Tigua Chili

Every now and then, I get to post something that's actually chili-related. Last time was a recipe for Chuy's Green Chile Salsa, with a picture of an empty salsa bowl. What can I say? I already ate it all. After all the heat I took around here for that picture, I figured this time some pictures of the food itself were in order.

Today we have Tigua Chili from the Chili Nation cookbook by Jane and Michael Stern.

This is the real deal;  it can be hot enough to cause tears and sniffles if you like - we usually tone down the heat with sour cream, cheese, rice, and tortillas. We also use less chili than the original.

Please observe the chili-eater in his native habitat. His expression says, 'Hands off - this is my chili.'

He can't hide a grin, though.

The basic recipe is found in the Sterns cookbook, but we have made some tweaks over the years, tripling the amount, using real ground chili (not "chili powder") and various other things. This recipe works well with venison, if you have a hunter in the family.

Tigua Chile

Ingredients:

• 3 chopped onions
• 6 garlic cloves, minced
• 6 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 1/2 lbs beef round steak, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
• 2 tablespoons salt
• 2 Tablespoons fresh ground black pepper
• 2 Tablespoons dried Mexican oregano
• 2 tablespoon ground cumin
• 1/3 tablespoons mild powdered chili (not chili powder)
• 3 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
• 3 tablespoon masa harina, dissolved in
• 1 1/2 cups water
• cooked rice (optional)
• sour cream (optional)
• cheese (optional)

In a big pot, saute onion and garlic in oil until soft. Add in beef; cook until browned.
Add in salt, , pepper, oregano, cumin, chili powder, tomato sauce, and 3 cans water; stir to mix.
Bring to a boil; decrease heat to a low simmering boil and cook, partially covered, for 1 hour 10 minutes.
Remove from heat; add in masa harina mixture; return to low heat and cook, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes.
Serve with rice, or tortillas on the side: all useful for muffling the heat. Also helpful is a dollop of sour cream.

Bill Gates vs General Motors

This has been posted on other blogs, and it's one of my favorites:

BILL GATES VS GENERAL MOTORS

At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated that :- "If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving twenty-five dollar cars that got 1000 miles to the gallon."

In response to Gates' comments, General Motors issued a press release stating:

If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:

1. For no reason whatsoever your car would crash twice a day.

2. Every time they repainted the lines on the road you would have to buy a new car.

3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason, and you would just accept this, restart and drive on.

4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn, would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.

5. Only one person at a time could use the car, unless you bought "Car95" or "CarNT". But then you would have to buy more seats.

6. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, reliable, five times as fast, and twice as easy to drive, but would only work on five percent of the roads.

7. The oil, water temperature and alternator warning lights would be replaced by a single "general car default" warning light.

8. New seats would force everyone to have the same size butt.

9. The airbag system would say "Are you sure?" before going off.

10. Occasionally for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key, and grab hold of the radio antenna.

11. GM would require all car buyers to also purchase a deluxe set of Rand McNally road maps (now a GM subsidiary), even though they neither need them nor want them. Attempting to delete this option would immediately cause the car's performance to diminish by 50% or more. Moreover, GM would become a target for investigation by the Justice Department.

12. Every time GM introduced a new model car buyers would have to learn to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.

13. You'd press the "start" button to shut off the engine.

Practice Space

A musician can never practice too much. The problem is, you are not usually inclined to.... There are a number of reasons, one can be a lack of suitable space to practice. If every time you want to practice some one else has to accommodate you, you can get a subconscious urge not to bother them. This combined with laziness and lack of discipline will lead to long spells of no practice. Not good. 

This is the space in which I practice, also known as my room. I had several options to choose from, but only this one is heated.....The Kentucky K150 mandolin on the couch is a good entry level model. I bought this so I could  teach a mandolin student, and have picked up some mandolin in the process. I also keep a banjo and guitar in here, just for practicing.

I share this room with a younger brother, which is an issue with nice instruments and equipment. I have told him in no uncertain terms that touching any of this stuff means big trouble. The risk is worth it though, no one is bothered when I practice up here.

Here you can see one of the nicest tools for a practice space to have. A $90 portable DVD player -  for instructional videos, as well as CDs. This makes a lot of equipment unnecessary - no external speakers, TV, CD player, etc. It can even run off batteries for a while. Instantly turns any room into a practice area.

Here we have the most compact and easy to use virtual strobe tuner I have found. The lights go around in a circle, clockwise is sharp and counterclockwise is flat. The faster it goes, the further off you are. THe trouble with strobe tuners is  their precision and lightning speed can be hard to interpret. That is the problem with the Petersen tuners (which are also very accurate); the display is a pattern of squares scrolling up or down...which is it, up or down? It can be hard to tell. This one is very bright and easy to read; batteries last awhile, but the power button is very easy to trigger so don't shove it into a bag or you may run the battery down.

A good chair and a guitar stand, definite must-have. The guitar was my grandfathers, an old American-made  Epiphone with a deep ringing woody tone. I keep it here just for practicing, the CA guitar goes with me on the road. 

Inspiration comes from many places; here is one of them on my wall. This is a newspaper clipping from our first jam camp with Pete Wernick "Dr Banjo", at the Merlefest music festival in Wilkesboro, NC. We have attended all but one of the camps since 2003, and now we are setting these up all over the country with many different teachers. The clipping is faded now, but still serves as a reminder of where I've been.

Here's the view out my window. Not a necessity for practicing, but it lights the room quite well, and is nice to look out on while you are playing scales or boring exercises.

As a practice space,  it works pretty well for me. I keep a log of the hours spent, and I am able to keep at it for an hour every day.