The O Spot

Yeah my days off have become dreaded. Every time I have a day off and I plan to do something, it falls through in a very spectacular fashion. Planned to mow all of the lawn, weed-eat, till the garden, and possibly hang a storm door if there was time. Weed-eater is on the fritz and is on it’s way to the shop, Lawn mower is definitely broken probably permanently and I have spent most of the day dealing with that. So a major adjustment to the game plan involves two trips to Murray, and one to Puryear. I WILL have two rain water collection barrels assembled and in place by the end of tomorrow. I will have at least some of the mud and tape on the recently hung dry wall by the end of tomorrow. I will have taken the garbage to the transfer station, the rest of the limbs on the burn pile and part of the garage cleaned out by the end of my days off.

Jaxon’s World

So I’m trying something a little new today. During the power outage I made what ended up being the best pork tenderloin I’ve ever made. I seasoned in the dark and grilled by flashlight. It turned out to be the most flavorful, moist tenderloin ever. As a result I now have to do something a little bit better now that I can season and cook in the light. So I split a tenderloin, filled it with yellow peppers, green peppers, onion, mozzarella, garlic, dried red pepper flakes and a few other things. I’m now cooking it in the oven (would prefer the grill but it’s a bit cold for that today). I plan on dousing with a bit of Rendezvous barbecue sauce at the end and seeing what ends up.

Everyone in my house is asleep right now. Rachel, the cat and dog 1 are asleep on the couch, and dog 2 is asleep in the chair. I ache all over. I think I’m getting sick, or it could be that we hung drywall on almost every wall in the dining room yesterday. We woke up fairly early and had a nice lunch in Murray. I procured what might be the last two bottles of Canada Dry Ginger Ale in Murray for Rachel. Now I am fighting the sleep monster myself.

If you haven’t been informed yet, you’ll most likely feel slighted that you found out on the internet. Rachel and I are pregnant. Well, I guess Rachel is pregnant and I’m the reason that happened. We’re pretty excited and yes it is planned. She’s been sleeping a lot, but that’s not an all too uncommon occurrence around here. She has however experienced some sickness. Mainly at night and any time she smells chocolate or walks on to the bread isle at Kroger (yeah, strange new things).

A “positive” by product of this new development is that all those home improvement projects…well they’ve been put on a truncated time table. I ripped out all the paneling in the dining room preparing to hang sheetrock this weekend. Hopefully the next week we’ll be able to lay all the tile in the dining room and be ready to put all the furniture that is stored in the back room back in the dining room.

I’d love to finish the whole kitchen before the baby comes but that’s not really a reality. Not enough money or time to save all of it before the baby gets here. So maybe once we get enough money for the Kitchen I can send the missus and the behbeh to visit with the inlaws while I make the home pretty.

I predict higher than average turnout. A very close race. Accusations of voter fraud and about 50% of the nation thinking the other 50% are idiots for electing the person they did.

that the only intelligent way to vote these days is within the democratic party?

Isn’t that insulting?

1. After dicing some onion to go in the chili for tomorrow, wash hands thoroughly: Check
2. After dicing fresh jalapeno for chili, wash hands thoroughly: Check
3. Scratch inside of nose: Check

4. ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygod: Uncheck number three.

Apparently two minutes of soap and water, jalapeno juice is still evident on fingers. Nostril on fire. Inside of nose on fire. Not much to be done about it. Guess thats what I get for laughing at Greg for the pepper juice in his eye.

Since we’ve been in this house I’ve gradually tried to become more diverse in my cooking. Creating in the kitchen is something that I’ve enjoyed for a while, but I guess with my own “test kitchen” I feel more comfortable cooking. From the disastrous Coq Au Vin fiasco to my most recent crock pot creation it’s been a bumpy ride.

We’ve been purchasing a dry bean package of 15 bean cajun soup for quite some time. One of my good friends turned us on to this and it’s so simple to make, yet oh so tasty. Right next to that same bag was a bag of plain 15 bean soup. Well add to the cart some fresh onion, chorizo, diced tomato’s liberated from my parents pantry, salt, pepper, garlic powder and hot sauce (Tapatio), and you have a tasty soup. We’ve been trying to get a little more ethnic with our cooking thus the Tapatio and Chorizo. This was my first experience with Chorizo and while it was browning I was very worried about it. It was quite aromatic and had lots of flavor. Almost too much flavor, very much like the Lawry’s burgers from hell(ask Rachel about those abominations).

Recipe:
1 16oz package of chorizo
1 can diced tomatoes
1 yellow onion
1 15 bean soup bag
garlic powder
salt
pepper
hot sauce

I started off with just the bean soup in the crock pot with a little water to cover and a dash of salt and pepper. After about two hours I added the diced tomatoes and the diced onion. Another two hours after that I added the chorizo and seasoned again with all the rest of the ingredients. Every hour thereafter I added seasoning to taste. Simmer until beans are tender. About 5-6 hours on high or 6-8 hours on low. 45 minutes from the end I added a secret ingredient. Four frozen corn on the cob halves. I’ll let Rachel comment on the quality, taste and texture.

Adopted today. Blue heeler mix. 8 months old. Soon to be renamed……maybe.