Red Beans and Rice

When Darrell and I gave up Zatarain's boxed rice mixes after college, I had only one request: that we find different, homemade kielbasa recipe. Well, we were finally successful on that (click here for the delicious honey mustard kielbasa and potatoes), and I was content. However, Darrell revealed later that while he liked the new kielbasa recipe, he was still missing the red beans and rice. So, we decided to give it another go--but this time, no box mix to start with. We were going to attempt it from scratch this time.

And boy, am I ever glad we did. I was a little wary of the recipe at first (the ingredient list was super intimidating long), but it wasn't near as bad as I thought it would be. Sure, there's a little bit of prep work chopping the vegetables. And yeah, it has to simmer for like two and a half hours. But it's so worth it, and the flavors are so fantastic--after trying this recipe, I'm not even sure if Zatarain's can call what they do "red beans and rice".

Red Beans and Rice
(adapted from allrecipes.com)

1 lb dry kidney beans
1/4 cup olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
2 tbsp minced garlic
2 stalks celery, chopped
6 cups water
2 bay leaves
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp dried sage
1 tbsp dried parsley
1 tsp Cajun seasoning
1 pound kielbasa, sliced

Hot rice for serving

Rinse beans, and then soak them in a large pot of water overnight (we always skip this step and just buy canned beans that don't need to be soaked).

In a skillet, heat oli over medium heat. Cook onion, bell pepper, garlic, and celery for three to four minutes. Rinse beans, and transfer to a large pot with six cups of water. Stir cooked vegetables into beans. Season with bay leaves, cayenne pepper, thyme, sage, parsley, and Cajun seasoning. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer for 2 1/2 hours. Stir sausage into beans and continue to simmer for thirty minutes (this is usually a good time to start the rice so everything's done at about the same time!)

Serve bean mixture over hot rice and enjoy!

I should also mention that even if you are cooking for two, don't be afraid to do the whole recipe. It may make a lot, but this is definitely a recipe that only gets better the longer it sits!

The Reader

As you can see, I'm not referring to myself, but rather to a book. Although lately, it would be pretty easy to dub me as "the reader"--this is just the tip of the iceberg on books I need to blog about. I'll try to space them out so as not to bore the non-readers.

I had one overwhelming reaction after reading this book--I want to see the movie. This may surprise those of you who know me; after being incredibly disappointed in the movie for The Time Traveler's Wife, I vowed never again to watch a movie after first falling in love with the book. And that reason is precisely why I want to see the movie for this book--I didn't fall in love with it. I really enjoyed it (as is usually the case with war-based literature), but there was just something that I didn't love. Additionally, a large part of the book is narrative (at times it seemed like chapters went past without any action happening, just inward reflection on the part of the narrator), and I'm really curious to see how they are able to convey the same emotion and depth of thought and "self-revleations" in a cinematic setting.

The book itself is about a young boy in Germany who has a chance encounter with a lady in his neighborhood, and this encounter develops into something a little deeper than a friendship. Things end somewhat unexpectedly, and many years later, as a law student, the grown-up boy is sitting in on a trial for war criminals and sees a familiar face among the defendants. Hurt and bewildered, he becomes obsessed with the trial, and it continues to follow him even after the verdict is read.

This is probably not a good book for someone (like my dear husband) who tends to fall into the cracks on books with lots of narration and description. Darrell very much prefers action-heavy books (I currently have him reading one of my favorite Vietnam war novels, Chickenhawk), and I know that he would probably not make it through this book. Truthfully, there were times even for me that things started to get a little dry, but the alternative was helping my sister with a rummage sale, so I powered through the book. And really, I'm glad I did, because it was really just the middle where things got a little overly narrative and descriptive; the beginning and end were pretty engaging. And who knows--maybe I'll end up enjoying the movie more than the book for once!

Landscaping Progress (ish...)

Well, we've been in our house for nearly two years, and our landscaping so far consists of three trees (and a garden, if you can count that). Trust me, we have much more ambitious plans, but we just haven't gotten around to any of it. Until now...

We don't really have much accomplished, but now we at least have reason to--either that or live with a massive dead patch in our backyard. You see, we have a nice deck attached to our house, but it's really just big enough for our patio table and grill. So, we decided that we wanted to build a patio at the foot of the staircase off our deck so we can have bonfires (and maybe a porch swing!). What, you may ask, do we know about building a stone patio? Absolutely nothing. But Darrell is convinced he can figure it out himself, and has already picked out the patio blocks from Menards, so the project has begun. Step one? Kill all the grass--and then kill it a second time so it is less likely to grow back. Step two? Use the weed-wacker to cut down all the grass once it has died (which makes for a pretty comical bald spot in our yard). Step three? Well, I don't know. We haven't gotten that far yet. And we've both been swamped at work, both during the work week and weekend, so it doesn't appear that we'll be making progress terribly soon. But, at least now we have to do something--and hopefully at a faster pace than it's taken us get this far!

Wacipi

Well, Darrell and I crossed another item off of our "101 in 1001" list--at least close enough to the item on our list that we're going to count it. To kick off our Labor Day weekend festivities, we traveled up to Enemy Swim Day School, where my sister teaches, for their annual beginning of the year Wacipi (or pow-wow). It was pretty interesting, but since it was their big kick-off for the school year, there was a lot of conversation about the staff and students and recognitions and awards and whatnot. Not exactly the most captivating of material. Plus, Native Americans are notorious for not having a sense of time, and that was clearly evident at the pow-wow. Stories drug on and on, they waited ages for volunteers (long past when any other MC would have just given up and assumed no one was going to volunteer), and "one last thing" happened about five times. But, it was still cool to see some of the "traditional" regalia (I mark it in quotes because I'm not sure how traditional neon colors are, but whatever) and their dances, although I wish I knew more about the different types of songs and dances. Although as Darrell said--maybe there isn't much else to know and the whole point is just to be moved by the music, however the spirit chooses to move you. Darrell and I even joined in the fun for a few "inclusive" dances, including the potato dance where we had to dance while holding a potato between our foreheads. We were one of the first couples out (behind my sister and her boyfriend and my parents). I did manage to get a few pictures, although by the time I got my camera out it was already dark so they aren't the best quality.

A group of children dancers

Some of the very ornately decorated men

Which of these is not like the other? Oh yeah, it's me, standing out like a sore thumb in my teal shirt as I dance walk in rhythm with my sister

My sister's superintendent did catch us afterwards and say that if we wanted to see a "real" pow-wow then we should come back the following afternoon, so apparently there was something about our pow-wow that wasn't real. I'd definitely be willing to go again if I had the opportunity, but I'm certainly not going to make it a top priority--for now, this will suffice as our "pow-wow" experience!

Labor Day Camping

I hope you all had a wonderful Labor Day--and didn't get too rudely awakened by your alarm clock this morning to return to the real world! Getting up early after a holiday weekend is always tough for me, especially when we spend the holiday weekend camping and sleeping in until nine. At least there's only four days of work to make it through before another weekend comes!

Darrell and I have been camping on Labor Day for the past four years (we would have started sooner but I always had soccer games over Labor Day in college). It's a tradition he's done with his family since he was a kid, and although we can't (realistically) fly out to Georgia to camp with his whole extended family, we've decided to keep the tradition going in the Midwest. We've been to a different state park every year, and I have to say, I think this year at Roy Lake was my favorite. Check out this campsite:

Right on the lake, pretty secluded, and plenty of trees to hang our hammocks from. Wonderfully relaxing. Saturday was really windy though (and a little chilly!), so we decided that instead of lying around the campsite all day we go out and see some of the nearby landmarks, since neither of us had been in this area. We started with a visit to Sica Hollow State Park to hike the "famed" Trail of the Spirits.

The park, according to the website, was named "Sica", which means evil or bad, because of the mysterious happenings, particularly along the trail, like gurgling reddish bogs, which Native American lore, was the blood and flesh of their ancestors. Of course, you wouldn't know any of this going on the trail, because there is absolutely no information about the trail at the camp itself. We didn't even know anything about the route or distance of the trail it was so poorly marked. Subsequently, the whole thing was a little anti-climatic, but still had plenty of fantastic views that momentarily made us forget we were in South Dakota (and near the North Dakota border no less!)

We then drove to the Nicollet Tower outside of Sisseton, which promised a breath-taking aerial view of the prairie. And it didn't disappoint. Climbing up the tower in the high winds was a little nerve-wracking, but there was some solid construction that went into this tower and it didn't waver a bit.

The view from the top

Hi Darrell!

Our last stop of the day was Fort Sisseton, which was pretty cool to see, but also a little anti-climatic. The fort itself doesn't have much in terms of a historical significance, especially since it was only in use as a fort for around twenty years. However, it was really interesting to see how things may have looked back then and get a feel for what life was like for the soldiers and early settlers. 

Mock-up display of the kitchen area for the fort

We were ready for a relaxing evening by the fire after spending the afternoon driving and hiking around, and soon realized another bonus of our campsite: awesome sunsets.

I miss it already just by looking at the picture. It was seriously the perfect campsite, plus a great campground. There was a disc-golf course (which we played on Sunday), lots of paths for biking (score for remembering to bring ours!), canoe rentals (which we would have done if it hadn't been so chilly and windy), and a swimming beach (again, a little chilly for that). They also had a floating bridge leading to an island trail, but the trail was closed due to flooding, which was unfortunate.

Like I mentioned at the beginning, getting up for work this morning was a little rough, and now you can see why. I thought maybe it'd be easier since I certainly caught up on sleep this weekend, but apparently it only takes a few short days for my body to get used to sleeping in. Oh well; tomorrow's already Wednesday and the weekend will be here soon enough!

I can't resist sharing this parting shot--is my husband skilled with the camera or what?

Green Beans!

Well, it was about time we had some good news come out of our garden. After losing all of our summer squash and zucchini plants, we were starting to feel a little discouraged. But then we finally started to see some produce on this guy!

Let me tell you, we sure weren't expecting much from our green bean plants based on the progress (or lack thereof) that they've been making the past few weeks. But it seems that these beans must have shot out in a few short days because the plants went from bare to bountiful in no time at all! We actually had enough to make a fairly hearty side for our meal last night, and they were sure tasty. Not quite the pronounced difference between the garden and store-bought like we saw with the zucchini, but still good. 

And in other exciting news, we also had a pepper! Which, again, was a total surprise because the plants really haven't changed in weeks. We almost didn't see it either, because it was growing underneath some of the leaves and blended in perfectly. Unfortunately, it rotted before it ripened (and before I could get a picture of it), but it's a promising sign!

Eleven Minutes

Here's a tip I learned from someone after reading this book. When you are picking up a book by a well-known author and the author's name is bigger than the title of the book, chances are they are trying to sell the book strictly by the popularity of the author, not by the content of the book. Years and years ago I read The Alchemist by Paul Coelho, and while I don't remember it all that well anymore, I remember just loving it at the time (and I really should re-read it since I own the book). Well, I should have known from the start that this book was going to be a little different. Coelho starts off in his foreword by saying that in his previous books he's tried to address important aspects of life--family, faith, knowledge, etc--but he feels like it's time to go darker and deeper. Such is the nature of this book. The book pretty well centers around sex and prostitution, addressing aspects of both ranging from societal acceptance to moral responsibility. And let me tell you--it's a little intense at times.

Now, before I come off as totally negative, don't automatically assume you should turn away any opportunity to read this book. But maybe expect to read it twice. Because the first time through, I was still getting a little over the shock of the content to really appreciate and think about the questions and challenges Coelho was addressing, and I really do feel like he showed a lot of courage by discussing these topics in such detail. And, maybe sometime a few years from now, I'll be able to pick up this book again and really understand what I'm getting into, and thus be able to get more out of it.

I do also feel compelled to say that I had a major issue with the ending, which is also possibly why I finished the book unable to really reflect on some the bigger, more challenging issues. I won't say exactly what it was about the ending that bothered me, because doing so would completely give it away, which is something I strive not to do in my book reviews.

All in all, it's not an awful book. Had it not been written by someone with the clout of Paul Coelho, it probably wouldn't have sold many copies, let alone make it to publication. I'm inclined to believe that it is only because of the name Coelho that this book has received any sort of an audience, because it's content is not widely popular (or, in many places, socially acceptable). Part of me is inclined to say that this would make a good book-club book because it really begs to be discussed--but then part of me knows that this would be widely unsuccessful in a lot of book clubs because I don't see too many clubs being super comfortable discussing the ideas about sex and prostitution that are presented in this book. I further don't see many book club members being comfortable discussing how these ideas and prejudices about sex and prostitution are present in their lives and relationships, which I believe is what Coelho ultimately wants his readers to reflect on.