Merry Christmas!

I felt like I had gotten a lump of coal in the form of a bad cold but fortunately I was feeling better by Christmas Day.  I had a couple of extra holidays off from work and was glad 1. I wasn't at work when I was feeling poorly and 2. It was so gross outside might as well be sitting on the couch instead of running.

I looked it up and the last time I was sick with a bad cold was a year ago.  Ok, that puts it into perspective.  I'd rather just get the crud out of the way!  I'm still hacking up chunks of lung and expect that to linger on for another week but at least I feel much better.

I finished knitting a pair of reading mitts as a (late) Christmas present for a friend.  Fun and easy pattern which is very quick to knit.  Pair?  Why are there three mitts in the picture?  Evidently it is so easy that I wasn't paying attention and messed up the pattern so the two mitts didn't match!  I had to knit one more to match (late explained).  I'll keep the other and knit a matching pair for that altered pattern.  That'll teach me to pay attention!

As a different take on Christmas, we decided to do a Christmas Eve dinner with the family and wanted to make Posole.  Posole is a holiday tradition in New Mexico.  It's a stew made of maize (hominy - picture) and pork braised in red chile.  Delicious!  It takes some hours to prepare not because it is difficult but because it takes that long for the pork to become fork tender.  Serve this with a dollop of sour cream and avocado (blech) and it's a wonderful treat.  Both K and his brother were reminiscing about setting up luminarias on Christmas Eve and then coming in for a bowl of posole for dinner.  This was good and we'll do it again!   We have set up luminarias before in Seattle but the chances are they'll get washed out and this year that would've happened again.

I'd planned on getting out to trails on one of my days off from work but with the sickies that didn't happen.  Today, I was feeling better and RPD was feeling game so off we went to Cougar with his pup.  I am still hacking so thought it best to keep the run pretty short (3 miles).  It was enough to try out the new shoes and have some fun.  Mission accomplished.  Da pup came back muddy and tired.

the innov8 shoes were great!  usually for a first time wearing a new pair of shoes (especially a model I've never worn), I'm always aware of them feeling new or different.  This was not the case with these!  I wasn't even aware of them and enjoyed flying down the hills (gasping and hacking sure!) and reminded myself to be careful as I wasn't used to how they handled on mud and bumps.  I can't wait to take them out again. 

And then I got a chance to work on the one project I really wanted to do this weekend.  I need daylight and an un-achy head so today was the day.  I have a knit cardigan which needed to be seamed together.  It's not something I've done before and I was really nervous about it.  But all seems to be going well and I should be able to finish that now in the evenings. 


PuddleThumper's Posole

Makes 8-10 servings, serve with garnish of sour cream and avocado and a warmed tortilla.  I use frozen red chile which can be found even in Seattle at Whole Foods although they only carry mild and I prefer hot.  We bring back the corn (hominy) frozen from New Mexico but dried or canned could be used.  Dried would need to be soaked over night.

1 onion, chopped
3-4 cloves of garlic, minced
3 pound pork shoulder butt, cut into stew sized pieces. remove fat as you can.
bay leaf
dried oregano
1 14 oz tub of frozen red chile (hot)
1 pound frozen posole (2-3 cups)
3 14 oz cans of chicken broth

Add onion and garlic to large dutch oven and saute over medium heat.  Once softened, add pork and brown.  Add spices, red chile, posole and chicken broth.  Bring to a boil and then reduce heat.  Simmer partially covered for 3 hours or until pork is fork tender.