Jess's Famous Chili

written by Jess and prepared by me

Here is a vegetarian chili recipe that you might enjoy. Keep in mind that when it comes to chili, you can always change and adjust the recipes to your liking. You might want to serve your chili over a long grain white rice. If you want to add meat, then we always used ground turkey or venison. (It is great w/o though.) It has much less fat than beef and would probably fit in the healthy diet that you are striving for. It only takes a few minutes to brown before you throw it in the pot. This is a really mild recipe, add hot sauce if you want to kick up the heat. This recipe can be made on your stove, but the following is for your slow cooker.

Vegetarian Chili

Chop everything bite size

1 large sweet yellow onion, chopped

6 cloves garlic, diced

2 celery stalks, chopped

Sautee together in 3 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil for a couple of minutes until softened, but still crunchy. Add the garlic first and make sure it's cooked completely, but not burnt. Use slotted spoon and add to crockpot.

NEXT, ADD ALL OF THE FOLLOWING TO YOUR CROCKPOT IN THIS ORDER, THEN STIR.

1 pound browned ground turkey or venison, if desired

1 medium zucchini, halved lengthwise and cut into 1/2-inch slices (approx
one and one half cups)

1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 yellow bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped

1 10-oz package of frozen whole kernel corn
1 15-oz can black beans, drained
1 15-oz can red kidney beans, drained
1 15-oz can Great Northern white beans, drained
1 15-oz can pinto beans, drained (only if you have room in your pot)
1 8-0z can of tomatoe paste
2 15-oz can diced tomatoes (only add one at first and then the other if you
have room in your pot)
2 15-oz can stewed tomatoes (same as above)
1 4-0z can of diced chilis

SPICES
You can do one of two things
1) Add one package of McCormicks chili seasoning (any brand will do)
2) Add the following
2 to 3 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground oregano
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
a dash of salt
a dash of pepper

TOPPINGS
Shredded cheddar cheese
Chopped green onions
Sour cream
Eat with saltines or tortilla chips
We like ours served over white rice
Hot sauce

STIR EVERYTHING TOGETHER AND COVER.  COOK ON LOW-HEAT SETTING FOR 8 TO 10 HOURS OR ON HIGH-HEAT SETTING FOR 4 TO 5 HOURS.  TINA AND I PREFER TO COOK THE CHILI ON A LOW-HEAT SETTING OVERNIGHT.  THE CHILI ONLY GETS BETTER THE SECOND, THIRD AND FOURTH DAYS.  IT WILL KEEP.

Doh!

North University:

Smoothie Smooth

Federer won the Australian Open today in straight sets against Andy Murray--his 16th Grand Slam title. Murray loves the surface down under and was playing the best tennis of his life until he ran into Federer. After a year and a half of soul searching, Roger has re-established himself as the greatest in the game, and he has solidified himself as the greatest player ever. Many folks close to the game had begun to question his heart. But he stayed healthy and kept working hard and took care of his body. Meanwhile, Rafa--his greatest rival--discovered the psychological and physical demons that Federer spent most of his career subduing. Hats off to a great champion.

Rio: 1932

Creative Writing at Central High

Jasmine is in my Creative Writing class. Last week, she performed on BET. This is a video of her performance.

REBLOG the new art

Earthquake

such great stretches of dreamscape

such lines of all too familiar lines

staved in

caved in so the filthy wake resounds with the notion

of the pair of us? What of the pair of us?

Pretty much the tale of the family surviving disaster:

“In the ancient serpent stink of our blood we got clear

of the valley; the village loosed stone lions roaring at our heels.”

Sleep, troubled sleep, the troubled waking of the heart

yours on top of mine chipped dishes stacked in the pitching sink

of noontides.

What then of words? Grinding them together to summon up the void

as night insects grind their crazed wing cases?

Caught caught caught unequivocally caught

caught caught caught

head over heels into the abyss

for no good reason

except for the sudden faint steadfastness

of our own true names, our own amazing names

that had hitherto been consigned to a realm of forgetfulness

itself quite tumbledown.

Aimé Césaire

(Translated, from the French, by Paul Muldoon.)

from The New Yorker, January 25, 2010

Chang vs. Lendl

Boots

Paradise Lost Quiz Key

A) The speaker is Satan.

B) He has just fallen from Heaven and is making lemonade out of lemons.

C) See photo.

(Click here to see the original quiz.)

Volunteer!

A service club I sponsor at Central, Project 10, is going to the Arkansas Rice Depot this morning to do some volunteer work. H, RL, and I are gonna go chaperone and help out too. Should be a fun experience.

Many of my students are devout volunteers, yet too often I'm guilty of overlooking their efforts. From what I can tell, most do regular community service projects. It is heartening to see Little Rock's youth habitually reading to sick patients at Arkansas Children's Hospital, bagging rice to send to Haiti, or tutoring at-risk 2nd graders in after-school programs. These kids are doing it for the right reasons too. Yes, it helps them with college apps and scholarships, but they get it on a deeper level than that. I'm gonna join them today and report back. I think the kids have a lesson to teach me this morning. I'm embarrassed to admit that it's been too long since I've given my time freely for a greater purpose. I'll let you know how it goes soon.

In the meantime, I challenge you to think of things you can do to make your community and world a better place. Get busy--with stuff that matters.

Ain't that the truth:

Reality continues to ruin my life.

--Bill Watterson

Paradise Lost Quiz

1. The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.

A) Speaker:

B) Significance:

C) Diagram it:

MLK JR DAY Family Picnic at the Lake

John Milton's Cosmos

Today in class, I get to talk about John Milton and Paradise Lost. We only read a few famous passages from the work, but I take some time to put the piece in an historical and philosophical context. The setting of the story is what fascinates me the most.

Milton's Heaven surrounds a fountain of indestructible, fiery light, out of which everything in Heaven is created. Angels swirl around, appearing as rainbows, and clouds veil the fountain of God to protect the angels' eyes. If they were to look directly into the light, they would be blinded. It's interesting that Milton claimed that much of the work came to him directly from God--in the form of a blinding light--in strange fits in the middle of the night. Much of it was written down by his daughter/slave after he went blind as an older man. I secretly hope she changed a few words here and there.

Directly below Heaven, as if it were hanging on a chain, is the fledgling Universe--God's comfort-food creation for Himself after the notorious revolt on His throne. In relation to the whole Cosmos, the Universe is tiny , and at the geometrical center is Planet Earth--the Garden of Eden--a mere spec of sand on a vast beach compared with the rest of the Universe. Extraterrestrial life is possible, even likely. In Book XIII, an angel tells Adam that on another planet, "clouds may rain, and rain produce/Fruits in her soften'd soil, for some to eat/Alloted there." Angels can leave Heaven and visit Adam and Eve. They disclose little secrets of the Universe and of God, but they don't tell too much.

Engulfing everything below Heaven is a realm Milton called Chaos. Chaos is simply an infinite "womb of space," swirling matter out of which the Universe and Hell are created. The place is described as "warring atoms." Milton was an accomplished astronomer (a composer too by the way); he had many stellar secrets figured out on his own. He missed a few important ones too though, like Earth being the center of the Universe.

Below everything is Hell. Hell was created for Lucifer and his army long, long ago. When God kicked them out of Heaven, they fell through Chaos for 9 days--so far and so fast that their rainbows were melted into grotesque lizard skins. Hell is not only a physical place, burning lakes of sulfurous darkness. It is also a psychological place, at the heart of Satan when he cries. Hell, like the Garden of Eden, can be fun though. Demons lounge around at Pandemonium, Satan's castle, and sing sentimental songs of self-pity, wax philosophic, have tournaments. Satan comes out on the balcony every so often and rallies his men. The demons can leave Hell too and fly around the Universe creating havoc, which has always puzzled me.

It's fun stuff to think about and say aloud. We really believe this stuff a lot of us.

Faculty Meeting Blues

Got a faculty meeting at nine,

Gotta meet at nine,

Got a faculty meeting at nine o'clock sharp,

I'll just make it through that, and I'll feel just fine.

Joke of the Day

Q: How many rhythm guitarists does it take to screw in a light bulb?

A: They can't do it without their lead guitarist.

Joke of the Day

Q: How many lead guitarists does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

A: One. The guitarist holds the bulb, and the world revolves around him.

i found this on the floor

5 second rule

My Creative Writing classes started a new project yesterday. We're using www.ifoundthisonthefloor.tumblr.com as a drafting pad/feeder room for a new online literary magazine (coming soon). Check it out.

I also started a Dirt Bombs page at tumblr. Better for sharing music and video.

The Teachers' Lounge on Second Semester

"Alright?"

"Seven years of plenty, seven years of famine."

"Five days for Thanksgiving, review for exams."

"Four half-days."

"Christmas Break, and then The Dark Ages begin."

"You know that's right."

"Better gas up now Son cause then it's forty years in the desert to the land of milk and honey."

These things are the Devil.

This contraption was out in the middle of the mall. WTF? And where did it come from? Tell me they don't rent these things in malls. Well Mr. RL just made a beeline straight for it, and we were stuck for a good 15 minutes. One of his newest sentences is, "I'm stuck." I think I will call this picture, "Mama and Daddy are Stuck."

Oh, and if you're not already a parent, remind me to tell you about those little rides that you drop a quarter in so they light up and bounce up and down. Well it's not a quarter anymore, and if RL ever finds out they move, we won't be able to go out in public ever again.

Snow Daze

1

Mr. Babbitt awoke before the alarm sounded. Like any day, he took his morning coffee, shaved, showered, then walked to the window. Dawn light broadcast a sugaring of snow on the back deck. Enough to dust the roadway, he thought, but not to halt the busses. Babbitt whistled in the mirror and cinched the tie snug, then loosed it and unfastened the top button. The furnace roared and echoed in the steamy little Aqua Velva bathroom. His favorite time of day. His students would be a wee bit rumbustious with the weather; he planned he’d get a lecture in.

2

People just can’t understand how profoundly political a decision like this one is. Debra had to move to the guest bed he was so lathered up. What did he care about typhoons in Taekwondo? The Weather Channel was horseshit anymore. It seemed his patience was failing him. “Settle down,” he spoke, “you’ll make the right call.” The Superintendent regarded himself a man of God. Finally, 4 o’clock. Lyle would be in the driveway waiting to evaluate the county roads, bridges. It’s hard to say no, and Lyle was a tough cookie. This was a good day for ear muffs.

3

The morning blog post on the parent wall was titled: No School? Gimme a BREAK. Do these people have a CLUE? BTW, I’ve been having trouble accessing Bobby’s History grade. Anyone else? She didn’t see any need for a snow day and planned on having some folks hear about it. Loretta hadn't the foggiest that her Bobby had been labeled “tittybaby” by the special ed counselor just before the last 504 review conference. Bobby snagged the keys and split for Tucker’s. They rolled by the Wishy Wash on Broadway and lit a doobie to The Strokes’ “Fear of Sleep.”

Recommended Reading for January

"Remnant" by Elizabeth Moore and "Pendleton" by Valerie Vogrin are flash fiction companion pieces that were published in 42opus in December 2008. The stories work well together, but they each stand on their own just fine.

The protagonist in each makes peace--maybe?--by confessing a less than desirable sexual experience as she drives the reader down a dark, county road.

Short Story Links

These are some short stories that I've recommended over the past year or so. I'm taking them off my navigation sidebar to use the space for other things, but I wanted to preserve the links. Here they are:

"The Great Stone Face" by Nathaniel Hawthorne

"The Swimmer" by John Cheever

"The Artificial Nigger" by Flannery O'Connor

"Curt Schilling and The Lord of Hosts" by Walter Maroney

"The Grave by the Handpost" by Thomas Hardy

A Song of Loss

--William Blake

Voila! Bon Appetit.

New Year's Pot Roast with Roots

• 1 boneless beef chuck pot roast (about 3 lb)
• 8 or 10 new potatoes, halved
• 2 large carrots, chunked
• 2 large parsnips, chunked
• 1 leek, chunked
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• lemon pepper and salt to taste

Drop 'em in the Crock Pot and cook it all day.

30,000 30,000 30,000 30,000 30,000 30,000 30,000 30,000 30,000 30,000 30,000 30,000 30,000 30,000 30,000 30,000

For the last couple of days, I can't stop thinking about the men and women in uniform, many of them National Guardsmen and Reserves, who are leaving for Afghanistan this year, their third, fourth tours of combat in under seven years. They're going over there to do a job that many argue can be accomplished with a few CIA operatives, Special Forces units, and drones. Many argue nothing can be accomplished at all for that matter.

When I voted in the last Presidential election, I had hoped I was voting for peace on Earth, revolutionary environmental policy reform, universal health care, education reform. Was I not?

It's complicated, I know--nonviolence, stewardship, compassion. Oh, the humanity!