Tortilla Pie

4 tortillas, I used flour ones because that's what I can buy here
1 medium onion, chopped
1 1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1 small can (70 gram) tomato paste
1 lb ground beef (really, I think you could cut this in half and not miss it)
3 cloves minced garlic
1 can corn
1 can tomatoes (can be whole or chopped, if they're whole just smash them up)
1 can* chickpeas
1/2 green bell pepper, chopped
1 zucchini, sliced thinly
1 cup shredded cheese

I have made this in a round casserole dish with no problem, but it really looks awesome if you use a springform pan (you can see the layers of deliciousness).

Pour a little olive oil into your pan and add the onion, cumin, and red pepper flakes. Cook for about 5 minutes, or until the onion is tender. Stir in tomato paste, then add hamburger and garlic. Cook the hamburger until it's done, and drain any excess oil. Remove the hamburger mix from the pan and toss in the zucchini slices. Let those cook for a few minutes until they start getting tender. Add the corn, chickpeas, and tomatoes to the mix. Stir in the hamburger mixture.

Put 1 tortilla in the bottom of your springform pan. Spread 1/3 of the veggie/beef mixture and sprinkle with a small amount of cheese. Repeat twice, and then add one more tortilla on top and sprinkle liberally with the remaining amount of cheese. Bake in a 175C oven for about 30 minutes. Serve with your favorite salsa and guacamole, and a little sour cream.

*I used dry chickpeas. 1/2 cup dried beans will yeild about 1 1/2 cups of cooked beans, which is exactly what you need for this recipe.

Why I'm not an artist

It's only day 13 of NaBloPoMo and I'm running out of things to say.

So I drew you a picture...

It's a portrait of Baron von Sockmeister.

He didn't approve.

Ribbon Blankie

I was invited to a baby shower in a couple of weeks and started having this panicked feeling about what I was going to do for a gift. For many of the recent (uh, recent being before I moved) showers I've attended, I'd put together diaper cakes. I had it down to a science and I knew where to buy the most economical supplies for said diaper cakes. Here I struggle to find GROCERIES sometimes, so I decided that probably wasn't an option for this one. I was kicking around the idea of making a teddy bear, but quite frankly my teddy bear skills are still in their infancy and I didn't want to give a bear to a child who would be merrily playing with it only to have it's head fall off or one of the limbs detach. Talk about trauma!

So I was at the thrift store browsing through the fabric that they sometimes have and I spotted a very bright funky piece of fabric. I asked Martijn if he thought it was unisex-ish enough for a boy gift and he said yes. Now I just needed to figure out what to do with it! I did a little brainstorming and decided it would be perfect for one of those little ribbon tag blankets. I went to my favorite store on the planet, the Smitje (a shop with every kind of crazy little sewing notion you can think of) to get some ribbon, and to the market to get a piece of fleece for the backing.

Since it was probably going to be barfed on at some point in it's life, I prewashed all the fabric and ribbons and dried them in the dryer to make sure there wouldn't be future shrinkage. I cut a 20 inch square from both the cotton and the fleece, and then cut all the ribbons I'd found into 5 inch pieces.

Then I folded the ribbons in half and pinned them to the right side of the cotton fabric. To make the sides somewhat even, I found the center of each edge and placed the striped ribbon exactly in the middle. I then measured two inches from either side to place the next two ribbons, and then two inches out again from there. That seemed to work pretty well, but if all of my ribbons had been as wide as the yellow one or the striped one, I might've used less ribbons per side.

Next, just lay the fleece right side down onto your square and pin it. Stitch around the outside edges using about a 3/8" seam allowance. For extra security you can reverse over the ribbons, but I found it faster to just go around the whole thing twice. Make sure to leave an open edge for turning it right side out! Turn it right side out and poke the corners out so that they lay nice. With the bulkiness of the fleece, mine had a slightly rounded edge. Whip stitch up the hole you left to turn it right side out. Then top stitch around the outer edge. I used a decorative stitch because I could, but it's certainly not necessary.

Good News Moment!

Last time I went "home" was in March to go to my Great Grandma Johnson's funeral. It was a -very- last minute thing. We thought there was no way on earth we'd be able to afford a plane ticket on two days notice. A miracle occurred and I was able to go home. But, we kept it a secret from everyone. No one except my parents knew that I was going to be back. So I spent the next few days surprising several people. I was worried that I'd caused the need for two funerals when I walked into Grandma and Grandpa M's livingroom. Grandma looked like she was going to faint dead away! It was really a sneaky thing to do, but to be honest I really got a kick out of surprising people and seeing their reactions.

Since I know I cannot get away with that sort of covert operation again, I am happy to announce that I am COMING TO UTAH in January!

Here's a picture of what my face looks right now:

Menu Plan Monday- November 10, 2008

click the banner and "Menu Plan Monday" for more menu planning ideas

Chicken Chili- New recipe. I've got everything to make it so I'm gonna give it a go.

Crockpot Barbecue Ribs- I still have some of the ribs I got a few weeks ago in the freezer and since Martijn liked these so much I'm not going to seek out a new recipe for them.

Gestoofd varkensvlees met kidney bonen- Stewed pork with kidney beans. I hope this will be good, I have everything to make it except the wine and I will just sub beef broth and a dash of vinegar or something along those lines.

Curry Sprouts- These were so good I'm going to make them again! And this time I'll remember to take a photograph so I can post it with the translated recipe.

Ham and egg quiche- I have a mix that we didn't use last week that I can make this with.

I'm gonna go to the market on Tuesday and see what vegetables I can get cheap for sidedishes.

7 Random Facts

My evil for tagging me sweet friend Ken tagged me. I'm supposed to post 7 random things about myself and then tag 7 random people afterwards. I'll post 7 random things about me, but I hate tagging people so if you read this and feel compelled to participate, consider yourself tagged by me!

• For as long as I can remember, my parents have called me Ralphetta Rooney. In recent years, this has been shortened to Ralph. No one seems to have an explanation for this, and it's also the reason I named my little monkey faced cat Ralph.
• According to my husband, I have a "strange obsession" with the color orange. I don't think it's really strange at all. The world would be a truly better place if more things were orange, really! The fact that we have an orange car was a complete coincidence.
• I have no sympathy for short people who complain that their pants are always too long and the sleeves on their shirt hang down past their fingertips. There is an easy solution for that. If you can give me an easy solution for adding inches that would look reasonable, then maybe we can discuss my sympathy boycott.
• When I was little (haha as if I was ever little), I burned my head on the light bulb in a refrigerator.
• I was very disappointed to find out that appelstroop was not some sort of delicious apple syrup as the name would lead you to believe, but a thick black tar of nastiness that my husband really likes to eat on bread.
• When I worked at RadioShack, my nametag said Kim with SuperStar beneath it. It was pretty awesome.
• People usually misspell my last name over here because it ends in a double L. Dutch words never end with two of the same consonant. Apparently names fall into this rule as well and I'm forever trying to correct it. I'm pretty sure the doctors office still has it wrong even though I tell them to fix it every time I go. I'm used to people misspelling Kimberley (they always leave out the extra e), but the last name was a new one for me.

Texel- A Week in Review

We stayed at Kustpark Texel in their TX4 "detatched chalet with terrace." I had a slightly different vision of a chalet, but this place was comfy and warm so I was happy.

Sticking with the strangeness that is bed situations here, it was 4 single beds, but we successfully slept on two pushed together and used a queen sized sheet with no problems. We decided to save a little money by bringing our own bedding, but what I didn't know is they still provided the pillows and comforters. So instead of taking our two down comforters, pillows, AND sheets, I really only needed to bring the sheets and pillowcases. They also offered an end of stay cleaning service which we opted out of since it was €65 and the only "extra" things they did was clean the stove and inside of the fridge, and mop and vacuum the floor. Since there was a mop and vacuum in the bungalow it seemed silly to pay for them to do it.

The only real complaint we had about the kitchen was that the knives were as dull as hen's teeth and we ended up grabbing a packet of paring knives from the supermarket. Otherwise it was decently equipped for the amount of cooking we did there. Our bungalow didn't have a dishwasher, but I think some of the larger ones at that particular facility may have. The bathroom was a little smelly, so we got some toilet bowl cleaner and solved that problem right quick too.

Before we left, I was having concerns about the availability of groceries and such on the island. My experience with tourist areas in the past is that they tend to jack up the prices to silly levels, so I gathered up almost a weeks worth of food and piled it into the car. As with the comforters and pillows from home, this probably wasn't needed. There was a LIDL in De Koog (the village where our bungalow was located) as well as a Super de Boer. I also spotted an Albert Heijn in Den Burg (one of the main towns on the island). Next time we go I'll pack sandwich stuff (maybe a non moldy avocado and do the rest of the shopping on the island.

While I did enjoy seeing the seals at the Ecomare, it's probably not something I would go do again. The entry fee was €8.50, and I just felt like maybe there should've been more to it! I am not sad that I went though, how else would I have found out about the woolly rhino?

The Schipbreuk- en Juttersmuseum was great though. I'd go back there again for sure. It was so interesting to see all the things that washed up. The only downside was the video explaining the finds was all in Dutch. I caught some of it and Martijn helped fill in the blanks so it was alright in the end. I loved how much weird stuff he had found on the beaches!

I can't leave out the fact that we managed to do TWENTY ONE geocaches while we were there! I'm quite certain we walked at least 7000 miles this past week. My legs are aching, but I think it was worth it.

Don't you like my fabulous hat? It has a fold-down ear covering and is very warm.

The last thing I'll mention is the ferry. There's no road to the island, so you must take the ferry. The round-trip "ticket" was €35 for us and the car. If you go by bike or by foot the charges are different, and can be found on their website. It's a fairly quick ride, only about 20 minutes and they have restrooms and a cafe on board.

We enjoyed ourselves quite a lot. We plan on going back again sometime.