Late resolutions.



Some things I plan to do this year:

learn how to play poker
learn a little photoshop
take more photographs & post them here
make a vegetable garden
plant ornamental grasses and lavender in the front yard
get my music collection filed and put away in order
go camping finally
see some snow before it melts
take the next Spanish class
and because I have to....re-join the gym

Vegetarian Menudo.

Photo coming soon.

Here is a very basic recipe for vegetarian menudo that my dad came up with. I grew up with him making the real deal with the tripe (no patas in our version), though I always picked the meat out anyway. This is a great breakfast soup, full-bodied and spicy.

Vegetarian Menudo

1 29 oz can of hominy
Enough vegetable broth cubes to make 6 cups of broth
2-3 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 1/2 tablespoons of New Mexico chili powder or similar chili powder, but not the kind with cinnamon in it
1/2 tablespoon of mexican oregano, ground

Start with a 2 quart sauce pan and add in the entire can of hominy and liquid from the can. Refill the can about 3/4 the way full with cold water and add that to the pot with heat on medium. Add in vegetable cubes, crush in garlic and add spices and stir. Simmer and stir occasionally until hot, just barely boiling. Turn heat to low and simmer about 5-8 more minutes. Serve with garnishes like fresh chopped cilantro, diced white onion, lemon wedges, more ground oregano and warm corn tortillas on the side.

This could be made vegan if you choose vegan vegetable cubes.

For no other reason.

Things that are bothering me right now:

Dry hands
Cold office
Sore throat
Ate too much lunch
Bad hair day
Nothing good to listen to
So and so

There.

You brute!

Here's me shaking my fist at you...you stupid animal behaviorist!

So I was totally freaking out about my puppy's biting because this one book I was reading had me completly in a fear-state. "If your puppy does not learn bite inhibition by x weeks, they'll never learn it!" So, my puppy is quickly approaching this supposed "developmental deadline" and the no-bite training is still a work in progress. After talking to some friends who raised dogs from their puppy stages, which the books I'm reading stongly suggest not to do, everyone basically says, "oh yeah, I remember the biting stage. It takes a while to break them of that. Like months."

I feel about 200 x better now and so does my puppy because I'm not demanding that she learn something really hard to grasp in one week, when it should take a lot longer.