Blockwalking, Chili, and Mutt and Jeff
Well, John Courage came over, gave us some blockwalking training yesterday, and sent us out to practice. We realized getting signatures in 3088 was going to be like digging diamonds - hard, long, dirty work. I say dirty because some of us had to do some really quick and dirty thinking getting past gate guards into a few developments, like pretending to be house-hunting.
Molly, 8 years old, fell immediately in love with John, and he was a little surprised, until COMM-D explained that she has been seeing his bumper stickers all around, and now that she is meeting the man, she was " a little in awe". Of course, it doesn't hurt that John is a doll-baby, tall, good looking, and approachable. Plus, he looked like a candidate in his blue blazer thing. Her grandpa, Candidate Larry is as approachable, but quite a bit shorter than John. And she seldom sees him in anything other than sweat pants and a tee shirt, covered in dirt, or paint. So, if you see him being referred, not-quite-disrespectfully in these pages as "Little Larry", it is a sort of Mutt and Jeff reference when we think of the two local Dems running for office to save America, and save Texas.
So, here's the chili. I call it Blockwalker's Chili. Now those good folks who came here to walk for John and Larry could have been being either real polite or real hungry, but the chili did seem to go over pretty well. It was almost gone by the time everybody left, so I am giving y'all the recipe here:
5 lbs ground round of beef
1 of those really big cans of pinto beans, weighs about as much as a newborn (I know, I know, beans don't belong in chili, but think of them as a nutritional supplement, like the tomatoes you will also see in this recipe)
2 one-pound cans fire-roasted, chopped tomatoes
1.5 cups chili powder (yes, cups is correct)
2 T cumin
2 T onion powder
1 T garlic powder
Fry the ground round, draining it of fat (or not). Add 1 quart of water, the tomatoes, and the spices. Cook about 30 minutes on low, then put it into a big pot, and stir in the whole can of beans, liquid included, and 1 quart more water. I had to use an 8-quart pot for it all. Stir in the beans carefully so as not to mash them up, unless you like mashed-bean chili. Simmer on medium about an hour, then turn the heat down lower and continue simmering about an hour or more.
This is not your gourmet, authentic chili - I like that, too; this is for the hard-core blockwakers who just need something good to eat before facing a mostly-Republican precinct.
And to those stalwarts who braved hustling petition signatures in this Republican precinct - Muchisimas Gracias! (Put in your own upside down exclamation point and accent marks, please - I can barely embed links, and that took me almost a year to be able to do without a cheat sheet. This should tell you we are running a shoestring operation here.)
Today, we are going to take a few hours off to do some Christmas stuff for the baby in the family. I keep thinking because he towers over both his parents and is not home much at all, we can dispense with trees, lights, Christmas mugs and decorations, but, no. He shows up just in time to force me into it. Then his face lights up, he gives me that 5000 watt smile, and I think it was worth it.
Molly, 8 years old, fell immediately in love with John, and he was a little surprised, until COMM-D explained that she has been seeing his bumper stickers all around, and now that she is meeting the man, she was " a little in awe". Of course, it doesn't hurt that John is a doll-baby, tall, good looking, and approachable. Plus, he looked like a candidate in his blue blazer thing. Her grandpa, Candidate Larry is as approachable, but quite a bit shorter than John. And she seldom sees him in anything other than sweat pants and a tee shirt, covered in dirt, or paint. So, if you see him being referred, not-quite-disrespectfully in these pages as "Little Larry", it is a sort of Mutt and Jeff reference when we think of the two local Dems running for office to save America, and save Texas.
So, here's the chili. I call it Blockwalker's Chili. Now those good folks who came here to walk for John and Larry could have been being either real polite or real hungry, but the chili did seem to go over pretty well. It was almost gone by the time everybody left, so I am giving y'all the recipe here:
5 lbs ground round of beef
1 of those really big cans of pinto beans, weighs about as much as a newborn (I know, I know, beans don't belong in chili, but think of them as a nutritional supplement, like the tomatoes you will also see in this recipe)
2 one-pound cans fire-roasted, chopped tomatoes
1.5 cups chili powder (yes, cups is correct)
2 T cumin
2 T onion powder
1 T garlic powder
Fry the ground round, draining it of fat (or not). Add 1 quart of water, the tomatoes, and the spices. Cook about 30 minutes on low, then put it into a big pot, and stir in the whole can of beans, liquid included, and 1 quart more water. I had to use an 8-quart pot for it all. Stir in the beans carefully so as not to mash them up, unless you like mashed-bean chili. Simmer on medium about an hour, then turn the heat down lower and continue simmering about an hour or more.
This is not your gourmet, authentic chili - I like that, too; this is for the hard-core blockwakers who just need something good to eat before facing a mostly-Republican precinct.
And to those stalwarts who braved hustling petition signatures in this Republican precinct - Muchisimas Gracias! (Put in your own upside down exclamation point and accent marks, please - I can barely embed links, and that took me almost a year to be able to do without a cheat sheet. This should tell you we are running a shoestring operation here.)
Today, we are going to take a few hours off to do some Christmas stuff for the baby in the family. I keep thinking because he towers over both his parents and is not home much at all, we can dispense with trees, lights, Christmas mugs and decorations, but, no. He shows up just in time to force me into it. Then his face lights up, he gives me that 5000 watt smile, and I think it was worth it.
posted by dksbook at 8:39 AM
1 Comments:
it was good soup! i asked for the recipe. i'll say one thing about block-walking your district- we did find 3 dems who felt lonely out there and were grateful/chatty. i think mike starred their names. always a relief amongst the "oh. democrats."
i had an interesting phone call tonight from corte's campaign. an automated "phishing" thing hitting all those hot buttons. larry- be ready on immigration- we'll need a good counterpoint to an absolute border shut-down.
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