This is not, admittedly, beautiful food. It is, however, spicy and delicious and comforting and filling and has been appearing in my kitchen on a fairly regular basis over the last few months. The original recipe is here, but I’ve posted my version with some tweaks below. I followed the recipe pretty exactly the first time I made it, and it was way too Bowl o’ Meat for my tastes. But bulking it out a bit with some brown rice and carrots, plus extra broth, made it more of a one-dish meal and somewhat closer to nutritionally sound. Other vegetables would be good too–I can see zucchini, red pepper, maybe some greens. The trick is just making sure to chop them finely; the soup cooks for a relatively short period of time, so the vegetables need to be small to avoid staying too crunchy.
Green Chili With Pork
- 1 medium onion, quartered
- 2 (3- to 4-inch) fresh jalapeño chiles, stemmed and quartered, including seeds
- 2 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
- 4 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 2 medium carrots, minced
- 1 lb ground pork
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 (14- to 15-oz) can white hominy (also called pozole), rinsed and drained
- 1/3 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro
Accompaniments: toasted hulled (green) pumpkin seeds; crumbled queso fresco or ricotta salata, sour cream, brown rice
Purée onion, chiles, and garlic with 1/2 cup chicken broth in a blender. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a 4-quart heavy pot over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then brown pork, stirring and breaking up clumps with a fork, just until no longer pink, about 4 minutes. Transfer to a bowl with a slotted spoon. Pour off all but 1 tablespoon fat from pot. Add remaining 3 tablespoons oil to pot and heat over moderately high heat until hot, then carefully add purée (it will spatter), cumin, and salt. Add carrots to the pot. Cook, stirring frequently, until mixture is thickened and most of liquid is evaporated, about 10 minutes. Add pork, hominy, cilantro, and remaining broth and simmer gently, uncovered, stirring occasionally, 10 minutes. Serve chili over brown rice, sprinkled with pumpkin seeds, sour cream, and/or cheese.
A very good friend of mine was married a couple of weeks ago. I offered to make them a ripple blanket as their gift, since I knew she’d liked the others I’ve made and I’d just been waiting until I could see all of the Cascade 220 colors in person before I got started. I went to Webs this past week while Rob and I were gallivanting around New England and came up with a combination of three neutrals and nine colors that I like together.
I’m two stripes in and like it so far, so we’ll see…
In other project news, I’m a few inches short of the armhole on a Folded out of Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn that used to be a bright bubblegum pink, but I overdyed with a little bit of black. And I started a Milkweed Shawl with a random ball of tweedy Shetland that may or may not be enough to finish it. If not, I have enough black yarn of a similar gauge that will work. It’s a very easy project, but still requires enough attention to keep from getting too bored; I’m enjoying it.
Season two of Sherlock is on PBS tonight, which is pretty exciting news in this household, I have a big pot of green chili with pork and hominy ready to go–I should take a picture of it later and write up the recipe; it’s quick and delicious–and still have to knock out a freelance piece, run a couple of errands, and figure out what I’m wearing to my first day at the new job tomorrow(!) before I can relax for the night. On to it…
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
I might see these ducks in Connecticut.
I went to the eye doctor today at lunch and now I’m sitting at my computer with dilated eyes, trying to knock out a couple of spreadsheets to help out the person who’s taking over my duties here starting next week. Because I got a new job! It’s a nice step up the masthead at a somewhat similar publication and I’m really looking forward to the change. Working at the computer right now is giving me a wicked headache though, and writing this post lets me just touch type and free associate instead of looking closely at some tiny-fonted print material and looking closely again at a tiny-boxed spreadsheet.
I don’t start at the new job until May 7, so have next week off and am going a little berserk planning how to spend the time. My boyfriend has a gig in Providence this weekend, so we’ll be roaming New England for a couple of days after that. Probably New Hampshire, since he’s never been there and I’ve only been to a friend’s family’s camp near Portsmouth and to the Nashua mall during my college-era mall retail management years. Suggestions for good hiking or thrift shops or the RI/NH equivalents of something like the Coon Dog Cemetery or the Belgian carrot museum happily accepted. I prefer my tourist attractions to be creepy or absurd or, ideally, both.
We’ll be back in New York mid-week, I think, maybe with a stop at his mom’s in Connecticut. And I’d really like to look back on my time off as being productive and fun. So I’ve been putting together a list of “staycation” destinations: somewhere fancy for lunch (maybe Marea?), Ellis Island, Ft. Tilden, Bronx Zoo + Arthur Avenue, Habu… And I’m stockpiling books and thinking about writing projects, both freelance and personal, and planning a couple of sewing projects and some home organization and spring cleaning, plus movies I want to see (Snow White and the Huntsmen, Avengers, Cabin in the Woods, and, to my surprise, The Five-Year Engagement, which sounded asinine but has utterly charming trailers). So, basically, I’m planning for those three or four days as if I have a month or two at my disposal. It should be fun to look back at this post in a couple of weeks and see what I actually did. Watched tv and knit sporadically? Quite possible.
(via Michelle)
At a friend’s wedding this weekend, I got into a conversation about blogging with Vicky, another of the bride’s close friends. I was telling her how much I’d slowed down posting and I didn’t really know what I wanted to do with the space, but that I definitely wanted to hang on to the domain, so I had to do something (I am very fun at weddings) and she said something so simple and smart and spot-on that I think it may have broken through my blog-writing block: that the nice thing about blogs is that they’re always there for you to go back to them. It doesn’t matter how long it’s been. It doesn’t matter what you’ve written about in the past. You can always start up again and write about whatever you want.
So here I am. And will be, much more frequently.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Inspired by these coasters, I used some fabric I had around to make a bunch of light/dark squares. The red/white floral was a piece of flocked cotton, maybe half a yard, that came into my hands when my favorite cousin bought a house that had previously been owned by a hoarder. There was other fabric and yarn, but most of it had been gnawed on by little beasties, both winged and naked-tailed, and wasn’t usable. I’d wanted to use it for something special and had almost given up hope when I hit upon this idea. The plan is to put them together for cushion covers, but I haven’t quite nailed down which configurations I like best. I think these two may be the winners though. I like the strong graphic quality of the patterns and the contrast between the small pieces and the large motifs.
But there are almost limitless other combinations, not to mention the fact that I made a bunch of squares using the same striped fabric and a darker red silk paisley that used to be one of my favorites dresses in the late 90s, so that increases the combinations exponentially.
I have a crafting date with some friends this weekend, so I may pull them all out and see how everyone else puts them together.
Other things that have happened since I last posted:
- I moved in with my boyfriend. We have the first floor of a rambling old house, complete with a deck, a bathroom that’s tiled on the ceiling, a sort of North African … mirror installation in the living room, and some truly ghastly 1980s wallpaper in the kitchen. The latter is not long for this world, but the rest of it is thoroughly charming.
- I became obsessed with Homeland.
- I became obsessed with Gillian Flynn’s latest book, Gone Girl. I actually almost regret reading it because it means I can never read it again for the first time.
- I became obsessed with Draw Something.
- I made this, possibly my favorite salad ever.
- Knitting-wise, I’m plodding away on Effortless and Folded.
Friday, February 24, 2012
A few months ago, I took home 14 balls of Jaeger Luxury Tweed from a yarn swap. It was lovely yarn, but a color that I wasn’t particularly interested in:
Originally, I was thinking I’d overdye it all a deep teal, but I had a bit of black and burgandy dye on hand, so used that instead. I stuffed it all in my dyepot and hoped for the best.
Considering all of the black dye I used, I thought I’d end up with something much darker, but I do love how it turned out. Now to think of something to do it with all…
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Except not really, because this pattern is awesome. I am one slow crocheter and even I managed to knock out Kim Werker‘s Celia Circle Scarf in three days. It would have taken even less time, but I didn’t bring a spare skein with me when I was out of town this past weekend (rookie mistake). Here it is after weaving the stitches in, but before blocking.
For some reason that I can’t quite figure out, the pattern stitch in the lower portion of mine appears to be on the diagonal, while the upper bit in the same stitch has a much stronger vertical line the way Kim’s original did. No matter. I learned some new ways of putting stitches together and towards the end, was much better at reading the fabric than I was at the beginning, which were my main goals for this project. Plus, I was able to support a friend’s creative endeavor, used up some cashmere/silk tweed yarn I’ve had hanging around for a while, and got an adorable and useful scarf out of the deal. No complaints here.
I finished the front last night, washed all of the pieces this morning, and should have time to sew them together and add the neck this weekend.
Let’s take another look at that front, shall we? I am smitten with those cables.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Here’s an updated photo of the front from this morning. I love it so, so much.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Not that it’s ever going to be cold enough to wear any of these things ever again. Maybe I can use them as padding for the beds on my improvised raft-home when the icecaps melt completely and Brooklyn floods over. Gah.
(this ridiculous mild winter is really getting to me. I have reverse SAD; going too long without inclement weather makes me cranky. it’s in the 50s today! on january 31! everything is just the worst.)
The herringbone cowl proceeds apace. Irritating as the actual knitting is, it really is gorgeous.
I went ahead and did the sleeves on the Effortless Cardigan before continuing with the body. I’m pretty sure I’m going to run out of yarn, and while I don’t care if all of the ribbing is done in a different black yarn, I do care if the sleeves are. So I used one ball for each sleeve and knit down to where the ribbing would start. There was just a little left of each ball, which I tucked up into the sleeves and pinned in place with large stitch holders. I think I have three balls left in addition to the one I’m working on, which will definitely get me to the lower edge, but may not cover all of the deep ribbing at the bottom and along the front edge and around the neck.
This is another project that’s not very interesting to work on, but will be a fantastic wardrobe addition. The yarn I’m using, Karabella Frost, is a very soft blend of cashmere, silk, and viscose and has enough weight to it that it drapes beautifully. I’ve lengthened it by two inches between the waist decreases and increases to accommodate my freakishly long torso, but otherwise am making it exactly as written.
The last active project in my rotation right now, Edith Mildred Ferguson, is kind of the opposite: super fun to work on, but probably won’t see a ton of wear. I think complicated cables are pretty much my favorite kind of knitting. They’re just so damn satisfying. And cool. But this is going to be a heavy worsted-weight turtleneck, which I don’t need very often in the overheated places I spend my time.
Since I took this picture before the weekend, I’ve gotten up to the armhole bindoff on the front. I don’t know that I could recommend the pattern unreservedly — the chart is numbered consecutively and the numbers alternate from the left side to the right side, which in every other pattern everywhere indicates the inclusion of ALL rows, but it in fact only charts right-side rows; also, the side shaping is a little weird, the decreases and increases are set very close together — but for a knitter who is experienced enough to work through the chart issues and redistribute the shaping, I think it makes a really cool sweater. I’m going to add a turtleneck, since that kind of high crew neck doesn’t flatter me and I’ve lengthened the body some and made some technical changes, but the basic garment and the cable placement is unchanged.
