Thursday, November 4, 2010
Hello Kitty Admires The Baby Jesus March 8, 2005
My daughter hasn't quite got the hang of religion yet. She wanted a nativity scene, and we got her one from Saint Vincent DePaul. She called it her Jesus set, and mixed in Hello Kitty and farm and jungle animals. I figure the Mary I grew up with wouldn't mind that much.
Jasmine March 14, 2005
My Night Blooming Jasmine has started to bloom already. I have two big plants in pots in my sun room. I bring them inside in the Fall and put them back out on the porch in the Summer. They've never bloomed this early before. It's amazing to sit in my sun room in the evening, look out at the moonlit snow and smell Jasmine. I just have one little cluster of about 10 flowers on one plant, which is lucky, since my wife hates the smell. But I grew up with it. One whiff transports me back to hot summer nights in Galveston, Texas, reminds me of the warm waters of the Gulf Of Mexico, brings back the heavy scent of the perfume on the necks of the Mexican girls I held in the back seat of my old man's Pontiac. I worry about what kinds of smells my young daughter is going to remember from her childhood, growing up in Wisconsin. Wood fires maybe. Other Winter smells. But Jasmine, too, come to think of it. She loves it. She tears off one flower every night and takes it to her room.
Princess Zyema January 3, 2005
Princes Zyema Velvet Kitten sits on my lap, purring, and kneads my stomach while I consider this post. She slips behind me on the chair, rubbing her face against my back. This is my daughter's cat, rescued from the Humane Society. She's too young to hunt anything except her little, rabbit-fur mice. She leaps into the air, back arched, tail curved, and comes down on them with all four feet. For some reason, she likes to drop them in her water bowl. There are no mice in the garden now. Everything is under 6 inches of snow. Where are the mice? I picture them in their little burrows, sitting in rocking chairs, knitting, sipping tea or smoking pipes. They have no idea what awful deaths await them in the spring.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Coney Islands
One of the greatest disappointments of my life was the first time I ate a chili cheese dog at Nathan's on Coney Island.
I expected the archtype of the Coney Islands I ate at Keith's Drive-in on Seawall Boulevard in Galveston, Texas, when I was a kid. I had my mouth set for a hot dog with mustard, relish and onions, covered with chili and topped by a thick layer of melted American cheese. Instead, I got a chili dog with processed cheese squirted on the top.
Here's how you make the real thing.
Use whatever kind of buns, hot dogs and chili you like best. (My wife has even used smart dogs and vegetarian chili on whole wheat buns, but I don't vouch for that.) What I do vouch for is all beef hot dogs, regular hot dog buns, American cheese and this fast chili recipe.
Chili
2 Tbsp Peanut Oil
2-3 cloves of garlic
1 small onion
1 pound of ground beef
3 0z bottle of Gephardt's chili powder
Salt and pepper
2 8 oz cans of Hunts tomato sauce
Mince the garlic and chop the onion
Heat the oil in a thick-bottomed pot and saute the garlic and onion
Add the ground beef and brown it
Add salt and pepper and 1/2 to 3/4 of the bottle of chili powder (If you need to add more chili powder later, take some of the chili from the pot, mix in the chili powder, then dump the mix back in. Don't just shake dry chili powder into the chili.)
Add the tomato sauce and 2 cans of water
Cook at a low boil for 30 minutes or more.
Coney Islands
Preheat the oven to between 250 and 325 degrees.
Heat the chili.
Put some hot dog buns in a baking dish.
Heat the hot dogs in boiling water for a couple of minutes then stick them in the buns. (If you have young kids, slice the hot dogs about 3/4 of the way through lengthwise.)
Add mustard, relish, onions and chili in that order. (My daughter adds ketchup, too, but I don't vouch for that, either. You do what you want.) At this point you have a pretty good chili dog.
Cover each chili dog with a couple of strips of American cheese. Absolutely no substitutions. I use 1 slice, broken in half, for each Coney Island. Sometimes I use 2 slices, but I think that makes the cheese too thick.
Bake in the middle of the oven until the cheese is completely melted and the buns are toasty.
I like to cut my Coney Islands in half before I eat them.
What?
Beer is good with Coney Islands, but, for my money, milk is actually better.
I expected the archtype of the Coney Islands I ate at Keith's Drive-in on Seawall Boulevard in Galveston, Texas, when I was a kid. I had my mouth set for a hot dog with mustard, relish and onions, covered with chili and topped by a thick layer of melted American cheese. Instead, I got a chili dog with processed cheese squirted on the top.
Here's how you make the real thing.
Use whatever kind of buns, hot dogs and chili you like best. (My wife has even used smart dogs and vegetarian chili on whole wheat buns, but I don't vouch for that.) What I do vouch for is all beef hot dogs, regular hot dog buns, American cheese and this fast chili recipe.
Chili
2 Tbsp Peanut Oil
2-3 cloves of garlic
1 small onion
1 pound of ground beef
3 0z bottle of Gephardt's chili powder
Salt and pepper
2 8 oz cans of Hunts tomato sauce
Mince the garlic and chop the onion
Heat the oil in a thick-bottomed pot and saute the garlic and onion
Add the ground beef and brown it
Add salt and pepper and 1/2 to 3/4 of the bottle of chili powder (If you need to add more chili powder later, take some of the chili from the pot, mix in the chili powder, then dump the mix back in. Don't just shake dry chili powder into the chili.)
Add the tomato sauce and 2 cans of water
Cook at a low boil for 30 minutes or more.
Coney Islands
Preheat the oven to between 250 and 325 degrees.
Heat the chili.
Put some hot dog buns in a baking dish.
Heat the hot dogs in boiling water for a couple of minutes then stick them in the buns. (If you have young kids, slice the hot dogs about 3/4 of the way through lengthwise.)
Add mustard, relish, onions and chili in that order. (My daughter adds ketchup, too, but I don't vouch for that, either. You do what you want.) At this point you have a pretty good chili dog.
Cover each chili dog with a couple of strips of American cheese. Absolutely no substitutions. I use 1 slice, broken in half, for each Coney Island. Sometimes I use 2 slices, but I think that makes the cheese too thick.
Bake in the middle of the oven until the cheese is completely melted and the buns are toasty.
I like to cut my Coney Islands in half before I eat them.
What?
Beer is good with Coney Islands, but, for my money, milk is actually better.
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