Just a Jelly Donut

October 5, 2012 at 4:46pm

1 lb ground beef (80/20)

1 lb Italian sausage

1 medium onion (diced)

2 cloves fresh garlic (minced)

1 14 oz can diced petite diced tomatoes

1 can HUNTS original spaghetti sauce

1 7 oz can tomato paste

1 tbsp onion powder

1 tsp garlic powder

3 tbsp Italian seasoning

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

1/3 cup Red Wine Vinegar

2 tbsp oil

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

 Brown the ground beef and sausage in the saucepan. Remove and drain the fat.

 Put the oil in the saucepan over medium heat.  Place the diced onions in and saute until almost translucent then add your garlic and saute until the onions are translucent.

 Add onion and garlic powders and spices.  Move the mixture around the pan until you can really smell the aroma.  Don't burn this.

 Add can of diced tomatoes, spaghetti sauce base and tomato paste and stir everything together until it just starts to bubble.  Turn the heat down and add your meat and red wine vinegar and stir together.

December 10, 2012 at 10:54am

Ingredients:

1 lb stew meat – cut into 1” cubes

½ Hillshire Farms Polska Kielbasa – sliced into 1/8” slices

4 medium potatoes – washed, peeled and large cut

1 medium to large onion coarse cubed

1 29 oz can whole peeled tomatoes

½ head cabbage – cut into 2” sections

2 tbs beef bouillon

8 – 10 cups cold water

¼ cup red wine vinegar

1 small can tomato paste

1 tsp dried basil

1 tsp dill weed

1 tsp black pepper

½ tsp ground cayenne pepper

1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

1 tsp oil or lard

 Preparation:

1. Brown the beef in a large stock pot with the oil/lard – pinch of salt (I prefer kosher), splash of vinegar, pepper and a pinch of dried basil. 

2. When the beef is mostly browned toss in the sausage slices and continue to cook until the sausage appears browned on the edges of the slices. 

3. Add tomatoes juice and all and four cups of cold water

4. Turn heat up and allow the water to boil – stir once boiling

5. Add potatoes and onions, and continue to boil at a rapid boil

6. Stir in remaining ingredients except for the cabbage and four to six cups of water then allow to come to a full boil

7. Reduce heat and simmer for forty five minutes, stirring every 10 minutes or so.

8. Add cabbage and continue to simmer for 15 minutes or until cabbage is tender. 

October 30, 2012 at 1:14pm

1 lb 80/20 ground chuck

1 lb skirt steak

1 lb bacon

1 large yellow onion (diced)

2 stalks celery (diced)

2 14 oz cans pinto beans

2 14 oz cans dark red kidney beans

1 29 oz can petite diced tomatoes

1 small can stewed tomatoes

2 large Poblano peppers

5 jalapeno peppers

1 small bell pepper

6 large cloves garlic

3 TSBP Mexene brand chili powder

1 tsp ground cumin

1 TBSP black pepper

1 bay leaf

2 TBSP Freeze dried beef bouillon

3 TBSP Worcestershire sauce

2 cup STRONG black coffee

1 TBSP Olive Oil

1 1/2 cups cold water    

 What you gotta do:

 Start the grill.  Wash your peppers and place in a bowl with 1 tbsp olive oil.  Tumble the peppers in the olive oil until they're all coated.  Place the cloves of garlic (skins and all) in a 12x12 square of aluminum foil and pinch together like a pouch.  Place all the peppers and the pouch of garlic over the flames on high turning often and allowing each side of the peppers to get a full on scorch.  We're talking blackened.  Check your garlic and make sure they're turning a caramel color.  When all that is done set the peppers and garlic aside.  Grill the sliced steak to medium and cook the bacon on the grill.. It's okay if the bacon burns a little on the edges - smoky flavor is the goal.  When all grilling is done.. Take a break... You'll need it.

 In a large stock pot cook your ground beef.  When it's done and thoroughly crumbled (no big chunks) drain it in a kitchen strainer.  With the heat still on the burner and pot,  toss in your chopped onion, celery, beans, diced tomatoes and water; let them simmer on low, stirring constantly. Don't let the beans burn to the bottom.. Which they will!

In a small sauce pan boil the coffee until it reduces to 1 cup.  Add it to your stock pot.

 Peel, de-seed/de-vein and rinse the straggler seeds/skins from your peppers and chop them to a medium chop - add this to your stock pot.

 Peel the garlic cloves and chop/mash them.  Add to the stock pot.

 Dice the beef strips to 1/2 inch.  Chop the bacon to small bits.  Add the drained ground beef, cubed beef and bacon to the pot and stir.

 Add all of your spices and Worcestershire and allow the liquid to reduce a little over a medium bubble for 20 - 25 minutes.  

 Remember to taste along the way and add three whole stewed tomatoes and a a little water a little at a time to maintain consistency.

October 29, 2012 at 4:31pm

I think that I made the mistake of staying single too long. My bitterness and vitriol towards happy couples/people is a product of my own design.  It may have been fed to me, but I nurtured it and grew it into what it is today.  I ask myself, "Did I look the wrong way?" or "Did I get in the wrong line?"  Could it be that my own selfish desires created this monster and now the only resolution is to settle? I feel that the universe is giving me a message to just take the first one in the same situation as I and shut up.

 Until eight years ago I had someone that I grew alongside; that started the journey with me.  There was definitely a different path,  place and point in this life that I was to follow and arrive.  Unfortunately, as things go, it wasn't to be.  And that's okay.  I understand that.  It's getting over the aftermath that seems to be the tallest hurdle.  I did try my hand at it six years ago.  I tried so hard and failed miserably.  I became scarred and scared.  I tried again three years later knowing full well that it wasn't the right place or time.  And, now, eight years since becoming a new person, I'm wondering if this is my path - my destiny.  I realize that I'm not an easy person to accomodate.  I have my inflexibilities... My quirks that others don't, or can't understand.  I also realize that there are people who love  and want me.  The problem is that they're not who I want as my partner; my puzzle piece.  Settle? Hmmm.

 I'm not an unsentimental person.  I have giant feelings that sometimes are so overwhelming that I can't take them. I admit that I keep them shielded from those that want to step in and care.  I don't want to hurt anyone, yet someone always gets hurt.  I invite people to ride this roller coaster and then feign ignorance when, inevitably,  the car goes off the tracks.

July 18, 2011 at 9:59am

I watched a perfectly crafted movie this past Friday.  I watched it in a perfectly crafted theater - so perfectly crafted that I couldn't have any perfectly popped popcorn and a perfectly chilled soft drink in it while I watched the perfectly classic ode to comedy, romance, transvestitism, gangland warfare and music set during Prohibition.  But, I digress... 

 The movie was 1959's "Some Like it Hot" starring Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe.  Set all of 30 years prior to the actual time of filming, it explored such standard motion picture subjects as sex, booze and gang violence.  It delivered each joke, wink and nudge with aplomb. I'd expect nothing less from a movie from this period.

 I apologize if I spoil the movie for you, dear reader,  but in the last scene of "Some Like it Hot" our lead characters make a slapstick, but thrilling getaway.  Predictably and in spite of himself, the dashing - albeit lying cur - Tony Curtis gets the sparkly and vivacious Marylin Monroe. The wildly comedic Jack Lemmon is less fortunate and has to admit to his suitor (the rubber faced and immensely hysterical Joe E. Brown) that he's actually a man in drag. The interchange between them, in which Brown fends off a barrage of reasons why Lemmon (as Daphne) can't marry him until the climactic moment when Lemmon tears off his wig and in his man voice blurts "...Because I'm a man!" at which Joe E. Brown deadpans "Well, nobody's perfect." - cue "The End" and closing credits.

May 7, 2012 at 10:57am

12 ounces skinless boneless chicken breasts

2 tablespoon butter

1 large red bell pepper, diced

1 small red onion,finely diced

2 garlic cloves,minced

2 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper

2 cups heavy whipping cream

1 cup chicken stock or canned low-salt chicken broth

3 tablespoons thinly sliced fresh basil

2 cup finely grated Parmesan/Romano cheese blend

16 ounces fettuccine or bowtie pasta

Additional grated Parmesan/Romano cheese

July 11, 2011 at 10:41am

It's slow at work this morning.  This has given me way too much time to spend rifling through the boxes of memories I have stowed up in my brainpan.  

One standout memory from my childhood is that I had a dog named Sprint. His mother was Cha Cha.  Great name, right?  I don't remember where we got her, but she was a bizarre mix of breeds.  Cha Cha got loose often, and one time she even came back pregnant.  Yippee! Puppies!   I'm sure my parents weren't as happy about that as my sister and I were, so my parents only allowed her one litter.  She was promptly spayed, thereafter.  After that, I was allowed me to keep one puppy.  He had a crooked tail.  It could have been broken in birth or  stepped on soon after,  but it was that Z-shaped tail that made me want to keep him. That anomaly.. That lightning bolt shaped tail inspired me to name him Sprint.  I thought he would be as fast as his name.

Mulling over this in later years, I guess I could say he was chosen because I felt a connection with the little guy. He was "different" and that's what made him special to me.  My dad always called him by the name "Spastic" - I really hated how that man could be so insensitive at times. I believe that I'm the same with people, too.  People who are "different" seem to be my draw.  I like my friends to be a  little damaged, a little vulnerable and put upon.  Strong people; strong personalities; normally regarded as beautiful people or model types seem to scare me and even turn me off.  I like funny faces, funny bodies, vulnerability, humility, and the grand sense of humor that one who is "different" possesses.  

I'm supposing it's  because I feel I'm the same.  Maybe I find a kindred-ship.  I don't know.  Maybe I just find comfort in damage and want to commiserate.  

July 10, 2011 at 10:54am