Attempt at Healthy Eating Part 2: Slurping your Vitamins

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a boiled vegetable must be in want of vitamins.

I know, sad but true. When vegetables are boiled a lot of their nutrients stay and in the water and when that is drained, the nutrients go too.

Thankfully someone long ago had a wonderful brain wave and invented soup. So now we can also eat nutritious water. Here is my recipe for "Clean out the fridge soup."

3 stalks of celery, diced
half an eggplant, diced
zucchini, diced,
yellow crookneck squash, diced
1 med. white onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, diced
5 strips of bacon, diced
1 chipotle pepper, diced
2 bay leaves
28 oz. chicken stock
1 tbsp. herbes de provance
1 can northern white beans, drained
1 can diced tomatoes or fresh (optional)

1. Put all veggies in a bowl and add a little sugar and about 1 tsp of salt. This draws out water and makes them soft.
2. Meanwhile cook the bacon in a heavy-bottom skillet or pot until nice and crispy and the fat is rendered. Add onions, herbe de provance, bay leavess, chipotle and garlic. Cook until onions are limp and the whole thing is fragrant.
3. Add veggies and sautee for a bit. Then add chicken stock and if needed more water.
Boil for a little then add tomoatoes and beans. Simmer covered for about 20 min.

Voila!

This is a great cool-weather-fall-supper-thing. Serve with crusty bread and pretend you're in a green misty European village.

September 11, 2001

I love being Mexican, it runs in my blood and I am proud of my heritage. However, I am also very much American. The US has adopted me and I it, and I like it, it's cozy here.

For that very reason today is a hard day. When I get to work I usually listen to NPR but I just couldn't make myself choose to hear the stories about 9/11. It's still hard to think about that day and the aftermath. It's hard to think about what the people on the plane were feeling, what they said to their families on those phone calls. It's hard to think about thousands lost. Fire fighters and policemen and women that answered the call with no thought of self. Friends and family (including ours) accross the country paralyzed with fear for our loved ones as we saw those towers fall.

The days to follow were also hard. A whole country confuzed about how this could happen and what we were supposed to do with our grief. Struggling to make sense of such atrocities. This was not the first horrific thing the world had seen, but it had certainly been a long time for the US.

But as with everything there is a silver lining. Courage sprang up where it had been laying dormant. The new battle cry of the republic became, "Let's roll," as said by a group of passengers that refused to let the plane they were on do any harm and diverted it to a Pennsylvania field. An outpouring of love and support for victims and families and renewed patriotism showed the terrorists that they had not succeded, America would simply rebuild. There was unification. After the tears dried, there was hope. Their plans had failed, America rallied together with chins up and flags waving high collectively saying, "Screw you terrorists."

Really?

Recently there has been an influx of people in TV shows saying, "Really?" In a sarcastic tone denoting, "I can't believe you really believe that." Here is my "Really?" moment of the week:

"The only thing keeping you from your dreams, is yourself," says the recent ITT Tech graduate about having a career in public administration.

"Ryan, Mercaldo & Worthington, good afternoon!"

For those of you who care, my job is going quite well. Wednesday the firm closed early and took all of us, including the Vegas office, to the Del Mar Race Track. We had lunch and were in the middle of the track, watching the horses run around us. It was pretty cool. I bet 4 dollars and only lost 1.60. So good.
Then we come back to work on Thursday and I go get the mail from the mailbox, since I didn't get to it before we had left on Thursday and I get stuck in the stairwell of the building. Here is an account of those harrowing 7 minutes.

Me thinking: I think I'll stretch my legs and take the fire stairs instead of the elevator.
I go into the stairwell and start going down the stairs, then get to the door that opens onto the rest of the first floor and it's locked.
CRAP. Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap. Holy crap. Ok, maybe if I go up the stairs our door might not be locked...CRAP! I cannot be literally stuck in the stairwell...

1 minute...Crappity crap. Holy crap. $#!$&#(@#@$&@)#@#$)((@*#&$@)#($... now what?

2 minutes...Ok, still in the stairwell, cussing does not unlock doors...what to do... I'll yell."HELLO! CAN SOMEONE HEAR ME! I'M STUCK IN THE STAIRWELL!"Oh, c'mon!

3 minutes...Up to the third floor. Make some noise... C'mon! Does no one work here? Back to the first floor, I bet that's the most common floor..."HELLO! I'M STUCK IN HERE!

4 minutes...Why do I not have my cell phone on me? What if I were kidnapped and stuffed into a the trunk of a seedy car? New rule: Always carry phone on person...addendum to new rule: never take the stairs...

5 minutes...This cannot be happening, I am not in the stairwell. The one day I get to work early, I'm actually going to be late. Ok, look for tools in the crawl space to let yourself out...please don't let there be a giant spider...BLURG! Just paint cans, I guess I could use them like how people use fire extinguishers in the movies and bust the lock open...that seems kind of excessive ...wait, what if I take up all the oxygen? What if I die and they find my bones in a few years? Ok, more noise"HELLO! SOMEONE!"

6 minutes..."something, something seems to whisper I love you, dream a little dream of me..." Focus. Let's just sit here until we hear someone pass by. I really don't want a spider to show up...dream a little dream of me...I guess it could be worse. I could: a. be dead. b. have been attacked by a spider. c.have been attacked by wolves. Do wolves eat humans?

7 minutes...This has to be some sort of a lesson. Ok, let's pray. Dear Lord, please let me not die in here, please Heavenly Father, help me figure out a way to get out of here so I can do my job. Help me to stay calm. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. Aha! The fourth floor! Maybe that's unlocked... please, please, please...haha! Thank you Heavenly Father! VICTORY!

It wasn't that long. It was just weird, a feeling of restrained helplessness. I wasn't above using any of those paint cans, but I just didn't want to resort to that if I didn't have to. When I told my boss about it he was really angry because those stairs are the emergency exit in case of a fire, what if this had been a fire? Then I told my supervisor and she said that at least I didn't run into that homeless guy that had decided to set up camp in the third floor of the building before Jeff, an associate at our firm, ran into him after hours and had him kicked out.

Then a guy from the fourth floor comes down and asked, "Is this the firm where the two cars were stolen from the parking lot?"
"I hope not..."
"Let me know if it is."
As I get ready to write the email to everyone asking whether they still have their cars he comes back and says,
"Sorry, false alarm no cars were stolen.."
"Oh, good!"
"...their windows were just bashed in."
::Blink::

To add insult to injury, the front doors at the firm wouldn't lock that night.
All in a weird day's night.

NPR - My new BFF

NPR and I have recently become BFF's. We stay up late at night, we work together, drive to the grocery store together, we even cook together.

NPR likes to talk. It likes to talk about everything and anything. Sometimes it's religion, sometimes it's politics, recently there's been a lot of discussion about the Olympics. Even though NPR talks and talks, I don't really get bored. We're a great pair - NPR talks, I listen.

Not surprisingly NPR and I share a love for the Beatles so I always listen to its musical suggestions. We also like a lot of the same books. It's NPR that introduced me to Harold McGee and On Cooking. I will forever be in NPR's debt for that. In fact, I'll forever be in debt with NPR for introducing me to :Prairie Home Companion, Kitchen Window, Splendid Table, Fresh Air, and the Unger Report.

Futhermore NPR makes me laugh, a quality I look for in any friend. Listen to this:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91066188

Yes.

Pear Pasta

Weird, right? Wrong. So very very deliciously wrong.

I made this at Brandon's request since he loved the pear ravioli he had at Barolo's a while back.
Italians have been paring gorgonzola and pears for a long time, it's a shame that the US is barely catching on because pear is one of my favorite fruits. As an added bonus this is one of the easiest things I've ever made. The recipe I got didn't call for bacon, but let's be honest, there isn't a whole lot that bacon doesn't improve.



Pear Pasta
1 lb pasta
1/2 cup Italian parsley, thinly chopped
1 lb. pears (about 3), chopped
3-4 oz gorgonzola, or any other blue cheese
1 lemon, juiced
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/2 tsp. corn starch
4 strips of bacon, chopped (optional)
1/2 cup toasted walnuts, chopped
salt, pepper

1. Cook pasta in salted water. Meanwhile, put pears, lemon juice, gorgonzola and parsley together in a bowl. Stir and let sit.
2. Put broth and corn starch in a pot together and let them boil, while stirring. Let boil for about 2-3 minutes.
3. Cook bacon and toast walnuts.
4. Mix cooked pasta with pear mixture and broth mixture then add bacon and walnuts on top. Add salt and pepper to taste.

I served this with fresh spinach on the side, but I'm sure a caprese would go over quite nicely.