Comfort Food

I've been sick this week with the same virus Sawyer started out with. And when I'm sick, I want comfort food.

I started thinking about some of the comfort foods Mama used to cook, when I was a child. During the week, meals were quick and easy. There were 6 of us kids and Mama was usually very busy taking care of us, making sure we got our homework done, getting baths, mounds of laundry, etc. But the meals I remember most were made on the weekend.

Breakfast was usually grits, scrambled eggs and toast. My brother used to put ketchup on his eggs. Have you ever tried that?

Lunch was usually toasted Ruth's pimento cheese or chicken salad sandwiches and chips. And sometimes, we would have soup with the sandwiches, especially if it was cold outside. Some of Mama's soups were home-made potato, Campbell's Chicken Noodle, or chili.

And Sunday dinner might be roast beef with carrots and potatoes over rice and biscuits or fried chicken with rice and gravy, some kind of vegetable and biscuits or fried pork chops, rice and tomatoes and biscuits. Yum! That was comfort food at it's best. We eat much healthier now, but sometimes, especially when I'm sick, I want some of Mama's comfort food. And today, I wanted chili!

I created a great chili recipe, but since I didn't feel like cooking, I went to Wendy's for some of their chili, instead. It's very similar to mine. I'm not entirely sure if they add chili powder to their recipe or not. But, my recipe doesn't call for chili powder because Cliff doesn't like it, so I improvise with the Rotel. If you are interested in trying it, see below.

Laurie's Home-Made Chili 

Serves 6 to 8

Ingredients:

1 to 1.5 lbs. lean hamburger meat

I can Kidney beans

1 can Black beans 

1 tbs. olive oil

2 stalks celery

1/2 onion

1 - 28 oz. can petite diced tomatoes

1 can Rotel chili fixins

1 - 15 oz. can tomato sauce

 salt and pepper

In a large pot, saute chopped celery and onion in olive oil. Remove from pan until later. Brown hamburger meat. Add back the sauteed celery and onions, Rotel, tomato sauce, beans, diced tomatoes, salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil. Cover pot and lower heat to simmer for about 40 minutes. 

Let me know if you try it,

Laurie

Slip Sliding Away....An Upstate Adventure

I'm from the south and when we get weather other than thunderstorms, it's a big deal. Winter weather? Even bigger. Sleet? Well...that just begs for us to come out and play.

So Friday....we head upstate. Straight in to the sleet and rain. Good thing Cliff's jeep is a 4-wheel drive with nice grippy tires.

Sleet didn't start to accumulate on the road until we got to Spartanburg. We took I-85 for a short route over to Sista's.

You know, I'm sure one way to weed out the folks that text and drive is to throw 'em on a sleet covered interstate. No lie, we saw 7 accidents within a 3 mile span. All single car accidents. It looked like they had spun out of control.

Experiment: Cliff wanted to see how easy it would be to spin out. He slowed down and waited until no traffic was coming and then hit the brakes. Nothing. His tires grabbed. They did spin very slightly, though, when he hit the gas to speed back up.

Conclusion: I'm going to be a little presumptuous and say that clearly these accidents were the result of someone not paying attention. Don't text and drive, people!

Finally, we made it to Sista's. Let's call her Terri. Now, she's not a biological sister. She is a cousin, but has been adopted into my clan as a bonafide "Sista". And we sistas love an adventure (weather permitting).

Now, if you read my blog about "Cracking Up", you'll know it was over some chili. I hope my laughing at Terri the other night over the chili didn't hurt her feelings. Terri was planning to make it for dinner Friday, but when we got there....No Chili!

I was silent. Thought to myself, let's not stir this pot. Ha! No pun intended. We had pasta instead. Turns out she was accommodating my athletic husband who had a Triathlon the next morning. Gah, she's so sweet?

So, Terri informs me to eat hearty. We are going to slide into an adventure after dinner. Huh? It's 27 degrees F outside. No matter! We are going sledding in the sleet covered hills that she lives in. Oh joy! Oh boy! Wait, this could get dangerous.

Scott, Terri's boss husband, has this thang about wives submitting to their husbands. Well, let's just say, "ain't happening". He just does what Terri says. And Terri said, "Honey, go get the sled." OMG!


Disclaimer: Cliff has videos coming out the ying yang. But for space and time's sake, I've only attached one.

"Said Video"

Jan 25, 2013 Sledding at Terri's.

Yep, that's me. And nope, I didn't die.

Good thing Scott told me how to turn the thing or I would have ended up in the bushes like Terri. Ha!Ha!

Cliff had his Triathlon Saturday. It was one of those that take place inside the YMCA. Lap pool, treadmill, and stationary bikes. Kind of a bummer. This dude likes the outdoors, but he'll take what he can get. He's in training for yet another Ironman. Tri results - Cliff took 3rd place in the 40+ age group. Pretty darn good, considering he hasn't been in his 40's for some 7 years now.

I'm so proud!

Now we had to go feed this man. He needed some major calories. So off to Ryan's we go. Everything went smoothly here, until.....

Terri walked off with a serving utensil.

I don't think she has Alzheimer's. In fact, I'm pretty sure of it. She has what my mama calls half-heimer's.

Hey Scott......maybe drawing up some papers might not be a bad idea, right about now.

I'm thinking of purchasing my own metal detector.

Like I said, weather affects our adventures. You do the best you can with what you have. Spring adventures....coming soon.

Til next time,

Laurie

Oh, wait......in case you were wondering:

I ran 2 miles last week. That's it.

This week's plan (knee permitting): Run 2 to 3 miles every other day. I've got a 10K to train for, people.





I'm Still Cracking Up

This is what it looked like on the night of Feb. 11, 2010

at my house.

And this is what it looked like the next day.

This is going to be short, but I just had to tell ya. One liners can make a world of difference. So maybe I'll make a difference in yours.

Cliff and I are heading upstate for the weekend. Cliff has a mini triathlon so we're going to visit with my Sister-Cousin, while up there. Lord have mercy, we have a good time when we get together. It's always an adventure. I mean people fall outta boats, lose flip flops, diaper wipes and Pepsi's in the river, get chased off private property.....you just never know what's next. Can't promise what will happen this time. It's supposed to be icy weather. Probably very much unlike the pictures above. Just come on by Monday morning to see. K? Anyway, Sista is making chili and beans for dinner tonight and when she told me about it on the phone, I started cracking up.

Oh law, now Sista's not sure if she wants me to come or not. Ha!

Anyway, it's been 4 weeks since the incident and I'm still cracking up. 

Said incident.....

Christmas Eve was spent with my side of the family. We all gather at Mama's for dinner and each sister brings their signature dish. My sister, Sheran's, dish is chili.

Well, it was buffet style that night and I was ahead of Sheran in line. I stopped off by the collard green pot, then the squash casserole, next was pasta salad and mac-n-cheese. Yeah, I know it's a conglomeration. Anyway, I passed over Sheran's chili. I guess she was watching and wondering what in the world?

This is how the convo went.......

Sheran said: What's wrong? You don't like my chili?

Laurie said: Of course I do, but you know I've been a vegetarian for a year now and it has meat in it.

Sheran said: Well, just pick around it.

HaHaHaHa!!!

OMG! I'm laughing just typing this. Every dang time I even hear the word chili. I crack up.

Obviously, it doesn't take much.

Happy Friday Y'all!

Laurie