Finally...No Duct Tape

Last year, we began to strip the wallpaper off our bathroom walls. It was very slow going - I think that wallpaper had been up since 1982 when the house was built. I did as much as I could with just water. It was about time to start using some sort of chemical to get the wallpaper off when I found out I was pregnant. So that put an end to my wallpaper-stripping days. After a year of looking at walls like this:









we were finally fed up. Phil rented a steamer last week and we got rid of the rest of the wallpaper in about two hours. After helping for a little while, I went downstairs to fix dinner and pretty soon Phil comes down and says, "You know those shower doors that you hate to clean? You don't need to worry about that anymore." He had tried to clean the shower door with the steamer - but it didn't work too well. He cracked the door. So for the next 12 days our shower door looked like this:












But today that all changed. The new shower doors we ordered came in and our friend, Brett came down to help Phil install the new doors (and Sarah came to play with me, Elaine and Natalie). Don't they look great?

Delicioso!

I recently began watching Food Network's Simply Delicioso on Saturday mornings and I really like the show. I love Mexican and Latin American food but I always thought it would be too difficult or time-consuming so, other than my cheesy-chicken enchiladas and the occasional taco, I never attempted Latin foods. But Ingrid Hoffman makes delicious-sounding (and looking) recipes and it seems simple. She doesn't claim to make authentic recipes - but who cares? The Latin flavors are there and that's mostly what I'm after.

I decided to try one of her recipes after seeing her "Puebla, Mexico" show a couple of weeks ago. Here's the recipe as given on foodtv.com:

Mexican Pulled Pork (Tinga Pueblana)3 medium or 2 large russet potatoes to equal about a pound, peeled and diced
1 (2 to 3-pound) pork loin
1/2 yellow onion, whole, plus 1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, smashed
2 bay leaves
12 ounces raw chorizo, casing removed and crumbled
1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes
2 canned chipotle chiles in adobo, finely chopped (seeded and ribbed for less heat)
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram
Salt
For serving:
16 corn or flour tortillas
Lime wedges
1 avocado, halved, pitted, peeled and sliced
1 cup fresh cilantro leaves
Place the potatoes in a large pot of cold water. Add the salt, bring to a boil and cook until tender, 20 minutes. Drain the potatoes and set aside.
Place the pork in a large pot of cold water. Add the onion half, the garlic, and the bay leaves. Bring to a boil then reduce the heat to low. Simmer gently until the pork is cooked through and is no longer pink in the center, about 45 minutes. Remove the pork from the water and set it aside until it is cool enough to handle (discard the cooking liquid). Using your fingers or 2 forks, shred the meat into small pieces and set aside.
In a large skillet over medium-high heat, saute crumbled chorizo until completely cooked through, 8 to 10 minutes, stirring often. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the chorizo to a paper towel lined plate. Add the chopped onions to the chorizo skillet and cook until soft, about 3 to 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the shredded pork, the tomatoes, and the chipotle chiles. Cook until the tomatoes break down and release their juices, about 5 minutes. Return the potatoes and cooked chorizo to the pan. Stir in the vinegar, thyme, marjoram and salt, to taste. Continue to cook over medium heat until some of the liquid has evaporated, about 5 minutes.
While the pork cooks, heat a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add a tortilla and warm for 10 to 15 seconds. Flip the tortilla over and continue to warm until the tortilla is pliable and heated through, another 10 to 20 seconds. Place warm tortillas in a tortilla warmer or on a plate, cover with a kitchen towel, and set aside; repeat with the remaining tortillas (or warm the tortillas in the microwave: stack them on a plate and cover with a damp cloth; microwave for 30 seconds and keep them covered until you're ready to serve).

To Serve:Place the pulled pork in a serving bowl or bring to the table in the cooking pot. Arrange the limes, avocado, and cilantro on a platter. Pass warm tortillas so each diner can fill a tortilla with some of the meat and accompaniments. Squeeze lime juice over each serving.

This was SO good! I forgot to buy the cilantro and avocado which I think would only improve it. Definitely something to make again. Though how this is only 4-6 servings....I don't know. She must know people with enormous appetites.

Smiles

Natalie is generally a very happy baby. She smiles a lot and even started laughing last week. But she's so fascinated with the camera that she gets very serious when it comes out. So it's hard to get a picture of her smiles. But I finally got one when she was playing in her gym a few days ago!

Blame or Thanks?

I'm one of those girls that had (ok, fine, has) no coordination, never played sports, was always picked last for games at school - always played girly games. I never had an Atari or any other kind of video game as a kid and never wanted one. I have, in fact, never even played a video game. Until today.....

Thanks to Spacelady, we bought a Wii today.










Phil is eternally grateful to you, my friend......and I'm hooked.

Updates

Potty training a bright, stubborn, head-strong 2 1/2 year-old is NOT enjoyable. And it cannot be done in 3 days. Maybe with a younger child (the author of the 3 Day Potty Training method says that 22 months is the ideal age) it would work better. So, on the advise of my mother, my mother-in-law, my husband and for the sake of my sanity, I am backing-off and not being so aggressive with the training. That is working better - we're making baby-steps.

I Love Pizza

We have some really great pizzerias around here: Beau Jo's Colorado Pizza, The Garlic Knot (favorite local delivery), The Oven (favorite gourmet pizza and vino place - but mostly I love them for their doughnut dessert. YUM!).

But ranking right up there with my favorite delivery places is homemade pizza.










Doesn't this look good?!?! And it was!

Buffalo Chicken Chili

This weekend, I tried Rachael Ray's Buffalo Chicken Chili. Let me say first of all that I do like Rachael Ray - in small doses. And every time I watch her show (30 Minute Meals - I can't take an entire hour) or read one of her recipes, I am always skeptical about how good the dish will be. But every one of her recipes that I've tried has been really good.

So I was little worried about trying this chili - as usual. It was good - but not for the faint-of-heart. With 1/2 cup of hot sauce in it, it could burn your taste buds. Needless to say, Phil loved it, Elaine hated it....and I was somewhere in between. I liked it but I won't use that much hot sauce next time.

Here's the recipe - give it a try (Becky, if you're reading, I think Martin would really like this!)

Buffalo Chicken Chili

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
2 pounds ground chicken
2 large carrots, peeled and finely chopped
1 large onion, chopped
4 ribs celery with leafy tops, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon smoked sweet paprika
1 bay leaf, fresh or dried
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup hot sauce
1 can tomato sauce (15 ounces)
1 can stewed, fire-roasted or crushed tomatoes (15 ounces)
1 sack whole grain tortilla chips, lightly crushed
3/4 pound Maytag Blue cheese, crumbled
A handful of flat leaf parsley, chopped

Place a large pot over medium-high heat with the EVOO. Add the ground chicken and break it up, lightly browning it for 5 minutes.

Add the carrots, onion, celery, garlic, paprika and bay leaf and season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring frequently, for about 7-8 minutes. Add the chicken stock and scrape up any brown bits on the bottom of the pot.

Add the hot sauce, tomato sauce and the stewed, fire-roasted or crushed tomatoes to the chili and bring up to a bubble. Simmer for 8-10 minutes more to let the flavors come together.

While the chili is simmering, pre-heat the broiler.

Spread the chips out on a cookie sheet. Top with the crumbled blue cheese and transfer to the oven to melt the cheese, 2-3 minutes. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with the chopped parsley.

Top each serving of Buffalo Chicken Chili with a few blue cheese chips.

(One more note here: when it's not hot temperature-wise, it's not nearly as spicy. Much better and less-spicy the second day.)