"Skyline"Chili

In honor of our dear Ann P returning from Cinncinati, Michelle and I made our version of Skyline Chili. All I knew about it was that it is good and includes chocolate. I thought all chili did, but I guess that is not so.
Over night we soaked a few cups of beans of various varities. Note: soaking white and black beans together turns the white beans purple. We had no problem with this.

We boiled the beans for a little bit and then added:
1 onion
1 green pepper
1 29 or so oz. can of crushed tomatoes
a generous sprinkling of: Penzey's Arizona Dreaming and Chili con Carne blends and cocoa (we can't seem to keep chocolate laying around in our house with 7 girls...)

We let it simmer until we decided it was done. Serve with saltines and shredded cheddar. Preferably in bowls with handles.

Skyline Dip
For an appetizer, we layered in a square glass pan
1 pkg cream cheese
1.5 ladles chili (what we just made)
sprinkles of cheddar cheese
and baked it at 350 until the cheese was melted and pretty-looking. Serve with tortilla chips.

Beware the Plague….

Hope you like the new layout, I’ve been messing around with it.

A terrible enemy has reached Lil Vil…in the form of the common cold. Having so many people in the house that interact with so many people on a daily basis, it was bound to happen sooner or later. I have mostly just had some sniffles and a cough and had to take a few days off of running. A couple people had to stay home from work, I just left a little early on Thursday, but there was not much going on so I got away with it.  I have almost finished my project of updating the resource book at Taller de José but have been seeing more clients this week. We’ve been seeing lots of legal issues this week (as we usually do) and I have even started calling my dad with legal questions…on my work phone, which is kind of cool.

I got to do some outreach this week, visiting a few different agencies to tell them about Taller. On Monday I went to Marillac House, they have child care and a few other programs. They are in East Garfield, which is a mostly African-American neighborhood and they were really excited to be working with us because they want to reach out to the Hispanic community. On Wednesday, Lisa and I met with someone from the Resurrection Project in Pilsen (I got to go into the two greenest buildings in Pilsen) because they are a huge organization and we wanted to get into a staff meeting so we can meet more of the people in charge of other departments. On Friday, a few of us went to an Access Community Health clinic in Pilsen—one of a network of clinics all over the city.

The plague also spread to work (I think something must be going around Chicago, other agencies I have been talking to have been having absences too. On Friday, Lisa stayed home and it was like the entire neighborhood knew it…because they all came in. That might be a slight exaggeration, but Sr Betty did comment that it seemed like it was the full moon or something (I just checked…it was). Friday morning was crazy and we were a little late getting to the Access clinic but it was okay because they were understaffed because of the cold going around.

Since I was sick during the week, all I felt like doing was sitting around watching movies. So it was fortunate that Ann K’s mom had a conference in town this week and brought a case with 32 dvds. 

Getting Busy...

Things have been getting busy at work. I have been building up my case load and have started the project of updating the resource book and that has been keeping me busy. We only have on receptionist who works Tuesdays and Fridays at the moment so on Monday and Wednesday I spent at the reception desk. Some interesting people came through, but since someone needed to stay at the desk I didn’t see those clients. I did on Tuesday, though. I had an accompaniment to court. Friday, I helped run the Tepeyac parish food pantry because Donna, the parish nurse who usually runs the food pantry, was at a conference. It was interesting—most of the people that come are families in the area who have hit hard times or people that are going through treatment at the local methadone clinic. So, it was a fun blend of people.

                We have been having some LV alum loving this week. On Thursday, seven people that lived in our house last year came over and cooked dinner for us. Two of them are vegans, so they made Moroccan stew and couscous and a vegan cake (chocolate with peanut butter for frosting) for dessert. Delicious. I actually took the leftovers for lunch the next day, when Ray, are new case worker started and brought leftover Moroccan stew from his dinner. He had a lot (a non-vegan variety, it had chicken in it) and I had some—so I had two different versions of Moroccan stew for lunch on Friday! Also, on Saturday we went over to the apartment of three people who lived in our house three years ago, one who currently works with Carlos and another who currently works with Elissa. They made us lasagna, which was also delicious. They live in Logan Square (where a bunch of alums from last year live) and that was my first time in that neighborhood so it was cool to see it. It is a Puerto Rican neighborhood, traditionally (although now it is getting a little gentrified and yuppie) so I bet there is some good food there I would like to check out.

                Also, Friday was Carlos’ birthday so we had a dinner (which included appetizers—tomato breads as Steph calls them) and played catchphrase after. But in the middle---we hit a piñata! I used petty cash after work to go to Dulcelandia- a piñata and imported Mexican candy shop (one stop shopping!) and found a bunch of animal piñatas within our price range. I picked the most obnoxious one—a purple elephant with polka dots that we decided was a heffalump. I went to Walgreens for the candy so it would be within our price range. They are already stocking Halloween mixes so that made it easier. We saved the head from the piñata at kept it on a stick. We think we will get piñatas for everyone and keep the heads until eventually we have a totem pole. We want to bring it to every community night event with the other houses.

On Monday, Jessie and I wanted to do something special for dinner. We wanted to have three people unable to speak, three people unable to use their hands and three people blindfolded but some people came back from work late and we gave that up. We did, however, have everyone wear matching outfits and took family photos after dinner. After that I led prayer night, which I made Yom Kippur themed so we wrote letters to people asking for forgiveness. But anyway, for dinner Jessie and I made fajitas. We had some leftover chicken from the enchilada lasagna the week before. We got 6 bell peppers and a couple of big onions and chopped them up and cooked them with a Kroger-brand fajita seasoning mix. We served them with some rice, beans, tortillas, tortilla chips and salsa. It was an easy dinner! Tomorrow, Elissa and I are making gnocchi. From scratch. 

The rapper pose

Back in the Bend!

Before I forget, the Running (/Walking) for… campaign at Taller is starting this week. I am pledging to run 75 miles over the course of the month, so if anyone feels compelled to donate per mile or a flat rate, let me know and I can give you more details. The point of the fundraiser is that I will wear a shirt that says “I’m running for [someone’s name]” and on the back it will say to find out who that person is, check out the website. Our website is not up yet, but it will be soon. The campaign goes from September 15 to October 15. If you are in the Chicago area and want to participate, shoot me an email and I’ll hook you up.

So I have been at my job for four weeks now and have been getting in the swing of things. I’m building up my case load so I have been busier. I went to court a couple of times with the same woman (her son’s court date was moved really fast). I also went to immigration with a woman for a check on the status of her application because she needed someone to translate. They only have interpreters for official court sessions. Speaking of interpreters in official court sessions, I was in foreclosure court on Friday and forgot to tell the clerk that my client needed an interpreter. When I apologized for the mistake, the judge said “Well you speak Spanish, don’t you?” I know it was a simple case, but it still did not seem legal to me but I did it anyway. I need to look up how to say things like “foreclosure” and “loan modification” in Spanish, though. Those things never came up in my Golden Age Spanish literature classes at Notre Dame. The client was familiar enough with the process that I was able to get the message across, though.

I mostly worked on the same cases all week and cannot really go into detail about the specifics of them, but suffice it to say that I am really enjoying my job and getting pretty used to what I have to do. The big news this week is that I was able to go to Notre Dame for the Michigan game this weekend! Kerry, my co-worker (who was the Amate volunteer at Taller last year and has been hired on full-time) drove me and my roommate Chris along with one of her college roommates who flew into Chicago. We went down Friday after work. With the time difference, we got there a little after nine. They took me straight to Meg’s house on ND Ave (she is a Campus Ministry Intern) and we caught up and then our friends Rachael and Andrea, who were also staying with Meg, came back and we got ready to go to the Backer. For those of you who are not familiar with the Backer, it is my favorite bar in South Bend. They play the same songs every night (sometimes multiple times) but they are all songs that I love, so it is great. The only problem with the Backer, though, is that when you go you have to stay until 3:00 am. This is not a rule of the Backer per se, but I have never left before 3:00 am before and I was not about to start now. Personally, I think that since I am an alumna now, I am old enough to leave when I want to, but I do not think any of my friends feel that way.

Saturday was rainy, so we were glad that we had planned to start the day with omelets at Meg’s house. The guy interns came over with their guests for the weekend (including Kyle, with whom I led Sophomore Road Trip junior year, who showed us an interesting new way to drink beer that involved a Ziploc bag). Meg is very good at making omelets so I learned from her. When the rain died down a bit, we made our way to campus for tailgates. I got to meet up with my 4A McGlinn girls, who are having a great start to their senior year. My ticket was by myself so I joined Rachael and Andrea in their great seats in what was part of the student section my Freshman year. Eventually we moved down to Meg’s seats which were about twenty rows ahead of us, almost in the end zone itself. We were in the student athlete section then, so we were watching the game with the Basketball team, which was fun.

After the game I went with Andrea to the Mass in the Stepan Center, which Meg and the other interns were coordinating. Then we went to Chipotle in Eddy Street Commons to meet up with our friend Steph and her brother Kyle. Then, I went with Rachael and Andrea to the Backer again, and met up with Tricia there as well. This morning, I met up with Meg after her meeting on campus, which gave me a chance to be in COMO again, my old studying haunt. Then we met up with Colleen who was going to Folk choir Mass and I joined for a little bit before I had to leave to meet up with my ride. When we got back to Little Village, it took us forever to get to our house because there was the Mexican Independence Day parade. The neighbors are currently honking their horns loudly and screaming. We are really enjoying this. 

What do you do when there's nothing to do?

I have been getting more involved with clients and starting to build up my caseload (still working on building it up to the point where I’m always busy. I’m told I should be grateful for these days when I’m not so busy all the time but sometimes the days drag a bit). Some of my clients have difficult cases, though. I have not yet faced the situation, which I’m told is inevitable, where there is absolutely nothing to do for the client. I have faced a few situations where there is something I can do, but it is a long shot that anything will come of it, and that can be frustrating. Times like these, it is pretty easy to get angry at how the system works and how unfair it can be. For example, but sparing the details, we have had a couple people that are not in immigration court proceedings yet but we think are good candidates for them and we have been wondering how we will face that. There is so little hope in that situation, what can we do?

 I don’t want to be a Debbie Downer (in our house we just call them “Deborahs” but I couldn’t remember if there are any Deborahs that might read this) and other than these tough cases, things have been going pretty well. I feel much more comfortable with my job and I think for the most part I know what to do when people come in. I still ask the other compañeras for tips, but I think every day I am getting a better grasp of things. Also, on Thursday Taller celebrated its second birthday! We celebrated by having everyone go on different accompaniments, which prevented us from having a more traditional celebration. Although someone pointed out that it is much more fitting for us to be doing what Taller was founded to do instead of having some superfluous party. Most exciting event of the week? When I got a police escort home from an accompaniment on Saturday! My client had to look at a photo line-up and the police station was far enough away that we had to take two buses there, and the detective felt bad and took us home in an unmarked police car. In front of my house, he went the wrong way down our one-way street and called it “official police business”. This totally made up for having to go into work on a Saturday morning.

On Friday night, in anticipation of the first Notre Dame game of the season, Chris (my fellow Domer) and I finally set up one of our TVs to receive channels. Now we have one TV that does nothing, and one that can show DVDs and channels, instead of just one TV that shows just DVDs. Then, Ann K and I watched Rudy, according to tradition. Saturday we also watched a movie, Footloose, and this time we even dragged Chris in to watch it with us while some of our roommates were at the Polish festival.

I haven’t cooked since the last time I posted, but last night the Anns made enchilada lasagna. They used flour tortillas, enchilada sauce, a can of black beans, some chicken for one of the lasagnas, olives and some Mexican cheese blend. It was so delicious! And, they said it was pretty simple to make. This morning as a special Labor Day treat, Ann K made us pancakes. She made chocolate chip, banana and blueberry pancakes and some combination ones. My favorite was the chocolate chip banana ones. 

Vegetable Soup

So, many of you have been asking how we stay within our food budget (which is miniscule) so I thought I would share recipes. Last night, Ann K and I kind of cheated because our roommate Chris had brought home several "expired" cans of vegetables--aka non-perishables-- from work. So, we already had cans of vegetable broth, peas, and corn. We bought potatoes, carrots and canned diced tomatoes. We found some whole wheat pasta in our pantry. So....
Vegetable soup for 10:
1 can vegetable broth
1 can corn
1 can peas
1 can green beans
1 can diced tomatoes
3 potatoes, diced (not peeled)
3 carrots, diced (peeled)
some pasta (as much as we felt like)
some spices (basil, thyme, bay leaf, and my Sunny Spain blend from Penzey's)
some water, because there was not enough liquid.

Directions: Put everything in a pot. Cook on medium low for 45 minutes. Serve with a loaf of bread and some butter.
* We do not salt things (and usually do not eat canned food) because some people do not want too much sodium, so everyone salts their own meal.