Rip your heart out books!

I have not gone to the library a lot lately because it is just too expensive! I will try and explain. When I bring home books, sometimes they get ditched all over the house. By that I mean they will be piled on some chairs, the coffee table, by the bed, you get the drift!? Then I will have the gall to suggest that the chairs should be available to sit on, and perhaps the dining table could be cleared so we can eat a meal there, and someone, who shall not be named, will gather up all his, I mean the stuff, and haul it to the garage. So somewhere in the garage are library books and magazines that I have had to buy, thus it is too expensive. Nes pas?

But, because I am on vacation (hahaha) this week, I needed to run into the bank and thought, while I am in town I will pick up those books I ordered and see what's new.

Are you with me so far?

Good.

I am attempting to give you a brief overview of these books but I find that I cannot with out giving away the whole damned story. Which might be a good thing if it kept any of my two (lol) readers from ever reading them. Let's just leave it at, nice people have really, really bad things happen to them and then they learn to deal with the effects!

I am trying to read and sob, quietly, because it annoys the two men in my life. All the while wondering why I am not one of those people who can just PUT A BOOK DOWN!

But No, I must finish them and then I promptly return them to the library. Hubby wants to know what they were about but I give him the hairy eyeball and tell him they are NOTHING he would EVER want to read.

Gentle readers, If you read these books and loved these books and are offended that I did not...I am sorry.




So I quickly looked around and found some books, but what I am wondering is why I pick the books that I do? I mean, the library is full of books, right? And we have just experienced a country wide thrashing, right? Why would I need to pick two books that rip your heart out, take a giant bite out of it and then cram it back into your chest??

"Imperfect Birds" Anne Lamott and "Every Last One", Anna Quindlen. These are authors I do not read and genres I do not particularly like. Why then did I choose not one, but two of these books? What made me sit down and read one, completely iin two days and then start the next? Have I lost my mind?

Perhaps.

Maybe I just needed a good cry, or two. Maybe, like beating yourself in the head with a hammer, it just feels so damn good when you stop!


Yesterday was a soup, stew, something warm and filling kind of day. I thought I was going to make Mushroom Go Ba Soup, which is one of our favorites. The Go Ba part is sizzling rice added to the soup which makes a distinctive noise and steam and is quite dramatic. Then I thought some more and decided to make Posole.

Is everyone like me when it comes to cooking? God, I hope not. But sometimes I read about something and just want to try it at home. Sometimes I stand on my head and dig a package out of the very bottom of the freezer and decide to make something with IT. I have even been known to take a cookbook to the store with me and pick up all the ingredients for something. Yesterday it was "I took two pork chops out of that package, what could I do with the rest?", kind of inspiration. That's why the Ga Ba Soup and the Posole. They both start with pork. Only I changed my mind when my freezer-foraging found a nice 1-1/2 pound pork roast, maybe a loin roast, cannot remember.

In my opinion, and after all you are reading my blog so you must want it, soup does not need a recipe. Soup is a large pot or a crockpot and you just start filling it up. If I do not want leftovers (Ha!), I start with a medium sized pot and expect to have to pour the contents into a larger pot at some time. If I want a lot I start with the jumbo pot and know my limits. Yesterday was the large pot because we are expecting (and getting) some nasty weather and everyone knows soup is better the next day and the next.

Roughly:

1 - 1 1/2 pound pork, cubed. 1" cubes. discard any obvious fat.
old pie pan with some flour, salt and black pepper
Large pot, start heating on medium and then when it is getting hot add 2 tbsp. olive oil
2 carrots, washed and cut into 1/2" circles
3 stalks celery, same
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6 cups hominy (I opened one of those restaurant sized cans and put the rest in the freezer for later)

2 cloves garlic, at least!
1 california red dried chili
1 ancho dried chili
what ever dried chili's you have. Crush them , remove the seeds and stems, put into a glass measuring cup with the garlic and cover with boiling water. Let sit while you busy yourself elsewhere.

Go back to the fridge and see if anything else looks interesting.


Back to the pot which is now nice and hot. Start dredging the pork cubes into the flour mixture. Gently and carefully drop them into the hot oil (I said carefully), and let then get a golden brown. A purist would remove them to a bowl when nicely browned, but I just shove them to the side of the pot and keep adding more, browning, shoving, maybe add some more olive oil (It is good for you), until all the meat is browned.

Then start tossing the carrots and celery and give it a nice swoop around the pot. As those begin to cook (you can smell them), you can start playing with the seasonings.

This is when I begin my refrigerator foraging. I found some salsa that G said was way too hot, the Better then Bullion (chicken) (If I had Penzney's Pork broth I would have used that).

I am an impatient cook. I boil water in my trusty Krups boiler and pour it into the pot, add a big spoon of chicken buillon, swirl it all around and then add a couple of tablespoons of the hot salsa, a few good shakes of chili pepper, some grinds of black pepper.

A traditional cook would take the chili mixture, put it into the blender (be careful here, it is hot and HOT. Hold the lid of the blender on with a towel to protect your hands. Then they would strain it and pour the entire contents into the pot. Then they would eat it. But it would kill you and I, just too spicy! So I use tablespoons of the liquid until I like the taste of the soup. I can always add more but I cannot take away heat, so be careful.

This soup is best served with sliced radishes, diced green onion (Mexican Onions if you can find them, they have a larger white bulb and are divine), cilantro and a good squeeze of lime.