Synchronicity

Yesterday, Dean and Laura were celebrating their 25th anniversary by hosting the Minn-StF meeting.

While sitting in their house, going through some old scans I’ve been finally getting around to putting up in my snapshot album, I stumbled across my photos from their wedding 25 years ago (the scans are only 3 years old).

So I got to show those off to an audience primed to appreciate them, and sit and edit them right in their house. And today I got the album made from them.

I don’t have a decent photo of Laura or of the two of them from that day, so here’s a photo of Dean from that set.

Mediocre Texas Chili

I’m starting the process of working up what I think of as a “Texas” chili recipe — beef, no beans, no tomato so far.

1.5 lb chili-cut (or very coarse grind) beef
1 medium onion, chopped medium
3 T vegetable oil
3 T minced garlic
2 bay leaves
1 T ground ancho chile
1 T ground guajillo chile
2 t ground arbol chile
2 t ground cumin seed
3 T oregano leaf
1/2 t ground black pepper
2 cups beef stock, bouillon, or just water,
or some beer, or something
2 T masa harina
3 T water

Heat oil in dutch oven or other big enough container. Brown beef, then add onion, garlic, and herbs and spices. Cook 5 minutes, stirring constantly.

Add the two cups of liquid, bring to a boil, and reduce to simmer. Let simmer for a couple of hours. Remove bay leaves.

Mix masa harina with water until smooth, add to chili, and stir well.  Cook for 5 or 10 minutes, and serve.

I added a small amount of salt, which I think was too much, hence no salt listed above.  Use your judgment.  More cumin is probably a good idea, and using whole seed rather than ground will probably help.

I would rate the hotness of this batch at low medium, which is a wide band.

It tasted nice enough, but it wasn’t really “there” yet, and I’m not sure what to change next.

Year of our moon landing 43

I was 15, living at home, and working in the Carleton computing center that summer. We had a B&W TV, but that’s all they were broadcasting from the moon anyway.

I remember making a reel-to-reel tape of the commentary of the landing, and shooting many B&W negatives of the TV screen as things progressed. I still have the negatives, but now we have access to much better pictures from the cameras the astronauts had with them.