The Burn of a Poblano Pepper

Peeps, I have a somewhat funny story that I have to share with you. For those that don't know, I'm recently unemployed (my husband was relocated for a new job) and embracing being a job searching house wife for a while... So here's the deal - I unpack/organize/care for the house and take care of preparing meals while my husband works and "brings home the bacon". I have to admit, I like unpacking. I love organizing and putting everything in it's place but the sea of boxes has been somewhat overwhelming!

Yesterday, I finally felt like I made a breakthrough since the kitchen was almost entirely unpacked and put together, so I decided to cook my first meal in our new house. I had been dying to try the Three Bean Chili Con Turkey recipe from the Clean Eating Magazine email newsletter I got last month. So I'm making the chili - chopping, dicing, measuring like the engineer that I am - and I think it's a little odd that the recipe calls for 1 cup each of dried black, pinto, and kidney beans but does not require them to be cooked. I even mentioned this to John the day before (once I set out the dried beans to soak overnight) and said I thought it was going to take a lot longer than 45 minutes to cook the beans. Well, I get to the point where I think I'm done and decide to check the recipe again because I didn't think there was enough liquid to cook the beans, when I see this at the top of the email I kept for the recipe:

We apologize for any inconvenience but we have an update to yesterday’s Three-Bean Chili Con Turkey recipe. We assumed that readers would know to soak their dried beans overnight, but it should be clarified. If you have the time, soak your dried beans in water overnight, or for at least one hour. Boil the beans, according to package directions, then add them to the saucepan. In a real hurry? No problem. Although we encourage readers to choose dried beans over canned whenever possible, canned are fine in a pinch – just rinse them well before using.

AUGHHH!!!!! Are you kidding me?! I just thought the text at the top was newsletter chatter and just scrolled down the page to the recipe. Really, I should have known better. I do know better, but I am such a recipe follower... not trusting of my own cooking skills. So what to do what to do... everything was mixed together. The garlic, onions, celery, poblano pepper, spices, turkey, and dried beans... Well. I cried a little. Then I sucked it up and started picking out the beans a spoonful at a time. 20 minutes later I took my pots (the chili pot and pot for beans), sat at the kitchen table so I could sit and watch/listen to TV, and continued to separate the beans from the chili... for 2 hours.

Yes. I. DID.

Then I cooked the beans and added them back into the chili and cooked it according to the recipe. Which ended up drying out. So I had to add more broth, then once John was home and started helping we added more broth, water, tomato sauce, and tomato paste. By this time I was swearing and just sick of looking at this chili. I didn't even taste it. By this time it was ~8:30 PM (I started at 3:30 PM) and I realize that my middle, ring, and pinky fingers of my right hand were really burning, along with my right thumb under the finger nail. I couldn't remember burning myself and it started out as a mild discomfort and got worse and worse. I put my thumb in my mouth for something and when my mouth started burning I figured out that I had gotten pepper stuff under my nail. I washed my hands really well with soap and put some aloe on my fingers. It did not help, in fact it got worse. What the heck, it was just a Poblano Pepper! They're supposed to be fairly mild, it didn't even occur to me to wear gloves though I was careful with how much I touched it and had washed my hands right after handling the pepper. Desperate I googled hot pepper burns and found this treatment on ehow.

How to Treat a Hot Pepper Burn
Instructions:

1. Wear rubber gloves the oil can seep through latex gloves.

2. Wash your hands thoroughly with dish soap to get all the oil off your hands. Use a fingernail brush to scrub nails with dish soap.
   
   
3. Take an over the counter pain killer as directed
   
   
4. Soak fingers/hands in a bowl of cold milk. The fat in the milk helps soothe hands better than ice water.
   
   
5. Apply an ointment to treat and soothe burns such as aloe vera or hydro cortisone cream.

6. Repeat the milk soak as needed. It will not harm your hands, so do not hesitate to soak as often as necessary

7. Put on gloves to clean the area where you cut the peppers. Use a cleanser with bleach to rid your counter tops, cutting boards and knives of any residual oil.

The only milk in the house we have is skim and 1% so I did the soak in the 1% which felt good while my hand was in it, but as soon as it was out it was burning again. Then I tried lowfat yogurt with the same result. Now it's after 10PM and I'm cursing the chili again and debating running to the store to get either full fat milk or burn cream or both. Finally it dawned on me to try butter... 30 minutes later the burning completely stopped. Butter - thank you thank you, I love you, and will never talk badly about you again!

I had a bowl of the chili for lunch. To my surprise it turned out great! Which makes me feel a teeny bit better about yesterday's ordeal. I topped it with colby jack cheese and had yellow corn chips for dipping. Yum-O!

The recipe instructions and ingredient amounts were way off... but I was able to pull it off. I used 2 1/2 cups of tomato sauce, 2 tbsp tomato paste, 2 1/2 cups of chicken broth, and probably a cup of water or more. Hopefully if you try this recipe (which I do recommend) you will have a better experience than mine!

Right Now

To say life is crazy right now would be an understatement. It would be down right funny! But things finally calmed down for a moment at least...

I've seen this "Right Now" series on a few blogs and thought I'd give it a go.

watching... my work computer monitor

smelling... Bedtime Yogi Tea, yeah it's not bedtime but it is calming

reading... an equity request form (for house closing)

enjoying... dreaming of our new house in a new state (#6 for me)

listening... to the chatter in my mind

knowing... this quiet moment will not last long

drinking... Yogi Tea

embracing... the transition coming my way


-- Posted from my iPhone

Lair O' The Bear

I am in beautiful Colorado. I love this state! This morning I went on an easy relaxing hike along Bear Creek at Lair O' The Bear Park. It was the perfect trail for me, considering I have a cold - which is such a bummer for this trip. Here are some pictures I snapped with my iPhone (that got no service by the way...), I will add more or replace these with ones from my digital camera when I get home.












I think it was after taking the picture above that we came across a garter snake, ~1 foot long, sunning along the side of the trail. We stopped to check him out and I took a picture with my "real" camera. Then a runner came along and scared the little guy away.





After this picture we were chatting and walking along when suddenly we came across the largest snake I've ever seen that wasn't behind glass. It was at LEAST 3 inches in diameter! We startled the poor guy and it moved quickly out of our way. By the time we realized he was there, what he was, and how BIG he was, he was gone and we were half running down the path! Our hearts were racing! Once the shock wore off, I walked back to see if I could see him in the grass, and get a better look. And before you freak out at me - I didn't go after the snake (I'm not crazy!) - just went back to see if I could observe from a distance but he long gone. We only saw him briefly but noted that he had gold/orange and brown stripes, with some kind of markings, and about 4-4.5 feet long (maybe longer)! We did not hear a rattle. It was exciting/cool/scary.






I just realized that I didn't take any pictures of the wild flowers with my iPhone but they were everywhere, and so pretty.





This was such a relaxing hike (minus the large snake encounter) with the sound of babbling creek, and the tall grass swaying in the breeze.





I highly recommend this park for families. There were picnic benches in the shade with charcoal grills for grilling, people fishing, areas for wading, and the path was smooth and flat. Though we were there between 10 AM and noon, it wasn't crowded at all. I would definitely go back. I have to add that I felt a little guilty enjoying this hike without Koda. I wish I could have brought her with me. There were so many doggies on the trail and happily jumping into the creek (on leashes).

-- Post From My iPhone

Flush Puppies

Has anyone tried these?



They are pricey... Wonder if I could find them online cheaper. Sorry for the blurry picture, it was taken with my iPhone on the plane!

Do you know that doggie poo run-off is bad for streams and rivers? I know, you'd think it would be a natural occurence you wouldn't have to worry about! I read an article about this issue recently that explained it really well, if I find it again I will update this post to include the link.



Thankfully, our pup dog Koda only does her business in our yard (we didn't purposely train her this way but we like it). We let her poo deteriate in the grass. It really hasn't been an issue for us since compared to other doggies we know she doesn't poop as much (we're convinced it's because we feed her Purina ProPlan). Obviously when we travel we have to clean up after her... But from what I've learned recently we should be picking up her poo all the time. Ugh.



I am selfishy posting these pictures of Koda because she's just a cutie and I miss her! One of her favorite things in the world is fresh cut grass :). I had to drop her off at the kennel today and it was harder than usual because I could hear her whining in the back... probably because she could hear me talking to the girl at the desk about her fear of thunderstorms.

Would you a) use Flush Puppies and actually flush them down your toilet, and b) pay $2 for 15? How do you manage your dogs/pets poo? Really, I wanna know!

-- Post From My iPhone

Link Between Cosmic Rays and Climate Change?

I stumbled upon this article, and the subsequent browsing brought back some memories of my Space Physics class that was several years ago. I remember this being a great topic of debate back then, seems like it still is... here's a clip from the ScienceNOW article by Phil Berardelli - "Do Clouds Come From Outer Space?"

Study Connects Cloud Cover With Cosmic Rays.

ScienceNOW (8/5, Berardelli) reported, "Most of Earth's clouds get their start in deep space. That's the surprising conclusion from a team of researchers who argue that interstellar cosmic rays collide with water molecules in our atmosphere to form overcast skies." A new study by Henrik Svensmark of the Technical University of Denmark found that over the past 22 years the five strongest coronal mass ejections from the sun, which would block cosmic rays from reaching the Earth, corresponded to a 7% decrease in cloud cover. "Svensmark argues that the findings suggest a link between cosmic rays and climate change. Because clouds...reflect light from the sun, fewer clouds would mean a warmer Earth." However, Jón Egill Kristjánsson of the University of Oslo noted that there has only been a "slightly upward trend" at most in cosmic rays. "That would mean either no increase in cloud formation or a slight increase--neither of which would warm the world."

Further reading if you're interested:
Study shows strong evidence that cloud changes may exacerbate global warming

ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCE: Cosmic Rays, Clouds, and Climate

*Random fact about me: I have always been fascinated with climate/weather, and for a while I dreamed of working for NOAA. It's still my back up plan (I have many plans - A, B, C, & D).

Zucchini & Banana Bundt Cake

I recently have become a huge fan of the Pioneer Woman, thanks to my friends who introduced me in their own blogs. Well, PW just launched a new site called Tasty Kitchen, a community website where users can search/browse all kinds of recipes, upload their favorite recipes to share, and rate ones they try out themselves. I love it! Last night I spent 30+ minutes browsing - drooling over recipes - and adding ones I wanted to give a try to my "recipe box". Since today I have the day off, I decided to jump right in this morning and put to use the beautiful zucchini sitting on my counter. I tried out this Zucchini & Banana Bundt Cake, with a few modifications to make it healthier. Usually when first trying out a recipe I follow the instructions to the T... but I was feeling it this morning and went for it. It came out really well, very moist and tasty - husband approved! The original recipe is by bakeaholic and can be found here.

Here are some pictures I took of mine... I had some trouble getting it out of the well greased and floured, non-stick bundt pan *rolling eyes*, so I'm grateful that it looks as good as it does! My modifications are listed at the bottom of the post.

So yummy!

Here's a list of the substitutions/modifications I made to make the recipe mostly "clean":

• 1 cup vegetable oil = 3/4 cup apple sauce, 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 cups sugar = 1 cup organic sucanat, 1/2 cup organic sugar
• 2 cups all-purpose flour = 1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour, 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• I added 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, and 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  

Keep America in Space

Today is the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing. Happy 40th Anniversary Apollo!