…nā manaʻo ulu wale…

my sister and i stared at the hunk that lay before us.

we had no idea what to do with it. it was lovely, almost like a work of art. we watched the perspiration dot its surface, and i licked my parched lips. “gosh, it’s hot in here!” my sister remarked, as she prodded it with her finger. she sighed and turned to me. “what do you think?” she asked. “i just want to massage it with oil or something!”

“mmmmm,” i drooled. i gazed at that slab of meat. it was so gorgeous, and it was cut real thick. bright red and rippled with fat, springy to the touch–oh, the possibilities!

“well, i think the most logical thing is to do a roast,” i said.

“yes,” agreed my sister. “but the oven heats up the whole house, and it is so hot today!”

“rotisserie?” i suggested.

“i don’t know where the spindle is,” she said, sheepishly.

“crock pot?” i offered.

“my crock pot died on me last month. i still have to get a new one,” she explained.

we both stared at it. we just couldn’t let that hunk go to waste! “i know!” my sister exclaimed. “pot roast! on the stovetop!”

she decided to search online for recipes of pot roast. but all of the recipes she found required either starting or finishing it in the oven. we didn’t want to use the oven! i told her to look at crockpot recipes, because you can always convert it to stovetop by decreasing the number of hours, but then we couldn’t agree if that meant you needed more liquid, or less. she was also determined to find a recipe with red wine in it since she had a bottle that she wanted to use up, but she was getting nothing. she decided to give up looking for a recipe and just “wing it.”

“are you sure?” i asked. “that’s such a beautiful piece of meat; you don’t want it to go to waste.”

“i think i know how i can do it,” she said. “i’ll brown the meat, then throw it in the pot with the red wine and stuff, and let it cook for two hours, then turn it over and cook it for another two hours. then we can throw the veggies in and let it go for another half hour.”

i looked at the time–it was nearly 3. that means it wouldn’t be ready until after 7? i am used to eating dinner by 5:30! yikes. that was going to be difficult. but i suppose with a chunk of meat that huge, it would’ve had to cook a long time. and i was willing to wait, just to have that tender strip touch my lips.

so my sister took out the olive oil and drizzled it all over the meat, and she started browning it while i tried to fix their computer (darn pcs! they always seem to be breaking down, and they are so hard to fix!). “oh!” i heard her shriek.

“what happened?” i asked, rushing into the kitchen.

“i forgot to dredge it in flour and sprinkle on the salt and pepper!”

i rolled my eyes. my sister, ever the dramatist. “see what you get when you’re so obsessed with oiling it?” i teased, going back to the cursed computer.

i could hear the sizzle of the meat as it touched the hot surface of the skillet, and my mouth instantly began to water. i’m such a pavlovian puppy, i swear. the charred smell of browned beef wafted through the air, and the dog perked its ears up and lifted his snout into the air, sniffing. “i know,” i tell him. “yummm!”

after a while, my sister came back and stood in front of the fan, trying to cool herself off from all the heat in the kitchen, then screeched again. “the red wine!” she shouted, running back into the kitchen. “i forgot the red wine!”

i laughed. i tried to get her to forget the red wine, that we didn’t need it. but she insisted. she had to use it all up before it went bad. i told her it’s wine, it can’t go bad. (but then, what do i know about wine? heeheehee) we argued a bit about the red wine going in before i acquiesced. “you won’t even be able to *taste* it,” she promised, as i hear her emptying the whole bottle into the pot.

finally, she came back and plopped down on the couch. “2 hours!” she announced, setting the alarm.

“that’s all?” i asked.

“well, 2 hours until i turn it over,” she explained.

shoots.

two hours later, she was turning the roast over, and i was still on that infernal computer. i was ready to set it on fire! honestly! why do people like these things? ugh! i gave up and decided to help do the veggies. i kept bringing out more and more potatoes to peel, and my sister kept asking me, “are you sure? that’s a lot of potatoes!”

“i love potatoes,” i tell her. “plenty, plenty potatoes, please!”

she shrugged and said, “whatever!” so i filled up that pot good with lots of cubed potatoes. yum!

i then decided to peruse through my sister’s recipe books. nothing like igniting the fire within to bake some goodies! i took out a pen and feverishly began writing down recipes i wanted to try.

before long, my sister called out, “it’s ready!” i turned and looked at the clock–wow, it was after 7! i had become so engulfed in the recipes that i didn’t even realize the time burning away like that. yay!

the pot roast was delicious, if not a bit too wine-y. *glaring at sister* the meat shredded really easily, the gravy made with the browned bits left in the pan was tasty, and of course, the potatoes were wonderful (notice a plate full of only potatoes and no other veggies in the pic above *blush*) all i thought was missing from this wonderful warmth of a meal was a nice, cool root beer! too bad i don’t drink soda any more.

all i need now to end this scorching day is to have a nice, cold shower to help cool things down a bit–before engaging in the warmth of lovely embrace from a cozy, comfy cup of hot chocolate!

i like safeway’s deli section. although they often ignore you while you’re standing there waiting with a wagon full of frozen food, the sandwiches are good enough to tolerate that. it’s a treat i give myself when doing the dreaded grocery shopping just because i can lump them all together when paying, and not have to carry cash for it (which i rarely have).

i used to always get the chicago south sider. it was roast beef with horseradish sauce. YUM. everytime we would go on our weekly grocery trip to safeway, i’d always have to get a chicago south sider. i would almost look forward to grocery shopping just so i could get a chicago south sider. however, they recently introduced a new sandwich: the pub.

i know i’m a crappy photographer, but if you kinda squint and imagine that the sandwich is roast beef with carmelized onions and bleu cheese sprinkles, you can see what it looks like in that picture. :/ but yum–bleu cheese! it almost reminds me of the black ‘n’ blue salad at quizno’s, which is black angus steak and bleu cheese on a salad–heavenly!!! anyway, this is all on a crinkly bread (i don’t remember the name of it), and i really like it.

my son usually gets the paninis, which are good, too–especially the philly cheesesteak panini. he usually gets the three cheese one, which is pretty good, as well. however, today they were out of paninis. so he had to choose a sandwich, and if there’s one thing that boy inherited from me, it’s my indecisiveness. we stood away from the counter so that he could make his choice without feeling rushed. usually it took a while, even when you *are* standing at the counter, for the workers to get to you–they’re always off on the other end of the deli and though they call out to you, “i’ll be with you in a minute!” they usually take ten minutes before they get over to your side (and like i said, usually i have frozen food in the wagon!). but today, i made sure we were standing away from the counter so he could make his decision on his sandwich, when all of a sudden, the worker showed up and asked us what we wanted. so i figure, i better just step up and order before she walks away and then i don’t see her for another fifteen minutes. so i order my sandwich–the pub. she sets about making it and then asks if i would like a meal deal with it ($1.50 more for a drink and chips/fruit/salad). i told her no, but i want one for his (gesturing to my son) sandwich. she nodded and then went about finishing my sandwich. by then my son had made up his mind on what he wanted: ham and american cheese on rustic italian bread. she was wrapped up my sandwich and handed it to me, then started to walk away, taking off her gloves, asking, “anything else?” “umm, yes,” i replied. “could i also get a 6-inch ham and cheese sandwich on rustic italian bread?” she stopped and was like, “oh.” she gave me a look as she went to get new gloves again. i was thinking, didn’t i tell her i was going to order another one for him, that one with a meal? so she repeats exactly what i said (”six-inch ham and american cheese on rustic italian”), and then asked, “and what type of bread?” i looked at her and repeated “rustic italian bread.” “oh yeah,” she said, going to get the bread. i gave her a pass. i have those types of days, too–practically everyday.

so she starts to make his sandwich. i guess i’m used to subway where they ask you every step of the way what you want (i’ve never ordered a make-your-own sandwich from them–i always got one of their special sandwiches). without asking, she spreads on the mayo, and then reaches for the mustard. so i tell her, “no mustard!” she repeated, “no mustard?” and continues to try and squeeze the mustard on the bread. so i tell her again, “no, no mustard…please. what you have is fine, now.” so then she realizes she had the mustard bottle in her hand and was like, “oh!” so i laughed, knowing i would probably do something like that, too. so she spreads more mayo on the other side, then slides the bread over to the veggies and asks, “all the veggies?” so i say, “no, just the pickles.” she repeats, “just pickles.” then she layers the bread with lettuce and starts reaching for the onions. “no, just pickles!” i remind her. “no need the onions.” (actually, no need the lettuce, either, but she’d already laid it down on the mayo bread.) so she said, “just lettuce and pickles? no other veggies?” and i said, “yes, that’s all.” and gestured over to the boy with a shrug. she laughs and piles the pickles on high on the sandwich.

she then puts the other bread on top, and walks with the sandwich to the back where they start to wrap the sandwich. now there was another girl there working on the sandwich for the guy behind me, so i wasn’t sure if she was just moving out of the way, or she was going to wrap the sandwich. my son was all, “what about the cheese?” i looked over, and she was indeed wrapping the sandwich!

so i called over to her, “excuse me!” she keeps wrapping the sandwich. i call louder, and she turns to look at me. “i’m sorry,” i tell her, “did you add the ham and cheese?” “OH!” she says.

she brings the sandwich back to the counter. “ham and american cheese, sorry,” i tell her. “okay,” she says. “what kind of cheese?” “american,” i answer her, patiently. she repeats, “american,” as she reaches for the white cheese with the holes which i’ve always known to be called swiss. “american,” i say, louder. “yes, yes,” she said, putting down the swiss cheese. “both sides?” i look at my son, and he shakes his head, so i say, “no, just the one–” but she is already putting it down on both sides. i sigh.

she then takes the sandwich back to the wrapping section. “excuse me!” i call again, all embarrassed. “did you put ham?” i know i didn’t see her put any ham, but she called back, “yes, yes.” i didn’t want to make her mad by saying, “are you sure???” so i just repeated, “ham and american cheese?” and she repeats, “ham and american cheese.” she then hands me back the wrapped sandwich and walks away–she didn’t even ask me if i wanted anything else! she just walked away. and she had forgotten the meal deal sticker! so i had to attract the attention of another worker (the girl who was helping the one behind me) and ask for the meal deal sticker. “sure!” she chirped, printing out a sticker and giving it to me. but then she walked away, too! so i had to reach over the counter and grab my own cup.

as my son was filling up his drink, i went to the soup station. they had clam chowder today! woohoo! i filled up a cup, and then we went to go pay for our groceries.

as we left the store, it started to pour really hard! we ran to the car, and i got totally soaked just loading the groceries in the car. so, boy, did the hot clam chowder taste so yummy! mmmm…much better than the zippy’s one.

my son opened up his sandwich and ate it. despite the worker’s assurances, there was no ham in it. luckily, he didn’t notice it was just a huge pickle-and-cheese sandwich. ewww.

i think next time we’ll just get the premade sandwiches! even if we have to wait 20 minutes while the ice cream melts

i have a colleague from guam and she passed out these chamorro chips at the end of the year. it’s small bites of cookies. very yummy. but it’s so tiny, you tend to just keep eating and eating and eating…

the bag has both english and another language on it. i’m assuming it’s guamanian (or is it called chamorrorian?) but it looks spanish–at least, i can make out what it’s saying just by what i know in spanish, even thought the words aren’t exactly the same. it’s pretty cool!

okay, sorry, this does not look at all appetizing. and, well, maybe i shouldn’t blame it on the camera phone for this one…

one of my favorite dishes that my mom used to make was called grunge. it was soooo delicious, especially over hot rice. it was her way of throwing in vegetables to the mix so that we’d eat it. my sisters didn’t fall for it, though, and refused to eat it, but i liked it (although, i had no problems eating vegetables, either, so i guess that was the difference). it’s something i can make today, and it’ll instantly take me back to small kid time. plus, it’s cheap to make, so that’s always a plus for a tight budget like mine.

granted, grunge does not look very appetizing. that’s probably how it got its name. it’s ground beef with veggies mixed in, all cooked in cream of mushroom soup. it’s a thick, gray lump of meat and veggies, scooped over steaming rice, and sprinkled with fresh, ground pepper. so, yeah. a big, gray lumpy sauce with bits of green poking out, and black flecks all over it. it’s not very pretty, but, ohhhh, it’s so yummy — especially when you use the french cut green beans. unfortunately, it does add another unappealing color to the mix, but it gives it a nice, juicy snap. i’ve also used the canned veggies (the ones with potatoes, peas, and carrots), whole green beans, corn, and broccoli tops at one time or another. but the things that remain the same are the ground beef and the cream of mushroom soup. i suppose those could be substituted as well, but then, to me, that won’t be grunge. at least not the grunge *i* know.

after spending a lot on dinner last night, i thought i had better stick to something in the kitchen. i had a box of rotini that i thought i’d make. i felt like something tomatoey, but alas, i had no spaghetti sauce, nor did i have any tomato sauce or paste. shoots. i did, though, have a big can of cream of mushroom. i stared at it for a while, then thought, hey, why not do grunge, and pour it over the rotini instead of rice? that would match, right? almost like stroganoff (another one of my favorites that my mom would make), but without the sour cream, and using rotini instead of egg noodles. i thought i’d try it out.

however, upon opening the freezer, i saw i had no ground beef. shoots again. i did have chicken–but that won’t be grunge. i put the chicken back and looked in the refrigerator. i did have a small bit of spinach left from those big costco bags i got from my sister. i figured i better eat it before it wilts, so i took it out, and kept searching. nothing. i closed the ice box door and looked around the kitchen.

that’s when it hit me. what if i make it like a creamy pasta sauce? then i can eat it over a bed of spinach. so i started to cook it. i added some cut mushrooms into the sauce and let it bubble for a while before it dawned on me–why can’t i add the spinach to the sauce? that way it’ll melt all in and it’ll be like a spinach alfredo thingie! so i threw the remaining leaves into the sauce and let it wilt into the sauce and get all soft. then i added in the rotini and sprinkled it with pepper. it smelled good! after scooping it in the bowl, i crumbled some cheese over it and thought yum!

it wasn’t that bad! it wasn’t grunge–i really think the beefy juice is what makes the taste, and i had no beef. but it was similar looking, and it was close. i think if i ever went vegetarian, this is something i would make–cheap and filling, and palatable. but i guess like me, it wouldn’t win any points on presentation. ah well.

so much for working as a literacy resource person.

i can’t read for beans. well, i can read, as in decode. but my comprehension is really bad. sometimes when i read things, i have to read them over and over and over. i’m that dense. it can take me a half an hour to read and comprehend something that someone else can read in 10 minutes. i’m really bad at it.

i’ve always struggled with this, i think. i can remember doing my worse on the reading comprehension sections of all those standardized tests we used to have to take. i can read something fine and dandy, and then when asked, “okay, tell me what you just read,” i’ll draw a total blank. i hated questions that needed you to infer the answer. i’m so bad at interpretation. i did well on recalling details, but ask me what the overall theme was of the story? no clue.

i saw a poster that says 2 p’zones and a big $7.99. oooh, what a deal, i thought. i know the commercial said it was huge, but i thought it was a typical advertisement filled with hyperboles to get you interested in the product, even though you know it’s an overstatement. so while i remember the guys holding this huge thing, i honestly didn’t think it was *that* big. i thought maybe it’d be the size of sandwich, and so thought that 2 for $7.99 would be reasonable, and that’d be a deal for me and my son.

well, it was $7.99 EACH. grrrr. lucky i just happened to have enough money.

but the things were huge. both my son and i ate only half of our p’zone. so i guess i could see spending $7.99 for each one. oh well, we have lunch for tomorrow.

it wasn’t very good, so i don’t think we’ll be ordering it again. or, at least, i guess i like my sauce. there’s no sauce in there, though it does come with a small cup of marinara sauce. it was weird because there were these signs saying how they aren’t serving any tomatoes–all diced and sliced tomatoes were out. ummm, isn’t marinara sauce made out of tomatoes? is that why there was no pizza sauce in the p’zone? or is there not supposed to be anyway? again, i probably misread the description of a p’zone, which is totally something i would do.

funny that pizza hut is known for its “carryout for literacy” program, and here i am, totally failing it that very purpose! argharghargh.

i love mangoes, as i’ve previously written. i got a treat this morning as i was putting my tired feet up from yesterday’s exhausting field trip–my mom had brought me a bowl of cool, refreshing mango. YUM.

i hadn’t had fruit mango in a while–i’ve been getting my fix from jamba juice in the mango-a-go-go. it was just a perfect breakfast. gosh if i am ever lucky enough to become a housewife, that’s what i’m going to do–make healthy, refreshing, lovely, tasty breakfasts for my children. even when they become big and old enough to do it for themselves *ahem*.

at the beginning of the summer break, my cousin had declared that we should all (her, my sisters, and i) go to nordstrom cafe to celebrate the summer break that we all were desperately looking forward to. both my sisters have been there before and raved about it, so my cousin and i were anxious to try it. however, we have been busy–and i’ve been, um, incapacitated with other issues, so it was hard to find time when we all could go. finally, we had a date chosen–we would go on wednesday. and, of course, knowing my luck, an appointment i had for tuesday had to be rescheduled…for wednesday. argh.

so i missed the cafe experience. but my sisters and cousin were nice enough to order a takeout for me. i had previously tried a little of my mom’s leftovers the last time she went–the wild mushroom ravioli. yummy, but very rich. i only ate two ravioli, but it was nice. i debated ordering that, but decided that i did not want a tummyache, so i ordered the chicken tomato alfredo penne pasta thingie instead.

looks yummy huh? but it was okay. maybe because it was cold by the time i got it, but it was nothing special. and certainly not worth the $12 it cost! when i was told the price, my jaw dropped. it wasn’t *that* good! and the quantity was small (what’s in the picture is what i got–i hadn’t taken a bite yet, just moved it over a bit to make room for the bread, which was a separate order!), compared to what i would’ve thought $12 could’ve bought me for a lunch plate. so i’m not really impressed. so although that mushroom ravioli was good, i don’t know if i’d want to try again with the cost of the food! this may sound big-headed of me, but i could probably spend half as much and make something that tastes better myself!

maybe i’m just being a cheapskate. other people will very willingly spend over $100 on a meal, if it’s worth it. i don’t know. i know i won’t ever be able to wear (or afford) their designer clothes, so i guess their designer pasta is not my style, either. :/

back again.

I felt bad because Lika was asking why she was the only one writing, and, boy, I know what THAT feels like! So, I’m partly doing this for her. But unfortunately, that means I’ll be filling up the “recently on”s again…sorry about that.

Actually I’ve written a few posts since then but didn’t feel right about posting them without a theme (so sad, yeah, I cannot post without a theme?) so I saved them to use when a theme comes up that’ll match it. Er, though I guess the theme would have to be “morbid thoughts” heh.

Anyway, back to July’s theme…food. I will try to make use of this darn phone and post pictures about food. I know, how boring is that? Extremely. But, I’m not very creative.

Also, I just realized I’m the world’s worst picture-taker! Ugh. Sorry for the out-of-focusness.

I had bought some chili tickets from former students who were selling them as a fundraiser for their sick grandfather (who has since passed away). I bought them back in May and thought, hey, I have enough time. It’s not until July 2nd. Well, sneaky little July showed up without announcing itself!!! Darn month. So I had to hurry up and redeem the tickets. While there, I saw they had corn chowder! YUM! So I ordered a bowl (first picture). It was not as good as I’m used to (the kind my mom would make). It was very sweet–probably the corn. I guess I’m more used to clam chowder Anyway, those blurry pictures above are of the chili and the chowder.

What new and exciting thing will be posted about tomorrow? I bet you all can wait. Sadly, though, I have to post every day for July. Sorry.

And when I get the badge (which hasn’t been posted yet at the nablopomo site), I will put it here