Easter

Last Sunday, we got together at Dan and Carmen's place for easter. I made my chile verde and some guacamole. We went with a mexican theme because I'd already gotten the ingredients. Dan made some chicken fajitas and mexican rice. The chile verde went over really well. I don't have my recipes up on my server at the moment, so I'll just put it here for your reading enjoyment:

• 1.5-2lbs stewing pork, cut into 1/2"-1" cubes
  
• 1 onion, thinly sliced into little half-circles, chopped, or whatever.
  
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely diced
  
• 5-6 tomatillos, diced
  
• 1 tomato, seeded and diced
  
• 5 Fresh anaheim chiles
  
• 1 jalapeno (if you want some more spice)
  
• 2 cups of chicken broth/stock
  
• flour, salt, pepper
  

Roast the chilis in a broiler or over an open flame, put in a paper bag for 5 minutes or so, peel, seed, and slice into inch long strips. Prep all the ingredients. Put some oil in a dutch oven. Coat the meat in flour (mix in some salt and pepper) and brown in the oven and set aside. (Work in batches.) Cook the onions and garlic. (At least get the onions translucent, doesn't hurt to brown them a little.) Add the tomatoes, tomatillos, and chilis. Add the meat. Add chicken broth to cover. Put a lid on the pan and simmer for about 2 hours. Uncover, reduce to desired consistency, and adjust seasonings. (Add salt and pepper to taste, I like a good dose of black pepper in this dish.)

Serve with tortillas, mexican rice, and beans. (Make little tacos with the tortillas, or just eat it with a fork.) This should taste even better the second day, if you save some and reheat it.

New York

I'm back from our New York vacation. I had a good time, but it was a bit cold and windy, and it seemed to be a bit busy/hectic. On sunday, we got to see one of my friends (Rich Kaszeta) and a few of Emily's friends, who were quite fun to hang out with. We saw five shows: Avenue Q, Phantom, Wicked, Spamalot, and Altar Boyz. Emily showed me here old hang outs, and we went to a few museums and stores. (The Met, Radio & TV museum, and the MOMA.)

 

The city was interesting. The subway system is much more extensive than BART, neither as nice nor as smooth, though. I also noticed that the pedestrians behave a bit differently. (They don't have the entitlement that the pedestrians in SF have, but everything seems to run more smoothly because of it.) The city seemed rather hectic - there wern't a lot of places or opportunities to sit and relax. Maybe that was just our schedule and the weather, though. I also noticed that it was much harder to find decent beer than in San Francisco. In the end, I much prefer San Francisco.

Dan, Carmen, and I put a bid in on a house today, , we'll see if the seller accepts our terms. It's quite charming, and in a good location, but needs some work done on it. The picture makes it look a little small, because it's wedge (flatiron?) shaped, but it has two 2 bdrm, 1 bath units in it for a total of 2820 square feet.