blog post

Hello!  Hope you've been having a great weekend!  Steve and I kicked it off with a get-together with some friends -- we met at the Southwest Gallery (over at Welch and Sigma) for an artists' reception, and then we had dinner at the Asia Grill (over by the Plano Central Market). 

We LOVE this place because the food is fantastic and they let you bring your own wine -- so we took a lovely, smooth Lambert Bridge Viognier, and Tom and Deb brought a big, fruity Australian Shiraz and we had a wonderful time!

Since we aren't going to make it to Santa Fe this year, we decided a gallery tour was as close as we could get, and if you don't know it -- you should go see!  Check out their website by clicking here.

Yesterday was "clean the house" and "go to Kroger" day, and today's events were newspaper and coffee in bed, New York Times crossword (yes, in ink, and yes I finished it and only had to look up 4 answers online), and a big meal production.  Later, we'll watch the Oklahoma Sooner women beat Louisville!

Now, the meal thing tonight is a bit different because we're having leftovers.  Usually, I make a big meal and we have leftovers of it during the week, but this week we ended up with some chicken and some roasted brisket.  What I'm making is my knock-off of Houston's "Mexico City-style" tortilla soup with the chicken, and a thick mushroom-barley stew with the roast.

I would really enjoy sharing the recipes with you -- but I don't have any!  I just throw in a bit of this and that and there it is.  However, the tortilla soup doesn't have too much variation, so here goes:

Ingredients to make soup for 2 or 3 hungry people:  1/2 can diced tomatoes, can mild green chiles, 2 tablespoons chopped onion, 1 teaspoon chopped garlic, 1/2 cup dry rice, 1/2 cup frozen corn, 2 chicken bouilion cubes, a few sprigs of fresh cilantro, an avocado, and a 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano.  Use 1/4 to 1/2 leftover chicken.

Preparation:  In a crock pot, put the tomatoes and 2 cups of water with the bouilion cubes.  Turn on "high" to get it started.  Dump the chiles on a plate and separate out seeds.  Chop the onion, and add to the broth with everything else except the avocado.  Cut up the chicken into bite-size pieces and add to the soup when it's hot.

Let it boil down a bit, then slice up the avocado.  After ladeling soup into bowls, place a few avocado slices on top and ENJOY!  Oh -- you can get those "tortilla strips" at the store and sprinkle a few of those on top, too.  For maximum flavor, do not add more salt and do not add pepper.

After the basketball game, I'll put up this week's "Destination of the Week."  I'm going with the Dallas Morning News' selection of Cancun -- because I agree with them that it's a marvelous choice for a get-away, especially if you can't escape for more than a few days.  See you later -- Janet