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Delicious Recipes, Tried & True

A week ago I had friends over for lunch, and I made carnitas and tomalito, two things I love but had never made before (I always seem to enjoy trying new stuff out on said friends, who have been victims of stuff like homemade sushi, etc. before).

CARNITAS RECIPE (from food.com)

3 lbs pork tenderloin
4 cups chicken broth, hot
2 tablespoons garlic powder
2 tablespoons onion powder
2 tablespoons cumin
1 tablespoon chili powder, medium hot
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 tablespoon lime juice
1/4 teaspoon salt (to taste)

DIRECTIONS:
1. Heat up chicken broth on stove.
2. Add spices and lime juice to chicken broth.
3. Put broth into crock pot.
4. Add pork to crock pot.
5. Cover and cook on LOW for like 8-9 hours until broth is reduced and pork is delicious.
6. Shred meat and mix into thickened cooking sauces.
7. Be amazed you cooked something so delicious.

NOTE: I forgot the lime juice till the stuff was basically done. I added the lime juice afterwards and the pork was able to marinate in the newly limed juices overnight before my friends came over. So, I would recommend remembering the lime juice at the beginning because the citrus flavor really adds to the meat. Also add more salt. NOTE #2: the online directions say cook it on HIGH for 4-6 hours but I wasn’t going to be home while it was cooking so I just cooked it on low per some other recipe I found when I was looking.

CORN STUFF (aka tomalito from Chevy’s. From allrecipes.com)

5 tablespoons margarine, softened
1/4 cup masa harina
1/3 cup white sugar
1/2 cup water
2 cups frozen whole-kernel corn, thawed
1/2 cup cornmeal
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons milk

DIRECTIONS
1. In a medium bowl, mix together the margarine, masa flour, and sugar until light and fluffy (use a hand mixer!).
2. In a food processor or blender, blend 1.5 cups of the corn kernels with the water and cornmeal just until smooth. Stir into the masa mixture.
3. Mix in the remaining corn, baking powder, salt, and milk until the batter is smooth.
4. Place batter in microwaveable container with a lid that seals so no steam escapes.
5. Cook in microwave on LOW (level 3 or 4) for 4 minutes, give it a good stir, then cook on HIGH (level 10) for seven more minutes.
6. Check to see if corn stuff is still soupy, if so, put it back in the microwave for another minute or so.
7. Stir up corn stuff so its texture is consistent and serve.
8. Be amazed that this is EXACTLY as delicious as the corn stuff from Chevy’s.

The directions actually call for the corn stuff to be cooked in a double boiler, but yeah, I don’t have one of those, nor did I have an hour for it to steam, either. The microwave method listed here worked just fine!

Anyway, enjoy. Right now I’m cooking another crockpot of pork, but I just did it regular with some seasonings. I will add mushroom soup and have it all gravylicious later. I like crockpot cooking, I’m glad I got over my irrational fear of it – there will be muchas pork tenderloin in my future!! I think real carnitas use a fattier cut of pork (shoulder or butt) however Trader Joe’s conveniently had tenderloin so that’s what I used.

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Enstriped

There is a finished object in the house. 

I know, it's been awhile since I've finished a pair of socks, hasn't it? (about a year)

 These are knit out of Knitpicks Felici Sport (Boutique colorway) on US 2.5 needles, 64 inches around. I was completely ridiculous about matching the stripes, and thus the second sock is actually bits and pieces of both skeins so they would match relatively well. It was kind of a pain. BUT I like stripes to match, it's how I roll. The second skein didn't start anywhere near the stripe sequence of the first, I wish they'd be a little more careful about that, it would make my life easier. 

These are the never-ending bluebell rib socks. They are so never-ending I can't remember what yarn they are made of. The colorway is "Peeps" though, and I do heart these socks. I only have 5 more pattern repeats before the toe, and when you are trucking along on the pattern, it moves pretty swiftly. 

Finally, another pair of stripeys:

Knit Picks Felici in what colorway I do not recall (Picnic or Summer or something – the colors are prettier in real daylight) but it is currently available. This one is ribbed and I am trying out a new-to-me technique: afterthought heel! I am interested to see how they turn out and fit because I don't really care for the fit of short-row heels. 

I am working on numerous other socks too, but I will photograph them another time. I am a half-repeat away from the heel turn on the second Bas-Relief sock and I actually turned the heel on one of Abby's rainbow socks, and a pink striped Jaywalker. I don't know when those pairs will be done, though. I'm trying to bust a move on the rainbows, and since I seem to be feelin' the stripes at the moment, I'm hoping to get going on those for real. There is a lot more stripey goodness in my arsenal too, so I'm trying to strike while the iron is hot. 

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Twist & Shout

I was at the dentist yesterday getting my tenth or eleventh filling (what does it say about my ongoing dental adventures of the last two-three years that I have actually lost track of A. how many times I've been to the dentist lately and B. how many fillings I've had over the same time period.) and while I was waiting for the drugs to kick in on my back upper jaw, I turned on the television in the exam room and watched coverage on the terrible tornadoes that have been ripping across the Midwest.

The CNN weatherperson had ordered his crews in the Joplin Area to leave the area – to literally not be around the area when last night's latest batch of tornadoes hit because the debris that had been left in the wake of the first F-5 would likely be caught up in the weather and turned into dangerous projectiles. I never even thought of that.

This seems so scary to me. I remember back when I lived in San Antonio when Katrina hit the Gulf states in 2005. About a month after Katrina hit (maybe only three weeks or so) Rita had formed over the Gulf and its cone of landfall was directed straight over San Antonio. I didn't think we'd get much rain – by the time that hurricane would be that far inland, it would only be a category 1 storm, which isn't that big a deal compared. I decided I should get a few supplies in case anything happened (extra toilet paper, some water, and matches/candles). When I got to the Walmart down the street from where I lived, it was a total MADHOUSE. Everyone else had had the same idea as me, and the place was mobbed.

What made that so stupid was that everyone panicked over Rita's potential landfall and San Antonio never got any rain from Rita, and didn't have rain for weeks surrounding her existence either. I at least had toilet paper.

The recent spate of horrendous tornadoes dislodged a long-buried tornado memory. The only summer I returned home from college was 2002 – there were numerous graduations to attend (my sister from high school and several friends from college – unlike me they didn't change their major three times and transfer out of state, hah). That summer was the summer that I stayed with Sarah and Bill in Westchester for Rhoda's UCLA grad, Sam, Malvina, and I (and Felicia) went to Disneyland together for the first time, Sarah got married, among other things large, small, tragic. It was also the summer that I learned to drive a stick-shift.

At the time, I was learning to drive the truck (a turquoise Ford Ranger that I loved, but drove me nuts over the years until I totalled it in 2005 -another story). My dad had taught me how to drive it out at the old Price Club parking lot, and I was still having problems getting it out of first gear and stalling it all over the place. I would take myself on adventures around the block, and I remember the first time I made it to the Long's Drugs a mile away without stalling, I was so thrilled I bought myself a Crunchy Bar.

So in August of that year my dad and I packed up the truck and headed out to Texas so I could start the first of three senior years. (Which is what happens when  you change your majuor 3 times and transfer out of state.)

It was somewhere along I-10 East in New Mexico when we ran into the storm. To our right, I noticed a white funnel cloud touching down. It wasn't a big one – maybe 10-20 feet in diameter at the ground, but I'd never seen one in real life before, so I was kind of thrilled. My dad was asleep in the passenger seat, and I was driving the truck that I had just learned how to drive only a month or so before.

I looked over to my left, and there were three funnel clouds touching down over the fields. The farmland was stark with brown grass and the sky was black with lightning and rain. My dad woke up and I pointed out the funnel clouds to him. The one on the right had inched closer to the road and another had formed behind it. Five funnel clouds, surrounding us.

Not gonna lie, this was scary, especially with the wind whipping the lightweight truck around and the rain coming down in sheets.

Now, I know that these little twisters were nothing compared to what has happened to the Midwest this spring, but if I thought that these five twisters were scary, I can hardly imagine what it must be like to experience a real tornado – and let me tell you, it's so much more relaxing to deal with living in earthquake country. My heart goes out to our friends in the Midwest.

How to help Joplin and the surrounding area.