Sunday, May 31, 2009

Taking it Down a Notch

I'm not a food blogger. Really, I'm not!

But... I had to work on the salsa today so I can take the leftovers to a family birthday party this afternoon. 4 jalapenos is normally not all that much, and turns out I had closer to 5 cups of salsa last night when dh got out of it long enough for me to tell.

I cannot figure out why this stuff is so damn hot. It's hot enough that Raidman, who is generally way tougher than me when it comes to spicy food, didn't eat much after it had been in the fridge for a while. And that was when it was fresh.

After a couple hours in the fridge it was Really Hot.

By the end of the evening last night it was making me cry, literally (I really did try to salsa my infections away--to no avail, sadly).


So today I added two more whole tomatoes, a can and a half of diced tomatoes (but the whole can was Mexi-style and may have actually added more peppers), a couple of rings off a large onion, and more lime and vinegar.

Now it's a tad sweet and just BARELY mild enough to eat without tearing up. I'd water it down more but my food processor isn't big enough and I'm out of 'maters. HALP?

Could garlic be contributing to the heat? I used a garlic minced so fine it was more like paste, but I've used it in other things without this problem. Okay, so I used four jalapenos. I usually use serranos, and about twice that many. Did I get mysteriously super-hot jals, or are we just wusses this weekend?

Dunno, but the birthday party I'm taking it to is for my lil bro and my aunt--both of whom consider themselves conossieurs of fiesty food, so Imma see what they say.

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Yum! or Why My Husband Looks Afraid

I am cooking.

This is something that normally makes Raidman look a bit green around the gills. Add to it the raging ear/sinus infection the doc told me I have and the impaired sense of taste/smell that gives me and you start to understand.

His eyes bugged out of his head a minute ago when I shoved a chip coated in thick green goo with tiny red dots at his mouth, but, because he IS a smart man, he ate it anyway. And survived. Then discovered he liked it!

Woot - my first time making homemade from scratch guacamole was a success. I'd share the recipe but (a) I am SO not a food blogger and (b) I didn't use one.

*It woulda been all the way scratch but I had some un-canned diced tomatoes in the fridge I needed to use up, so I used them instead of fresh.

The salsa was not as lucky. Apparently those with unimpaired olfactory organs can smell the garlic from the floor ABOVE the kitchen. RM came to my rescue and we saved it, but it was close for a while there.




And, ummm, it's really hot.

It was funny watching him take a big bite and start to grab another jalapeno to add to the batch--when suddenly the FOUR already in it hit him and his face turned fire engine red. Yes, four--in about 2c of salsa. I'm hoping to clear up my sinus infection with salsa therapy :-D

J has a pal sleeping over and we've got some of dh's work friends coming over for dinner and a little RockBand2 in about 30min, so I better go get rid of the evidence...I mean clean the kitchen.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Tuesday Tirade: Staycations Don't Work!

I despise and revile the bastard pseudo word "staycation," but I understand its genesis. And I'm here to say it does NOT work.

I had the usual 3-day Memorial Day holiday--more sharply poignant this year after burying my grandfather with military honors in a national cemetery two weeks ago. More on the family drama that accompanied that event another time. I have to say, though, that the folks at the hotel were fantastic when we checked out and had to check back in 4 hours later after my dad collapsed at his dad's funeral.

J has been out of school for the last five days. In all fairness to the school, unlike most of the days mentioned in my previous post, this one was our fault. The small person had minor surgery on Thursday morning relating to complications arising from her lymphedema. It wasn't urgent, but needed to be done and we wanted to handle it before our vacation so she'd have a couple weeks to recover physically. I guess technically I was off that day, too, but I'm pretty sure spending half the day comforting an anxious child and the other half being her slave does NOT count.

Yes, I did sneak out for dinner with my mom posse, but not til I knew MY mom was on her way to rescue Raidman.

He, not incidentally, was sent home to be with his kiddo/family around mid afternoon Thursday and hasn't been into the office since. He DID work from home Thursday afternoon (ok, til about 2am Friday making up for lost time spent with aforementioned kiddo) and part of the day Friday, but he's been here for four and a half days.

All kinds of togetherness and time off, right? Stay home, chill out for the long weekend, return to the world rested and recovered... *snort*

Yea, not so much.

I spent my holiday weekend doing too many loads of laundry to count and loading, running, and unloading the dishwasher over and over again. The unloading, incidentally, is theoretically a J job.

I DID do a fair amount of lying about, finished two books, and got blisters from playing Rock Band 2 with the fam (I am the drummer for Hopelessly Outnumbered, lol). But I also did waay too damn many chores, and, if I'm honest, I'm a bit cranky 'cause I am the ONLY one who did so for 3 days.

Told Raidman when we go on vacation in June I'm going to do NOTHING except lounge about, read, and maybe go play in the sand or go fishing (yes, I like to fish) or something. Since we're staying at a rental not a hotel it probably won't happen, but a girl can dream...