True Christmas Eve Story PLUS A Gift For My Friends

Imagine this:
6PM Christmas Eve. I enter a crowded grocery store in Long Beach, CA.  Yeah, I can be a bit of a masochist at times. anyway, i realized I was nearly out of paper towels, and I needed oranges for tomorrow's breakfast, so I braved the insanity. Imagine my surprise/horror when I saw an ENTIRE row devoted to Valentine's Day! On Christmas Eve! What The Actual FUCK???!!! Anyway, I got in the shortest long line (9 people in front of me) and waited.

I'm still a bit behind in my cooking/baking, and some gifts won't be arriving until Saturday (via Amazon) but at least that part is done.

My Christmas Gift:

Due to several requests, I'm sharing my Mother's recipe for Christmas Pork. The fun part was reducing the recipe from what I normally do (5+ lbs of pork, nearly 3 large bottles of red wine vinegar, and a full bottle of red wine plus more heads of garlic than I care to admit) to what "normal" people do. (about a pound of pork) Here is the base recipe (measurements of seasonings are to taste, but it is very garlicky)

Christmas Pork (Portuguese Recipe)

1 lb Pork cut into cubes
1 1/2 cups red wine vinegar
3/4 cup dry red wine
1 bay leaf
1 large whole garlic head with cloves sliced thin
1 teaspoon salt
pepper (just a little)
1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning

Mix together vinegar, red wine, garlic, salt, bay leaf, pepper, and Italian seasoning in large bowl. Add pork, and stir well. Make sure pork cubes are covered. Refrigerate minimum overnight, better if 24 hours. Stir occasionally.

On Christmas morning (about 11, because I like to sleep in) I drain the pork on a paper towel, then melt about 1/2 cube of butter in a large skillet. Add the pork to the skillet in batches to prevent crowding; cook and stir until completely browned and no longer pink in the center. Add more butter as necessary. DO NOT USE MARGARINE OR OIL!

Now, you might ask then what? Make plain scrambled eggs, and serve them together. For real authenticity, serve oranges cut in quarters on the side. Now, the purpose for the orange is twofold. One, it cuts on the garlic breath, two, it reduces the gas.

Merry Christmas!

♥ ♥ ♥

Merry

Poly Christmas Thoughts (12-24-2017)

Woke up 4AM couldn't sleep, so here I am. I know it's Christmas Eve, but since Shilo works on Christmas, I'm making Christmas dinner tonight (heaven knows how I'll do it next year!)


Anyway, Christmas dinner tonight, Christmas breakfast tomorrow on Christmas day. My son Babyman is with me, and he'll visit his dad's side of the family with Jonathan (who is feeling better) tomorrow. (Thank you for the prayers)


In the meantime, I've been trying (to no avail) to remember Mom's recipe for Christmas pork, and I even bought the pork and wine yesterday. I've made it a few times over the years when she was alive, and I even made it my first Christmas after marrying Shilo 4 years ago.


I finally went online this morning (since I couldn't sleep) and found a variation of it that was close enough to the original that I've remembered Mom's recipe (gotta buy GARLIC!!!) so I'm really looking forward to eating it with scrambled eggs and orange rolls on Christmas morning. I'm also trying a new (to me) recipe for ham that you make in the crockpot today for dinner. If you're curious, I'm making chili with Stitch on Christmas Day for dinner.


Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to ALL! Remember, it's not the date on the calendar that counts, it's the spirit in how you celebrate it!

A Thought

I know I don't have many readers here, but I had an unusual (for me) Saturday afternoon yesterday. I went to a potluck BBQ at an acquaintance's house. 

I've known her about 5 years, but rarely saw her except for a once a year "retreat" of sorts. Anyway, when I broke my right humerus in two places last July, she was kind enough to offer her services to cut out the mats in my hair and help me feel pretty. She's a licensed hairdresser, and since she was willing to come to me, who was I to complain? She did a great job, and since then has come over about every 3 months when I asked her to help out with the hair. For the first six months, I was unable to wash or brush my hair, so either Stitch or Shilo got stuck with that along with other personal bodily tasks that I won't mention.

So, anyway, this BBQ is a once a year big affair that she and her husband  host.  He smokes meats, and people bring all sorts of yummy things to complement the meat. I decided to do something gluten free that Shilo and others might enjoy. People often say that "Gluten Free" is another word for tasteless and often disgusting baked goods that have a funny texture on the mouth. Often, recipes call for Xanthan gum as a binder because it's gluten free. I've always been determined to fix gluten free food with pronounceable and easy to find things that aren't overpriced.

I'm fond of experimentation as well, and because of that, I'll often buy gluten free snacks and dessert items at places such as Big Lots or even the 99 cents only store, along with Dollar Tree. One of my more recent finds was a box of "gourmet" chocolate chip cookies. I read the package,and was pleasantly surprised to discover that all the ingredients were recognizable, and most of them I had at home. I bought it for Shilo, and when I asked him,he said they were "delicious." I insisted on trying, and sure enough, they were a delight on the tongue and tastebuds. I noticed they were made exclusively with rice flour.  I decided that I'd go searching for rice flour on my next outing. I bought it at the 99 cents only store and put it in my pantry and forgot about it until a few weeks ago when I got the invitation.

Over the past week, I've looked through the internet trying to find a cookie recipe that would suit Shilo's need for gluten free and my desire for easy to pronounce ingredients that wouldn't break the bank. It had to be similar enough to my personal cookie recipe that I've used since I was in my teens as far as taste was concerned, and, of course, use the brown rice flour. I was met with many disappointments, but I found two recipes that almost fit my needs, but areas were lacking in both of them.  Fortunately, the areas could easily be fixed by taking the best of each, and that's what I did.

I made a HUGE bowl of cookies, and baked up half the batch for the BBQ. The rest got bagged and refrigerated to bake later this week. The cookies were about a '9' rated by Shilo, and I hate to admit it, but I gave them a '10.' There was one younger male who has gluten intolerance and was so excited to see cookies that he hugged me. Later, his girlfriend asked for my secret. I emailed my recipe to her. I told her she might want to halve it, because I like to make HUGE amounts of cookies.

I guess it was that success that got me thinking about all my other recipes that I've modified to make gluten free. I don't have many, but what if I created a blog/forum similar to Dan's where men and women could discuss and share their gluten free cooking disasters as well as successes, and recipes could be exchanged? Something for people like me who love to cook and eat but aren't professional chefs or nutritionists but just like good tasting foods.

I'd much rather talk to a real person about the trial and error approach where the (poor) family dog gets the mistakes, or sometimes it's too horrible even for the dog. I'd also like to share the recipes that I have perfected and maybe provide encouragement for people taking those first painful steps in trying out gluten free food and coming short. 

So, all the above is just saying that I have an idea for a blog, and I'm asking for encouragement.
Please?

Adventures in Errand Running (3-2-15)

Introduction: For those of you not "In the know" I'll use this to explain my Household. Stitch works day shift Monday through Friday. He rides a bicycle 20 miles round-trip every day he works. Shilo works extended graves 3 nights a week. (Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday) He comes home on Wednesday mornings totally exhausted. The advantage is that his 40 hours are compacted in that time, and I'm never left alone at home for more than 2 hours on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. The disadvantage is that I usually wind up running errands alone if I have to do them on Monday or Tuesday. Such was the case today.

Setting: I was unable to take care of banking on Friday or Saturday last week, so it had to be done today. I mean, I paid the bills, but the cash was at the other bank (Chase) that Shilo uses. I also had 2 prescriptions to pick up at the pharmacy, and Donna needed food. I also had to buy groceries. Not overly stressful when you look at it, but the events were not quite that simple. (They never are)

The Plan: get as much done as possible in the shortest amount of time, driving the least amount of miles. Not an easy task... The pharmacy is 4 miles away, the nearest pet food store from my house is 4.5 miles from my house, but an additional 3 miles away from the pharmacy, and let's not even discuss the banks
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The Decision: If I drove to a shopping Center in Lakewood, I could do everything but get my prescriptions in a 2 block radius, then drive back to the pharmacy, which would be on my way home. Total time spent driving would be 45 minutes round-trip, and I could park in one spot for the banking, and pet food store Easy-peasy!

The Reality: I woke up to rain. Heavy rain. Shilo was already in bed next to me, and he was warm and inviting. Did I really have to go out? Well... I had one night's worth of seizure medication, Donna was out of her food, and the banking? Well, I was already 3 days overdue on that one. Couldn't escape any of it. The rain got harder, and Shilo was soo warm, and he was holding me in such a way that if I tried to get up and out of his hold, I'd wake him. Then there was my cat, Tsunami. He was asleep on my chest. So warm, so cozy. I laid in the cuddle pile for a few hours, enjoying every minute of it.

An overly-full bladder and the sun peeking through the clouds and the curtains finally caused me enough discomfort to get out of bed. Out of all of us, I think Tsunami was miffed the most. It was going on 2:30 by then, so I knew I had to leave, I took a quick shower and left. I also managed to leave both my shopping list and the bank instructions (how much to withdraw) at home. I knew I could wing the shopping list, but I wasn't sure how much money I needed. I had to call (and wake) Shilo for that information. Waking Shilo when he's worked the night before and has to work again in a few hours is an ugly thing. He wasn't happy about me waking him. I don't blame him at all...

How I resisted calling him again after the event at his bank was done by sheer willpower. Needless to say, I didn't call him, and the only thing I've told him about it was that I said "SHIT!!!" loudly enough to turn heads. It was horribly embarrassing, and instead of the 3 minutes I allotted at Chase, I spent 20 minutes there, mostly with a red face and a sheepish grin. There are customers who may never forget or forgive me for my outburst and the ensuing hassle I caused, but, honestly, the events (other than me yelling "SHIT!") were not my fault.

Once that was done, I deposited the money in my bank, bought food for Donna, and headed to the pharmacy, and I managed to buy most of my groceries at the store where the pharmacy is located. Oh! Did I hear you complain that I didn't tell you what happened at Chase? I will... be patient! I still had to stop at Von's for some of the groceries, but it was on the way home, and I finally got home at 5:30, nearly an hour after I had planned on getting home. Unfortunately Stitch didn't answer his phone (as usual) so I had to walk in with the first set of bags using the long way.

I had just finished bringing in the bags and putting away the groceries when Shilo got up for work. I hinted that it had been an adventure today, but I told him he'd have to wait until I posted this.

The Public Humiliation: I'm not very fond of interacting with bank tellers, and, under normal circumstances, I'd use the ATM and be on my way, but the ATM has a limit of $500 for Shilo's account. This means I has no choice but to go inside. They have these huge machines that you can withdraw any amount you want without dealing with a teller. You can even choose the denominations of the cash. I swiped my card and entered $540. A big notice flashed on the screen that I could only withdraw $200. I was confused, but I re-entered my card and PIN and entered $200 for withdrawal, figuring I could withdraw more later. The machine made all kinds of noise, and I was getting worried that there was something wrong, I mean, it was making loud noises, and nothing was happening. Finally, it let out a loud groan and it spit out $200...
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in ONES!
That's right! Two hundred one dollar bills!!! Naturally, my response was SHIT!!! I mean, I had a huge pile of bills in my hand, there were 15 people in line, and I wasn't about to stand in that line with all that money!

I saw a man at a desk in an office, and I tapped on the door. He laughed when he saw the horrified look on my face. I guess the machine started doing that in the morning with everyone. He promised me it would be getting fixed, but the damage and embarrassment had already been done.

He apologized, took the cash in the back, and I heard someone let out a hoot, and then "Jackpot!" It took an awfully long time for him to return, but I guess the money needed to be hand-counted. It was when he returned with the two $100 bills that I realized he had customers at his desk. No doubt they were silently cursing me under their breath.

I hightailed it out of the bank, stopped at the ATM and got the rest of the money, glad that nothing worse had happened.

Moral: There is none, other than expect the unexpected when you least expect it. Well, that, and don't yell expletives in a full bank with children present.