For your summer reading pleasure...

Last night I went to Barnes and Noble and splurged on a hard cover book. (I admit to being a library girl!) An old co-worker and friend Sue Ellen found out that one of our favorite columnist and Pulitzer Prize winner, Connie Schultz was in town to speak and sign her new book .... and His Lovely Wife. I have been a huge fan of Connie's for years. She is passionate about her beliefs and stands up for the underdog and an advocate of women's rights. I wish I could be more like her. I wish I had her passion and could take a firmer stand on somethings in this world. The book is her memoir of her life on the campaign trail while her husband, Sherrod Brown, was running for the US Senate. Please check out her bi-weekly column in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, her first book Life Happens (a collection of her columns and another great read) and her new book.

Graeter's and a Walk Tonight

Why, you might ask? Because 5 years ago, Amy and I went on our first date, and that's just what we did then. Thanks for 5 wonderful years, Sweetie :)

Well Worth the Weight (and the Wait)

Tonight, Amy took me out to dinner for my birthday. Yeah, yeah, so my birthday was a few months ago, who's keeping track? Anyway, she took me to a place called The Melting Pot at nearby Easton. I've been wanting to go there since she went there last year with her girlfriends, but she told me she'd only take me for a "special occasion." Evidently, this qualified.

Well, after looking at the menu, I know why she wanted to wait. Suffice to say it was somewhat pricey. But lemme tell you, it was great! Not great enough to entice me to pay that kind of price very often, but every once in a while (maybe every decade or century or so) it'd a lot of fun. We had more food than we could eat, and it was very, very tasty. Good thing I'm walking 9 miles per day during the week, I'll need all that exercise!

Anyhow, I'm very grateful to my lovely wife for dinner. It was more than worth not having a "week of birthday" like she gets... :)

It's That Time Again...

Amy was out with the girls again tonight, which as you, the loyal reader know, means it's Chili Time! So, I grabbed the recipe from my last experiment tried again. For added pressure, I invited my friend, Darrin over to sample my wares. How did I fare?

Bald Man Tom's Skillet Chili, Take Four

The Players

The Pan	12" cast iron skillet, well seasoned
The Ingredients	12 oz. chuck roast, cut into small cubes salt 3 oz onion, finely diced 2 clove garlic, minced 3 oz pickled jalapenos, minced ~1-1/2 oz chipotles in adobo sauce, minced ~1 tbsp adobo sauce (from the can of chipotles in adobo) 2 tbsp chili powder 2 tbsp cumin (ground) 1 tbsp coriander seed (ground) 1 tsp turmeric (ground) 2-1/2 c beef broth, plus 3 tbsp 3 tbsp masa harina Vegetable oil

The Method

Season the meat with a few pinches of salt about 5 minutes before cooking begins. Heat the skillet over high heat. Coat the skillet thinly with oil, then sear the meat quickly on all sides, maybe 1-2 minutes max. Remove the meat from the pan and set aside. Lower the heat to medium, sautee the onion and garlic until softened a little, about 1 to 1-1/2 minutes. Add the minced jalapenos and minced chipotles, stir and let sautee another 1 to 1-1/2 minutes. Add the meat back to the pan with 2-1/2 c of the broth, spices and adobo sauce, mix and simmer 5 minutes. Make a slurry with the masa harina and the remaining 3 tbsp of the beef broth, then add to the pan and give it a good stir. Place in a 350 degree oven for 75 minutes.

Makes 2 servings.

Notes

Much better portioning when I was cutting up the beef tonight, I actually ended up with 12 oz beef, huzzah! As per my notes from last time, I dropped the amount of adobo sauce and increased the amount of cumin, which is now abundant. I also served slightly sweetened cornbread with the chili tonight, as Darrin prefers his cornbread sweet as opposed to savory.

The Verdict

<slobber> That was my best effort to date. Boosting the cumin and dropping the adobo ended up being the perfect switch in this batch of chili. The heat was present but not overwhelming, and the smokiness was excellent. I think that I didn't sear the beef quite long enough before stewing, it wasn't quite as tender this time, but it was still darned tasty. It'll be hard to top this particular bowl of red.

Lessons Learned

Lessee:

• Excellent balance between heat and smokiness. I think I got the right balance of cumin and adobo
• I think I could still use an accessory flavor or two. Need to put on my thinking cap
• I still need a "manly" chili bowl
• Sweet cornbread still = yum!

Weekend Update

Tom and I had a fun weekend down in Kentucky. We got to watch the oldest nephew play tee-ball and the youngest celebrate his 4th birthday pirate style!

blog update

For anyone interested, a baby countdown ticker was added to the very bottom of the blog.

Makes sense to me...

We don't keep junk food in the house. The main reason is that we have no will power. If it is in the house we will eat it. However, I was craving chocolate earlier this week. (Sometimes a girl needs chocolate) I found the very end of the Easter candy. So when I was in the store tonight I thought I came up with a great solution. I bought chocolate syrup so I can make chocolate milk. I get my chocolate fix and I am getting a nutritious glass of milk. Sounds good to me. Tom laughed at my logic. Hmmm- laughing at a pregnant woman's cravings....could get him in some trouble :)

Longer Commute

Yeah, my commute just went from about 10 minutes, one way, to somewhat over an hour, one way. Why, you might ask? Well, have a look at my new ride, pictured to the left.

Yep, that's right. I'm walking to work now. I'm doing it for a few reasons. First, it just isn't that far. The walking commute is somewhere in the 3.5 to 4 mile range, so it's not insurmountably far. Second, I really, really need the exercise. Third, well, it's cheaper than an electric car and fuel is well up over $3 per gallon.

We'll see how long this lasts, I'm hoping to keep it up until the weather turns nasty...

UPDATE: I brought along our Garmin eTrex Legend this morning, as it has a trip odometer, and the route I take comes out at 4.5 miles!