On Ada and hats and baking
Ada’s speech is developing a great deal since she started Raintree. She is speaking bigger sentences, and more of it is understandable. Tonight while playing Lego Batman she said, “Don’t go that way. I fall down.” Mac also found the container that had the hats and gloves. She grabbed one of mine and said, “That’s a nice glove. I put it on.” She is also starting to refer to herself in the first person instead of always in the third person. She is now trying on all kinds of hats and gloves. She just now tried on one of my hats and said, “Oh no, that’s too big.”
I think that I need a new matching hat and gloves. Ada needs a new hat too. Her last year one doesn’t fit her head and a hood isn’t enough to keep her ears warm. They go outside at 8:30am almost everyday at Raintree, their motto being that there isn’t inappropriate weather but only inappropriately dressed children. I have the snowpants and the insulated mittens for her, but no hat. Tomorrow may be a hat shopping day.
I made cinnamon rolls today for our chili tonight. One pan of cinnamon rolls is too much for one meal for us, so tomorrow’s breakfast will also be cinnamon rolls. The bucket worked great–both for proofing and as noisy entertainment for the kids.
Tomorrow I may make some sandwich loaves. We are out, but instead of buying more bread, I bought a big jar of yeast. I’m also thinking about getting a couple of containers to store different types of flour.
I still haven’t made my meal list for this coming week, except for the chili tonight. I need to do that tonight or tomorrow morning.
Just made this:
http://www.spooningmag.com/recipe/texas-chili-urbano
Only variations:
No cocoa added
5 dashes (using a dash measing spoon) of liquid smoke
deglazed the pot with 12 oz of Scotch Ale (and thus reduced the beef stock to only 2.5 cups)
browned the meat and garlic in 4 batches
added 1 stemmed habañero, minced
Best. Chili. Ever!
Thanks, I will try it. I want to try various chili recipes this winter.
I tried one last year made with beer, chipotles and cocoa. I really liked it, but Mac didn’t. He seems to only like what I call Cafeteria Chili.
That’s probably why he likes you. He likes stew. L does too.
Changes to the recipe above:
Sauté the garlic and habañero in a bit of vegetable oil, separately from the meat. Clean the pot afterwards. Sear the meat (well) in batches, and clean the pot after every two batches, except for the last batch. Don’t use any scotch ale. I haven’t even added the liquid smoke and mole rear ends yet, and I already like it better. The spices come through much better, not having to cut through the stronger flavors of the scotch ale and burnt bits. So far, only 3 C of salt-free stock. May add a fourth after the simmer time is over, depending on consistency.
Also, I mixed all the dry ingredients together (both times) and add them once the stock is in the pot, a bit at time, and stir (to avoid clumps).
Just heated some up (it’s been in the fridge all day). I didn’t add any more stock (just 3 C). I did forget to mention one thing. This time, the sirloin was cut into half inch (or smaller) pieces, and I “tenderized” it, in an attempt to make it a bit thinner. I love it. Only thing I might (and I emphasized might) change in the future, is experimenting with different chiles, and perhaps adding more than one into one batch of chili. IMNSHO, this is what chuck wagon food must have been like. A bowl of this stuff, served hot, with a room-temperature beer. Or, maybe whiskey. Straight up. That, and a comfort(able) woman, is all a man needs, I say.
Real chuckwagon chili would have been pemmican chili. Your chili would have been once you hitched your wagon in San Antonio.
I still don’t want to even touch a habañero though.
For this recipe, it’s not too much. L said she really likes it. You know how you both are the same that way. You don’t have to touch it. Wear gloves while you mince it. It adds just enough spice. If you’re really leary, omit all the seeds and pithe.
Any chance you might have downloaded that recipe? I have a printed copy somewhere, and the site appears to be under a revamp. :\