Gender Confused Plumbing...

Well, let's start with Friday night. This was our big chance to make it to the World Series...unfortunately, we didn't win but I am teaching myself to keep score...with the help of Poppy and Roger-The-Escape-Cat.





Even though we lost, there's no way we could lose faith...and wouldn't you know, WE'RE GOING TO THE WORLD SERIES!! Not only that, but with my second favorite team! I think Poppy and I are going to have to make a bet on this series. Heh heh heh!

Saturday, we had friends, Amy and Charley, Tom and Karen for dinner. They were all really helpful during our house search. In fact, we've all used the same agent, Lynnea. They all highly recommended her and we were very, very happy with her. Lucky for us, they were also into watching the game so that's what we did. Had some very NOM chili and all the fixins for the dinna. A good time was had by all...Did I mention we're going to the World Series? Oh yeah!





I'd give you my recipe, but I'm not sure I want to share it just yet....Oh alright!

KECKY’S ROOTIN TOOTIN TEXAS CHILI

Note: If you don't have real live New Mexican chili, just use the stuff you get at your local grocery.

5 LBS BONELESS BEEF CUT INTO ½ INCH CUBES (MAKE SURE THE MEAT HAS SOME FAT ON IT SO IT WON’T BURN OR DRY OUT)

MILD NEW MEXICO CHILI (TWO TEASPOONS)

2 LARGE YELLOW ONIONS, CHOPPED

10 MEDIUM GARLIC CLOVES, PEELED AND CHOPPED

OLIVE OIL

¾ TO 1 CUP MILD CHILI POWDER (NEW MEXICO CHILI IS THE BEST!!!)

2 HEAPING TABLESPOONS DRIED OREGANO

2 HEAPING TABLESPOONS GROUND CUMIN

5 CUPS BEEF STOCK (KITCHEN BASICS IS THE BEST)

3 TABLESPOONS CORNMEAL OR LESS, IF NEEDED, TO THICKEN

GRATED CHEESE, SLICED JALAPENOS, FRITOS™, CHOPPED CILANTRO, AND SOUR CREAM, FOR SERVING.

1. You’ll need a 4-5 quart pot. Add a little olive to the pot. Turn the heat to medium-low. Add the beef and 2 tbsp. mild chili. Cooked uncovered, stirring, for 15-20 minutes. You don’t want the meat to brown because this will seal in the juices. You just want the pink gone. When done, let it sit.

2. Cook the onions and garlic in olive oil in a large skillet over a medium-low heat for 15-20 minutes, until they are soft but not too browned. When done, add to the beef, along with the Ymmm-O mild New Mexican chili powder, oregano and cumin. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring for 5 minutes.

3. Add the stock. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and let the chili simmer, gently, uncovered for at least 1 ½-2 hours. Stir whenever you walk by so nothing sticks to the bottom.

4. When it’s done, give it a taste. Add more New Mexican. If it’s too thin, thicken it by stirring in some of the cornmeal. If it’s too thin, add a little more stock.

5. Let the chili sit for 15 minutes and stir again. Serve with all the fixins’. The sour cream will come in handy for those who think it’s too spicy.

All that said, it’s much better to make this the day before so it has time to sit and the flavors to meld together.

That brings us to Sunday, Sunday, Sunday! Now we can't let a precious weekend go by without taking on some kind of home project. Today's project was installing our new kitchen faucet. Before I did that though, I had to remove the old one. If you recall, the reason we got to this point is that the sprayer on the old faucet doesn't work, and the previous owner had welded parts and pieces of this faucet together so it was impossible to replace the sprayer. Just as well since Poppy and I really didn't like the faucet, even though all the cabinet hardware matches it.

Once I got the hoses disconnected and all the other junk that was connected to it, it was time to get the actual faucet out of the sink. I'm not sure what this guy did, but I had to go and get all Brooklyn on it. Ended up getting the hacksaw out and sawing through the copper pipe to get the Goddam thing out of the sink.





Once that was done, on to the easy-squeezy part of installing the new faucet. All was going well until I came up about an inch short on the hoses. The extension hoses were incompatible with the new hoses. Well, not that they were incompatible...they were just two females so I needed a couple of male adaptors. That's right, my faucet hoses are gender confused. Why can't my faucet hoses just get over it and come out of the faucet closet?!

So I gather my gender confused faucet hoses and take them to the local True Value Hardware store. This is where I found out I have gender confused faucet hoses. The nice young man tried to help me find the right adaptor for my gender confused faucet hoses, but he wasn't having any luck and I was getting the feeling this was a homo-faucet-hose-phobic store. He said I should come back on Tuesday when his homo-faucet-hose-friendly uncle is working cause he knows everything about gender confused faucet hoses.

I went home all dejected cause I couldn't help my gender confused faucet hoses come to terms with it's faucet hose sexuality. Poppy said there was another hardware store up the street. So, out I go again. This was the Ace Hardware Store; and you know, "Ace is the place with the helpful hardware man." I go in and tell the nice man that I need to join my gender confused faucet hoses together so they won't be confused anymore. He walks up the stairs and b-lines it right for this package...oh he was very, very homo-faucet-hose-friendly! Now my faucet hoses are very happy and well adjusted. They finally feel "normal" just like all the other faucets hoses; not to mention, they are very pretty!



That's all I got for you. Later!