Death, Taxes and Chili

No, no, I'm not dead. Yet!
It's tax time....
In this country, for us, that means 4 different tax forms:

Federal personnal taxes
California personnal taxes
Federal business taxes
California business taxes

Let's keep swimming, let's keep swimming....

Actually I shouldn't really complain since Mark is doing most of it. Just for that I'm sure he should be reincarnated in a higher being.

Except,

that my darling husband decided that now was the perfect time to also fix every little thing that is wrong with our computer:

2 fans,
1 mother board,
1 hard drive,
1 graphic card,
uploading a gazillion CDs in his new ipod.

HaHaHa.

Maybe he'll be reincarnated in a worm instead.

We have had a freezing wind for 2 days, which made me think of Chili, which made me think of Candy froggie, which made me think that I said I'd give my recipes. So here is the basic one I do all the time ( and it's fast and simple enough to do even if you are in a hurry)

Chili con Carne

50 g (3 tbsps) of butter
2 onions, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
500g ( 1 lb) ground beef
2 tsps chili powder
4 tsps ground cumin
65g ( I always put more than that, like half or more of the little cans ) tomato paste
2 or 3 cans ( 400g each or 8oz )beans ( I put in at least 3 different ones: black beans, cannelini beans and kidney beans )
Beef bouillon

Melt the butter in a large pot and put in the onions and the garlic until just golden.
Add the meat and cook, stirring a bit for 10 mns.
Add the chili and the cumin to the tomato paste ( little kids love to that) and mix with the meat.
Add the beans and the bouillon so that it covers the meat and beans.

Cover and cook for 25 mns.
Serve with rice.

If you can't find chili powder use 1 tsp or less of cayenne. It's worth hunting down the chili powder though, that smoky taste is wonderful in chilis.

I have a lot more recipes of chilis, all delicious that I'll post at some time, but this simple one is really a favorite ;)
I'll be back soon with 2 lengthy posts...

Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!

It's here, it's finally here!
Ok, let's turn down the teenage hysterics now.

Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!



And did you hear the nice little catchy phrase : "If I wasn't mad, this would probably never work. "

They might have to drag me out of the theater you know :)

Questions

A little game by Candy Froggie :)

a colour: deep purple ( like wine or the skin of an eggplant )
a flower: wild rose
a fruit: fig
an animal: wolf
a tree: oak
a drink: wine
a building: an old house with secret passages
a food: just one? man that's hard...smoked salmon
a common thing: pencil
a language: English ;)
a smell: my children, especially as babies :)
a perfume: Hypnotic poison by Dior
an invention: bread machine
a means of transport: horses
an epoch: that's hard...I think I'll go with pre-historic because you could just pick up your stuff and go.
a season: Spring
a month: August
a day: Sunday
a time: midnight
a piece of clothes: coat
a jewel: a magic ring
a body part: the back
a complex : not speaking french much to my children
a girl name : Alizée
a boy name : Thomas
a country : Africa
a city : London
an actor : Johnny Depp
an actress : Meryl Streep
a famous character from History: Marie Antoinette
a famous man : David Beckham
a famous woman : Angelina Jolie
an adjective : restless
a fault : lazy
a quality : generous
a monument : the eiffel tower
one of the seven wonders of the world : the suspended gardens of Babylone
a song : All I really want by Alanis Morissette
a movie: Out of Africa
a job : mama and jewelry maker
a sport : sleeping in my hammock ( well, you have to climb a little bit!)
a figure : 8
a sentence : "I don't see why not"
a word : knowledge
a recipe : chili!
a painting : any of the paintings by Candy Froggie or Daniel Merriam
a pair of shoes: boots and flip-flops ( it's better when you try to get in the hammock! )

Aaaaaaah Spring!

Lovely, lovely Spring.

The flowers



The birds


The Neighbors


Yeah, the neighbors. They tented their entire house to fumigate the inside because they have beetles.
Needless to say the organic gardener that I am, the lover of all things natural and fresh, everybody living happily with everything on Earth is thrilled, just thrilled. And don't tell me " well, it's tented so it's fine" cause I can SMELL it.
I have only one word right now: " gnnnnnnn".
Pffff, people.

California Squirrel :)

La Brea Tar Pits

A few miles from Disneyland, in L.A. a smell permeates the streets. I guess in L.A., it could be a lot of different things (!) ( people from L.A., don't be mad, I'm quite sure you'd have thought of that lil' joke yourself). However the smell, this time, comes from large pools of tar ( goudron in french). The reason this is particularly interesting ( yes it is!), is because a lot of prehistoric animals and at least one human have been found. And many more are still being fished out. They have found hundreds of mammoths, saber tooth cats, dire wolves, condors, ancient camels etc... It is a small museum but extremely interesting and well made. They have a contraption where you can test how it feels to be stuck in tar. And let me tell you, no wonder everything got stuck in there.
My favorite part was the aptly named " fishbowl" which is the part of the lab where you can watch as the scientists are working. We were able to watch some sifting small particles for small bones, a guy was cleaning the tar of a giant sloth head and another one was piecing together pieces of turtle shells ( talk about a puzzle!).




The way back home lead us through Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive and then it was hill after hill and more cows and ... well, I think I've already mentioned that huh?




Funnily enough, the kids seemed to have as much fun at the museum as at Disneyland :)

For Ever And Ever

That's what it took to get to Disneyland. You are driving for 6h30 mns in the middle of nowhere. Oh, sure, there are cows, and fruit trees that smell a hell of a lot better than the cows, grapevines, more cows. And hills, lots and lots of hills. And wind, lots and lots of wind. And more cows. And hawks too.
And then, quite suddenly ( nah, I wasn't sleeping pffff..) ( well, maybe a little )you find yourself in L.A. traffic which is always something. First there is ALWAYS an accident. Yes, I do mean ALWAYS. And so you are stuck, and stuck, and stuck some more. And, unbelievably, while you are stuck because of an accident, you witness ANOTHER accident happening on the lane right next to you. This time it's a lady who rear ended the huge truck in front of her. We were going at max 2 miles per hour and she manages to rear end a truck. I wonder if she was talking on the phone, eating spaghetti, doing yoga or if she was just so bored she really really wanted something to happen right now. People, I'm telling you, tssss.

( yes, I'm feeling very superior right now. I mean, come on! 2 miles per hour tops! )

Ok, let's breathe ( well, as well as you can through the smog you know, it's L.A. after all ).
There are lots of people with red cars that look like they could go really fast. Except we are all stuck as you know and "that's what you call ironic" ( Pirates of The Carribean dialogue here ). And after a few turns you find yourself on Disneyland Drive. Everybody is happier and we reach the motel with a sigh of relief.

The 2 next days were spent having fun Disney style. We flew with Peter Pan, had a mad tea party, got shot by pirates, hugged Minnie ( the second my daughter paused to get her picture taken with Minnie, my camera died. It just died. I couldn't believe it. Good thing Minnie is an extra nice mouse: Miss A. got an extra hug and a really nice autograph! I still can't believe it died.).

We ate Jambalaya and Gumbo and Mickey beignets and Churros.

A ghost hitched a ride with us at the Haunted Mansion and we met Geppetto. And we got sunburned and drenched the same day ( I had never been so soaked before, to the point of wringing water out of my underwear).

And then, there was the parade and the fireworks...I love their fireworks! I love the fact that you are in the middle and that they surround you with them.

And there was shopping...too much shopping ;)

It was fun...lots of fun. And there was still one more day of vacation and we decided to spend it at La Brea.

To Be Continued....