Vig’s Easy International Chili

It’s a good day! I’ve lost 2 lbs. And my voice is getting stronger. I had 4 cigarettes yesterday, and 3 glasses of wine. (Tuesday was 2 cigarettes and 1 martini.) I wanted something wonderful, quick, and cheap for dinner, so I invented a great Chili.

I had a bottle of chili sauce at home, so that would be a quick start to a Turkey Chili. But I was in the mood for some carbs to go with it, pasta or rice, but I’m trying to reduce the waistline right now, and I’d already had plenty of carbs at lunch. (Irish Pub lunch: corned beef with cabbage, potatoes, and mashed carrots and parsnips – and it came with a side of some wonderfully sinful cream sauce. Delish!) Anyway, since I’d had a big potato with lunch, I wanted to replace the carb with a vegetable. I found inspiration in the frozen food section. There was a southwestern entrée that had broccoli in it, now I’m so over broccoli right now, but it made me think of cauliflower, cauliflower goes great with curry. And that was the beginning of the plan. And wouldn’t you know, I didn’t have any curry, but the garam masala, yeah, I have that. And I’m using it on just about anything I can think of. (Try dry roasting some almonds, and sprinkling them with salt and garam masala. Yes, very nice.)


Vig’s Easy International Chili
Low Fat, Low Carb?, High in taste
Serves a crowd, with leftovers for lunch, maybe some to freeze.

3 T. Olive Oil
½ bag frozen diced onions
2 packs ground turkey

1 bottle Heinz chili sauce
1 28oz can diced tomatoes
2 c. turkey stock (low sodium, home made if you have any.)
1 bag frozen pepper strips
1 head cauliflower, halved then sliced 1/4 in.

1 15 oz can corn – with liquid
1 15 oz can red kidney beans - rinsed
1 15 oz can garbanzo beans - rinsed
1 15 oz can fat-free refried beans

4 zucchini – diced

Garam Masala – main seasoning- to taste
Cumin - to taste (optional)
Coriander – to taste (optional)
Cayenne Pepper – to taste

2-3 T. Chopped Cilantro – Add after removed from stove.

IN a stock pan, or something pretty big, brown the turkey with onions and olive oil. Add next 5 ingredients (and some spice), bring to a boil, reduce to simmer, cover for 20 minutes or until you get back from a nice walk with the dog in the park. Remove cover. Test seasonings. Stir in next 4 ingredients and heat through. Correct seasonings. Add zucchini and simmer until crisp-tender. Remove from heat and stir in Cilantro.

A green salad with avocado goes great with this.

Comments: I don’t usually write my creations down, but this was just so good, I knew I’d want to make it again for a party, or to have on hand for busy times. I hope you enjoy it! I learned to cook like this when I lost 45 lbs. with Weight Watchers. I’ve put some of it back on, and I want to lose it before auditions come up.

The refried beans and the chili sauce had so much salt in it that I didn’t need to add any additional salt at all. Also, the cumin and coriander are redundant. They're already in the Garam Masala. I won't use them next time. Yes, I had homemade stock on hand. But it isn’t a big player in this, so I am sure it will be just as good the next time I make it. I recommend the kind of stock that comes in little cartons, but if you want to use the granular kind, just go easy on it until you test the seasonings at the end so it’s not too salty. The only things that had to be chopped were the cauliflower and the zucchini. I don’t like frozen of either, but it could save time and probably would be ok to use a bag of frozen cauliflower, and 2 cans zucchini in tomato sauce instead of fresh.

This chili was so good, that I don’t want to change a thing about it. And I really wish it was lunch time now, so I could have some more!

Tommy, can you hear me?

Auditions for T0mmy are in three weeks. My voice is raw from acid reflux and I weigh 180. Not good. I didn’t go to class last night, because I want to give my voice a chance to heal before the auditions. Although, I did go to the scheduled rehearsal, and I have to go to the Shakespeare class tonight. Really, the medicine should be working by now. (I’ve also got to recover the high A that I will need for Tommy, which I haven’t had in a while due to smoking.)

Instead of class, I went to the 17th Street Corridor and had an early dinner at Annie’s Paramount Steakhouse. By myself. I kept my head down and buried in a MW Magazine, mostly. There were some fine looking men there. I looked up when the bus-boy picked up my salad plate. He looked at me, over his shoulder, with a piteous hunger for a good top. Now, when I say “bus-boy”, I mean “drag-queen who mistakenly left her hair and heals at home” And when I say “Top” I think of somebody else.

I had two glasses of wine that I wasn’t supposed to have, not only because I was supposed to be in class, but also, because it was Monday – the day the Captain Walker T0mmy diet started. (I want to get back to 170. I’m not as young as the last time I played Captain Walker. So I hope being close to hot might make up for the faded boyish charm.) So the wine, cigarettes, other assorted cocktails – totally uncalled for. I was so pleased that I hadn’t smoked or drank on Sunday. But today, I was playing hooky from school, my husband didn’t know where I was, so I was having a glass of wine to celebrate a moment of freedom. The next glass was to help mask the guilt.

After dinner I walked the 17th Street track from P Street to New Hampshire several times. The sun was bright. All the restaurants were beginning a nice out door business. The boys bring their dogs, and get a table next to the sidewalk, so they can have the dogs with them, but not *really* in the restaurant. I saw some really fun dogs. One, a quiet little terrier, having caught the eye of a passer-by, stood on his hind legs and danced until his prey was forced to go over and give him a good petting. Playful boys and their pups crowded the dog-park at New Hampshire and 17th. And I’ve never noticed the Cherry Blossoms at just this state before, either. The petals are still plump and pink, but they’ve all fallen to the ground and make a soft and snowy pink carpet that you’d want to lay naked in.

Then off to the theatre for rehearsal. My voice gave out pretty quickly and I was done by 9. So I dropped in at the Playbill for a quick martini and to steal a cigarette, my second of the day, from my new friend Missy, who I called Becky by mistake.

I didn’t want the party to end – so I had another drink when I got home. And some snacks too. So, I’ve pretty much ignored the doctor’s advice for the evening. Until this Acid Reflux goes away, I’m not supposed to be drinking, I’m not supposed to be smoking, and I’m not supposed to eat anything 4 hours before bed time. The result? I was up just about all night. I bet I hear inappreciative comments about that from the husband. Yep, and I overslept too. I woke up when I heard, in a peculiarly cheerful tone, my mother announce that my sister was dead. Only I was alone in the house, just me and the dog. Fun times.

I Am the Possibility REALIZED.

ten years ago, I was 32 years old, "graduating" from the Self Expression and Leadership Program with the Forum People. My assignment for the class was to produce our first BackYard Benefit for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

I found the video of the show last night, while searching for something else. But it was late, and I was drunk, so I put it in. The video opens with a close up of the pink fairy roses Ricky had planted, and we never appreciated, and pulls back so we can see the set (my brand new deck). We can see all our guests in the foreground, the piano and drums on the deck. My niece is there in the front row. Michelle. When the applause whelms as Doug M. sits at the piano and begins his brilliant overture, I could see her, my lovely niece in her wheelchair, clapping and chirping, "Yes! Yes! Yes!"

I love those people! So many good friends, many still here, some lost, one gone. I hope they remember how great they are, I know I forgot how great I can be. On June 17, 1995 we created magic, raising enough money to send a child with Aplastic Anemia, (Sandra, from Woodbridge, Virginia) on a Hawaiian Vacation with her family. And we had a hell of a good time doing it.

My director’s notes for the program show how jazzed I was about the whole event. It says, “Tonight I am the Possibility of Excitement, Creativity, Compassion, Love, and Unstoppable Commitment REALIZED.” It’s gotta make you laugh. Audacious, but still, I was very proud.

There has got to be a way to make it last. There should be an easy way to remember that I am somebody, that we are all somebody. But it isn’t easy. It’s only easy to forget, to remember you have to do it again and again and make your life about fulfilling your possibility every moment. When I think about how inert I am, it all seems like such a joke.

But on that night with such wonderful friends together on a clear beautiful night in my garden, pumped with excitement to be making a difference for the Make-A-Wish Foundation, fueled by the piano, bass, drums, and applause- I was somebody.

I existed. I was proud.

Sitting in the Path

This prayer was sent to me.

"Thank you God for divine order in my life and that I am on the path toward the wonderful career you have created for me."

Right now, I'm sitting in a mud puddle on that path trying to remember how to walk.

Why Side Note?

I heard this on the radio today and loved it.

"You're not singing flat son, you're just on the sad side of the note." ~ Dan Penn