Monthly Archives: August 2008

Aug 28 2008
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food

Sausage Chicken Gumbo

gumbo 009

My kids love the gumbo.

Last time I made it, I used okra for the first time and nobody complained. If you can’t find okra, frozen green beans are a family favorite. I rarely have time to grill the chicken before, so I either buy already grilled at the deli (expensive) or I cut up the chicken and blanch it in chicken or vegetable stock. 

Gumbo is great the next day for lunches. 

Ingredients:

  • 4 Tablespoons flour
  • 2 Tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 Cups chopped onion
  • 2 Cups chopped green bell pepper
  • 2 Cups frozen cut okra (omit if not available and use 2 C of carrots OR frozen green beans)
  • 2 Cups chopped celery
  • 2 teaspoons minced garlic
  • 1 teaspoon dried thyme
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground red pepper
  • 4 Cups chopped roasted skinless, boneless chicken breasts (about 4 breasts)
  • 16 oz. turkey kielbasa, cut into pieces
  • 2 (14 1/2 oz) cans diced tomatoes
  • 4 Cups cooked brown rice

Steps:

  1. Combine flour and oil in a Dutch oven; sauté over medium-high heat for 3 minutes.
  2. Add onion and the next 6 ingredients (onion through ground red pepper); cook 3 minutes or until tender, stirring frequently.
  3. Stir in chicken, kielbasa, tomatoes and broth; cook 6 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Serve over rice. Yield: 8 servings (serving size: 1 1/2 cups gumbo and 1/2 cup rice)

CALORIES 369; FAT 11.3g; PROTEIN 24.9g; FIBER 3g; CARBOHYDRATE 37g

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Aug 27 2008
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family

Gratitude and Marriage

Peace

Saying prayers with Kennedy earlier this week, I wanted to point out how grateful we are to have Holly. But I didn’t want to just say we should be grateful for Mom. I wanted to really drive the point home, so I said something like, “Imagine what it would be like if we didn’t have Mom.”

Kennedy thought for a split second and then she started to laugh. “Just you,” she said. “That would be so terrible.” The snickering went on a little too long for my liking. I started feeling a little defensive.

“I could do it,” I told her. If Aaron had been there, he would have had my back (We know you could do it, Dad!), but Kennedy just kept on giggling. We really do rely on Holly.

Not long after I got Kennedy queited down, she asked me if it was scary to be married. I told her about the day Holly and I got married. We had planned a small ceremony in our apartment: Harrell flew in from California and a pastor friend was going to do the service in our living room. Holly and I were out in the kitchen. The pastor suggeted we get started and suddenly my mouth got dry. I needed a glass of water. I told Holly I’d be along in a minute, but she grabbed me by the elbow and hissed, “You’re not going anywhere.” She might have been scared. I know I was nervous. But then you say a few words, kiss, and it’s all over.

“Do you have to kiss?” Kennedy wanted to know

“I think you do have to kiss,” I told her. “It may be a rule.”

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Aug 26 2008
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movies

Tropic Thunder

I don’t care much for comedy, but this one had a Get Shorty vibe I really enjoyed.

I loved Tom Cruise. His makeup and wardrobe are so complete, I didn’t realize it was him until this one line, where he suddenly looks like Tom Cruise. I loved his dancing during the end credits.

I got the actual trailers and the movie mixed up, which was probably intentional. Very smart. The whole thing starts out a little discombobulating, but then it sort of comes together and you understand what’s going on.

Jack Black plays a drug addict trying to kick. At a crucial moment, he lets his friends down to scarf up a big pile of dope. He runs off screaming, DON’T JUDGE ME!

Made me chuckle.

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Aug 20 2008
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family

Drama in the Deep End

Aaron and Kennedy are playing water polo this year. Above is Aaron getting pulled as Kennedy guards the goal at the deep end.

Watch what happens.

The opposing team takes a shot and Kennedy propellers (this is what they call moving your feet to gain elevation in water polo) herself up to block. Aaron watches with mild concern.

water polo

The block is good. Aaron exults.

water polo

Kennedy acts like there was never any doubt, but I know she loves hearing her brother cheer for her.

Saved

water polo

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Aug 15 2008
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controversy

The Truth About David Sedaris

Last month Holly and I got to see David Sedaris at Elliott Bay Book Company here in Seattle. He was promoting his latest book, When You are Engulfed in Flames, which is a collection of previously published essays and some new material. The most enjoyable part of the evening had to be the Q&A session after he read, and this is only because David Sedaris is so witty and fast on his feet. The truth about David Sedaris is that he is arguably one of the best American humorists writing creative non-fiction today, but he has also been criticized for stretching the truth in his work.

Continue reading →

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Aug 06 2008
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movies

After Life

If you’re interested in memoir, you might enjoy After Life, a Japanese film from about ten years ago.

The setup is that when you die, have three days to pick a memory that will then be turned into a film. This film then accompanies you into all eternity.

Much of the movie is shot as a documentary, so it’s a little slow in parts. There are counselors in this stage of life, who are tasked with helping the newly dead decide on a memory. There is no judgment hour in this hereafter. One of the new guys even makes a joke of it. “What, no hell? This is it?”

If there is no hour of judgment, the counselors do their best not to judge the dead people either, but this is where the film really shines. You can’t help but judge the people as they reveal themselves through their memories: one is a prostitute, another a lecherous old man (If you wait to pick your prostitute until 11 O’clock, you get a better bargain!), another a boring old man.

At least, I felt justified sizing up each of the newly dead, based on their memories. But as I watched the story unfold through the character’s memories, I realized not everyone is who they might seem. The memories are all true, but the context is everything.

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Aug 04 2008
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Uncategorized

A New Day

11-26-2007 068

I’ve moved my blog to the WordPress.com site, but I am still using my domain name (telhajj.com). Hopefully the transition has been as smooth for you as it has been for me. The telhajj.com domain should already be resolving to the new server, but If that doesn’t work (and you can somehow read this), you can always try timelhajj.wordpress.com.

Why did I switch? It started with this:

Operation Aborted

I had a technical problem with Internet Explorer 7 that I couldn’t resolve. Whenever I visited the site in IE7, I got the dialog above. If you click OK, IE7 closes the page and displays a generic HTML error page. Nice.

Hosting your own blog on a server is like owning your own house: when something goes bad, you have to fix it. The technical contact at my Web host is a smart guy, but there is always this tension between his problems and your problems. He is willing to fix his (and by that I mean anything related to the server), but you’ve got to fix your own issues with the site or convince him of your helplessness. Certainly the Internet Explorer problem I was experiencing with the site was a Microsoft problem (the Operation Aborted bug). But that didn’t help me, nor did it explain why I was having the problem from every computer on my network. Eventually I realized I could have disabled javascripting in Internet Explorer to work around the problem, but that didn’t explain how it came to be. The next morning Patrick, from POE Hosting (That’s Portal of Evil Hosting—literally THE best name in Web hosting), resolved the issue by removing, as he put it, “the broken symlink” in my wp-content folder. 

Who broke it? Who knows! But it seems to have somehow resolved the Operation aborted error (who writes the names for these error messages?)

My contract with POE is about to run out next week. I have had my domain with them since 2002 but this issue made me realize DIY isn’t my bag for hosting. Patrick is smart as a whip, but he often sends me cryptic emails. “Do you have any cron jobs running?” he might ask. Or maybe, he’ll say, “Check your .htaccess.” I can do Google searches and figure out what he’s telling me, but that means I have less time to blog. I wrote him over the weekend and said, “I just want to blog. I don’t care about any of this Linux nonsense.”

And so here I am.

For the most part, most people will never even realize much has changed (unless you’re logged into your own WordPress.com account and see the little banner above my site). Otherwise, it’s all pretty transparent.

WordPress.com seems like a good deal. It costs me ten bucks to host my blog here with my domain name. If I didn’t want to redirect to my domain, it would have been free. My Web host was going to charge me $60 for another year. I’ve transitioned the mail over to Google Apps for Domains, so you can still send me mail at my domain.

I’ve lost the ability to host a fancy flickr page built into my blog (which was a pretty popular page on the old site). I’ve lost all my links, but I think that can be repaired. The import from the old site was pretty painless. To celebrate the switch, I’ve renamed the site.

I may experiment with a few more design changes before I’m through.

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