16
May, 2006

a recipe by request

a reader has requested that i post this, one of our newer favorite recipes on the blog. enjoy!

chicken verde (originally from health magazine)

3 c. green salsa (such as Herdez)
½ t. cumin
½ t. coriander
3 (10 oz.) cans green chile enchilada sauce
1 (6”) corn tortilla, torn to pieces

3 lbs. raw chicken pieces, skinned (i prefer boneless)
2 T. cilantro
1 c. queso fresco

Combine first five ingredients in a bowl and stir. Arrange chicken pieces in crockpot, top with salsa mixture. Cook on HIGH for 3 ½ hours, until chicken is done. Remove bones (if necessary) and shred meat. Return chicken to salsa and add cilantro. Let stand 10 minutes. Serve with queso fresco, rice and sour cream. Yields 8 servings.

Posted in yum | 1 Comment
16
May, 2006

chinese buffet

this is kind of a naughty happy thing, but i had lunch today with a friend from my old job and we met up at a chinese buffet. i adore chinese food (although i generally prefer a good sit-down meal to a buffet–reasons to follow) but mr. h-s is not too fond of the soy sauce, so we don’t very often go out for chinese (although i must admit that we eat chinese more frequently than seafood which is my least favorite category of food). the naughty part about the chinese buffet is that i pretty much always pile my plate way more full than i would if i were just offered one dish, but with so many choices… i want to try everything! and there are so many delicious deep fried choices. so… i ate too much. but i don’t think i’ll have time for supper tonight, so maybe i’ll just skip it and the calories will balance out. but that dim sum was very tasty. and they had that thick, plasticky pudding that comes out of a big can that i find so oddly delicious. and i also ate some green beans.

i also enjoyed the company of my friend! we both have an ability to talk forever, so even though we’ve been out of contact for a few months, we still talked each other out to the parking lot. i got caught up on little bits of gossip from the old job (someone graduated from college, the new building is going well, etc.) and i shared with her the parts of my new job that i’m enjoying. it was all very nice!

and one more thing–this restaurant has a crystal chandelier shaped like a ship!

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15
May, 2006

wet grass

this morning, after my run, i chose to stretch out by alternately squatting and reaching for my toes in the tall, wet grass that is my front yard and picking more wild white violets. the grass smells so nice and fresh!

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13
May, 2006

night light

it’s eight o’clock at night and just now turning to dusk. i love summer hours. after working until 5 today, i ran some errands, then came home and flopped in front of the tv for a while, discussed supper plans with mr. h-s at length and then finally made my way out the door for a two mile (ish) run. and it was still light. i just wish it were a bit warmer than 46 degrees. although that’s a lovely temperature to go running in.

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11
May, 2006

yummy smell

i love the smell of a freshly unsealed jar of nutella or peanut butter.

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11
May, 2006

high praise

i am a sucker for a good compliment. today, i went to return the last library book for my class and i stopped by the office of the professor who had created the assignment about the 1960’s newspapers to ask if he needed a copy e-mailed to him (it was a rumor i had heard). he asked who i was and when i told him, he came over to shake my hand and the woman next to him said, ‘oh, you wrote that one? he’s been showing that to everyone in the office. nice job!’

he said he’s recommending that my paper be considered for a student award (not sure what that entails exactly, but it sounds awfully good). maybe i went a bit overboard? i have this problem of getting an idea of how i want something to look stuck in my head and unless it’s impossible to accomplish in the time i have available, i can’t stop fussing with it until it looks the way i want it to. i guess sometimes that pays off. although now i appear to have set the bar pretty high….

oh well, i still feel gratified that the one person who is most deeply familiar with these newspapers likes what i’ve done with it.

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment
09
May, 2006

wondermark

ok, galetea had a link to this comic on her blog the other day, but it has made its way to my ever expanding list of daily-check bookmarks, so i’ll share it with you in case you don’t read blogapotamus rex on a regular basis. the cartoon is only changed on tuesdays and fridays, but i haven’t read all of the archives yet, so i still click on it some other days and read a few back episodes. don’t miss the extra little message attached to your cursor when it hovers over the cartoon.

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08
May, 2006

be sure to wear some flowers in your hair

we got back home early this morning after a whirlwind trip to san francisco–my first time to california! here are some favorite mental snapshots from the weekend (in no particular order):

walking down the wide sidewalk to the farmer’s market on saturday morning, two men running towards us–one man in jogging shorts and a sweaty t-shirt, the other one… in a business suit.

fabulous corn, green chile and monterey jack cheese tamale at the farmer’s market.

flower wholesale shop with gorgeous flowers and many of them very affordable (since they were already opened)–sadly, couldn’t figure out a way to transport them, along with my luggage, on the public transportation system so i had to leave them there.

windsurfers on the bay. on saturday, the winds were so strong that i saw one parasailer pulled into the air at least 10 or 15 feet above the water before he landed down on the next wave.

the old elevator in our hotel that sometimes forgets how to count.

crossing the bay bridge at night and seeing the skyscrapers all lit up.

the tall, green-smelling stillness of muir woods.

“tickles the tapeworm” lunchbox in chinatown.

ok, this one seems like a cheap shot, but i enjoyed visiting the sur la table store and the anthropologie store. sur la table had lots of gadgets and other interesting things that even entertained mr. h-s for a while. anthropologie had these massive pod-like decorations hanging from the ceiling that looked, upon closer inspection, like they might just be papier-mache and twine–but they were so cool!

trader joe’s imported italian yogurt in glass jars. i had cinnamon and ginger flavors.

avocado flavored ice cream at mitchell’s!

spring (art) faire in sausalito.

seeing my best high school friend for the first time in about 4 or 5 years and feeling like we could have talked together all weekend.

Posted in stuff that makes me smile | 1 Comment
03
May, 2006

a visit to china

this morning i had one of those deep dreams that take hold of your whole brain and body. i was woken up from the dream by a friend calling to remind me that we were going running this morning and that i needed to get up. the phone jack in our bedroom isn’t working, so i had to get out of bed and stumble into the other room to answer the call. i was so tied up in my dream still that i could barely talk and walking was difficult. the weirdest part about this dream was that at the end, we were driving over a very muddy, rutted road in china and china was singing me a song. the song went something like this: ‘i am old, i am old, i am very, very old…’ and there were violins and cellos in the background. (and no, before you get snarky, it was not about me being old, it was about china being old!)

the song is still going through my head. if i stop singing it, i will lose the song and then the dream will fade. i still want to be a little bit in china. i can’t remember ever having a dream before where there was a distinct enough soundtrack that it got stuck in my head. and that it was a song i’d never heard before. of course, i’m sure the tune is from somewhere. i’ll probably hear it on the radio today. but for now, i’m still listening to cellos. shhh.

Posted in la la la! | 1 Comment
02
May, 2006

beautiful day to bike

today i had a meeting downtown in the morning and since, unlike yesterday, the sky wasn’t dumping barrels of water onto the ground, i decided to bike. i’m so glad i did! what a gorgeous day! if i could justify biking all the way out to work (and thought i could make my evening schedule work also) i would! anyway, on the way home, i saw yards full of white and purple violets and trees full of pink blossoms. our neighbor is doing a lot of construction right now and the drain in the corner of their yard is plugged up, so they have giant puddles–huge puddles. on my way past today, i saw two ducks sleeping on the edge of the puddles. maybe they’ve passed puddle and are now on to “small pond” level.

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