Painting the town (or just my house) red

Y’all.

I don’t mean to get you all involved in my household issues, but I think you should know that I’m pretty sure the puppies read my blog. You would think that might be impossible given their lack of opposable thumbs yet I’ve always felt they are extremely resourceful and highly gifted. Unless you count the fact that they barked at raindrops coming off the roof for at least fifteen minutes yesterday.

What led me to the realization about their literacy was when they chose to basically mock my post lamenting my choice of a white couch by finding a tube of red acrylic paint in Caroline’s playroom and tracking red paint throughout my house. It’s like they said, “We see your white couch and we raise you your hardwood floors and Pottery Barn rug.”

The day started off peacefully enough. I discovered my orthodontist retired several years ago so texted Gulley for the name of their orthodontist since both her boys are in braces right now. He was able to see me almost immediately, which was good because I was about ten minutes away from convincing P to pretend he was an orthodontist and yank the rest of the retainer out of my mouth. It turned out to be a fairly easy fix and confirmed that I have claustrophobia issues when people start messing with my mouth.

I made a quick run to Target and then to another store to buy some candles to help eliminate the smell of wet dog from our house since it has now been raining for over twenty-four hours. And then I did a few things around the house until it was time to pick Caroline up from school.

Somehow the day derailed and by 6:30 p.m. I was listening to Caroline “play” her flute while frying tortilla strips to go with our tortilla soup while an air-conditioning repairwoman was up in our attic trying to find out why our a/c isn’t cooling properly. The icing on the cake was when I saw a bunch of red something in Piper’s dog bed and was worried it was blood. And then I discovered it was paint and it wasn’t just in her bed but rather in a trail through the house, which made me wish it had only been blood.

Good times.

All the while I was being treated to a rousing rendition of “Hot Cross Buns”.

On the upside, there was no red paint on the white couch.

So the real highlight of the day ended up being the tortilla soup I made for dinner. It’s always one of my favorites and I shared the recipe a long time ago but thought it was worth repeating just in case you missed it. I highly recommend. It’s allegedly the tortilla soup recipe from the Mansion at Turtle Creek in Dallas. I don’t know about that. I just know it’s delicious.

Tortilla Soup from The Mansion

3 tablespoons olive oil
4-6 corn tortillas, diced
1 tablespoon of minced garlic
4-5 tablespoons of chopped cilantro
1 tablespoon of cumin
2 tablespoons of chili powder
Saute all of the above until tortillas begin to crisp.

Add the following to the above and simmer.
1 cup onion puree (I diced a small onion and pureed it in the food processor)
1 large can (29 oz) of tomato puree
2 quarts of chicken stock
Salt and Pepper to taste
Cayenne Pepper to taste
To serve: top with any or all of the following: diced grilled or baked chicken, avocado, shredded cheese, crisp fried strips of corn tortilla. (I bought a rotisserie chicken because I struggle with raw chicken.)