You + Me = Him

November 16, 2012

What do you feel when you look at your child? Love, of course, care, a sense of fierce protection, but also a blood connection and belonging to the same family. It feels like the child is a combination of all the myriad puzzle pieces that individually do belong to either mom’s or dad’s side, but together make a whole different picture of a unique human being.

I look at my son and see my chin dimple on his chin too, he has his dad’s posture and walk. And what do you get when you combine his dad’s piercing blue eyes with my deep brown ones? I guess what the kid has, his grayish-green chameleon eyes. He has his dad’s interests in electronics and technology, but deep inside he is also into some things that make up my life, like human psyche (even if to prove that sometimes I’m wrong 🙂 ). He has, behind a seemingly calm or even aloof appearance, a passionate and independent spirit, that clearly comes from me, and he has his dad’s conservative side in clothes and appearance (at least comparing to modern teens). And he does “burst in flames” on certain occasions, especially around some changes or authoritative influences, that comes from both parental sides, so he got a double dose. He is surely a child of his parents. 🙂

Despite the fact that this is my birthday week, it’s all about the kid as we’re currently spending several days in Boston. In Cambridge, to be exact, as he is going to participate in MIT Splash weekend for high schoolers. And we’re visiting Harvard Engineering too while we’re at it. Yes, dream big but have a huge safety net also! Potentially, I can send him to college now, according to his PSATs, he is already above the national average level (he is only 15 so we have almost 2 years to prepare), but as he got on my nerves today, I was seriously considering just dropping him off at one of the Boston area colleges and leave LOL.

So, kid, you better not spoil it as this mama is willing to spend her birthday weekend away and with just you around. But if I think about all the craziness in the past few weeks after the hurricane, job relocation and all the related inconveniences, a bit of a solitude as he is stuck in classes all weekend is actually a good thing to look forward to. 🙂

What’s Cooking This Week

As the post seems to be all about the kid, we have to make his favorite food, at least one of them. The kid LOVES chili! Somehow he likes mine the best. 🙂 This one is a special recipe combining many of his favorite ingredients, all in one pot, kid, so go nuts!

“Gus’ Delight” Chili

1 lb of ground beef

1 lb of sausage meat

1/2 cup of pancetta

1/4 cup of crumbled bacon

1 can of black beans

1 medium onion

1 medium red bell pepper

1/4 cup of chopped chili peppers (I used the medium heat ones)

1 container of tomatoes/tomato sauce (I used Pomi chopped tomatoes)

1-3 tspoons of chili powder (depending on desired heat level)

1 tspoon of oregano

salt, pepper, olive oil

1 Tbspoon of brown or raw sugar (optional, I like my chili a bit sweet)

Chop the onion, in a pan, heat up some olive oil and saute the onion until golden. Then gradually add both ground beef and sausage meat constantly breaking the lumps as you stir (I like to use a potato masher), when the meat is half way done, add pancetta and crumbled bacon, cook for a couple more minutes.