A bit of heaven

To follow up to Monday's post, What's for dinner tonight?, the pulled pork with the southwestern rub cooked with the chipotle peppers in adobo sauce was perfect.  I coupled the pork with Martha Stewart's Classic Creamy Coleslaw which was also perfect and will now be my go to recipe for slaw.

The pork had a wonderful 'earthy' flavor and had a nice hot zip to it.  When it comes to pulled pork, the hotter the better and this was hot.  Adding a bit of barbeque sauce enhanced the flavors into a nice blend of hot with a little sweet.  The combination of dijon mustard and cider vinegar added to the mayo in the slaw works very nice together.

Combining a bit of the pork with a bit of the coleslaw on the fork was like a bit of heaven.

What's for dinner tonight?

As summer is approaching, so are my cravings for the more traditional summer fare. Hamburgers, Hebrew National hot dogs, pulled pork, BBQ chicken, pasta salads, etc., are all rolling around in my brain like a slot machine.

Tonight, I am satisfying my craving for pulled pork. I found a nice looking pork loin roast with a little fat remaining at the market that looked perfect. I cut the roast into individual sized portions, then added a southwestern rub (below) to the meat and browned it in a skillet.

While the meat browned in a skillet, I added a can of chipotle chile peppers in adobo sauce, a couple cans of water and some onions into a slow cooker. Next came the browned meat and all the browned bits from the skillet.

In addition to the pork I am making Martha Stewart’s Classic Creamy Coleslaw. I have never made this particular recipe for the pulled pork nor have I made the coleslaw. I will let you know how it all turns out but I think they will both be excellent.

The rub is made up of brown sugar, paprika, cayenne pepper, ancho chile pepper, cumin, coarse salt, and cocoa.

Bon appétit!!

Surprise!!

As my weekend drew to an end, I went out to my backyard to do some much needed pruning and was pleasantly surprised to find a sunflower in bloom. Surprised because this sunflower is not from one of the seeds I planted a couple of weeks ago. Rather, the seed fell out of the bird feeder, which happens on occasion and is like an additional perk to all the pretty birds that visit our yard.

Maybe it's just me, but when I enlarged the picture (click on pic), I noticed a pattern in the center of the sunflower.  This is a natural mandala that eventually will be sunflower seeds. 

I love that Mother Nature gave me a surprise and is that beauty I found in today.  What a nice way to end the weekend.  Have a wonderful week!!

Home Economics = A+

I am giving myself an A+ in Home Economics for the nearly orgasmic dinner I prepared last night. I made Hot and Sour soup to satisfy a craving I have had over the past week. I had take out last weekend that lasted for 3 meals, then again last night when I made it from a simple recipe out of Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food cookbook.

In addition to the soup, I served Korean ribs and Bird’s Nests which are little veggie rings. Both are from Trader Joe's.

This meal was all about flavor and we will be having this combination again, and again. Yes!! Yes!! Yes!! Yes…

Want to share your near orgasmic experiences with food? Please don’t get too “TMI” here and keep it relating to the experience of actually eating food.

Bon appétit!!

Late bloomers

At last I have Sweet Peas blooming!!!  After being in the house for a few days, I ventured outdoors yesterday to water my poor drying up plants. I was pleasantly surprised to see that one of my Sweet Pea vines had a pair of blooms. Yippee!!

I have been watching the vines and waiting impatiently since the Sweet Peas sprouted in late January.  They were extremely slow to grow, but once the weather warmed up the vines started moving.  Now with our temps in the mid to upper 80's I wonder whether they will survive long enough to fill the trellis. I guess I will leave it in Mother Nature's hands and simply enjoy what she gives me from my first Sweet Peas in many years.

More buds appear to be on the verge of opening within the next couple of days and I am looking forward to sharing pictures of them here.

Finding beauty in the day

I was just thinking to myself that some days it can be extra difficult to find the beauty in a day when up popped a picture of a blooming Lilac Vine on my screen saver.  Silly as it might sound, for me this was one of those ah-ha moments where finding something beautiful was easier than I imagined and didn't require my going out to find something new or find something in a dimensional form. 

I took this picture at Boyce Thompson Arboretum a couple of years ago.  I love the vivid color of the blooms.

As we are approaching the warmer part of spring and the eventual onslaught of an Arizona summer, sadly most of my plants that I have featured many times on my blog are fading and will die out soon.  Until next Fall when the blooming season begins, I can thankfully draw upon the ton of pictures I have to help me find the beauty in each day.

Don't you just love the smell of freshly sharpened pencils?

Over the last few days, I have been working in my Art Journal where the pages I am working on are currently serving as a coloring book. Whenever I am in the mood to color colored pencils are my medium of choice. I love to color for a number of reasons, I love the rich color of the medium and I also love that it gets me into that Zen like state quicker than anything else. Anyway, to get into those tight little detailed spaces, I have been sharpening my colored pencils like crazy and for the past few mornings when I walk into my craft room I am hit with a wonderful smell of freshly sharpened pencils.

Hopefully this is relatable, but for me, the smell of freshly sharpened pencils reminds me of going back to school where in every classroom there was a pencil sharpener mounted to the wall that I frequently used (can’t stand dull points). This smell also makes me want to watch one of my favorite movies, You’ve Got Mail because it reminds me of one of my favorite dialogs from the movie.  The scene is an email conversation between Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan’s characters that takes place at the beginning of the movie.  They are having a “secret / anonymous” online relationship and Tom’s character, NY152 emails to Meg’s character, Shopgirl (their online handles) about how New York in the fall makes him want to buy school supplies and that if he knew her real name and address, he would send her a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils.

I love this movie on so many levels, and I love this dialog because I totally get the reference. I have many sensory triggers about fall and going back to school myself. Like the smell of freshly sharpened pencils, the smell of books and more subtle triggers like the sun angles at the beginning of September. Sometimes I get so caught up from these triggers that I want to run out and buy school supplies, new clothes and shoes just for the heck of it.

On an emotional level, I am reminded by these sensory triggers and what I see as the subtle message in You’ve Got Mail is more about how remembrances provide us an important emotional connection to the past and can even serve as a bridge to our future. Acknowledging honor and what is true in memories that for some, is sadness or longing and for others is comfort.

If you would like to share what triggers memories for you, I would love to hear them. Or if you know the movie and want to share your favorite scene or dialog that would be great too.

For me, I think I will continue to find things to color for a while and let myself get filled up with my memories.

More hiking fun

This past weekend, I had more hiking fun with trips to Usery Mountain Regional Park's Wind Cave and to Boyce Thompson Arboretum.  My friend Cathy and I hiked up to the Wind Cave on Saturday.  She was wonderfully patient with me as it took me a while to make it to our destination.  Many thanks Cathy!! 

On Sunday, my husband and I headed for Boyce Thompson Arboretum to have more outdoor fun.  We checked out all the latest spring blooms and enjoyed a nice picnic.  The weather was simply perfect and my husband got to ride his bike too. 

Spending the weekend on trails is my version of a perfect weekend.  To view all my pictures, click on my Hiking page.

Past tense and future lessons

This past week, I began the process of job searching and interviewing. I had postponed beginning the hunt long enough and wanted to get busy so I could brush up on my interviewing skills. After all, interviewing is more of an art in communication than focusing on qualifications.

I found a position online that had appeal and ended up forcing myself to finish what turned out to be an arduous application process. I wanted to quit a few times but stuck it out because I hate to quit and ended up getting two days of interviews out of it. Once the interviewing concluded on Wednesday, they said that I would hear from them, so naturally I found myself waiting and waiting.

After two and a half days of getting stressed over waiting, this morning it finally dawned on me that I needed to give myself a break. I reminded myself of what I initially set out to do. I met those goals and they paid off. I know what you’re thinking, how can there be a pay off when I didn’t get the job? Well, the pay off is that I gathered more information which I may need to have for future applications. I was in fact reminded that interviewing is all about communication and presentation. And finally, never, ever expect them to actually follow up with you unless they are offering you the job.

In this instance, there was no failure in not being offered a job. Rather, the failure would have been if I had given up or did not learn from the experience. Once I reminded myself of these things, I felt the burden lift and the knot left my stomach. Oh and because I tend to carry stress in my stomach, some breathing through my chakras helped too.