L is for Luck

My knitting group had a potluck get-together for the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics. It was also a Casting On party for the various Knitting Olympics going on.

A couple of weeks earlier, we pulled slips of paper out of a sock project bag to see what each person was to bring. I pulled Side Dish. Here's what I made...

CALABACITAS
2 TBS unsalted butter or olive oil
2 medium-size yellow or white onions, chopped
6 mild green chiles, such as Anaheim, roasted, peeled, seeded, cut into large pieces
1 pound zucchini, ends trimmed, and cut into 2-3" chunks
2 to 3 ears yellow or white corn, kernels cut off the cob; or one 10 oz. pkg frozen corn, thawed
1/2 cup water
1 cup shredded cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese

1. In a small skillet, melt the butter over medium heat and cook the onions, stirring a few times, until softened, about 5 minutes.
2. Transfer to the slow cooker along with the chiles, zucchini, corn, and water. Cover and cook on LOW until the zucchini begins to break down and make a stew, 3'4 hours.
3. Sprinkle with cheese and serve out of the crockpot with an oversized spoon.

This recipe is insanely easy and delicious! I doubled it and the only modification I made was to substitute a big can (or two small ones) of the canned green chilies for the roasting/peeling/seeded/chopped/10X-more-expensive Anaheims. I also used the frozen corn option. (I love that the recipe tells you what size serving spoon to use. Odd.)

The Potluck was great fun! We had it at Donna's house (thanks Donna!) and since she pulled dessert, she made a lovely Pavlova in the shape of the Olympic rings topped with appropriate colored fruit (pineapple, kiwi, berries, etc.) and served with a scrumptious chocolate sauce!

Luck has been playing a small part in my life lately and in rather odd ways....

I'm playing online poker nearly every day and I'm getting better all the time! Last night, I got knocked out in 106th place. Not so great, right? BUT! That's 106 out of 20,000 people! In the free tournaments I play in, I've learned to not even play a hand unless I have to (big blind/small blind) for about the first 30-60 minutes since there's always some yayhoo that wants to go "all in" with, like, an 8 and a 2. Off-suite. If you don't play Texas Hold'em, you probably don't have any idea what I'm talking about but that's OK. Just know that I'm having fun! Dave's been playing for over a year now and he's much better then I. It's a math issue, really. He can look at the pot and figure out pot odds. I look at the bets being made and decide if I want to give up that much money or not considering what my hand is.

On Valentine's Day, we took Dave's parents out to eat for their anniversary (41 years!). They picked the big Chinese buffet in town. It's not bad. To me, buffet food all kind of tastes the same. When the fortune cookies came, D2's said, "A well-nourished romance feeds the soul.", so of course Dave and T had to start teasing him about the little girl in his class that he thinks is pretty. (Apparently the boy has a predilection towards blondes. Every class he's ever been in, the one he picks for his "girlfriend" is always a blonde!) T said, "Oooh, D2, you're going to marry her!" D2 said, "No I'm not! I probably haven't even met the girl I'm going to marry, yet. I may not meet her until I'm in.... 2nd grade!" We all cracked up at that!

Had a bit of bad luck 2 days ago. I had put dinner in the crockpot and was messin' about upstairs for about an hour. Then I remembered that I forgot to put the onion in the crock. I dashed downstairs and was chopping it up really fast and the knife slipped off the onion into my finger. It hacked me pretty good under the fingernail of my left middle finger. Yipes! It bled for over 5 minutes! I was having an email conversation with a my friend and he said to put cayenne pepper on it and it would stop bleeding immediately. He swore it wouldn't hurt. I told him I'd try a bandage first and if that didn't work I'd try the pepper. I also said that if I tried the pepper and it did hurt, he'd be in for it! The bandage worked. phew!

The accident serves me right for A) rushing and B) not sharpening the knife first. Of course, if I had sharpened it, it probably would've taken my fingertip off! As it is, I have a nasty cut with a lovely accompanying blunt force bruise. Niiiice.

Love my crockpot, Ruth!