Please Is Dead

Well, maybe not dead. Just on major life support.

Over the course of this year, I have noticed the magic word we were told to use as a kid slowly whittle its way out of the dictionary.  You see this a lot in retail but you can see more now in almost all places. People seem incapable of saying please for anything or to anyone. 

And it is not just my generation. People of all ages seem to not be able to say please. That word can make things move along so much smoother.  Need something, just say please. You will not believe how much that helps, not only yourself but the people who hear it.

So, let us take please off of life support & return to full health. Please

Exhausted By Life

I am tired. Unlike the tiredness I feel most days, this feels deeper than most. It is as if it is more than just my body that is tired. My brain and my soul feel tired as well. Mere sleep has not made the feeling subside or dissipate in the slightest. The tiredness is more like several steps past exhaustion. I know that work (all three of them) has worn me out but something tells me that it is more than just work. Perhaps it is the state of the world. The hate, the anger, the overall distrust that has been spewing out over the past few years has just been building up, with no relief in sight.

All that I know is I, along with many others, are tired and simply wish a genuine and restorative rest.

More Chocolate Fun

My bff Marie loves to find random, fun things to send me. The most recent package was split into 2: chocolate in one & a coloring book, markers, and fun craft labels in another. Now, we have been friends for many years and she knows how much I love chocolate & that I am willing to try fun & new combinations. This isn't the first time she has sent me fun chocolate (see the kit kat blog post). This one is from Chuao Chocolatier and it was their chocolate artisan box with eight little chocolates to try.

The flavors

So the first one I tried was the Potato Chip. The saltiness made the milk chocolate taste more like dark chocolate and the little bits of chips made it crunchy.

The Honeycomb one was a dark chocolate bar. Sadly, didn't taste the honeycomb but it did have a bit of a crunch to it.

Firecracker was fun to eat. It was dark chocolate with some chipotle to it, which gave a bit of spice that kicked in when you were almost done eating it. It also had poprocks in it which felt so weird but fun at the same time.

Baconluxious was the next one. It was a milk chocolate one with smoked sea salt & bacon. You could taste the salt but not much of the bacon.

I tried the Salted Chocolate Crunch. According to the label, it has toasted, salted breadcrumbs covered in dark chocolate. Didn't taste the salt & the only way you really got the breadcrumbs was in the crunch of the chocolate. The dark chocolate was good.

Sprinkle Dreams was a good one. It had pieces of waffle cone & lots of sprinkles in milk chocolate. The waffle cone gave the chocolate a bit of a crunch and you could taste it, along with the sprinkles.

The Spicy Maya was the 2nd to last one that I tried. It was dark chocolate mixed with cinnamon, pasilla chile, and cayenne.  Wow, that one was intense. It started with a flavor of eating redhots and dark chocolate, followed by a smoky flavor, and then heat.

The last one was Mintfully Brownie. That one was also made of dark chocolate with crispy brownie pieces & what was described as frosted mint gems. Couldn't taste the brownie pieces but the mint gems were very crunchy candy bits. It tasted a lot like a peppermint patty.

I enjoyed trying all the flavors but I admit that my favorites were the Spicy Maya and the Firecracker. Never thought that I would like spicy chocolate but it turns out that it is a very pleasing flavor combination.

Stay Home Cooking Adventure

In this time under a stay at home order, you look for new things to do. For me, that new thing was trying to cook a dish I have never made before: Chile Colorado. For those that are interested, the recipe at the bottom of this blog.

Now since I couldn't find the dried chiles that was talked about in the recipe, I went with Adobe peppers. Felt weird toasting already dried peppers, but since this is my 1st time making this recipe, I followed the instructions exactly. Made the kitchen smell like toasted chilies for the rest of the afternoon.

Soaking the chiles after toasting

While the chiles were soaking, I cut up and started browning the meat. Of course, the meat was taste-tasted by Gabby and it met with her approval. (Gave her a little piece. She was not on the counter.)

Smelled good

The purée was pretty easy to make, once I had the chiles' seeds removed. If you do plan on making this, you can use 2-3 tbsp of minced garlic (not dried) in place of the 2 cloves if you don't want to get a whole bulb of garlic. Marie introduced me to having a jar of minced garlic in my fridge and I am never without it. The simmering is the hard part. I made sure to set 30 minute timers to stir it during the 2 hour simmer time. It smelled rather good at this point. Hard to not want to eat it.

Begining to simmer

Two hours later, it was time to eat. Lee and I doled out a couple of spoonfuls into bowls, topped with shredded cheese and grabbed a couple of tortillas. You had to be careful eating it due to drips, but it came out very tasty. It had some heat to it but it wasn't the type of heat where it felt like you would lose your tongue. I would definitely make this again, even though it has a long prep & cook time. Lee even suggested using chicken for it. We shall see.



Recipe for Chile Colorado
The beef for this is slow simmered in a red chile purée so the ingredients for the purée will be listed 1st, then the rest of the ingredients will follow.

8 dried red chilies, such as guajillo or New Mexico
1 cup hot water
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. dried episode or oregano leaves
1 (14.5oz) can chopped tomatoes, with liquid

2 tbsp. vegetable oil
3lbs boneless chuck roast, cut into 1 inch cubes
Salt and pepper
1 large onion, sliced
Shredded Monterey Jack cheese, to garnish
Pico de Gallo, to garnish
Warm flour tortillas, for serving

On a griddle over medium-high heat, toast the chilies for 2 minutes on each side. Place the toasted chilies in a bowl and pour the hot water over them. Let the chilies soften for 30 minutes, them stem & seed them, reserving the soaking water. Place the chilies, garlic, cumin, epazote, tomatoes, and 1/4 cup of the soaking water in a food processor or blender. Purée until smooth. Set aside.

Heat the oil over medium-high heat in a heavy, large pot. Season the beef and then brown all over for about 20 minutes. Add slice onion and chile purée. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 2-2.5 hours or until the beef is tender. Serve in bowls, topped with shredded Monterey Jack cheese and pico de gallo, and accompanied by flour tortillas.
Serves 6-8

A New Read

My husband Lee and I are avid readers. It was the topic of our first conversation. With this whole stay at home thing going on, we both have been reading more. For me, I am a big lover of fantasy, sci-fi, and historical fiction. Lee enjoys realistic, modern sci-fi but also enjoys the mysteries of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.  We very rarely read the same books, so we thought we would take advantage of the time and read a book that the other has enjoyed.

The book Lee selected for me was "Eaters of the Dead" by Michael Crichton (one of his favorite authors). It was an interesting read and not one that I wanted to put down part way through. It was like reading a tale directly out of Nortic mythology, very matter of factly. No huge embellishments of what was happening, just the fact. I liked how Crichton showed the contrasts between Ibn, a Arab courtier, and the Viking warriors he has to travel with. He still maintains a lot of his sense of self but loses a lot of self righteousness over the men he travels with. He sees the honor & strength of the warriors he fights beside. The book ends with an abrupt stop, like the end of the manuscript is missing. I rather like it because each reader is able to imagine what happens to Ibn after he is able to go home.

Admitting My Fear

I will admit that I am afraid.  I am afraid of losing my home and the life I have built with my family. I am afraid for the lives of my family, both of my heart and blood. I am afraid to what this illness will do to the people of this world.

It is okay to admit that I am afraid.  Every day, I will have to face those fears and I will have 2 choices: to give in or to fight it. My choice is to fight against the fear. Some days, it will not be easy and fear may win every now and again. But it will not win always.

When I can, I shall hold space for those that fear is trying to concur. May peace come to us all.

Watch Her Burn

The candle is lit at both ends
Yet she keeps going.
The wax drips onto tattered remains
Health, social life, hobbies, love
Yet she keeps going.
They ask and ask and ask
She gives, gives, gives
Life giving energy spilled onto barren soil
Yet she keeps going.

A stumble, she falls into the darkness
Reaches out for help
No hands pick her up.
She calls out
Only the wind answers her back.
Bruised, battered, bleeding
She shuffles back into the light.
No one sees the blood & bruises
Yet she keeps going.

Sit there, watch her burn
Yet she keeps going.
The hope is there
Someday, someone will tell her to stop
Then she will be able to rest, to heal.
Until that time, she keeps going.