shishnit.org

I have spent the last few years being thankful every single day so on this holiday I feel no differently, save for Turkey hangover.  I’m sitting in my library with a hot bowl of turkey soup in front of me.  Yes, I boil the carcass and make soul the minute I’ve put everything away after dinner.  My favorite kid is watching TV in the living room…..love that he’s here….just within feet of me.  My husband is crashed in the bedroom listening to football blasting through his sleepyhead.  Chloe is at my feet begging for some soup. ahhh….this life…this sweet life of mine is utterly and completely good.  Everything about it right now is perfect….

Now if my blog wasn’t being hacked constantly I’d be in good shape.

Low and behold not much survived the marriage of 1991.  However, the recipe below is my former mother-in-laws.  My grandmother asked me today if I ever talk to my former in-laws and I sadly told her “No, I don’t.”  She asked me how I get along with my current in-laws and I told her wonderfully.  They are sadly deceased. 

I often wish I could talk to Rick’s parents just once.  Even more often than that I wish that he could talk to my Dad over a smoke…just one night.  I would chop off my left arm to see that happen.  The merging of the two pivotal Rick’s in my life would have been amazing.  Oddly my brother-in-law Doug reminds me of my father a lot.  A LOT!!!  He’s cantankerous with a side dose of smart ass.  Just the way I like my people to be. Yesterday Rick asked me to make chili.  I obliged today.  I really love my former mother in law’s recipe.  When I first saw it 17 years ago I thought, wow…sugar?  Yah sugar.  Yum. You can’t taste the sugar but I think it cuts the raw acid taste of the tomatoes and therefore it can’t be omitted.

The cast of characters.  I love Publix and I love to buy their store brand’s.  Cheaper and awesome!!

Vidalia onion = .55
Kidney beans = .89 x 2 (15.5 oz cans) = 1.78
1 lb lean ground beef = 3.73
Chili powder = $2.99 for the can = 1 TB worth = .30
Shredded jack/cheddar cheese mix  (4 oz small bag) = 1.89
Green bell pepper = .90
Can crushed tomatoes = 1.35
Salt/pepper (nearly free!)
= $10.50

Chili is a pretty cheap meal.  I would have been at a mere $8.61 minus the unnecessary cheese but try telling Rick that cheese is unnecessary.  I’m sure we won’t use the 4 oz bag all at once.  I’m positive he’ll be throwing it into an omelet or on an egg too.  However, I consider $8.61 to be a fantastic cost for a meal for 4.

I brown my hamburger first.  Then I remove it and put it in a strainer in the sink.  Then I brown my onion in the hamburger drippings.

Then you add the pepper and let it cook with the onion. (I’m sure you don’t need a photo for this step), then I just dump everything else in.  I do not fry my garlic…garlic gets weird when you overcook it on direct heat.  I crush it in a garlic press and add in two cloves with the beans and tomatoes, sugar and chili powder.  I also add in some black pepper and salt but really not enough for it to even be measured. 

Chili

1 lb lean ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped

Brown the hamburger.  Remove from pan temporarily.  Brown remaining ingredients, add ground beef back into pot.

Then add in any order

1 regular size cans of red kidney beans
1 large can of crushed tomatoes
½ cup of sugar
2 tablespoons of chili powder

Cook all ingredients together about ½ hours on low heat.

Keith….if you’re reading this is your grandma’s chili and its the best!!  She’s not the best cook….but dang if she didn’t make the best chili ever.  I prefer hers over my Italian grandmother’s even.  Yummy!!!!  oOPS I forgot I bought crackers…so that pushes me over the budget edge with an additional $1.29 for saltines!!!  Uh…but we won’t use that entire box for this….hmmm so it doesn’t count!!! 

mmm look, I know you want some now.

Last Friday I was out running errands (ie: at the book store checking out all the new releases) and I got a phone call from my brother in law Doug.  I was somewhat alarmed because while I speak to him often he rarely calls my phone.  The conversation went something like this:

Me: Hello

Doug: Hey I’m at your house and you’re not here

Me: who is this?

Doug: you’re favorite person

Me: ha, yah right!! (as I figure out who it is)

Doug: I’m at your house and I need to run somewhere, my girlfriend is here and she wants to stay here while I run my errand.  Ricky told me that I had to call you and ask you if it was ok for him to be here with her alone.

Me: ha, okay.  It’s ok with me if you leave her there.  Why are you calling me tho?  Why not Rick?

Doug: Because he said he would get in trouble if you came home and he was here with some strange woman you’ve never met. 

Me: oh I see, it’s good that he’s afraid of me!

Doug: yes, yes I guess it is.

Honestly, I trust Rick when it comes to the “other women” issue.  I have longheld trust issues regarding money, etc etc etc because of a bad first marriage but oddly enough when it comes to fidelity, he’s nothing if not faithful.  However, after I had a good laugh at the realization that if I came home and found him in the house with a woman that until Friday I had never met, I could not tell you what my reaction might be.  I think Rick was simply insuring that he would live another day.

I decided last week that I am going to read Ulysses.  I have only 2 classes left and during those two classes I have a great deal of breaks for the holidays. I know that I won’t read this massive book within this time frame and I honestly don’t care if I ever finish it.  It is more that I want to know something concrete about the book. I bought a copy today and I already plan on buying an annotated copy from amazon.com that provides much more information.  From everythign I’ve read online about this novel, this is not an easy to read fluff type of book.  It reminds me much of my biggest book nemisis by David Foster Wallace.  When Mr. Wallace left us earlier this year I vowed to read his book but then felt like one of those smucks that latches onto a book just because the author died.  That book might remain my nemesis until the day I die.

However, 4 years of college and I have not been asked to read James Joyce.  Of course I am a business management major and therefore the scant few literary courses I have had have had me reading tame short stories and the like.  Not that I’m complaining as my next course is in fact a Literature one that involves much short story reading.  However, because I’m somewhat of a geek when it comes to school I have already read over half of the stories we’re assigned.  Yes, I’m an overachiever when it comes to school.

I probably won’t ever blog about it again and I might even throw my copy of Ulysses on the bedside table with the other 25 books laying there.  I read the 3 books in the Twilight series in a matter of 4 days and then the 6^th day I got Breaking Dawn and haven’t cracked it open since that day.  I have a way of doing these things.  I have intentions and then my intentions change. I got bored with reading about Bella after an entire week and honestly I think each book in the series got weaker and weaker.  I would say she shoulda stopped with Twilight but then she wouldn’t be as rich as she is now.  Nothing against her, but I probably will never read Breaking Dawn.  I’m ok with that.  I’m even ok with the fact that Wallace died before I ever read his “Infinite Jest” book.  His death sucks and bugs me, but my failure to read his book doesn’t anymore.

I do think I’m going to end up seeing the movie “Twilight” but I know that I prefer to go alone without anyone.  Perhaps on a school day before the kidlets can go.

I also want to get a pen and write in this book.  This is something that’s always been rather taboo in my world. I barely change the appearance of an entire book that I have in fact read…ever.  I’m really anal about my books and I treat them quite well indeed. I do not share my books, lend my books, sell my books or abuse my books.  It’s just one of my things.  I know where it comes from after years of therapy have given me the answers.  I don’t care anymore.  But for this book, this time, I’m going to scribble.  I might read it. I might not.  I probably won’t.  But I will try.

Dear Stupid Dryer,

You make me mad because you broke. I want you to fix yourself because we are tired of your non-turning bullshit! Where the hell do you wear your belt anyways?

Unhappily,
Kristy

p.s. this is why I am glad I do not own a dishwasher!!

——edited 4 hours later——

You cannot beat Rick.  You were forced into wearing a new $8 belt late this afternoon.  You are now back at work.  Nice try at early retirement!!

p.s. Dear Anyone else….my husband is the best.  Reason #87,654,987,231 I pick Rick.  He refuses to be beaten down or be forced to pay ridiculas amounts of money to unscrupulous repairmen.  He goes above and beyond to learn new skills to fix things himself.  Thank you honey!  You get an A in husbandry!