A Very Friendly Pine Siskin

I went out this evening to fill my bird feeders and this little guy stayed behind to eat after the others had left. I noticed that as I approached the feeder he did not fly off so I slowly approached him. I stood right in front of him just a few inches away and he just kept on eating, so I stuck my finger out and gently touched him on the bumb and to my surprise he stepped back onto my finger and stayed for about 7 or 8 seconds then flew off. He circled around and came back to the feeder and continued to eat. I ran inside and grabbed my camera and asked Dave my son in-law to take some pictures. He actually stood on my finger 4 more times before I left him alone to finish eating. Here are a couple of those pictures

After All These Years

For 18 years a group of friends in Woods Cross have gotten together each Valentines to put together a tribute to their wives. Each year attempting to come up with new and more creative ideas to entertain their wives. Over the years they have serenaded their wives with original compositions, written love letters, written love poems, taken them to fancy restaurants, winter sleigh rides and even a dinner cruise on the Great Salt Lake. But I think the most memorable are the dinners all the guys get together under the direction of Mike Johnson master chef to cook dinner for their wives. Nery and I were honored about 6 or 7 years ago to join this group and have enjoyed being a part of such a loving thoughtful group of friends. Over the years a few people have moved away and some like Nery and I have moved in so there has been some change but the main core of friends still remains. The Bowman's, Maurice being the driving force behind this effort, The Johnson's, The Bradley's, The Schwab's, The Van De Graff's, The Harten's, and the two newest couples The Coleman's that's Nery and me and the Seegmiller's. Last night we enjoyed this years installment and it was another success. Under Mike's direction we fixed an Italian dinner with homemade 1000 layer Lasagna, Mikes homemade baguette's, salad, minestrone soup, sorbet, and chocolate cheese cake. we then went downtown to the Off Broadway theater and watched a play, "My School Musical", Bradley's son Justin was on of the actors. We finished the night with a video slide show that I put together of each couple over the years. I have included the introduction of that slide show which is pictures from four of our past Valentines party's. A dinner at Xiao Li Chinese restaurant, a Prime Rib Dinner at Johnson's home, a dinner and sleigh ride at Park City and a Dinner Cruise on the Great Salt Lake.

Day of Cooking

Last Saturday Nery and I had a cook off and cooked food ahead for the coming week. Nery said she had been craving Chili Verde and I had seen Rachel Ray make a version that looked good so I made my own version based on hers. I also made a big bowl of Picco De Gallo and a cilantro and jalapeno salsa to go with it. Nery cooked a wonderful beef stew and a stir fry of chayote and other vegetables with pork this is one of my favorites. I will list the recipe for the Chili Verde and have Nery list her's tonight.

Chili Verde

2 lbs pork cut in small pieces
10 tomatillos
1 box of chicken stalk
3 jalapenos
2 cans of diced green chilies
2 onions
2 or 3 cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons of chili powder
1 tablespoon of ground cumin
2 tablespoons corn starch
salt and pepper to taste after everything is cooked

place all of the vegetables in the food processor and puree them.

in a skillet brown the pork in olive oil and add the chili powder and cumin, when the meat is browned sprinkle the corn starch and stir the meat to coat it with the corn starch and let it brown slightly, add the Chicken stalk.

Move the browned meat and stock to a stock pot and add the vegetable mixture.

Simmer on low heat for an hour, adjust the seasonings to your taste and enjoy on burritos, tacos, or tamales it is also great served over scrambled eggs, or mashed potatoes.