stuff. A couple of months ago we sat down and divided our stuff somewhat evenly. Now she’s trying to talk me out of things. And for the most part, I’m letting myself be talked out of them and don’t mind. I’ve been talked out of the pots & pans, the vacuum, and the couches. Every one of those things has some reminder of her that goes with it. New teflon pans that she used metal utensils on, a vacuum that she’s always hated (?) and couches that…well…I wouldn’t mind keeping the couches, even if they are scratched up by her cat. She even said, “Why don’t you take just your clothes like most other guys do?” *sigh* No, I’m not giving up my entertainment center. Sorry.
- Is it pathetic that I’m trying to get moved out before the release of Halo: Reach? I’d like to be able to play the game without the helping of guilt that seems to come with a new game.
- This week started as a typical Monday and continued through Thursday. One fire after another.
- I need a beer…(ok...another beer.)
- I keep thinking I should drink more beer to justify this belly I seem to be developing. I really don’t drink much. Maybe 6 in a month. Maybe.
- Alright, I’m done bitchin ‘n moanin. For now.
Monday, August 9, 2010
Pop Culture movie bucket list
Over at SeasonedGamers.com, one of the members there, ikkins, keeps getting harassed about the lack of pop-culture education she has. She decided to do something about it and asked the forum readers what movies she should watch in order to get caught up.
So far she’s at 135 suggested movies. Her plan is to do one a week, but she might have to ramp it up or else it's going to take a couple of years to get it done.
I took her list and crossed off the movies I’ve seen before. I end up with 66 not-seen ‘classics’. I also took the liberty of adding all the Bond films and crossing off the ones I’ve seen. I’m a fan of the Bond series but have yet to see them all. Up to 76.
There are probably a few on the ‘not-seen’ list that I have seen, just don’t remember. I’m highly suspicious that I’ve seen 12 Monkeys, Aliens, & a couple others, but won’t know until I start watching them again.
ikkins is posting reviews of the movies as she sees them over at her blog, To Walk in My Shoes. I’m not sure I can come up with anything clever to say for a movie review, but I’ll try to do that too.
Here’s the list! I sorted it by ‘seen’ and ‘not-seen’, then alphabetically.
| 12 Monkeys |
| A View to Kill |
| Akira |
| Aliens |
| American History X |
| Animal House |
| Best in Show |
| Better Off Dead |
| Blade Runner |
| Boondock Saints |
| Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid |
| Casablanca |
| Casino |
| Chasing Amy |
| Child's Play |
| Christine |
| Clerks |
| Dazed and Confused |
| Deliverance |
| Diamonds are Forever |
| Dirty Harry |
| Dirty Rotten Scoundrels |
| Evil Dead |
| Evil Dead II |
| Evil Dead: The Army of Darkness |
| Fast Times at Ridgemont High |
| Fight Club |
| From Russia with Love |
| Heat |
| Heathers |
| Highlander |
| Jaws |
| Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back |
| Johnny Dangerously |
| License to Kill |
| Life as a House |
| Lost in Translation |
| Mallrats |
| Momento |
| My Blue Heaven |
| My Neighboor Totoro |
| No Country for Old Men |
| Octopussy |
| On Her Majesty's Secret Service |
| One Crazy Summer |
| Pale Rider |
| Platoon |
| Primer |
| Pulp Fiction |
| Raw Deal |
| Real Genius |
| Reservoir Dogs |
| Say Anything |
| Scarface |
| Sixteen Candles |
| Stripes |
| The 6th Day |
| The Big Lebowski |
| The Godfather |
| The Living Daylights |
| The Monster Squad |
| The Natural |
| The Professional |
| The Running Man |
| The Spy who Loved Me |
| The Usual Suspects |
| The Virgin Suicides |
| The Warriors |
| Thunderball |
| True Romance |
| Unforgiven |
| Untouchables* |
| Up In Smoke |
| You Only Live Twice |
| Young Guns I |
| Young Guns II |
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Movin’ On Out
Well, the whole ‘movin’ on out’ project is moving along more quickly than I’d anticipated. The stbx found a roommate. Not a bad situation. Could be a whole lot worse. The roommate’s a middle-aged lady whom I’ve met on a couple of occasions. She’d like to move in by September. That might happen if she can come up with her portion of the rent, which would free up some of my funds to pay for the new place.
So I’ve been looking for a new place a little more seriously these last couple of days. The girlies and I drove around town just looking. I can’t believe how many apartment buildings there are in this town! The town we moved from in CA was overwhelmingly made up of single family homes. Here, I would not be surprised if the # of apartments was half again more than houses. And there are more than a few houses that have been converted into apartments. There are a couple of old timey mansions in the downtown area that are now apartment buildings.
I drove past a house near where we live now that had a for rent sign out front. It was older, probably built in the 50’s or earlier. Most of the houses of that era are very narrow and have basements. So I called the phone # and played a little phone tag with the landlady. The first message she left me stated that it was a 1 bed, 1 bath. That didn’t make a whole lot of sense, so I called back and finally found out that this little house had been broken up into 2 upstairs apartments and 1 down in the basement. Whoa. She said the downstairs tenant was a twenty-something guy and the other one was an older guy. Nah, I’ll pass. Doesn’t sound terribly kid-friendly.
And then there’s all the section-8 housing. Most of the new apartment complexes are section-41 (?) projects. They probably couldn’t afford to build the places without government grants for low-income housing. I make far too much to qualify. Which is kind of nice, I suppose, but when a non-section 8, yet comparable equipped apartment is $200-$300 more per month, it’s kind of frustrating!
We also drove past a fairly new apartment complex on the other side of town, yet much closer to work. Nice buildings with brick exteriors, even if they are very ‘cookie-cutter’. One indicator of section-8 housing is the type of cars parked in the lots. I don’t think I saw one rust bucket there, so that’s a hopeful sign. Can’t say the patios were all that well kept, but it seems people will a little money put it in their cars, rather than their cleaning habits. The website also lacked any mention of “Section 8 OK.” It doesn’t mention currently available units either. I’ll stop by there on Monday and get the scoop.
They have 5 different floor plans. This is the one I’d choose, if available:
It’s kind of annoying that they call it a “Townhome”. There other model is called the “Ranch Home”. It’s not a townhouse. It’s an apartment. And we all know it. I’d almost rather have 1 bathroom, just so I wouldn’t have to clean 2, but beggars can’t be choosers. It’s a little larger than a lot of the 2/2 apts around here too. The 2nd bedroom is probably big enough to handle the 3 girlies too. Could even give them the master bedroom. Another kind-of-nice thing is that the patio off the back has short lengths of privacy fence that open up to large community lawns. There’s also a sizeable playground and exercise room.
It’s also very close to the Cheyenne Greenway. The Greenway is quite an ambitious community project which consists of 28 miles of concrete running & bike path. It circles the city with plenty of twists, turns, and alternate routes. (The Greater Cheyenne Area is only about 6 miles across. The long way.)
So that’s been my weekend so far. Oh, and the local farmers market started up today too. That seems so weird to me. Back in CA, they’d have at least 1 every Saturday almost year round and 2 during the week in the summer. Here, the 1 only lasts about 3 months. So I took the girlies to that and got some really good salsa, peaches, cherries and corn on the cob. They don’t really appreciate the idea of purchasing locally grown yet. Yeah, the supermarket stuff is cheaper, but hey, it’s nice to help the smaller farms.
Hope you guys have a relaxing Sunday!
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Movie mayhem Mmmmm…..yummy
On to lighter topics.
Besides the release of Halo: Reach in September, there are quite a few movies that I’m really looking forward to.
Want hot chicks in some bad-ass action sequences? Check out Sucker Punch:
Comes out March next year.
Want hot guys in some bad-ass action sequences? Check out The Expendables:
Umm…Stallone, Austin, Crews, Willis, Schwarzenegger, Rourke, Couture, Statham, Li, & Lundgren.
Whoa.
Expendibles comes out on August 13th this year. Only a couple of weeks!
Then there’s Machete with Danny Trejo, Michelle Rodriquez (the helicopter pilot from Avatar) & Jessica Alba.
Comes out September 3rd.
Surfin’ the webs, I found out there’s a remake of Red Dawn coming in November! Even as hokey as it was, I loved the original Red Dawn. There’s no official trailer yet.
Then in December, the next Narnia movie comes out. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
This one’s going to be in 3D. I love the Narnia series and if you haven’t read the books, I highly recommend them.
And last, but not least. Resident Evil: Afterlife.
Releases on September 10th this year.
Good stuff. Enjoy!
Monday, August 2, 2010
What I think makes a marriage successful…so says the husband of a failing marriage
My stbx wrote to me, “I really wish we could come to some sort of reconciliation for the girls sake.”
Yeah, me too. Sort of.
I understand that both of our attitudes towards reconciliation are a crucial part of an effective reconciliation. It’s been a typical problem that neither of us are at the same place at the same time, in regards to our desires and attitudes about the situation. I really do understand that. She chose to go outside the marriage to get certain needs filled, and I’ve forgiven her for that and she’s since stopped. I admitted to her that I was neglectful and not as compassionate towards her as I should have been and did things to show her I’m willing to change. Sounds like a start, right?
It might be a start, but the start quickly stopped.
I’ve tried to explain to her, time and time again, that she can’t expect a positive reaction from me if she continues to point out all of my shortcomings even after I’ve acknowledged them, apologized for them, and then taken real action to see that it doesn’t happen again. She’s even acknowledged that I’ve taken those actions and made those changes.
So why does it keep coming up in our conversations?!
I’ve made a conscious effort, even now that I’m done with the marriage, to not do that to her. To not continue to point out the mistakes she’s made and how she could have handled things differently. I’ve said my piece more than a couple of times, but I know that if I keep saying it, it’ll only backfire and make her bitter. I don’t want that for either of us. If I wanted to reconcile, the only route I see is to expect her to bring up the bad topics. I don’t want to do that.
I just can’t help but see an inherent selfishness that seems to be stronger than any desire for real reconciliation. Or an overwhelming need to be understood without making the effort to help the other person understand. It’s on my end too. I know I’m being selfish in deciding to ignore those statements of hers. For a while I’d respond to them by saying, “You can have all the desire in the world, but if you can’t take the necessary steps to see it done, it’ll never happen.”
Care to guess her response?
“You just have a bad attitude.”
Wha-huh? Whether my attitude is bad or good is beside the point. My reply is a fact, not a feeling.
One of her classic statements is, “I know I’ll never be good enough for you.” For any of you that may be in a similar situation or have similar feelings, a successful relationship has nothing to do with “being good enough” for the other person. At the end of the day, you have very little control over what your partner thinks. You have no control over what their expectations are, but you can do your best to meet those expectations. That’s the little in ‘very little control’. In the end, it’s mostly up to the other person. That goes for you too. Your expectations are all yours.
In my humble opinion, a successful marriage has everything to do with both people approaching each other, in feelings and actions, as selflessly as possible. Of course there are expectations that you have every right to have and enforce, like not leaving the relationship for sex, but that shouldn’t even be an issue if the other person approaches you selflessly, with realistic expectations, and decent communication.
On the other hand, maybe you know for a fact that your partner knows what you need and chooses to not fill those needs. That goes right back to the both of the relationship.
So here I am, in a relationship that I can’t see any hope for. Until she changes her tune quite dramatically, reconciliation isn’t going to happen. And yes, I know I’m choosing that route. Call it self-fulfilling prophecy or close-mindedness if you like, but my desire is gone. Dr. Harley of Marriage Builders says that the first thing to be done for reconciliation is to stop doing the things that annoy your spouse. She’s not stopping. In fact, I think it’s increasing.
These are my ponderings, as I sit here eating my $1 vending machine lunch consisting of a cup of noodles, tiny bag of bbq potato chips, and a glass of water. 57% of my daily sodium needs. Sheesh. I probably shouldn’t make this a habit.
Besides, I think I’m starting to repeat myself.
Here’s the totally unrelated picture. In the foreground is a metal gang-nail, or connector plate. It’s used to hold together the separate pieces of lumber that make up a truss. They’re sharp little suckers, that’s why we require gloves & safety glasses.
Thanks for reading. Although I’m getting dried out re-reading it myself. Skim if you need to, now that you’re already done. :P