Addendum to Ho Hum.

Mavis pointed out that I forgot to mention how much the boys ate of their Subway sandwiches last week. Both boys had turkey with minimal condiments, on wheat bread. Number One ate 10 inches, and Number Two (age 21 months) ate a whole six-inch sandwich, plus half of a Thai salad roll (!). I tell you, we are really in trouble when they get to be teenagers.

Another big hit with Number Two this week was a jambalaya made with a quite-spicy andouille. The sausage was his favorite part! The recipe was from Cook's a few years back--let me know if you're interested and maybe I'll type it in.

A final note about the chili: make sure sure sure that the beans are fully cooked before adding the tomatoes. The acid in the tomatoes will arrest the beans at whatever stage they are at, and they won't get any softer no matter how long you cook them. It is possible to partially remedy the crunchy-beans dilemma (by adding a little baking soda, an alkali, to neutralize the pH), but it is much much preferable to just avoid the situation in the first place (because the baking soda makes it taste just the slightest bit funny).