Last night, Pollo Sudado.
It’s a Columbian dish. And it’s apparently – according to the spud, who takes Spanish – pronounced “Poyo”, not (as the pedestrian amongst us might attempt to pronounce it) “Paul-o.” I wasn’t witness to the Spanish pronunciation lecture the spud gave Fred, but apparently it’s pronounced that way because it has two ls… or something. He wasn’t real clear on the whole thing.
Having never made it before, I had no idea what it was supposed to look like when done. It ended up being somewhat watery, and Fred and I discussed whether it was supposed to be watery, or whether the broth was supposed to thicken, or what. Finally, when the chicken had been cooked through and was so tender it could be shredded easily (though you’ll note in the picture that I didn’t actually shred it) Fred put forth the idea that we could add some cornstarch to the broth to thicken it a little. I told him that would be a good idea and told him to do it (that way I could blame it all on him for not putting the cornstarch in correctly) and went to make the honey-mustard dressing for my salad. When the dressing was done, I turned around and I swear to god, he’d dumped at least half a cup of cornstarch directly into the pan.
I couldn’t help myself; I gasped.
“Oh!” he said guiltily. “Is that too much?”
“Well, I – no, maybe not!” I said, my eyes big as saucers.
He began scooping out as much cornstarch as he could, dumped spoonfuls of lumpy cornstarch into the sink.
“Perhaps next time,” I said judiciously, “We could stir the cornstarch into a small amount of water to prevent lumps.”
When he’d removed about a third of the cornstarch he’d added, he stirred the rest of the cornstarch in the best he could. And in the end, it worked out pretty well. The broth thickened nicely, and there were only a few small lumps of cornstarch left.
There were two thumbs way WAY up to the Pollo Sudado, and we’re actually going to have it again later this week instead of Curry-Cajun Chicken, because we both liked it so much. I don’t like cooked tomato in… well, anything, but I was okay with it in this dish.
The kittens liked it, too.
(There was only a small amount of the broth left in the bottom of the bowl, and they came running from all corners of the house and fell upon the drippings as if we’d been starving them to death for weeks. When they were done, that bowl was spotless. I could have put it back in the cupboard (NO, I didn’t) and no one would have been the wiser. Well, except maybe for that little whisker someone left as a calling card.)
Yesterday we (by “we”, I mean Fred and the spud, because I can no longer stand the taste of taco seasonings) had
Taco Burgers. They had Taco Burgers, I had regular burgers, and we were all happy. Fred declared the Taco Burgers to be a keeper, too. That’s
two new recipes in
one week.
Did you feel the earth shake too?
* * *
You know how I mentioned last week that we talk about disgusting things at the dinner table (ie: cat poop and the consistency thereof) and it doesn’t bother any of us at all?
Well, last week we were eating meatloaf for dinner, and Fred said “How about that E. Coli story, huh?”, referring to a story he’d read online about how some bagged salads were recalled due to some of them having E. Coli contamination in them.
As soon as he said the words “E. Coli”, I couldn’t eat any more. I came thisclose to gagging. Just the THOUGHT of E. Coli absolutely grosses me out, and I don’t know why I’m okay with poop discussion, but E. Coli discussion absolutely takes away my appetite.
Yeah, I’m a freak.
* * *
I played a major game of phone tag yesterday. I was sitting in the dining room playing with the kittens when the phone rang. I let it go to voicemail, knowing that I could just check caller ID when I was done playing with the kittens and call whoever it was back. Fifteen minutes later, I checked caller ID and saw that it was my brother. I settled on the couch and called him back, but there was no answer. I thought for a moment, then decided to call my sister and see what she was up to. There was no answer at her house, but while I was trying to decide whether to leave a message (“Hi, just called to see what you were up to, nothing important!”), my call waiting beeped, and I looked at the caller ID to see that it was my brother, so I clicked over to that call.
I talked to him for a while, and at some point the call waiting beeped. I glanced at the caller ID to see that it was my sister, and let the call go to voicemail, figuring I’d call her back after I was done talking to my brother. When I was done talking to my brother, I checked my voicemail, and found a message from my sister. I decided to call her back after dinner.
And promptly forgot.
Around 6:30, my mother called and said “You need to call your sister, because it’s raining outside and she can’t stand out there and talk to you on her cell phone, and she was wondering why you called her.”
“Oh,” I said. “I was just calling to see what she was up to.”
I hung up and called my sister and we gabbed about everything under the sun for like half an hour.
After all that time on the phone, I think I need to take to my bed for a day just to recover. Heh.
* * *
The kittens are going to the pet store this afternoon. I am going to miss them SO MUCH. They’ve been so sweet and cuddly lately (well, ever since we got them, really) and I’ve really enjoyed always having a kitten climbing up into my lap.
Mostly I’m going to miss Sugarbutt, noxious gas and all.
Y’all, hope and pray they get adopted this weekend. I don’t know if I’d be able to stand it, going in there Monday and seeing them still there.
When does this get easier, again?
It’ll probably take me through the end of the week to get all the pictures I’ve taken of them up, so y’all will still be able to see them for the next few days.
Sugarbutt in the sun.
Sugarbutt in motion.
Smitty in the sun.
Climbin’ kitten.
Smitty snoozes in the box of giveaway stuff.
Callie, up close.
Callie, in the box top.
“Mooooom! My toy mouse went under the fridge, and I can’t REACH IT, and Smitty keeps TOUCHING ME with his TAIL!”
All of today’s uploaded kitten pics are
here.
* * *
Previously
2004: No entry.
2003: No entry.
2002: No entry.
2001: No entry.
2000: My breasts are strawberry scented.
1999: I was ambitious today.]]>