Dancing Among The Spices

Word of the Post
Today's word is: hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia
/don't*bother/ noun
The literal fear of the sum of 666. People who suffer from this fear often avoid the three digits together, as well as the quantity of six hundred sixty six. Superstitions trace their origins back to the Bible; specifically Revelation 13:18, which names the quantity 666 as a mark of the "beast" (the Anti-Christ, or Satan).
In recent years, the state of New Mexico changed the number of State Highway 666 to State Highway 491. I have seen people in line at the grocery store add a $0.30 pack of gum, so that their total cost or total change won't include the digits of 666.
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I bought a new pair of jeans a few days ago. There was a sale, and I needed a new pair. My old pair was too short. Imagine that! I got the Petite length, and it was too far above my shoes. I can't win. Seriously. The new pair is now four inches too long. They are the Average length. I can't find a pair that is really built for me. But (the good news) this pair is a whole size smaller than the last pair! I have lost inches! The old short pair was falling off... which means that the goal of losing weight and eating healthy is WORKING again. Cheers! If I clean, I don't have time to sit and mindlessly munch. That is the new motto: Time to chew, time to DO.

I have been doing well in cooking so far this year. I try to make our food fresh, instead of buying canned, processed, fried, limp, over-sugared, over-salted junk. Apples and Oranges and, as Catherine said to me, Food that remembers where it came from. I am gradually changing from canned veggies (cooked and salted to mush) to frozen veggies (flash frozen, nothing added). I am not very good at keeping fresh veggies beyond the basic celery, carrots and potatoes. I buy too much, and then they go bad waiting for me to use them in a new creation.

I have played a little with variations on Rachael Ray. She says she only gives us ideas, it is not like she is going to come to our kitchen and criticize our dinners. She is my hero of late. She, like me, never really measures stuff. Spices and ingredients are just "eyeball it" and "palm full" and "more or less, whatever you like". I like how easy she makes it all look. Apparently, it isn't always that easy. I can walk into your kitchen, and look around, and come up with dinner. A little veggie from the can or freezer, a piece of whatever meat you don't know what to do with, a little pasta from the cabinet, a little soup to cream it all up... viola'.... dinner. Ferret says she can't envision dinners like that. She has to have a recipe or a box with instructions. Not to say that she isn't a good cook, just that she isn't so comfy with making experimental dishes. It is a knack that you either have, or you don't. I happen to have. I don't like to be mean to the have-nots I know.

Tonight, I give you "imagine this" of what dinner looked like tonight. Recipe a la Chelf. Tonight's creation was actually in a crock pot. I love this invention. It has made cooking convenient. I can go out and do stuff, and dinner is percolating at home.

Chicken Chunky Soup
6qt crock pot (make sure it is plugged in, and you have it set to LOW; it can warm while you are preparing the veggies)
3 chicken thighs, boneless, skinless (I start with frozen, because it keeps them moist)
Two or three handfuls baby carrots, cut or not
Six stalks celery, roughly chopped (I use a LOT of celery, love it in soups)
Four medium potatoes, roughly chopped
1 medium to large onion, roughly chopped
1 can corn (can also use frozen)
1 can green beans (can also use frozen)
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can diced green chiles (M&P or Hatch brands are best, authentic NM green chiles!)
Can also use 1 can of Rotel, in place of tomatoes and chiles.
Spice to taste: I use a lot of different spices, it is my joy to "play in the spice rack".
For this one, I used about 1/2 a teaspoon of most of the spices, more for the ones I love that sounded more adventurous. Spices in this soup (in no particular order, and with no real measuring): 1 Bay Leaf, Cumin, Oregano, Dill Weed, Sweet Basil, Rosemary, Ground Thyme, Mrs. Dash (somehow, I think that is cheating, and yet it tastes so good, and adds no salt!), Cilantro, Paprika, Cinnamon, Garlic Powder, Ground Cloves, Cracked Black Pepper, Green Tabasco Sauce, and a sprinkle of Red Robin Seasoned Salt mix.

You just put the frozen chicken in the bottom of the crock pot, layer all the veggies that you love over it, sprinkle all the spices you love over the top, and pour some water over it. You have to make sure to leave 2-3 inches of space at the top of the crock pot, or the water that cooks out of the veggies will overflow your poor crock. Cover, and cook on LOW for 6+ hours, or overnight. I start counting the hours from the top of the hour closest to when I finish adding all the ingredients and put the lid on. Don't keep lifting the lid, let it be. The longer it cooks, LOW and SLOW, the better all the flavors mix. You can also cook for 4+ hours on HIGH, if you are in a hurry.

When you get to the end of your 6 hours, you can turn it off, or on WARM if your crock has that setting. I pull out the chicken thighs, and pull and cut them into bite-sized bits, and then put it back into the soup. I also added 1 can of Campbell's Cream of Chicken with Herbs Soup, to cream it all up a little. Ladle into bowls, serve with a hefty hunk of buttery Rosemary Bread, and enjoy! Also good with Club crackers or Ritz.

Anything cooking in the crock pot makes the whole house smell like a warm hug for dinner. The aroma is unique to each kind of stew, roast or soup. My house is so thin and not air tight, you can smell dinner from the front porch. YUM!

I hope you have enjoyed my recipe day, and I want to know if you want to see more. A regular segment? A rare treat? Vote today! I promise I will not try to change your country. Vote for ME!

Sitting At The Big Table May Not Be All That Fun

Word of the Post
Today's word is: pray
/pray/ verb
To beg, ask, entreat; earnest request; a religious act of petition from a deity.
2 Corinthians 5:20b (KJV) ~ "...we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God."

Prithee seems to be an olde English contraction of "pray thee", meaning "I ask of you". Prithee, does this maketh sense to thou?
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I am not precisely sure when it happened.

Today my mother called me to ask my opinion.

Mom spoke to me as a friend, an equal. She consulted me for an honest opinion. I gave it to her. We weighed each point with cons and pros. I think we were being drawn to the same conclusion.

She had called both of her sisters, and asked them as well. Aunt S. is the older sister, experienced in raising more children, and having grandchildren, and a thoughtful consultant. Aunt M. is the younger sister, the nurse, and a quite good sounding board herself.

I am not certain when I became one of the trusted few.

Somewhere between my impetuous teenaged youth and my stubborn foolish current age, my puny, proud little heart befriended my mother's. It feels good. It feels great. It is sad at the same time.

The question, you see, is a dangerous one with future consequences. Mom recently had both her pinkie toes amputated. She is healing well on the left foot, but the right foot is not following the dance quite right. The doctor gave her options on taking yet another toe from the right foot, all the way to removing all the toes on the right foot. {Edit: She will be losing all four of the remaining toes on her right foot.} This would be an effort to keep her foot. He didn't even really give her an opinion as to what he wished to do for her, but is leaving the decision up to her.

We discussed for a long time the facts of the matter. Her heart is not happy to have another surgery, but the doctor is certainly going to do a surgery on Wednesday, January 16. {Edit: The surgery will take place on Wednesday, January 23, because they needed her to be off the blood thinners for longer than two days.} He will remove at least one toe, or all four remaining toes, as far as she tells him to go. They speculate that removing only one toe will prolong the process, and she will be required to have other surgeries later. If all the toes are removed, her foot will have skin left to cover and close the wound. She will not just have a hole on her foot where her toes used to be, like she apparently does now. (I imagine this to end up looking like a tree stump, somewhat. When you cut a branch off, and paint it, it grows a little ridge of bark around the edges, and the middle just stays flat. I think this image keeps me from totally breaking down, so don't correct me, OK?) I have not seen her toes since before the first surgery, and I doubt I shall see any of her for most of this year. Pointing out my lack of medical background, I told her my opinion was that, to prevent further issues down the road, she should probably have all her toes removed.

My heart breaks each time I think about it. We were so calm. She wanted someone to just tell her what to do. Said it several times. She knows perfectly well all the logic that must go into this decision. The magnitude of it weighs her down. I don't know if she just wanted to be relieved of the pressure, or if she really has no idea what is best. I believe it is a combination of the two.

I ask tonight for your prayers. I can guide my mother all I want, but the final decision is up to her, to dad, and to the doctor. I can tell her what to do. (She ASKED me, after all. That was a first!) But I can't be there to hold her hand, or tell her that it will all be fine. I don't know that.

And I don't know what to do... other than pray. And fidget, continually, from a distance.

Resolutions For The Faint Of Heart

Each year, I resolve to be more organized. It lasts anywhere from two days to three months, depending on the specific exercise I am thinking about. I can start by sending out birthday and anniversary cards, but by the time I reach my own birthday in May, you may as well count yourself out if you expect a card from me. It is absolutely NOT that I don't think about people, it is that I get so busy and forgetful that I don't think to send a card. Which is a disappointment to me, because I like to send out real snail mail. I think it is much more personal to get a letter as opposed to an email. And a phone call is the best.

I also get my book list started each New Year's weekend. I have a stack of books to read all the time. It is a rotating stack. I have added a new element to the sidebar. The books that are currently in my stack are on the new list. This list will change as I finish reading books, or add more to the stack. I hope to keep up with that this year. Hope being the operative word. I would like to read through the complete Bible this year. I have tried this for several years. I always get stuck in the boring books.... Lamentations (too sorrowful) or Leviticus (tedious laws of the Jews) or Numbers (I hate math and genealogies). Even Matthew and all the "this one begat that one" language gets to me.

This year, I have also resolved to get the house clean. Cleaner. To work on cleaning the house more often. Yeah. Anyway, I am off to a good start. I cleaned the shower/tub today, and replaced the broken shower head. When we were without power for five days, everything froze. We didn't have any broken pipes, because I left the water dripping, but I think there was water in the shower head, and that froze, and cracked the handle. It was leaking. So, now we have a fancy new one that we can actually change the pressure on.

Last, but not least, I resolve to blog more. I have been leaving this poor pet alone for a week at a time, and that is just not friendly. I hope to have less to say, but to say it more often. I don't know how it will work, but I want to try. I would love to include more pictures. I also plan to keep going with the words of the post.

I don't usually like to "resolve" anything; other than fights, anyway. I always get to thinking about the church song..."I am resolved no longer to linger, charmed by the World's delight...." I don't like that song too much, and I guess it carries over to the word and then to the action of resolve. To make a huge statement of resolution makes it more.... I guess, pressured. I put pressure on myself to keep the promise, and I am not very good at long termed actions. I am too lazy. I procrastinate. I am a perfectionist. It has to be just so, or it doesn't get done at all. I suppose I operate best on lists. I make a list and then check things off as they get done. I suppose I should do as the Bible says, to say, "if the Lord wills it".

Have a great 2008!