Winter Exercises

Winter exercises for those of us that are getting older....

Just came across this exercise suggested for seniors, to build muscle strength in the arms and shoulders. It seems so easy, so I thought I'd pass it on to some of my friends and family. The article suggested doing it three days a week.

Begin by standing on a comfortable surface, where you have plenty of room at each side. With a 5-lb potato sack in each hand, extend your arms straight out from your sides and hold them there as long as you can. Try to reach a full minute, then relax. Each day, you'll find that you can hold this position for just a bit longer.

After a couple of weeks, move up to 10-lb potato sacks. Then 50-lb potato sacks. Eventually try to get to where you can lift a 100-lb potato sack in each hand and hold your arms straight for more than a full minute.

(I'm at this level)

After you feel confident at that level, put a potato in each of the sacks.

Five-Way Cincinnati Chili

I normally eat Chili 2-4 times a week. I have 4 or 5 recipes I switch off with and I am still working on one that I want to enter in Chili Cook-offs once I get it the way I want it. This is one of the recipes we switch off with.

Ingredients:

1 ½ pounds ground beef
1 medium onion finely chopped
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon ground red pepper
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
1/8 teaspoon cardamom
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon cloves
1 can (28 0z.) Italian plum tomatoes
1 cup water
8 ounces vermicelli*, cooked
1 can (15 ¼ ounces) red kidney beans, heated (optional)
1 small onion, finely chopped
4 ounces Cheddar Cheese, finely grated

Instructions:

Cook ground beef with medium onion and garlic in Dutch Oven over medium high heat until beef loses its pink color.

Pour off drippings. Stir in chili powder, cocoa, dry mustard, cumin, paprika, salt, red and black pepper, allspice, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, tomatoes and water.

Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 45 minutes.

Prepare Vermicelli as directed on package. *Thin spaghetti may be substituted for vermicelli.

To assemble chili, layer the following ingredients:
Vermicelli, beans, chili mixture, finely chopped onion and cheese

Note: To serve Four-Way Cincinnati Chili, layer vermicelli, the chili mixture, onion and cheese; to serve Three-Way Cincinnati Chili, layer vermicelli, chili mixture and cheese.

Since I don’t care for the beans in this type of chili we skip the beans and make the Four-Way.

Mona and I always make at least a double batch of this Chili when we make it. That leaves enough leftovers to make individual servings and throw them in the freezer to take to work for lunch. Depending on what our taste buds are hungry for when we make this, (doubling the batch again) instead of 4 tablespoons of regular chili powder, we’ll use 3 tablespoons of regular chili powder and 1 tablespoon of “Extra Hot” chili powder. It gives it a completely different flavor. (There are other times we’ll double up on the “Extra Hot” but I guess I’m getting past that macho stuff and looking for good spicy flavor.)

Brewster Mescalero

This is Brewster Mescalero ("Brew" for short) our 2 1/2 year old Standard Poodle.

He likes to sit by the windows in the house and watch the birds, rabbits, squirrels, gophers and anything else that moves out there. He'll drive anyone nuts when he runs from room to room checking all the windows as he trys to follow his prey.

Mona took Brew to obedience class for a while at Packerland Kennel Club and he listens to simple commands most of the time. (Well, some of the time.) They competed in some competition at one of the classes against some of the other pets and they even won a trophy.

He doesn't get to go fishing with us too often but when he does, he likes to give the fish kisses before we release them back into the water. He's only fallen out of the boat once or twice so far, not like our first Poodle that fell in the lake every time we went out. We finally had to buy him a life preserver.

Thanksgiving 2006

This picture was taken on Thanksgiving Day in 2006 by Tracy. It was our first Thanksgiving at the house in Cecil.