I Feel Like the Pope of Chili-town

Posted on November 12, 2007 by jeannie

Tonight I made the most authentic chili I have ever made. Normally, I make a rote chili with ground turkey, onions, a can of tomatoes, and a can of kidney beans. But tonight I tried (generally) following a recipe from The Joy of Cooking. I’m inspired by my father-in-law, Al, who seems to have learned a new culinary trick from that book every time I see him.

The weather’s been cool – perfect for long-cooking stove top stews.

Here’s the recipe with my variations.

3 lbs boneless beef chuck, trimmed and cut into 1/2 in pieces (I only got 1 1/2 lbs, as I think a little meat goes a long way. And I didn’t pat it dry or cut it into smaller pieces.)

salt

olive oil

2 cups chopped onions

10 garlic cloves, chopped (I used a press on one whole bulb)

2-6 jalapeno peppers, seeded and minced (I used thin, small Thai peppers – just broke them open and threw in 5-6)

1/2 chili powder (I had no idea this much was required…)

One 28-ounce can of whole peeled tomatoes (I used most of a 1 1/2 pound can – a gigantic can I got from Costco)

1 tbsp red wine vinegar (didn’t have any so I used basalmic, probably 1/4 c)

4 cups water (I didn’t add any water at all)

1. Saute the onions, garlic, peppers, and some salt in olive oil until soft.

2. Add meat and brown.

3. Stir in 1/2 c chili powder. Cook for 2 minutes.

4. Add the tomatoes, red wine vinegar, and water (or not). Break up the tomatoes with the back of a large spoon.

5. Simmer for 1 1/2-2 hours, stirring occasionally.

6. If you’re going to add kidney beans – cook them separately and add after step #4.

7. Serve with homemade cornbread or homemade biscuits. We had the chili with biscuits tonight. Yum!

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Wee-hee!

Posted on November 11, 2007 by jeannie

Much to my body’s dismay, I went out on a two-hour bike ride with Chad this afternoon, after 1 1/2 hour run this morning. wait – did I mention that we are currently involved in another weight loss contest? I don’t have much chance of winning this one, however; Chad got a little tired of giving me a headstart and then me winning all the cash prizes, so this time it’s a straight “whom ever loses the most weight at the end of two weeks deal” for $150. It’s not as much fun without a fighting chance, I must say.

Anyway, that explains the renewed vigor in running (plus Chad’s considering the Death Valley Marathon in February) and the cooler weather explains the bike ride (finally, fall!)

Twenty percent chance of showers today, so the skies were overcast and air was pleasantly damp and cool. Now, I’ve had my “new” mountain bike for over a year and I think I’ve been out on it twice in all that time and never off the pavement. That’s sad – even if the bike was here in Laguna while I was in Joshua Tree.

But now the bike is officially broken in.

I was pretty nervous at first. Which is strange when I consider that I used to lead bike tours (but now all that was 20 years ago in college!) Being on a bike you go so much faster than on foot – and here in south Orange County, even though there are bike lanes everywhere, you are still on the road with lots of large, fast-moving vehicles.

We started out slow – stopping at the Chevron to put air in the tires – and following a route similar to many of our runs. We headed down dirt paths, crossed a creek or two and whizzed down dirt hills. Then we turned onto a paved road and leisurely started uphill. Chad was too far ahead of me to hear all the cursing and complaining I was doing, but the never-ending uphill was killing me. I considered calling quits. I thought about my first bike tour in New England when me and ten other kids biked 700 miles from Ashfield, Massachusetts to Quebec, Canada, and then back down into New Hampshire. I remembered all the mountains we had climbed; one memorable one had been SIX MILES of uphill. And I remembered that Mike, the assistant trip leader, had nicknamed me Speedy Gonzales. Not because I was fast, mind you. I was medium-slow and still am. But on those many mountain climbs, I had gained a reputation for never getting off my bike and steadily passing most of the other kids by the time I reached the top.

Well, once I remembered that I could hardly quit, could I?

We went nearly all the way to one Bella’s friends’ houses, and then suddenly we were at the opposite end of Aliso and Wood Canyon Park: the preserve we like to run on our long days.

But today we were  starting from the opposite end we normally start, so it was nearly all downhill on a dirt path winding through woods and meadows. Where we have seen wild coyote, heron, and deer. Then Chad said offhandedly, I’ll give you a head start because I’m going to be going FAST.

and I started to get nervous. Speed makes me nervous, especially if I’m the one in control. I passed Chad slowly with my brakes clenched. He laughed, Is that the speed you’re going to take this entire trail?

But we’re talking about three miles of mostly down hill here. I had time to go slow, time to speed up and relax. Time to stop imagining myself catapulting over the handlebars.

And it was SO MUCH FUN.

The pic is lifted from ocparks.com. I didn’t think to bring a camera today. (Come visit – we’ll take you on the same bike ride…)

Posted in bikes | 2 Comments

Are We "the Right Nows"?

Posted on November 11, 2007 by jeannie

Pulled from the Oct 1, 2007 New Yorker‘s interview of Philip Roth by Hermione Lee – discussing his newest book, Exit Ghost.

“I agree with the Chekhov character who, when, in a crisis, he is reminded that ‘this too, shall pass,’ responds, ‘Nothing passes.'”

“The young people in the novel, whom Zuckerman, a touch enviously, calls ‘the not yets,’ in contrast to ‘the no longers’ of his generation.”

“Isn’t one’s pain quotient shocking enough without fictional amplification, without giving things an intensity that is ephemeral in life and sometimes even unseen? Not for some. For some very, very few that amplification. evolving uncertainly out of nothing, constitutes their only assurance, and the unlived, the surmise, fully drawn into print on paper, is the life whose meaning comes to matter most.”

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Pretending to be a Boy

Posted on November 10, 2007 by jeannie

A few words from Norah Vincent’s first chapter of Self-Made Man: One Woman’s Year Disguised as a Man – I already can’t stop reading it:

“Finally, a word of method. It will become clear to you if it is not already that I deceived a lot of people in order to write this book. I can make only one excuse for this. Deception is part and parcel of imposture, and imposture was necessary in this experiment. It could not have been otherwise. In order to see how people would treat me as a man, I had to make them believe that I was a man, and accordingly I had to hide from them the fact that I am a woman. Doing so entailed various breaches of trust, some more serious than others. This may not sit well with some or perhaps most of you. In certain ways it did not sit well with me either, and was, as you will see, a source of considerable strain as time wore on.”

“As I lived snippets of a male life, one part of my brain was duly taking notes and making observations, intellectualizing the raw material of Ned’s experience, but another part of my brain, the subconscious part, was taking blows to the head, and eventually those injuries caught up with me.”

and on her first time ever going out with fake stubble on her face, on the reaction from the men she passed on the street:

“But that wasn’t quite all there was to it. There was something more than respect being communicated in their averted gaze, something subtler, less direct. It was more like a disinclination to show disrespect. For them, to look away was to decline a challenge, to adhere to a code of behavior that kept the peace among human males in certain spheres just as surely as it kept the peace and the pecking order among male animals. To look another male in the eye and hold his gaze is to invite conflict, either that or a homosexual encounter. To look away is to accept the status quo, to leave each man to his tiny sphere of influence, the small buffer of pride and poise that surrounds and keeps him.”

Posted in books | 2 Comments

More Girlish Pleasures

Posted on November 8, 2007 by jeannie

Well, perhaps girlish isn’t the right word – but I think the way I’m sociable is related to being a woman…

A few weeks ago for instance, the friendly neighbor hollered from across the street, “Hey Jeannie! Are you interested in joining a book club?” Well, heck yeah. Especially since at the moment I’m commuting 2 1/2 hours one way once a month to join my beloved old book club in La Quinta (by Palm Springs). I know all our new neighbors, whereas the men in this house? They panic a little if it even looks like I’m going to introduce them to somebody – and make sure they stay in the house out of sight. I’m outside meeting all the kids and giving away extra elephant figurines from my last trip to Thailand. That’s right, I’m going to teach the little girl across the street how to crochet – and I’ve loaned her mom a bunch of my Nancie Atwell teaching writing materials.

Turned out that there has been a book club in this community for nigh seven years! And that it had grown slightly too big to fit around the kitchen table and that there was an attempt to start a “Bookies II.” Sounded promising. But then, I checked out the reading list, noticed the word “pray” in one of the titles – and I started to worry. Was I about to blunder into a group of right-wing Christians? (To each his own, but I’d rather not be there if that’s the case…) And then zap, I got spammed by one of the members of the group: an offensive little ditty “by” Frank Sinatra referring to Arabs as smelly people who didn’t talk right.

Gulp.

But then again, it was (free) dinner, I had already read the book (My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult), and heck, it was walking distance and I had already RSVP’d.

So I went – despite my reservations.

I am so glad I did. The three other women who were there were terrifically smart, enthused, warm and accepting. Granted, they talked about having had retired at 63 as if it were already long in the past, so I was by half the youngest woman in the room, but on the other hand, my passion for getting information from people makes me a sucker for people with life experience. And these women had life experience in SPADES. And to be honest, our book discussion was deeper and more involved and more focused than any discussion I have had with my other (beloved) book club.

Then I had to go and confess all my aforementioned fears and anxieties at the table (over pumpkin pie and decaf coffee). Turns out nobody there was interested in reading anything religious or self-help as a group. AND everybody else had been offended by the faux Frank Sinatra ditty. So,

Can you guess the outcome? That’s right, I’m hosting the next Bookies II in January and I chose Self-Made Man by Norah Vincent, the woman who impersonated a man for a year and half to see what it was like. I almost chose Middlesex by Jeffry Eugenides, but somebody in the group had already read it. Not that we will always try to pick a book nobody has read, but right now the group is so small, it seems discourteous not to do so.

Two more ways I’m sociable like a woman. Today I met a complete stranger for lunch at vegan restaurant by UC Irvine, just because my friend Caryn said I should. We hit it off and didn’t stop talking the entire hour we were there. And she informed me that if I am interested in woman wellness centers run by midwives that I ought to check out Beach Cities Midwifery and Women’s Health Care (her favorite midwife works there!)

And next week I’m invited to play Bunco. That invite’s from one of the other cross country moms on Bella’s team. We just started talking, then laughing and exchanging emails, and next thing I know, she’s saying, “I think you would really enjoy this group of women I play Bunco once a month with…” She sent me the link to their website, which had this photo on it:

Looks like a fun bunch – I can’t wait! New friends! Red wine and lots of giggling (or uproarious snorting – whatever.)

Posted in being womanly, books | 4 Comments

Womanly Ills and Thrills

Posted on November 8, 2007 by jeannie

Contrary to what one might believe, having my period on and off all month does not make me wish I didn’t have a uterus. It makes me worry about my uterus and its health. I worry that I will have a fibroid or some sort of irritation on the lining that will have to be removed. I worry that I won’t be able to have more children. What’s the best possible scenario in the doctor’s office? “Ms. Lee, I’m afraid if you want more children, you’ll have to get started right away.”

I don’t know why I used the word doctor, because my first line of defense is to see a midwife/nurse practitioner. Upon Corrina’s recommendation, I called up South Coast Midwifery to make an appointment for next week. Go to the site and you’ll understand my line of logic in this post. I went from grumpy and worried to crooning and sighing – over all the beautiful snapshots of birthing women ecstatically holding their newborns. I am excited to see this birthing center next week and to be around pregnant and new mothers – even in a time of my own potential unhealth.

I can’t help it; babies make me lunge and grin like a dope. I think I get it from my mother, who has been nicknamed Baby Snatcher around the new-ish Nabi Grace. She wears the title proudly.

Here’s Sue with the new-ish Nabi Grace. I want one! What’s harder is that Nabi looks just like Bella did at this age.

Posted in health, modernday hippiness | 3 Comments

Gone Baby Gone

Posted on November 7, 2007 by jeannie

I am draggin’ these last few days. I don’t know if it’s just the Daylight Saving (which I hate, hate, hate) or my pre-menopausal period dragging on. I know, I’m young to be talking about pre-menopause (39), but I’m saying that to reassure myself that my body’s antics are normal until I can get in to see a doc.

Bella’s in her room talking excitedly about a boy. Chad and his bro are downstairs watching BattleStar Galactica with Giselle, and I – – I have just enough energy to post a movie review before collapsing in bed.

Chad and I caught Gone Baby Gone a few weeks back, and while I thought it was good movie, I would certainly not recommend it to everybody. In fact, had I known the subject matter (involves child molestation as a theme) I probably would have steered very very clear of it. My policy these days is not to watch a movie that contains those sick images that replay in your head. Unfortunately, I already have a few too many of those clips in my head (namely the rape scenes in movies like Last Exit to Brooklyn and Leaving Las Vegas) and I know too well that once they get into my brain, they have a hard time finding their way out.

Not to scare you off, because there is only the innuendo of child molestation – but there is one instance of very strong innuendo.

But if you can hack it, this movie written and directed by Ben Affleck is getting amazingly high reviews at the Internet Movie Database (imdb 8.2/10.o)  Them there are Oscar-reaching stats. Starring a silent-type tough boy local detective, played by Affleck’s very own younger brother, Casey, this movie is ostensibly about a little girl who’s been kidnapped from her own bedroom, and the couple who are hired to find her. Very similar in feel to Clint Eastwood’s Mystic River, Affleck uses the hometown friendly hood as a backdrop to uncover lifetimes of disappointment and the tragic attempts to make it all right. Speaking of which, Mystic River is rated 8.0/10.0 at imdb and won two Oscar’s in 2003. I was impressed by the steady pace of the storyline – Ben did a nice job keeping the tension just so, without rushing or too many theatrics. In fact, my only complaint is that one nasty shudder-in-the-gut clip; I thought it was over the top and unnecessary – without it I would have given this movie an A.

Posted in movies | 1 Comment

I'm Watching You

Posted on November 5, 2007 by jeannie

I don’t like to talk about it too much, but I do keep an eye on my stats, and I do notice which posts, pages, and links get hit most frequently.

And you know what? I started a new thing called Jeannie’s Stamp of Approval in my sidebar with links to particularly funny or interesting things and so far it’s a huge flop. Nobody is checking out anything there. I got the idea from dooce’s Links, Not Ads, which in all honesty, I didn’t discover until many months of regularly checking her site – so maybe I just need to be patient. Or I can just ASK YOU TO PLEASE CHECK IT OUT ONCE.
The idea is to have another section of my site where information is presented at a different rhythm and in a different way to add texture to the site. Most times, I link you to noteworthy youtube clips or a site you might find interesting. I only intend to keep 4-5 links there at once, moving older links into an archive as I add new links on top.

Well, I am about to move one of my all-time favorite clips off the sidebar and into archives, but I’m distressed because I think so few of you have seen it. It’s a wonderful 3-min clip of a somebody doing a jaw-dropping shadow play to Louis Armstrong’s “It’s a Beautiful World.” It’s a good one to share with the kids in the house. I think I will keep it up for another week, because I want you to see it! Right now it’s #8.

Posted in Jeannie's Stamp of Approval | 3 Comments

Behind the Blog: Womantalk

Posted on November 4, 2007 by jeannie

Okay, it’s a bit of a joke. I thought it was pretty cool how the folks over at Apartment Therapy did a feature on Heather Armstrong’s, a.k.a. dooce.com, blogging workspace and I happened to have a couple of completely unposed pics of my blogging workspace that Bella took.

Now I am not so nearly interior-designer minded as dooce, but what the heck. I mean I’m wearing a twenty-year-old Pingry sweatshirt and my desk (in the corner of the master bedroom) is a mess; isn’t this what most people really look like while blogging?

  Giselle wants to be there, I promise.

And from further away, more is revealed.

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Being Alone Among Others

Posted on November 3, 2007 by jeannie

Omg. The people here at Water Canyon, the local coffee house here in Yucca Valley, must think I am a serious computer freak/geek. I’ve been here for six hours; sustaining myself with a Greek Bagel, soy cap, and a large green tea.

Granted, I left for about 45 minutes right there in the middle to run to the post office and bank (I still find it easier to do errands here than in Laguna, and I unconsciously find myself saving certain errands until I come back to the desert…) But still.

I just love the atmosphere of a coffee house for being alone, especially for doing work like cleaning up a blog, which is a very expansive, non-linear kind of activity. Since I’ve started my part-time job two weeks ago, I suddenly never have time alone to just space out. And I need that on a regular basis.

Thursday at Bella’s cross-country finals was a good time for that too. Every sport has its own pace and set of spectator protocols, and cross country is no exception. I just had never thought about it before. To watch somebody compete in a three-mile footrace is really to just see them for about 30 seconds of a 22-minute race, either at the beginning, middle, or end.

Soccer: Pull up a chair and watch the game start to finish, right there at the sidelines. Swimteam: Write down all your kid’s events on your hand in sharpie, and listen to the screeching megaphone, and get poolside for each of the 3-4 events.

Cross-country: Sit by myself a mile into Laguna Niguel Regional Park. Wait. See kids running from across the lake. Fifteen minutes later watch and cheer them as they tear down the hill you are monitoring. Wait another half hour by yourself, sitting on your portable camp stool. Repeat four more times.

I sat there being a race course marshall for FOUR SOLID HOURS and watched five races go by. I saw Bella for all of 30 seconds.

Still, I enjoyed myself. And I did get to see every kid from every one of the five competing schools go by.

Today was an especially good day, because I started with an hour and half of yoga. Needed that.


Can you see the kids way across the lake? Yeah, that’s all I could see too.


Here’s Bella mid-race! For the record she beat that girl in front of her. : )

Posted in mothering | 1 Comment