Ole!

The fall indoor soccer league starts at 9:25. Well, that's the start time for our team's game--we drew the late slot tonight. Having not played soccer since the outdoor league ended in July, I'm not sure how ready I am to kick it for a solid forty minutes. I predict some soreness tomorrow. I think I'll skip out on Thursday's game and focus on trying to be recovered enough by Saturday to be mobile for the city 3-on-3 basketball tournament.

In other news, the flight deals were too good to pass up. Looks like a trip to Phoenix is now part of my Christmas break plan.

projects, events, etc.

For such a relatively low-key weekend, it's been great.

Friday night, the Cowgirls were victorious in their second home exhibition game. They're showing some promise. CSU-Pueblo Thunderwolves' defense was a bit quicker than Adams State's girls were on Monday, so the Cowgirls got some good practic in. They still have to figure out a workable offense against the zone, but it looks like they've got the potential for some good team chemistry.

Saturday night the Cowgirls volleyball team also won, against Air Force. But before that, I spent the day on a new storage solution, for hats and gloves and bike helmet and such, to go in the entry. I had been just sort of stacking all of this stuff on top of the coat hooks. But now I've got these not-quite-Sundance-catalog-worthy cubbies:

(Total price, about 16 bucks, including that ultra fancy boot tub underneath, which came from Kmart at the low-low price of $4.99.)

Also on Saturday afternoon I spent some time in the yard, cleaning up the flower/weed beds. And I turned over the bio-pile I've started out back. I hesitate to call it a compost pile since I'm not making much of an effort to get the ratios right. But I still think I'll get some decent soil out of crappy dirt plus Adam's coffee grounds plus random veggie clippings and my Halloween punkin. Hopefully at some point the temperature will get high enough to kill the seeds of the thistle and other weeds I've thrown in.

Also on Saturday I got a call from Libby, who was unexpectedly unable to make use of the buffalo flank steak thawing in her fridge. So, more meat windfall.

Winey buffalo

Marinade steak overnight in olive oil, worcestershire sauce, and chopped garlic. Add spices if you like. I used some basil and Old Bay, I think.

Cut steak into one-inch cubes.

Brown steak cubes over medium high heat.

When steak has browned, add about a cup of red wine. Cover and let continue to cook.

Meanwhile, cut up an unjun. Add it to the business. Add more spices too if you want. I didn't add cumin but that woulda been smart.

Cut up some taters. In another pot, put them on to boil. [You can see where this part is going: make them into mashed potatoes, whatever way you like.]

As the wine starts to reduce, scoot the meat off to one side of the pan, and get your juice over there on the free side. Add some butter, and add some flour. Whisk that shit. Mix it back in with the meat.

Add some sour cream. Maybe a quarter cup. Mix it into the rest, and now just cook it long enough that everything's blended together and the sauce is the right consistency.

Lump out some mashed taters on a plate. Cover it with your winey buffalo. Eat the shit outta that shit!

I'm looking forward to the end of my 'gluten-free' test period. I'll be happy to binge on wheat-filled donuts and barley-rich PBRs and rye-liciousness. Cinnamon rolls and pancakes and chicken-cherry sandwiches. Kit-Kat bars. Spaghetti.

In the meantime, though, I've appreciated the creativity that going gluten-free has required for these past few months. I won't claim that my green-chili pizza tonight was as good as the Beartree's version is, but I did alright.

Here's my ultra fancy recipe.

Gluten-free green-chili chicken pizza

1 Uncle Bob's Redmill GF pizza crust mix (plus: 2 eggs, 2 Tbsp olive oil, water, and the included yeast packet)

1 chicken breast

1-2 Tbsp olive oil

1 can corn

1 can green chilis

1 can navy beans

spices (cumin, chili powder, garlic salt, or whatever)

1 can tomato sauce

1 can sliced black olives

cheese, and lots of it (say 2-3 cups, ish)

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Prepare the crust according to Uncle Bob's instructions, but instead of dividing into two parts, just leave it in one big ball. after letting it set (20 minutes or so), put it onto a greased cookie sheet (I forgot to grease mine and the crust stuck a bit). Use wet hands to spread it as thin as you can without it starting to pull apart. Mine ended up being about a 12-inch round. I baked it for about 10 minutes at 450.

Trim the chicken and cut it into smallish bits. Throw it in a pan with some olive oil, and cook until no longer pink. Add the corn, chilis, and beans, all drained. Add spices. Let it cook together a while.

Take the crust out of the oven. Since I forgot to grease my cookie sheet, I took a spatula to the crust to loosen it while it was hot. The crust was nearly an inch thick. Spread the can of tomato sauce over top (I used all but about two tablespoons). Strew the black olives over the tomato sauce. Throw a bunch of cheese over that--say 1 1/2 cups or so. Maybe more. Cheese is good.

Once your chili is starting to meld together, spoon it over the cheese. Use a slotted spoon if the chili is still soupish. Add as much as you like, or as little. (I was left with about one bowl of chili left over--how convenient!)

More cheese!

Back into the oven, for another 12-15 minutes.

Etcellentay!