Visits & soup

Yesterday, I loaded the trailer with all the things to be recycled that I have been gathering for about 4 months. It filled the trailer and it even filled the trunk. After I unloaded all but the things I was taking to Jared and Debbie's, I headed down to Spanish Fork and visited with the Mendoza's. I taught them how to play graces but I don't think they liked it as much as I do. Valerie scared me by saying there was a fire in the grill where she was cooking. It just turned out to be a lot of smoke. Valerie, Alex and I carried the mattress and box spring to the trailer. I drove up to Heather and Tom's and Heather helped me carry it into the house (I hope you were able to get it into the bedroom, Heather). I visited with her for a couple of hours before heading over to drop off a bunch of plastic bags and some newspapers for packing fragile things. I stayed there for about an hour before heading home.

I've been trying to be more creative with my leftovers so I don't have to eat the same thing 4-5 nights in a row. I bought country ribs to use in the scrapple but I only used half of them. I cooked up the rest of the ribs and ate those for a couple of nights but I got sick of it. I went online and found a recipe for soup using leftover pork. It was really good!! I don't generally like anything too spicy but I loved this soup.

GREEN CHILE CHILI

1 pound cooked pork, cubed
1 tablespoon flour
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 cup choped onions
1 clove garlic, minced
1 (16 oz) can tomato sauce
1 (7 oz) can diced green chiles
1/4 teaspoon oregano
salt to taste
2 cups water

Heat oil in a large skillet. Add onion and garlic and cook until onion is tender. Do not allow garlic to brown.

Add flour and cook until golden.

Add cooked pork and remaining ingredients. Simmer, covered, 1 to 2 hours, stirring occasionally.

Remove cover. Simmer, uncovered, 5 to 10 minutes to desired consistency.



Also, I've been trying to be as conscientious as I can about what I throw away. I recycle all the plastic that is recycleable here, glass, cans, bags, paper & newspaper but one thing I haven't been doing is saving food scraps (or rotten food) to throw into the field. Ideally, it would be put in a compost pile but I don't have one of those right now so the field has to do. So today, when I found the dogs treats had mold growing on them, I started saving the scraps and cleaned out the fridge. I'll be dumping it before I go to bed tonight. When I get settled in Boise, I'll see if I can find any red wigglers to start a compost bin.



On a sad note, Adam's dad fell from a ladder this week and broke a rib and his arm. He'll be going into surgery to have a steel rod put into his arm on Tuesday. I'm sure he could use everyone's prayers for a fast recovery.