Chili

I had some really tasty vegetarian chili at a board meeting last fall. I got the recipe and decided to make it at my folks' house last night. The only fly in the ointment is my dad is a major carnivore. He thinks he hasn't eaten dinner if he hasn't had meat. So Mom, Pat and I decided it was best to keep mum about the ingredients of the chili.
After Daddy's first helping he says "wow, babe, that's really good chili, what's in it?"
Ummmmmm, "beans, corn, tomatoes, chili and.... a bunch of other stuff." I think he got bored after four ingredients and just said "oh". Even if he did have four (yes four) helpings, at least it was healthy.

My Lucky Day

I just returned to the office from a Campbell Chamber of Commerce luncheon. Of course the main reason for belonging to the Chamber is to network and get more business. I also do some volunteer work with the Chamber to give back to the city. Difficult stuff like pour beer at Oktoberfest and the like.
At the end of the lunch someone draws a business card and the winner gets $50. The first person drawn left early so she missed out. The Chamber President went to Don - former Police Chief and Mayor - he worked with my Dad before I was born at Campbell PD.
Anyway, I said "pick me, Don" and he did. So, I'm $50 richer, which will probably go to something exciting like groceries or gas. The better part is after I came up to get my cash I got to do an informercial and two people got my card for property management.
Maybe I should buy a lotto ticket.

Crab!

As both of my readers know, I love to cook and if I say so, am darned good at it when I put my mind to it.
While driving around on Saturday I was listening to a radio show called "dining around with Gene Burns". Gene was interviewing a chef who is taking part in the upcoming crab festival in SF. Mr. Chef said he made a crab and grapefruit salad and I thought, man, those two flavors would be great together.
I did a brief google search and found a recipe - I have modified it a bit, but we both declared it thumbs up. Here it is:
Mince 2 tsp. shallots
add 1 Tbsp. lemon juice
1/4 tsp salt
let sit for 30 minutes

meanwhile - clean some crab. I got one Alaskan crab leg, which was perfect, as I thought chunks would be better than the fine textured crab meat. Clean the crab and cut into chunks.

Clean one ruby red grapefruit. Remove peel, all membranes and chop coarsely.

Prepare a bed of greens on each plate (this is for two). Add the crab, grapefruit and one chopped avocado divided between the plates.

Add 2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil to the shallot stuff and whisk.

Pour the dressing over the salad and add toasted chopped almonds on top. I didn't do this last night, but think it'll be very good, as I like a little crunch with my salad.

Hope you enjoy!

Phobias

Mom, Kristen and I were having a discussion about phobias yesterday. I think that there are some rational phobias, such as fear of flying, and irrational ones, such as mine. Spiders.
I say fear of spiders is irrational, because the rational part of me says "you can just squish that thing and be done with it". It's the irrational part that takes over and is screaming inside my head. I can't even look at 'em on TV. When Laura was younger she was watching some show that had those huge dinner plate-sized spiders on it. She says "Mom, you have to come see this". (Dummy me) I went and looked, then freaked out and Laura laughed her ass off. I know it's ridiculous.
Which brings me to the original purpose of this post. I am co-habitating with an enormous spider. I'm not kidding, it's at least 1 1/2 inches long, fat and black. I've seen it twice in the past couple of weeks. It only comes out when I'm alone, because it knows.
I think it lives either behind the sideboard or the armoire we use for an entertainment center. It comes out in the early morning after Pat has left for work. He has been on the lookout for it and clearly thinks I'm delusional. When I see it, I just have to look away and pretend it's not there. Then it goes back to where it lives and I'm okay again.
Oh, Moling.... tell Dan I can hear him chuckling.

Weather

It is nasty out there today. Cold, rainy and windy. Our power went out briefly this morning, so I have a few clocks to re-set.
This is the kind of day I wish I could stay in. It would be a great day to organize recipes, bake, read or even work on our taxes.
Instead I have to go out and slog through this mess, due to property management related appointments. I'm not complaining - I'm happy to have the work. It's just that when it rains here people seem to leave their brains at home. Instead of slowing down they drive like maniacs. I guess I'm just not in the mood to risk my life on the road today.

The Fifth Season

Okay, some would argue that we don't even have four seasons here, but I think we do. We are currently in that weird time of year that's between winter and spring. There is snow on Mount Hamilton to the east of us - nothing but rain and wind in the immediate forecast, which is good - we need it.
I call this season "slime season". We have three very large trees on the east side of our condo. For about three quarters of the year they have nice green leaves that shade us and are pretty to look at. After the leaves are gone and before the new ones emerge (which they are starting to now) these trees produce a weird blossom. They are not like flowers, but do contain pollen. They are small, green and when lumped together look rather like caterpillars.
It has been a warm winter so the slime flowers and leaves are coming out together this year. These things blossom, then the rain and wind knock them off the trees and they turn to slime. They are all over our deck, porch and walkways. They cannot be swept away, as they are too sticky and slimy. The only way to get (temporary) relief is to use a hose. As much as we wipe our feet, we track this crud into the house. I hate slime season.

TV

Okay another rant. As most of America knows, on February 17th, people can no longer use analog TVs. This is a stupid date and I can imagine how the committee came up with the date. Having served on plenty of committees, I know how it works. Half of the committee wanted 2/1 and the other half wanted 3/1. They compromised on the date of the 17th, which is a hard date to remember.
I do understand that there are probably a lot of people who use rabbit ears or whatever. I would imagine that people with lower incomes, the elderly and the like don't have cable.
What I don't understand is why the government thinks it's SO important that every American has access to TV. What do they need to watch? Their Soap Operas, Jerry Springer or Judge Judy? Yeah, I admit I was glued to the tube for the inaguration, but that's the exception of what people normally watch.
I do like watching TV - I am watching the news right now. But, I would not die if I didn't have TV. We lived without TV for years in Gilroy. If I wanted to stay in touch, I listened to the radio. That's still free.
So why all the hullabaloo to make sure everyone can watch their precious TV?

Hats

I have come to realize lately that some people can wear hats and some just cannot. I think I fall into the latter category.
Things I can wear on my head:
Straw hat to keep sun off my face - check
Baseball cap while camping or hiking, again the sun thing - check
Cowboy hat for western style party - check
Hat as a fashion accessory - FAIL

At President Obama's inaguration Aretha Franklin wore the most beautiful gray hat. She totally rocked that hat. I'm sure women all across America were on the phone to their favorite milliner saying "make me a hat like that!". I just googled "hat" and the number four entry was that gray beauty. Apparently it's going to the Smithsonian.

In a previous post I said Susan and I were chatting online during the inaguration. We both agreed that hat was beautiful and confessed we would look like total DORKS wearing the same hat.

Case in point... our friends Dan and Moling... Dan pictured above. Moling took this pic of Dan modeling a new cap he got for his birthday. He looks dapper and stylish. He totally rocks the cap. Pretty sporty look for an octogenarian, huh? For the record, Moling says she can't wear hats, either.

So what's the deal? Why can some people look totally cool in a hat or cap, while the rest of us just look like total dorks? It's just not fair.