Thank Heaven for Green Chile

I decided to make PW's chicken noodle recipe (?) she posted today. Not my best effort! First I drove all over town trying to find the frozen noodles, to no avail. I went to Walmart, Sunflower, and Smiths. I probably should have tried Trader Joe's but ran out of energy. So after I got home I had the brain storm to make my own noodles. Not a good decision! So I used
five of my last six eggs, rolled out the dough (obviously not thin enough), sliced it and cooked it. The result was not good. I think Ashley said it resembled brain tissue. Ugh. Plan C was to use some curly noodles (whole wheat though, so they were kinda healthy).

I followed the rest of the recipe but it never did thicken up--I think four quarts of water is just too much. So I got the bowls out and we decided to call it soup. Everyone thought it needed something, and of course, the solution to that is ALWAYS green chile! It did the trick, plus Pattie added a little shredded parmesan cheese that was good, as well.

I think I'll go back to my own green chile chicken soup recipe.

My New "Job"

Yesterday I started my new "job," volunteering at Wherry Elementary School as a reading tutor for "Albuquerque Reads." The program is only in three schools, all Title I schools, and we work with kindergarteners (since when did they learn reading before first grade?). Anyhow it was pretty interesting. I was assigned as a "floater" to cover for a tutor who was absent. There are about 100 kids at Wherry who are tutored. It's a 100% Title I school, which I find amazing. Their population is drawn from the area around Kirtland AFB known as the "war zone," although the teachers call it the "International Zone," which is a little more PC.

My first student was a very smart and active little boy. He definitely had a mind of his own, didn't want to take his coat off or follow the activities in the program. He had his own ideas of what he wanted to do! When it came to reading, he zipped through the book, not reading the words, but making up his own story from the pictures. Finally (with the help of the coordinator) I got him to settle down and read each word on the page. He did remind me of Daniel! Or maybe Lorenzo.

My second student was a little girl, very quiet, who couldn't read at all. But if I would say the words, she would say them right after me. The only problem was she wanted to look at me instead of the page. When it came to the drawing activity, she was great! Quite a perfectionist, though, as she kept erasing her work and starting again. She finally finished a self-portrait. What I loved about her picture was that she drew herself with a great big smile on her face! The coordinator had told us that these kids don't have a lot of the experiences that middle class kids do, like going to the zoo, or visiting a farm. It was certainly true in her case, as she didn't know what an elephant was, and thought a lion was a tiger. She is going to be a lot of fun, though. I hope I get her again next week.

I think I'm going to love my new job!

World's Best Banana Bread

Yesterday I made this banana bread. It's so good, it's already half gone! It's from Debbie Macomber's Cedar Cove Cookbook (my favorite next to PW). I've made it twice and it's been delicious both times. Must be the sour cream. It's great even without toasting it or adding butter!

Ashley and I had an interesting day today. We went down to UNM so she could get her parking pass, and when we were coming home we noticed that our neighbor on the corner had a garbage can lying in the ditch near their driveway. We drove a little further and saw another garbage can the same way in front of another neighbor's house. Hmm, seemed a little strange. Then we got to OUR HOUSE and noticed two of our garbage cans were missing! So putting two and two together we figured out the ones we saw were ours! So we trudged on down the street and collected our garbage cans (and what had fallen out) and headed back home. We met one of the neighbors who told us that several neighbors had seen a white SUV coming down the street about 80 mph (speed limit is 30). Apparently the driver got out, took our cans, put them in the street and then proceeded to hit them, again at about 80 mph, which explained why they were halfway down the street from our house. Unfortunately no one got a license number. We are hoping this was just a prank by a brain-dead teenager with too much time on his hands, but Ashley's a little concerned it could be a young man whose been harassing her (also brain-dead). Anyhow, it's good to know we have such caring neighbors--three people stopped to tell us what they had seen.

Road Trip!

Well, Ashley and I are off on our great adventure to check out Northern Arizona University. It should be about a five hour trip, but an easy one on I-40. It's supposed to be cold there (12 above) tonight with light snow. Hopefully I'll have some pictures when we get back on Saturday!

Winter in New Mexico

New Mexico is a land of contrasts--tree-covered mountains in the north, and deserts in the south. And sometimes it can't decide what season it is. This picture captures it perfectly, with snow on my roses.