FLOWERS, FOOTBALL, FAMILY DAY AND CHILI FIXIN'

Frank surprised me with these lovely flowers. We've been enjoying them all week.

I cannot begin to tell you how wonderful my precious Frank has been to me during this ordeal with my back. I'm so blessed to have such a kind and gentle man as my husband and soul mate. God truly smiled on me when he put him in my life and I will be forever thankful.

So many things have been going on the past week or so, but I think I will begin with my health report. I went to the hospital and had my injection yesterday. While I was waiting to have the procedure, I looked up and saw this really suave looking guy dressed all in black with an apron on with print on it like a Jackson Pollock painting, standing outside my cubical. When he turned around, it was my Doctor! You don't often get excellent medical treatment from someone this good looking in designer scrubs and dimples. Makes the pain much easier to take :-)

I guess I'm behind the times. I didn't know that they made black scrubs. Who says that the Good Guys have to wear White!
The procedure that I had is called Lumbar epidural steroid injection or(LESI). They put me to sleep, administered a dye in order to see exactly where they needed to inject me and they, before I knew it, I was back in the recovery room. It was literally painless and so far, after having taken Tylenol every 3 hours since, I'm relatively paint free!
Now I'll backtrack a little. We have a new family member as of a few days ago. Her name is Siena Catherine and she weighed in at 8 lbs and was 21 inches long.

Our Beth is the proud aunt of this precious bundle. She is her sister and her husband's first child and she's beautiful.
On Friday we went to Central Market in Fort Worth.

The green chilies from Hatch, NM have arrived so we ordered a bushel and a half of them and had them roasted there since it's easier than roasting them yourself. Our chili supply in the freezer was getting low.

Now the fun begins. We put them in the trunk in this large box and the aroma was like heaven. I felt like I was in Santa Fe. However, it did make your eyes water a little since it was just off the roasted and was still hot. We use a lot of it in the Green Chili Stew that I make and we love.

Next came the hard part. You have to peel the chilies before you bag and freeze them. We put on rubber gloves and masks and even that didn't really keep us from coughing and sneezing while we performed our task. Papa looks like a bandit out of a Western getting ready to hold up a train, but he's really just trying to breathe without coughing even though his eyes are watering a lot!

Once we finally finished, we had 22 bags of peeled, roasted fresh green chili from Hatch, New Mexico ready to go into the freezer and to use whenever we need it. Hopefully, that should last us for the year.

Here is the recipe for the stew if you are interested. It's really delicious.

GREEN CHILE STEW

1 - 1 1/2 lbs tenderized stew meat (get the butcher to run it through the tenderizer twice)
4 large potatoes, peeled
2 cloves garlic (chopped finely)
6-8 green Hatch chilies, peeled and chopped
(It's important that you use Hatch chili as that's what gives it the authentic flavor)
Dredge the meat in flour. Put enough olive oil in the stock pot to cook the meat until it's done but not browned. You have to stir the meat while it’s cooking so it won’t stick. Add garlic after you have started cooking the meat.
Once the meat is cooked, add salt to taste, the green chilies and enough water to barely cover the meat. Simmer for an hour over a low heat. In the meantime, peel and dice the potatoes (the chunks should be about the size of the meat pieces) and cover them with water in a bowl. Don't throw the water away as it will contain the potato starch and will thicken the stew.
After you have simmered the meat, add the potatoes and totally cover them with the water that they have been soaking in. Cook this mixture until the potatoes are done (it doesn't take long). You want a lot of pot liquor as the juice is some of the best part.
Bon Appetito!!!

That night, we went to the first pre-season Cowboy game at the new stadium. Even though we had been there for the tour a few weeks go, it was nothing like being there for the actual game. There were 70,000+ people there and it was wonderful. As I saw in an article about that night, the Ghost of Tom Landry was everywhere.

I never missed a game back then when he was the coach. He was a fine gentleman, an excellent coach and the one responsible for making the Cowboy's "America's Team". Wish he could have been here to see this wonderful structure that we now have in our city. He would be very proud.
I was able to have a wheelchair available to transport me from the car to my seat, compliments of the stadium. That made it very easy for me. We have excellent seats, but since the stadium is so large, there is still a lot of walking involved.

At this point the stadium was starting to fill up and the excitement was beginning to accelerate. Most people were wearing their Cowboy memorabilia and there was a huge amount of energy in the air.

We won the game against the Titans so all the Cowboy fans were happy campers.
Our ride had not arrived yet when we left the game, so we waited in front and had a very pleasant surprise. We were right by the Valet Parking stand and I noticed a beautiful car that I had never seen before. I asked one of the attendants about it and he said that it was a Maybach and it cost a little over $600,000. Can you imagine! I drooled as it drove away.

It was beautiful and of course, if you can afford the car, you can afford a driver :-) I'd love to be THAT Miss Daisy!
Saturday was Family Day. We usually meet on Sundays, but since school was starting next week, we decided to gather on Saturday instead.
I mentioned that we had a new family member at the beginning of this blog. Well .... I overlooked that we have a new member in our immediate family. His name is Dozer and he belongs to Nicholas and Dayna.

She was given that name since Dayna rescued her from a dump site in Dallas and she was hiding under a bulldozer. She's a sweet girl but will be HUGE when she gets through growing. She's part Lab and the other part is Great Pyrenees. She has 6 toes on each of her back feet and LOVES to swim!

Every time they would take her out of the pool ... back in she would jump. It was great fun watching her. Everyone enjoyed her antics with the exception of our other Grand dog, Harry. I think he was not only confused but a little jealous. He's used to being the center of attention and doesn't like to share the spotlight.
Most of the family stayed in the pool after we had lunch.

Even though we gathered at our house, Rachel was our hostess this time and we had a great last days of summer lunch with hamburgers, hot dogs and strawberry shortcake. What more could one ask for and you can't get more American that that unless you serve apple pie! Everyone was here except Rachel's husband, Matt, as he had to work. He was certainly missed! Here's our little group after a good day at the pool and full of good food. You'll notice that the grand dogs are at a good distance from one another, but Harry has his eyes on Dozer :-)

I'll close on a happy but scary note, or at least for me it is. Our great grandson, Ethan will start high school on Monday. That's so hard for us to believe. How can either of us be that old! Seems like only yesterday that he was a little bitty fellow.

We're so proud of him. He took his accuplacer test for admission into college and he scored 90. That's quite an accomplishment for this fine young man.
That's about it for now. I'll keep you posted about my back. I want to thank you for all the prayers, and I feel very positive about the decision to go ahead with pain management. I've suffered with this silly back most of my life and I will hopefully have some relief at long last. Have a great week. I plan to take it easy for the next few days and who knows, I just might be running a marathon soon!

XOXO, Pcasso

FRIENDS, FAMILY, FLY FISHING AND SPACE FLIGHTS

This shouldn't be a very long entry but hopefully it will be of interest to you. Frank went fishing in New Mexico the beginning of the week and I was going to have some quiet time to myself. The first couple of days I did little or nothing. I had what I call "gown days" where I spend the day in my caftan and just relax.

I have a whole closet full of caftans that I have collected over the years and they are my "at home" attire. You can't get much more comfortable than lounging around in a caftan watching movies or reading and drinking a cup of tea in the afternoon or a martini in the evening!

On Wednesday I went to the doctor to check out a treatment plan for pain management for my back. All went well and he'll do a procedure on me a week from next Monday.
Then on Thursday my old school chum, Joanna, came over and we played on the computer all day.

She also enjoyed watching the birds and squirrels in the back yard while I was fixing our lunch. I made some green chili stew and she loved it! It was easier than going out.
Then on Thursday I went to lunch with an artist friend and while we were eating, I got a phone call on my new iPhone and our son's darling face appeared on the monitor.

It seems that he and Beth decided to take a quick trip to San Antonio since it was the last chance before the boys go back to school and he wanted me to keep our grand-dog, Harry.

I was thrilled to do it for several reasons. First, I love this little dog, secondly, since Frank is gone I'm lonely and Harry's a lot of company and third, he makes a great bed companion and he doesn't snore!
They sent me this photo on their iPhone of the boys in an Irish Pub in San Antonio. Looks like they're having a lot of fun.

When Joanna was here on Thursday, I couldn't find a photograph that I had taken when we were on our cruise in the Mediterranean several years ago that she wanted to see. I have over 15,000 images on my computer so it can be very tedious trying to find an individual image! Anyway, after she left, I pulled out the DVD that I had burned from the photographs I had taken on the trip and ran across another photo that brought back many memories.
We met this delightful couple on that cruise and have stayed in touch over the years thanks to Email. When I found this photograph of Wallace that I had taken on the cruise, I Emailed it to him.

Thirty minutes had not passed until I had an Email back from him telling me that coincidentally there was an article about him in the newspaper the very same day and he was wearing his Apollo 11 jacket! Below is the photograph that was in the paper. The painting in the background is one of his.

As a civil engineer he worked on the Apollo 11. It seems that for three years he focused his work on the lunar module or LM, designing small but important elements such as the pulley system that lowered and raised the basket the astronauts used to collect moon rocks, and a crash bar attached to the triangular window to protect the astronauts from bumping their heads against the window upon landing.
  Before Apollo 11, with LM 5 aboard, could be launched, two preliminary missions, ' the first manned flights of the LM', provided tests under space conditions as opposed to ground simulations, of the performance of the rendezvous radar, which guided the LM back to the command and service modules, its communications, life-support systems and separating and docking techniques for the two space vehicles.
  Looking back to what was, in 1969, state-of-the-art interspace technology, Leifer is incredulous as how primitive it seems. Not only were all his calculations arrived at by slide rule, accompanied by beautifully rendered drawings, the lunar module was shaped more like a bucket than a rocket and was sheathed in heat-resistant gold Mylar that resembled an unwrapped Christmas present.
He is also a very fine artist and does wonderful work. Here is one of his many paintings.

After I read the newspaper article on line, I called him and discovered that he was a big fan of "The Tudors" like I am. In fact, when he and his wife Cissy would watch the series, they would light this candelabra in their media room so it would feel as though they were a part of the events. Isn't that fun! Here's a shot of their set up.

At the beginning of this post I said that I was going to be brief. OK .. so I lied! I didn't mean to ramble on like this but one thing led to another. Frank returned home late yesterday afternoon, tired but very happy. He and Nasser had a great time fishing.

They fished with a guide named Andy Kim. Frank has used him for years and he swears that if you want to learn to fly fish and catch lots of fish, Andy is the man to use.

His web site is http://yspecial.com/ Check it out!
We're having a very relaxed Sunday. As I sit here typing, Harry is on a chair beside me and Frank is watching golf in the other room. Harry's "family" should be home late this afternoon.
The entry that follows this one is a slide show of Frank's trip. It's pretty interesting. Be sure and mouse over the photos in the slide show and you will be able to read the captions.
I hope that you and yours have a great week and I look forward to hearing from you.
XOXO, Pcasso

FISHING ON THE SAN JUAN

POST AND REPOST or PAST AND REPAST

This past week has been chocked full of food! I came upon this wine label and thought it would be a perfect design for my blog logo.



Since I didn't paint or design it, I can't claim it ... but I can show it to you!
Mid week our friends, the Pattons, came over from Fort Worth for drinks and then we went out for dinner.






We ended up going to Piccolo Mondo here in Arlington which is one of everyone's favorite places.
Jo Ann is an excellent cook and she and I both love to cook and eat, so the entire evening was spent discussing the new movie coming out, Julie and Julia. We have both used her cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, like our culinary bible so our interest and enthusiasm is mutual.
Julia herself was an amazing woman. She used to come to Longview, Texas to give cooking classes.





Then when she had her TV shows, she ended up collaborating on a show with Jacques Pepin who is best known as a teaching chef. I have had the privilege of studying with him at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs on several different occasions. That was when we were both young and I was thin.

Goes to show you what good French cooking will do for your waistline, but it's worth the sacrifice!

The movie came out yesterday and we plan on seeing it Monday. Our local reviewer, Christopher Kelly, is such a twit! He gave it a low rating where the NY Times loved it and had much more insight about what a movie of this type is all about. If your appetite doesn't go beyond burgers and fries like Kelly's apparently does, it would be hard to appreciate a film such as this one.

As I understand it, Meryl Streep does an excellent job as Julia. Alas, poor Julia has been laid to rest now, and her mixer is gathering cobwebs, but the memory of her delicious cuisine and sense of humor will live forever!

On Friday night we went with our friends, the Bronstad's, to Joe T Garcia's in Fort Worth. It's a place full of memories for us and it was great to share old stories with my closest friend from school.

It would have been lovely to sit in the gardens and eat but it was too blasted hot, so we had a quick drink outside and then headed for the air conditioning.

The enchilada dinner was excellent as usual, but they did serve it up a little too soon. They want to turn those tables over so we felt a little rushed.

and the boys enjoyed visiting over a brew or two while Joanna and I caught up on stories and memories of times gone by.

Today was visit the stadium day and the post below with the slide show really tells it all.
I got to have a chair and "driver" due to my silly back, and it's not a bad way to travel! She was delightful and was our personal your guide.

The Whitebreads went with us,

and we spent about 4 hours there.
As I was taking photographs, this cute little boy kept looking at me and finally he asked me about my camera. Apparently he had not seen a digital camera before, so I showed him some of the images I had taken and then I told him to smile and I took his photograph.

He was as pleased as punch. Just look at that cute little dimple!
One more quick note before I close this entry. Frank has tried to convince me for years that his love of football is the reason he goes to all the games.

However, I happen to know for a fact that THIS is the real reason he goes.

As long as he looks but doesn't touch ..... Go Cowgirls!
XOXO, Pcasso

COWBOY STADIUM

It was a good day today! We went to breakfast first and then ...

we went on a private tour of Cowboy Stadium for season ticket holders today. If you "mouse over" each photo in the following slide show, you can read the descriptions. It is wonderful! Enjoy!

XOXO, Pcasso

A TRIP TO COWBOY STADIUM