this is a hodge podge of recipes in our kitchen.
the actually burrito recipe is from the thornburg recipe book that kathy made nathaniel.
dina's burritos (edited the way i make it thus making it "bean" burritos)
1 package large flour tortillas (if you get them at whole foods or earthfare, you can get them without preservatives in them!)
pot of refried beans (recipe to follow)
shredded cheddar cheese
shredded jack cheese
enchilada sauce (recipe to follow)
black olives
sour cream
salsa
preheat oven to 350. fill tortillas with ladlefull of beans and a heavy sprinkle of cheeses and a few olives, fold closing both ends of tortillas. place seam down in large shallow baking dish. pour enchilada sauce over burritos. top with cheese (however much you want). bake for about 45 minutes or until cheese starts to brown. serve with condiments.
**
the rest of these recipes are from the joy of cooking!
**
BOILED BEANS
in order to make refried beans, you first have to cook dried beans. thus, here is my recipe for cooking beans.
mom's secret to making "gas free" beans is to wash, rinse, and pick a bag of beans and then boil them for 2 to 5 minutes and then turn them off and leave them there for at LEAST 2 hour (or overnight). that secret works for any beans but if you want to make refried beans, you may want to be cooking black or pinto beans. drain and rinse the beans and then put them back in the pot and add:
few tbs butter or olive oil
1/3 cup chopped onion,
3 whole cloves
2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp dried thyme
cover them with water. bring to a simmer and let them cook until they are tender - about 1-1/2 hours.
add 1 cup of a dry red wine (or chicken stock, i add wine since i prefer no meat products).
cook an additional 20 minutes, uncovered. it is ok if they are juicy. remove the 3 cloves before you eat (they are hard, still, and if you stir the pot you'll see them mixing around the pot. just remember they are hot!)
refried beans
in a LARGE saute pan (cause this makes a lot!) over med heat
2 Tbs veggie oil
1 med onion, chopped
stir until golden brown (about 10 minutes)
add 4 garlic cloves (minced) and cook, stirring for 1 minute.
saving the juice, add ALL the beans (you can add 1 cup at a time but i find it just as easy to add them all at once) making sure they are strained (no juice) and mash with a potato masher or the back of a hard spoon. it is easiest to start in one spot and move out from there. after they are smashed (they won't be mashed like you get in a can), you need to add at least 1 cup of the reserved bean cooking liquid (or water). it will thicken as it sits. it will take about 10 to 15 minutes to mash them all.
then, add salt to taste.
ENCHILADA SAUCE
this makes about 3 times the amount you will need for the burritos, but you can bag and freeze it for later.
in a large pot or skillet (i used a pot)
2 large onions, chopped
2T minced garlic
2T oil
cook about 5 - 10 minutes until brown and clear
add
1/4 cup chili powder
2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp ground red pepper
cook for 1 min stirring constantly and add
two 28-oz cans diced tomatoes, drained
cook for 3 minutes. cool and thoroughly puree in the mixer or with a submersible blender.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
judging
so the mom was very friendly and interacted with kendal and holly. she was one of those loud-talker types that wanted you to hear everything she was saying. like, when she was getting the snacks/lunch out for her daughter, she went into a spill about how she ate healthy and how "daddy" needed to eat healthier. she went ON and ON about how important eating healthy was.
she was feeding the daughter veggie sticks (carrots). not sure why she wasn't just calling them carrots, but anyway... i suppose she'd be one to call a grilled mushroom on a bun a mushroom burger.
i judged. you know what she was drinking? diet dr. pepper. there is nothing healthy about a can full of cancer causing chemicals in an acid bath!!! drink a water, woman.
Sunday, September 5, 2010
these boots were made for stomping, and this rock was was made for stomping (on)
actually, this isn't the stompin' rock, it is the dancin' rock. and, that is exactly what my children do on it. if it rains this week, it is because of the rain dancin' that happened today!
P.S. she's wearing gymboree clothes and boots - i can't remember where the hair clip came from, except that it was with something i ordered on etsy. and, the wings are imaginationcouture. her cuteness and sparkling personality that is so easy to capture on camera came from her daddy and me! ;)
happy birthday to me from me
i know i'm a little early, and this is a bit unusual for me to give something to myself, but it's one of those things that if i don't do it - no one will.
my problem is that my photo editing software doesn't allow me to import raw images from my camera, thus i just shoot in jpg. that is fine, but, i want to shoot in raw.
so, i've been wanting to upgrade to something that is newer than my camera. i currently have photoshop elements 7 (PE7) and was considering another one of adobe photoshop's programs called creative suite 5 (CS5). the only thing is that usually this program is $699 so that is too expensive for me and most folks unless you are making a lot of money doing photography. BUT, adobe is running a special right now for CS5 for $299 and, well, that is pretty much how much i have in my camera fund (i.e. the money i "make" taking pictures). so, great opportunity to get a top of the line program.
unfortunately when i tried to install the trial, i got some errors. i took that as a sign that that wasn't the right thing to do (put all my "eggs" in one basket) so, i've since decided to just get PE8 (which will allow me to use raw images since it is the newest version).
what i'm interested in, also, is all these actions and textures that i've recently discovered. CS5 would be better for the actions but PE8 is just fine for it too. and, by getting PE8 i still have plenty of money left over to buy some actions and textures and templates too.
for instance, last night, i just HAPPENED to be online when one of my three favorite photography blogs, kelseyandersonphotography posted a status on facebook that she was offering her "whole store" worth of actions, textures, and templates (for cards, books,etc) for $100. this is usually priced over $600. oh my God! i bought it. i still haven't finished downloading everything.
i also bought the complete workflow actions set from MCP actions (another one of my three favorite photography blogs...). if you want to buy me a birthday present, you can buy me the only other one i have in my wishlist: magic-print-it-boards but right now i think i'll have to save up a little more for that one. i don't want my little nest egg bone dry...
and just for completeness sake, this is my other favorite photography blog (pioneer woman photography). they have two sets of free actions that anyone with photoshop needs to download!!! incidentally, their instructions are also the easiest.
ok, so, happy birthday early to me! now i have some installing work to do. well, not really, i'm not even done uploading all those files from kelsey anderson! so exciting!
PS, move over shutterfly - i'm on the market for making christmas cards this year!!! i'm serious about that. all i need to do now is find a printing lab to get prices and some samples and, well, i'm totally gonna market some christmas cards. so, who is in??? we all love having our cards digitally made... so, you can use ME this year!!! i can even take your picture for it. REALLY!
my problem is that my photo editing software doesn't allow me to import raw images from my camera, thus i just shoot in jpg. that is fine, but, i want to shoot in raw.
so, i've been wanting to upgrade to something that is newer than my camera. i currently have photoshop elements 7 (PE7) and was considering another one of adobe photoshop's programs called creative suite 5 (CS5). the only thing is that usually this program is $699 so that is too expensive for me and most folks unless you are making a lot of money doing photography. BUT, adobe is running a special right now for CS5 for $299 and, well, that is pretty much how much i have in my camera fund (i.e. the money i "make" taking pictures). so, great opportunity to get a top of the line program.
unfortunately when i tried to install the trial, i got some errors. i took that as a sign that that wasn't the right thing to do (put all my "eggs" in one basket) so, i've since decided to just get PE8 (which will allow me to use raw images since it is the newest version).
what i'm interested in, also, is all these actions and textures that i've recently discovered. CS5 would be better for the actions but PE8 is just fine for it too. and, by getting PE8 i still have plenty of money left over to buy some actions and textures and templates too.
for instance, last night, i just HAPPENED to be online when one of my three favorite photography blogs, kelseyandersonphotography posted a status on facebook that she was offering her "whole store" worth of actions, textures, and templates (for cards, books,etc) for $100. this is usually priced over $600. oh my God! i bought it. i still haven't finished downloading everything.
i also bought the complete workflow actions set from MCP actions (another one of my three favorite photography blogs...). if you want to buy me a birthday present, you can buy me the only other one i have in my wishlist: magic-print-it-boards but right now i think i'll have to save up a little more for that one. i don't want my little nest egg bone dry...
and just for completeness sake, this is my other favorite photography blog (pioneer woman photography). they have two sets of free actions that anyone with photoshop needs to download!!! incidentally, their instructions are also the easiest.
ok, so, happy birthday early to me! now i have some installing work to do. well, not really, i'm not even done uploading all those files from kelsey anderson! so exciting!
PS, move over shutterfly - i'm on the market for making christmas cards this year!!! i'm serious about that. all i need to do now is find a printing lab to get prices and some samples and, well, i'm totally gonna market some christmas cards. so, who is in??? we all love having our cards digitally made... so, you can use ME this year!!! i can even take your picture for it. REALLY!
Saturday, September 4, 2010
job update
i don't have much time to write because since we are home and i had to call into gymboree for another reason (which i'm about to tell you), i let her know we were home for the weekend. thus, i'm working this morning. :)
anyway, i got a job offer! this isn't a job i applied for either. it, i suppose, has spawned from a job i applied an interviewed for though. last may i applied for a job with the pre-regulatory landfill section of waste management and i subsequently interviewed with them. it was a great interview, one that i felt good about when i left. but, i knew that i didn't have a lot of the qualities that they wanted - like, i had no contract experience. lots of geology experience, no contract experience.
so, i haven't heard who got it or whether i didn't get it as they haven't sent out the "we hired someone else" letters yet. either way, it has been long enough that i know that i didn't get it.
wednesday when i got home from work, i had a message on the home answering machine from the supervisor asking me to call her back because she wanted to talk with me about doing temporary work for them.
WHAT WHAT??? this is so awesome. i didn't get the job but she thought of ME to do temp work! that is awesome! so of coarse i'm up all night (with a drippy nose) running numbers trying to figure out how much i need to get paid in order to cover childcare, etc.
thursday morning i could hardly wait until 8am to call her to get details. anyway, the hourly wage was quite reasonable, she wanted me 2 or 3 days a week, which was up to me how many and which days. she said she was quite flexible since she knew i had little children and she just wanted me to do what i could because she really wanted it to work such that i could come help them. :) again, awesomeness!
thursday morning: quick calls to daycares trying to get accurate costs for part-time daycare - we can afford, thankfully, buttons and bows which is where kendal went when he was little (and we LOVED IT) but they don't have immediate openings. BUT, since katelyn is going to school next spring she has a fall that is wide open for a job - and, well, she agreed to nanny. so, we have childcare open with someone we love and trust 200% and they love 300%. so, this couldn't get any better, right? well, except for the part that i have to call gymboree and tell them that i got another job. :( i love those ladies and i absolutely hate letting them down. they knew i was looking for a "real" job (not that gymboree isn't real, but i say "real" as in a job in my own career) so this shouldn't be a huge surprise except that i've been looking for so long and i can hardly believe it has come to me!
friday morning i promptly called my to-be supervisor back (while waiting on a car estimate) and let her know i was in on her deal - that childcare is covered and, basically, when did she want me to start!?! (and that i had to give a 2-week at my other job). so, that is all taken care of. i may have a 1 week over lap of gymboree and this job but i'll manage that somehow. she said she'd work with me on scheduling - she actually said that i didn't have to quit my other job that she'd always work with me on scheduling! but, i'm not sure i'm totally ready to "give up" my kids 5 days a week right now. plus, gymboree doesn't pay enough to cover childcare, waste management does. hope that makes sense.
so i let teri (gymboree) know and she was excited for me. i know deep down she has to be upset. i am upset for her. i love working there, it is a lot of fun and everyone there is so nice. that store has a great sense of family, i hope that i can arrange somehow to stay on but not work much at all. not sure how that'd work though. :/ i just don't want to overextend myself. alot of change at once can be counter-productive. and, i want to give this job 110% .
ok, gotta get dressed and run to gymboree. last weekend of the fill-a-bag sale which means 30% off everything in the store including sale items. awesome sale. if you have kids, you should come shop this weekend! we have the most adorable stuff.
anyway, i got a job offer! this isn't a job i applied for either. it, i suppose, has spawned from a job i applied an interviewed for though. last may i applied for a job with the pre-regulatory landfill section of waste management and i subsequently interviewed with them. it was a great interview, one that i felt good about when i left. but, i knew that i didn't have a lot of the qualities that they wanted - like, i had no contract experience. lots of geology experience, no contract experience.
so, i haven't heard who got it or whether i didn't get it as they haven't sent out the "we hired someone else" letters yet. either way, it has been long enough that i know that i didn't get it.
wednesday when i got home from work, i had a message on the home answering machine from the supervisor asking me to call her back because she wanted to talk with me about doing temporary work for them.
WHAT WHAT??? this is so awesome. i didn't get the job but she thought of ME to do temp work! that is awesome! so of coarse i'm up all night (with a drippy nose) running numbers trying to figure out how much i need to get paid in order to cover childcare, etc.
thursday morning i could hardly wait until 8am to call her to get details. anyway, the hourly wage was quite reasonable, she wanted me 2 or 3 days a week, which was up to me how many and which days. she said she was quite flexible since she knew i had little children and she just wanted me to do what i could because she really wanted it to work such that i could come help them. :) again, awesomeness!
thursday morning: quick calls to daycares trying to get accurate costs for part-time daycare - we can afford, thankfully, buttons and bows which is where kendal went when he was little (and we LOVED IT) but they don't have immediate openings. BUT, since katelyn is going to school next spring she has a fall that is wide open for a job - and, well, she agreed to nanny. so, we have childcare open with someone we love and trust 200% and they love 300%. so, this couldn't get any better, right? well, except for the part that i have to call gymboree and tell them that i got another job. :( i love those ladies and i absolutely hate letting them down. they knew i was looking for a "real" job (not that gymboree isn't real, but i say "real" as in a job in my own career) so this shouldn't be a huge surprise except that i've been looking for so long and i can hardly believe it has come to me!
friday morning i promptly called my to-be supervisor back (while waiting on a car estimate) and let her know i was in on her deal - that childcare is covered and, basically, when did she want me to start!?! (and that i had to give a 2-week at my other job). so, that is all taken care of. i may have a 1 week over lap of gymboree and this job but i'll manage that somehow. she said she'd work with me on scheduling - she actually said that i didn't have to quit my other job that she'd always work with me on scheduling! but, i'm not sure i'm totally ready to "give up" my kids 5 days a week right now. plus, gymboree doesn't pay enough to cover childcare, waste management does. hope that makes sense.
so i let teri (gymboree) know and she was excited for me. i know deep down she has to be upset. i am upset for her. i love working there, it is a lot of fun and everyone there is so nice. that store has a great sense of family, i hope that i can arrange somehow to stay on but not work much at all. not sure how that'd work though. :/ i just don't want to overextend myself. alot of change at once can be counter-productive. and, i want to give this job 110% .
ok, gotta get dressed and run to gymboree. last weekend of the fill-a-bag sale which means 30% off everything in the store including sale items. awesome sale. if you have kids, you should come shop this weekend! we have the most adorable stuff.
Friday, September 3, 2010
9 years to hear the call of fate
somewhere around 2001 or 2002, i stopped at neuse sport shop when i was working down in kinston (when i worked at DOT) and bought a knife for $5. it is a pretty knife with a wood handle, it folds in half - i put it in the console of my kia and never used it. then i got an explorer - it moved into that console, still unused. then we got the vibe. i haven't really thought much of that knife in a really long time.
it is interesting that quite possibly the events that ended today could have started back in 2001. we had such a rough morning yesterday. i was up all night wednesday with a runny nose, sore throat, and a cold. aches and chills but not really a fever. i literally blew through 2 boxes of tissues (that is enough to fill up a trash can in case you were wondering). nathaniel slept on kendal's floor because he had leg aches, holly had a nightmare so she was in the bed with me (remarkably sleeping through my snorts). this weekend is the walbring family reunion up in indiana. i worked all day saturday so we still had to pack thursday morning (yesterday morning) and both kids were so whiney - we had a tough time getting it done. we had planned on leaving around 9 or 10, but at 11:11 am, i said "i bet it'll be 2 before we leave!" this was of coarse as i slung myself on the bed, again, in exhaustion because of how crappy i felt. nathaniel almost called off our trip because of me and my complaining. he said to me later "i knew you were sick because of how much you were whining about it!"
so finally after 12, we were on the road. nathaniel was driving and the other 3 of us were sleeping. we woke up in burlington for gas and i turned on a movie for the kids. i was still achey but we were trecking onward.
we got to the 421 split in winston and we went north. we were in traffic but we were moving steady about 60 mph, which is the speed limit. out of nowhere, the car in front of us hit a tire. it moved about in the road, nathaniel was slowing (but couldn't slam because of traffic) and said "what do i do?" at which point i replied "you have to hit it!" and he did. it was loud and we went over it (as opposed to it going over us) and within seconds we were bumping along. we thought we had a flat tire. we pulled over about 100 feet behind another car who had also hit the tire.
we did not have any flat tires but we had lost part of our bumper pieces and were concerned our radiator had been damaged (which it had but was still functional). the hard plastic flaps that protect the underside of your car had been partially separated thus hanging, which was the noise we heard (they were hitting the road). we knew we (he) had to get them to stay up.
in front of us was a small white car with plastic hanging off the front. this small young girl looked at us and walked over. she asked us if we had scissors, which we did not. i got in the driver seat and remembered about that knife, wondering if it was in the vibe - at the exact same moment that nathaniel knocked on the window to ask me if we had that knife. it was in the console!!! i gave it to him and i followed him in the car as they walked to her car. he cut off the plastic that was torn away from her wheel well. that is the first time that knife has EVER been used.
the poor girl didn't have anyone coming to help her. what if it hadn't been us that stopped? i know our car was damaged too but what if someone ELSE had a knife and was going to "help" her? she was so small and young and didn't know what to do. i had that knife i my car to help her! even if that meant we had to hit a tire and skip our vacation that we had planned for over a year. i mean, no one was hurt. we are missing our vacation but we helped someone in the mean time. we just may have saved her life. who knows?
you all know im a big believer in fate. even if it costs $836 for repairs plus the cost of gas to and from winston. oh, and $5 for the knife.
Where do your eggs come from?
http://www.cornucopia.org/2010/09/the-man-behind-the-egg-scandal/
saw this link today on one of my facebook feeds and i just had to read it. you know, we buy our eggs from a local farm (turtle mist farm). local meaning about 10 miles away. they are yard birds that have a coop to nest. they pick around the farm (which also raises meat-sheep, pigs, and a work horse and some turkeys too) and anyway, they are some darn good eggs. they only incubate eggs to get new chickens and roosters. they have some different breeds so they probably sell their roosters. they definitely don't grind them up and feed them to dogs.
i just think it is so important to know where your food comes from. not just your eggs, but if you are gonna eat beef, then you probably want to know where that comes from too. you are what you eat - and what they eat too. i'd much rather spend more and eat a local, grass/pasture fed bovine than a CAFO raised steer shot up with steroids and antibiotics its whole live to make it grow fast and be immune to diseases. if you eat that meat, you're eating those chemicals too.
off soapbox.
our neighborhood homeowners association just imposed dues this past summer and half the neighborhood is in an uproar. there is talk of dissolving the HOA when the cycle ends (in 2 years maybe, can't remember when that is). our restrictive covenants say that we can't have livestock, so right now we can't have anything like chickens or goats - or even breed dogs even inside our own house. BUT, if our HOA gets dissolved, guess what - WE'RE GONNA BUILD A CHICKEN COOP! we've wanted chickens for so long. i absolutely hope that the HOA goes away. i want a "rent-a-goat" to munch down the brush, a chicken coop, and a flock of birds to lay us some eggs - and maybe some guineas to keep down the ticks if the chickens don't do it well enough. man oh man i'm excited about that. i don't even mind the $50 a year because i know that having a HOA has benefits, but i can save $50 a year on eggs! :) heck i may can make $50 a year selling eggs to my neighbors! ha!
saw this link today on one of my facebook feeds and i just had to read it. you know, we buy our eggs from a local farm (turtle mist farm). local meaning about 10 miles away. they are yard birds that have a coop to nest. they pick around the farm (which also raises meat-sheep, pigs, and a work horse and some turkeys too) and anyway, they are some darn good eggs. they only incubate eggs to get new chickens and roosters. they have some different breeds so they probably sell their roosters. they definitely don't grind them up and feed them to dogs.
i just think it is so important to know where your food comes from. not just your eggs, but if you are gonna eat beef, then you probably want to know where that comes from too. you are what you eat - and what they eat too. i'd much rather spend more and eat a local, grass/pasture fed bovine than a CAFO raised steer shot up with steroids and antibiotics its whole live to make it grow fast and be immune to diseases. if you eat that meat, you're eating those chemicals too.
off soapbox.
our neighborhood homeowners association just imposed dues this past summer and half the neighborhood is in an uproar. there is talk of dissolving the HOA when the cycle ends (in 2 years maybe, can't remember when that is). our restrictive covenants say that we can't have livestock, so right now we can't have anything like chickens or goats - or even breed dogs even inside our own house. BUT, if our HOA gets dissolved, guess what - WE'RE GONNA BUILD A CHICKEN COOP! we've wanted chickens for so long. i absolutely hope that the HOA goes away. i want a "rent-a-goat" to munch down the brush, a chicken coop, and a flock of birds to lay us some eggs - and maybe some guineas to keep down the ticks if the chickens don't do it well enough. man oh man i'm excited about that. i don't even mind the $50 a year because i know that having a HOA has benefits, but i can save $50 a year on eggs! :) heck i may can make $50 a year selling eggs to my neighbors! ha!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
LinkWithin
