Schrodinger's Kittie

Ingredients:

Tasty Empanadas

1lb ground meat (I used bison… but beef, turkey, ostrich – even a quality ground tofu will work)
10oz can mild Rotel Tomato & Green Chilies
1 small onion
1 small potato
2 cups shredded cheese
Tabasco sauce
Mrs. Dash Original
1 tin premade flaky biscuits (or tortilla – see note below)
½ cup flour (not needed if going with the “fried burrito” option)
Vegetable oil (not needed if going with the empanada option)

 Additional items:

Cookie sheet (not needed for “fried burrito” option)
Rolling pin (not needed for “fried burrito” option)
Medium skillet

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375° F.
2. Place the meat in the skillet over medium heat.  No oil if you are using meat.  If you are using ground tofu, a very, very tiny amount to keep it from sticking is useful.  But be stingy with it.
3. Add three dashes of tobacco and two dashes of Mrs. Dash.  Literally, yes, dashes.  Take the bottle and shake that many times.
4. While the meat is browning, skin and dice the onion.  Add it to the skillet with the meat.
5. Stir occasionally while skinning and finely chopping the potato.  Add this to the skillet as well.  Cover the skillet.
6. Open and drain the Rotel and add to the mixture in the skillet.  Stir and cover.  Let simmer while you prepare the biscuits.
7. Put a handful of flour on your working surface and over the rolling pin.  Pop the tin of biscuits and roll them out very flat.  Sometimes it helps to pick them up and let gravity assist you in the stretching.  You want to get them as thin as possible without them getting holes.
8. Place the rolled out biscuits on the cookie sheet to await the filling.
9. When the potatoes have cooked through and the meat is thoroughly brown, drain the mixture that is in the skillet and turn off the heat.
10. Using a large spoon, place a small amount of the filling in the middle of one of the rolled out biscuits.  Put a bit of shredded cheese on top of the filling. 
11. Fold the biscuit over and using the prongs of a fork, press the edges of the dough together to seal it shut.  If you want to, bend the sealed dough into a crescent shape.
12. You can have these very close to each other, so don’t worry about space on your cookie sheet.  Repeat the stuffing and sealing for all the biscuits.
13. Once they are all filled and sealed, put the cookie sheet in the oven and let bake until the dough turns golden brown.
14. Remove from the oven and serve hot.

 This recipe should serve four comfortably.

Fried Burrito

Note: There is an alternative to baking with the biscuit dough.  Take large tortillas and put the filling and cheese inside them like you would for the empanada.  Fold them closed and fry them in a pan of hot oil.  The oil should only come up halfway on the folded tortilla.  When the side in the oil is brown, turn to fry the other side.   Remove, pat dry and serve with salsa of choice.  Mike actually prefers it this way as opposed to the empanada way.

Ingredients

2 lb pork tenderloin
½ cup honey
1 orange
2 cups chopped pecans
2 tbsp crushed black pepper

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 325° F
2. Cut the orange in half and squeeze the juice of half the orange into a small bowl or glass.  Add in the honey and mix until the honey is  fully diluted.
3. Place the tenderloin on a foil lined pan (makes for easier clean up) and crush fresh black pepper liberally across the tenderloin.  Drizzle the honey-orange mix over the top of the tenderloin and place into the oven.
4. Chop the pecans into fairly small pieces.  You want them large enough to keep a slight crunch, but not too large.
5. Slice off small sections of the outer rind of the orange – do not get so deep as to get the white pulp.  You want only the coloured rind.  Slice the sections of rind into very thin strips and then turn.  Cut the strips down to very, very small bits and mix in with the pecans.
6. Remove the tenderloin from the oven and turn over.  Drizzle the honey-orange mixture over the tenderloin and then liberally cover with the pecan-zest mix.  About 1 cup.
7. Place the tenderloin back in the oven and let cook for another 5 minutes.
8. Remove the tenderloin from the oven and turn over.  Drizzle the honey-orange mixture over the tenderloin and then liberally cover with the remaining pecan-zest mix.
9. Place back in the oven and about every 2 minutes, drizzle with the honey-orange mixture.
10. Allow the pork loin to cook like this for another 10 to 20 minutes or until it is cooked through.
11. If so desired, at the last 2 minutes or so, turn on the broiler and broil to brown/crunch the pecans on top.

This will comfortably serve 4 people.  I served it with black-eyed peas and Yorkshire pudding.  The juices in the baking pan thicken nicely with a cornstarch-water mixture to make an excellent gravy.

The pecans add a slight crunch and the orange fully infuses the pork to bring a unique sweet-tart-crunch to this meal.

We ate it too fast for me to get a photo.  I’ll try to remember to snap one the next time I make this.

Mi novio tells a story about his father and how he was a tailor and would make these outfits that had so many pieces they’d boggle the mind.  He says he’d sit there and watch his father sew these things together and just wonder how in the world the man kept it all straight.  When he asked his father, the man responded, “All I have to think about is the part that’s under the needle.”

When I was talking to my son on the way back from LA, on Saturday, a similar conversation came up.  I asked him what he’d like for dinner and you could just see his mind go blank.  He said he’d always had problems about that question.  Apparently, at one point when he was visiting his father, he’d been asked to write up a menu – and, he just flat out couldn’t do it.

I told him, “Well, kiddo, that’s because you are thinking of the entire meal at one go.  Don’t worry about the whole meal.  First things first…When you think of eating tonight, what makes your mouth water?  If you think of chicken?  Fish?  Roast beef?  Something else?”  He responded with what sounded good.

I then came back and asked what kind of things he generally thinks of going with that particular item – and, the next thing you know, we had a full menu for dinner.  I told him, “When you get the first step done, then you take the second step.  But, if you look at it all at once and try to come up with the perfect meal in one go, it is this chaotic and overwhelming thing.  Just one item at a time gets the job done.”

As I was saying this, I couldn’t help but laugh at how very similar the life lesson was between what mi novio’s father had imparted to him and the one I’d just given my son.  I wonder if it will stick?  Regardless, it hit me – particularly given some of the personal issues I’ve been having to face and overcome recently.

Needless to say, when my sister posted on her Facebook status, “Thinking….if you could give one piece of advice to this year’s graduating class….what would you say?”  Well, I had to respond with this bit of wisdom that has been playing such a central theme in my life, right now.

My response was not like most others.  Theirs have been mostly two veins.  Vein one, “Get your secondary education.” Vein two, “Make Christ the center of your life.”  Both very respectable answers.

But…

Here’s the thing – think back (for some of you it’s a bit of a stretch, I know **grins**).  When you stepped out into the world on your own for the first time…wasn’t it a bit overwhelming?  Wondering how your parents ever managed to do it all?  Peers pushing you to not be responsible; but, needing to make sure the bills get paid, the schoolwork gets done, the car gets filled, the cat gets fed, etc…All the things you were able to ignore as a kid is no longer someone else’s problem.  It’s yours.

And, yes, having faith to hold on to is a great and wonderful thing…but, reality is that Christ isn’t going to sit down at your dinner table and make sure the bills get paid on time, that your homework gets done or that your laundry was sorted right so you don’t have grey-ish pink t-shirts to wear until you can afford to buy new ones.

It can be horribly overwhelming – even for those who have been on their own for decades.  How much more so for someone just entering the real world?  Especially a world in such fiscal, emotional and political upheaval?

The key to making it through times like that – times that it just seems like no matter what there is always so much more that needs to be done…times where it looks completely and totally insurmountable – the absolute key is to realize that the only part that matters is what is right here, right now.  The one item right in front of you. The next one will be dealt with when you get to it.  And, the next one and the next one…But, it all winds up being the one that is right in front of you.

This moment in time.  This one moment.  It’s all you can immediately influence. Handle it well.  Influence it to the best of your ability. Let the next moment be what it is when it comes – and, let go of the previous moment when it’s done.  This one moment deserves the very best you can give it.

If you do that, you find that the crazy quilt of your life comes together – one stitch at a time.  One piece at a time.  One block at a time.