Comfort Food: Caldillo

When the cold weather hits, I go through a mini-depression watching all of my outside plants turn brown and die. My favorite is a six-foot tall mandevilla that peeks out of the ground every spring and dies instantly the following Thanksgiving. This summer was it's eighth showing. It's bright pink blooms are truly spectacular, and when it's time to cut it down, it's like chopping off my left arm.

Great soups and stews are a small consolation prize for bidding another goodbye to the garden. Today we woke up to a light rain and overcast skies...a perfect combination to stay home and cook some good comfort food!



This caldillo is my version of a stew my husband and I like to get at the truck stop by my office. I'm not a huge fan of the cafe there, but their stew is incredible, and the servers tell us truck drivers stop in just to eat it.

With big chunks of red potato, lots of ground beef and beans, you could almost stuff a tortilla with this stuff and make a burrito.



Start by browning about a pound and a half of ground beef. Drain well.



Dice up an onion or two (I stuck with one this time around) and about four hot green chiles.



Saute the onion and green chile in a large stock pot in two tablespoons of butter. Add some garlic salt and lots of fresh ground black pepper.



While the onion and chile are sizzling, chop up 6 red potatoes into 1-inch chunks. You can use regular potatoes, but I like the color these add to the soup.



After the chile and onion mixture is translucent, add 8 cups of water to the stockpot, along with a 27-ounce can of pinto beans, the ground beef and 4 chicken bouillon cubes.



Bring everything to a boil and simmer over low heat for at least an hour. Serve with toasted flour tortillas or crusty bolillos. Yum!

Here's a cut-and-paste version:

Caldillo

1.5 lbs ground beef
1 or 2 onions, diced
4 hot green chiles, diced
2 tbsp. butter
6 red onions, cut into 1-inch cubes
1 can (27 oz.) pinto beans
4 chicken bouillon cubes
8 cups of water
1 tsp. garlic salt
salt and pepper to taste

1. Brown ground beef in a skillet. Drain well.
2. In a large stock pot, saute onion and green chile in the butter. Add garlic salt.
3. After chile and onion mixture is translucent, add water, beans, bouillon, ground beef and potatoes.
4. Bring pot to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for at least an hour. Serve with flour tortillas or rolls.

Halloweenies

Sometimes I wonder if my babies will resent me later for choosing Halloween as their birthday. Many years from now, as they're taking their own babies door-to-door, I suspect it might cross their minds that Mom was a total ditz for thinking this is how they wanted to spend each and every birthday.

The truth is that I chose October 31st as their birthday in honor of my wonderfully beloved grandma, Lillian, who was born on Halloween. Ironically, my cousin (Mom's brother's son)also shares a Halloweenie birthday with my grandma and my babies. My grandma died when I was 14 and never got to meet the babies, but I know she would have gushed all over them.



This year, I dressed them in their standard birthday t-shirts and sent them to school. Lainey dressed up as a purple crayon. It was entirely a co-winky dink that they all ended up in purple...secretly I wish I could tell you that I planned it.



After the girls got home from school, I fed them dinner in record time and got their homework done. It helps to have costumes to dangle like a carrot to get kids to finish homework. It's the only upside to having Halloween on a f'ing weekday!



It's well documented that costume designers turn any idea into a slutty costume. For example, the girls chose the same one this year - a leopard. What happened to the spotted leotard, tights, ears and a tail? Do we really need the choker and fingerless gloves?! I suppose so, because I bought the damn things. They do look awfully cute next to our neighbor, Superman.



Lainey was a Hooters girl. She was supposed to stick to her Crayon plan, but the other Crayon never showed up.



My BFF's daughter was Dead Raggedy Ann. Pretty good, I'd say! And I just did.



Can you guess what my darling niece was?



I don't know this trick-or-treater, but his costume was one of my favorites. It also prompted my BFF to come up with new Halloween rules: You cannot trick or treat if you A) have facial hair B) drive yourself to the neighborhood or 3) have a beer in one hand and a bag of candy in the other. I made that last one up just now. Don't ask me how I thought of it.



The entire Anchorman news team showed up, too. They were awesome, minus Veronica Corningstone.



This is Stevie's "fierce kitty" look. All night you could say, "Hey, Stevie...show me 'fierce kitty'" and she would break into character. Genius kid.



Where's Tomi?

Happy Halloweenie (a day later),
me