I'm trying to clear out the freezer and use up things that
have been in there for months (some for years). Now that I have
ordered freezer labels, I think things will go more smoothly and I won't run
the danger of pouring pumpkin pie mix into my spaghetti sauce again.
Tonight I defrosted a rather large container of "something."
I could see it had beans in it and it smelled chili-ish, so was fairly
certain this was a legitimate dinner. And it was. It was a chili
I made awhile ago and as I stirred it on the stove and took a small spoonful
I remembered this recipe. This had more heat than most chilis I make.
I don't know why I followed a recipe. I never follow a recipe
for chili, but I must have been inspired by a food network program or
something.
In any event, as I tasted it, I remembered that when I first
made it, this had been almost too spicy to eat. And still is.
You know, of course, that when you have something super
spicy, water does nothing to ease your mouth, but milk does. I found
something even better. I also had half a package of tater tots and
some fresh cherry tomatoes so served those with the chili, and taking one or
the other or both after each mouthful of the chili made it palatable.
However, I told Walt (who cleans the kitchen each night) that unless he
liked the recipe, he had my permission to throw the rest of it away, even
though there was enough for another meal.
I was reading Malala Yousafzai's book about displaced
families and the terrible conditions under which they live and what they go
through to try to find peace in the United States, and telling Walt to throw
away perfectly good food when there are so many starving around the world
gave me a twinge of guilt. But since I couldn't mail the food to them,
I assuaged my guilt.
I have never been an adventurous eater. In a fast food
place, I order my cheeseburger plain (no sauce), buy mild cheeses, etc. The
most adventurous I ever got was having escargot with Gilbert on his birthday
in a French restaurant in San Francisco.
But with all the food network programs I've been watching,
I've decided to start trying to eat a little bit more spicy foods.
Everybody is always tossing in red pepper flakes to "turn it up a notch" and
I'm starting to do that...just a tiny notch. I am now actually adding
the sriracha they send with our Home Chef meals (still only half of what is
supplied) and am slowly helping my taste buds adjust to a slightly more
spicy diet
Of course the fact that your taste buds change as you get
older helps.
My favorite candy bars for forEVer have been either Snickers
or U-No bars. Now I find them both too sweet for me. I used to
love a nice rare steak or a big slab of prime rib. Now I look at them
pictured on menus and know I can't eat a fourth of what the pictures show.
I am no longer tempted by restaurant commercials which show delicious multi
courses of delicious foods. I know I couldn't eat a quarter of the
foods shown.
Even my favorite crab salad sandwich at Fenton's is too big
and I usually take half of it home either for Walt or for my next meal.
I now understand my (paternal) grandmother who, toward the
end of her life, said rather plaintively "when I can eat again, I just want
a big slice of prime rib." I don't think she ever got it.
I guess this is why, though I think I eat way too much, my
weight has not changed in about 5 years or more.
I am remembering the pledge I made a couple
of years ago, to set aside time for reading, since I hadn't been reading as
many books as I wanted.
While I would like to read something like 75
books a year, it seemed that my average was about 50. But this year,
as of the first of May, I had read only FIVE. So I've been
spending time reading for the last two weeks and am enjoying it.
It helps when I continue to read books as bad
as "A
Diary on my Screwing Up my Year Abroad." All I wanted to do at the end
of that book was to read a better book.
I chose a book that I
described in my review
as a "palate cleanser." It was "The Tour: A Feel-Good Irish Springtime
Read," which was a low key, easy read story of a group of people taking a
bus tour around Ireland. They were predictable character types and the
life each one of them (including the bus driver, who had his own drama) was
changed during their one week tour.
Lots of suspension of
disbelief that they all had such major life changes.
But it was an easy read
that took slightly over a day to read.
When that was finished,
I was ready for something a bit more meaningful and chose the Malala
Yousafzai book I mentioned before, which tells the stories of several women
who were forced by violence or other circumstances to leave their homes and
relocate elsewhere.
It's too bad our
glorious leader doesn't read or his heart might be moved by the stories of
what caused these women to leave their countries and why they endured such
hardships to get to where they hoped they would find peace and safety in
this country. Of course, he doesn't have a drop of empathy in him, so
I doubt he'd be moved anyway, even if he did care about the
conditions of refugee women and children.
Next I'm moving on to
re-reading "The Hobbit," which I first read in 1969 (I know because Paul was
the baby at the time). Bri tells me that's our next book club
discussion and I have from now until July to finish it.
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