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Party success!

First, let’s get the shoutouts done:
Thank you Bexxx and Pat for the lovely vase!
Thank you Mickey for the Amazon gift card!
Thank you Bobbie and Cheryl for the groovy antique corn plates and S/P shakers!
Thank you Russ and Heather for the Kama Sutra goodies!

Thanks to everyone who brought munchies and drinks!

We truly love having everyone stay over! Slumber parties RULE! Brunch with some hair of the dawg the next day is pretty awesome. Too bad our house is so small. We found out that 8 is definitely the limit. We had 6 stay over this time: 2 air mattresses and both couches and we discovered that 3 air mattresses would require some serious furniture rearrangement!

Oh, yes and a special thanks goes to Caroline and Dru for being taxi to lil Chris and Dave. We’re sorry you didn’t feel like staying!

We’re still recovering from the lack of sleep and the damn time change. Facing the daily grind after a wild weekend always sucks!

I’ve got spring fever (and the pollen allergies that go with it) and I’m sick to death of my p/t job. I’m always sick of jobs in the spring.

The weight loss project has been a dismal failure so far. Sitting here on my fat ass isn’t really helping, either. Too bad there isn’t a Sleep Cure like in the book Valley of the Dolls… Yah, go to sleep for a month and wake up to a thin fabulous body. If ONLY!!

With that, I shall go and mow the back yard. At least it’s exercise that I like.

FEH

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Moby @ Criminal

We were at the Criminal Records afternoon tea with Moby last Thursday. It was not nearly as crowded as we expected – which was a good thing! Criminal is very small, you see, and we were sure there’d be, like, 500 people trying to cram themselves in there. Luckily, it was more like 50, so we were all comfy and it was very laid back.

Moby is pretty much as I expected: quiet, small stature, a little uncomfortable being fussed over. Typical musician. I bought his book teany which is a cookbook, sort of, but with stories and doodles and other cool info about teas and his tiny lil tea house in New York called teany.

It was a fun afternoon. Here is our pic with Moby:
moby32405

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Angela’s Beef Stifado

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Beef Stifado
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Angela's Beef Stifado

This is a spin on Greek Stifatho. It is a beef, tomatoes and onion stew that many swear is better the next day. This dish can be cooked on the stove or in a crock pot. Photo credit: Echo Echo https://www.food.com/user/121690
Course Main Course
Cuisine Mediterranean
Keyword beef and onion stew, beef stew, greek beef stew, mediterranean beef stew, stifado, stifatho
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 2 hours
Crock Pot Cook time on HIGH 5 hours
Servings 8
Author misangela

Equipment

  • 6 qt dutch oven or crock pot

Ingredients

  • 1 pound stew beef cleaned and cut into 1" dice
  • 2/3 cup pancetta small ½ inch dice
  • 1 cup flour + 1Tbl cumin + 1tsp cinnamon + 1tsp salt dredge for beef
  • 3 Tbl olive oil cover bottom of pot
  • 2 large onions, frenched OR 2 cups boiler onions
  • 1 large green or red bell pepper 1" dice
  • 4 cloves garlic minced
  • 1 6oz can tomato paste Or 3 Tbl from tube
  • 1 28oz can diced tomatoes san marzano or fire roasted
  • ½ cup dry red wine or sherry
  • ½ cup beef broth or sub chicken
  • ½ tsp cumin
  • ½ tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp ancho powder
  • 1 tsp smoked paprika
  • 1 lemon zest and juice
  • 1 tsp sugar Optional: to taste if tomatoes are overly acidic
  • dash fresh nutmeg
  • 2 bay leaves
  • S/P to taste seasoning

Toppings to serve

  • feta cheese
  • toasted pine nuts
  • chopped cilantro

Instructions

  • Prep all the veg, spices and dredge mix before you start. I use small bowls for all the spices so they are ready to toss in. This is called "mise en place" and will help your cooking go much more smoothly.
  • Put pot on medium heat with olive oil and pancetta. Render the pancetta slowly, turn down heat it if starts to get too brown. You want it crispy, not burnt. Add in onions, peppers and garlic and sweat them. Keep the heat fairly low, you want them translucent, not browned. About 5 minutes.
  • While the aromatics are cooking, dredge meat in the flour mixture. Turn up the heat to medium high and add meat to pot with veg. Brown meat, keeping it moving in the pot. When it begins to stick, deglaze with wine and broth. Scrape up the fond (brown bits) from the bottom of the pot. About 6 minutes.
  • Next, add tomato paste, all the spices, lemon zest and nutmeg. Stir. Add diced tomatoes and stir. Check seasoning. Now is when you'll add sugar if the tomatoes seem too acidic. When seasoning is correct, bring to boil then reduce to simmer.
  • Keep at a slow simmer for about 2 hours, lid slightly ajar, stirring occasionally. If the stew starts to reduce too much (gets too thick), add a little more broth and turn down heat a little.
  • When beef is very tender, stew is done. Add in the lemon juice and check seasoning a final time.
  • Serve with toppings suggested and crusty bread. Or over rice or couscous.

For Crock Pot

  • The recipe is basically the same, but you'll need to brown the pancetta, aromatics and meat in a skillet before adding to crock pot. Do the first three steps of the recipe, then all the other ingredients can be put in the crockpot (wait to check tomato acidity until the end of cooking). Cut down olive oil to about a Tbl. Cut down broth and wine by half (¼ C of each). Put beef and pancetta in last. Cook on HIGH for about 5 hours or when meat is very tender. As with the stovetop recipe, hold the lemon juice until the stew is done or it will become bitter.

Notes

Always add citrus juice at the end of cooking. Adding in early will make it bitter. 
Wait to check tomato acidity until the end when you use the crock, because the tomatoes are cooking for a very long time. 
If the diced tomatoes seem to have a lot of juice, then only use half of it in the crock pot.  Crock pot cooking does not lose as much liquid as stovetop, keep that in mind. 
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30 things I learned in college

My family did not support my going to college. Hell, they didn’t even support my going to a 2 year school. They really truly believe that it’s just like the 50s and 60s when you could get by with a High School Diploma. Only the RICH went to college. Heh, kinda like now, only more so. (Jab at the severely reduced Pell Grant program that no longer pays for much of anything)

My brother has the money to buy a frelling $880 gas tank for his $13k Harley but he wouldn’t dream of starting his daughter a college fund. When I ask my mother about starting a fund so that I can contribute to it, she tells me that it’s not necessary because college is a waste of money. My dad says, “Well, I didn’t go to college and I did just fine. Why would you want to waste all that money on something that you don’t need? YOU never use YOUR college degree!” My mother also strongly believes that my college education means nothing because I don’t “use” my Spanish/French degree to do my work.

Pointing out that there was no WWW as we know it today in 1992 means nothing to them. They don’t even have an answering machine. Pointing out that just because I don’t use Spanish or French in my daily life doesn’t negate all the other stuff I learned means nothing to them. They don’t know who Munch is. They can’t tell the difference between Bach and Mozart. They have no use for knowledge about other cultures – they’ve never lived anywhere but Knoxville, TN. They’ve travelled a little, but bitched and moaned about the food, the lodging, the lack of TV, the water, the different languages spoken. They are the tourists who scream English at everyone and expect to be understood. Nothing I can say about the value of a four year degree means a shit to them. They build starter houses in Knoxville TN and that’s all they need to know. Everything else is just STUPID USELESS INFORMATION.

Well, to dispel the notion that a four year degree is useless, here is a list of 30 things I learned (directly or indirectly) from my 2 year and 4 year degrees:
1. The music industry is CRAP.
2. I know how to do basic audio engineering.
3. I know how to do basic concert rigging.
4. I know about theatre lighting and how to run a lighting board.
5. I know what ‘outboard gear’ is and can use some of it.
6. I know the difference between a Sennheiser and a Neumann.
7. I know the difference between attenuate and boost.
8. I know what an audio buss is.
9. I know how the radio/music industry works.
10. I know more about staging for theatre and music than most people.
11. I know what biased reporting is.
12. I can tell the difference between all Western languages and quite a few Eastern ones. I can usually tell Mandarin from Cantonese when spoken, for instance.
13. I know quite a bit about Spanish and French history/literature.
14. I know a lot about English lit.
15. I understand basic economics.
16. I know about learning disabilities.
17. I know a bit about anthropology.
18. I know a bit about geology.
19. I know a bit about astronomy.
20. I can tell a Manet from a Monet.
21. I know who Homer was and what he wrote.
22. I know about Leonardo da Vinci and the things he accomplished.
23. I can diagram a sentence.
24. I know the difference between a participle and a gerund.
25. I know what subjunctive tense is and which languages use it.
26. I know about Environmental Conservation and how to do it.
27. I know what Gothic spires and flying buttresses are.
28. I know how to write a coherent essay.
29. I know a bit about psychology, such as the difference between neurosis and psychosis.
30. I know how to think critically.

Of course there are myriad other things I learned and I could go on with this list for hours if I had the time. The point of this exercise is to illustrate that college is not about WHAT you take, but about opening your eyes to NEW ideas. It doesn’t matter what degree you get in college, IMO, it’s the act of LEARNING that makes it worthwhile. Getting a liberal arts degree opens your eyes to so many things you’d never otherwise see unless you are an exceptionally inquisitive person who reads a LOT.

I’m not saying that you must have a degree to know any of the things on my list, I’m saying that for a girl brought up by rednecks in Tennessee, it changed my life path. For many people it changes their life path. The commitment of attending classes and learning a broad array of facts changes your views in ways I can’t even enumerate.

A 4 year degree is expected for any job other than the low level ones these days. My neighbor’s wife just lost her teaching job because she didn’t have a college degree. It’s important! I wish my family would see that and prepare for my niece’s future, but they won’t. In the environment she’s in, she’ll either be pregnant at 14, a builder, a leech with no job or simply get married and be a breeder. [She chose the get pregnant at 17 option with a side of leech, btw. -A 2015]

My family thinks I’m a horrible selfish daughter because I “ran off” and got my education. They think I’m selfish for not staying in Knoxville and working in the family business. I think I defied them in order to SAVE myself from those things. I am happy with my life as a geeky web designer and p/t job holder. I’m GLAD to pay for that college degree that I fought so hard to get. It’s enriched my life and I wouldn’t change a thing. I don’t think that my leaving to pursue my own path is a horrible thing to do.

My advice to everyone is: DO WHAT YOU WANT. BE HAPPY. And to parents: Don’t expect your children to sacrifice their aspirations for you. It’s not fair.

Because life is short and you should enjoy it. Now, go have a drink to that!

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1999 Ford Ranger XLT Xtra Cab 4WD

I know I promised a truck pic, so I stole this from Nick’s site. It’s every bit as nice as it looks. The Xtra Cab has 2 suicide doors that you can’t see when the front doors are closed, but they are SO handy! We’ve also ditched the hard cover that was on the bed. Too much hauling from Home Despot! We’ve already hauled stuff 5 times for the house and today I’m going to pick up a new washer/dryer for Dave. Trucky goodness!

1999 Ford Ranger XLT 4WD
1999 Ford Ranger XLT 4WD