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My auntie used to make this for me and Mom after we got home from school and work. As it simmers, it turns into the richest sour, salty broth with meat that falls off the bones and wilted leafy greens.

One note about ingredients: When it comes to kinds of onions, potatoes, etc. just get the good ol’ kind (yellow onion, russet potatoes, etc.). This ain’t no fancy dish. Also, sorry if all the exposition is annoying. But you can cut and paste and edit, right?

Ingredients

• 1 package beef neck (Usually three or four pieces of neck about 2 inches wide and 7 inches long. I’m guessing a pound and a half?)
• 1 or 2 tbsp. vegetable oil
• Salt and pepper
• 10 cups water
• 1 package Knorr’s Tamarind Soup Base (aka Sinigang Sa Sampalok Mix, available from Asian markets or online)
• 4 or 5 tomatoes, quartered (Or more if you like. They dissolve into the broth and make it delish.)
• 1 onion, julienned (I don’t actually vary my cutting angle, it’s just important to cut from root to tip rather than across.)
• 4 or 5 cloves of garlic, sliced (No razor blade required, 3 mm slices are fine)
• 2 inch piece of ginger, sliced
• 1 or 2 potatoes, halved the long way and then sliced into 1-inch pieces
• Fresh green beans, a large handful, trimmed. Cut into bite size if you don’t care to eat Flip style.
• Leafy greens, a bunch or as much as will fit in the pot. (Kangkong is preferred; it’s a Filipino veggie like spinach but without that dry feeling and the leaves are longer and skinnier. Some people use spinach which I haven’t tried yet – worried about that dry feeling. Lately I’ve been using sliced Chinese cabbage which works fairly well but isn’t as green as I’d like. Sliced bok choi is good, too.)

Cooking

1. Salt and pepper the beef neck all over. Heat vegetable oil over medium-high in a dutch oven or big soup pot until it starts to smoke. Brown beef necks on all sides you can, 4 to 5 minutes each side.
2. Pour the water into the pot, add soup base and stir. Add the tomatoes, onions, garlic and ginger and some more pepper. There’s more than enough salt in the soup base.
3. Turn down the heat and simmer – ideally for 3 or 4 hours. If you’re pressed for time just make sure the beef is cooked all the way and proceed to step 4.
4. 30 minutes before serving add potatoes and green beans.
5. 15 minutes before serving add leafy greens. Maybe a bit more pepper. We like this dish spicy.
6. Serve in a bowl with steamed rice on a plate.

Eating

• Spoon soup over rice and eat with fork and spoon (Flip style). This means spoon in the right hand, fork in the left. Back of fork pushes food onto spoon.
• To cut greens, meat, etc. into manageable pieces turn fork and spoon upside down. Use fork to spear while spoon pulls off yummy bits that will fit.
• Also use spoon as usual to grab extra broth and small yummies in bowl as needed.
• This keeps in Tupperware in the fridge fabulously and gets better the longer it sits. The best bowl is the last, with all the garlic and ginger chunks and pepper bits at the bottom.
• Give your doggie the bones. They’ll love you.

July 28, 1942 – March 13, 2008

Visitation
Monday, March 17, 2008
5pm-9pm (rosary @ 7:30pm)
Woods Scovern Mortuary
511 S Central Ave
Glendale, CA Map
818-242-0258

Funeral Mass
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
10am
Our Mother of Good Counsel Church
2060 N Vermont Ave
Los Angeles, CA Map
323-664-2111

Rick is taking me out for a fancy dinner tonight. I found a fabulous red dress (on sale, even) at Banana Republic and am very excited!

Tomorrow, I fly to Kauai with Gene and Tami for a long weekend. We’ll be staying at a fabulous hotel suite with a gorgeous view. (Yes, this is actually a picture from the suite we’ll be in!)

Mom is doing well in her new room at Kingsley. I’m looking forward to visiting with her tomorrow before we leave for Hawaii. I promised to take a ton of pictures to show her. I only wish we could take her with us.

2007 has been such a great year. I accomplished projects that seemed insurmountable at their beginning and life has definitely changed for the better.

A year ago saw Rick and me standing in Mom’s driveway, surrounded by a massive pile of junk and frantically calling Cathy for advice on how to deal with it. Cathy very kindly came over to help direct Operation Empty-the-Garage. A few weekends later the 10′x10′x20′ garage that had been packed to the ceiling was almost completely empty. The rest of the house and yard followed suit over the next few months.

Finally, the house and practice were listed for sale. And I was finally able to start moving my life to the Central Coast, where Rick had moved a year ago. The apartment search took longer than I thought but I found a charming loft in Los Osos and moved in in August. I left my in-house designer position at j2 Global to pursue a freelance career. I got rid of that piece-of-junk VW Jetta and picked up my super-reliable Honda Fit. Pixel is healthy and happy to be away from the day-to-day awfulness that is Hollywood. We both enjoy our visits to LA, though. (Pixel and Murphy are now good buddies and the Fit’s up to 11,000 miles already!)

Now to plan  2008. What seemingly-insurmountable goals will I complete this year? I still have about 10 hours to figure that out…

Happy New Year, everybody!

I hit 11,000 miles on the Fit’s odometer today. 1,000 of that is from the past four days.

On Monday Rick and I drove to Los Angeles to spend Christmas Eve with some friends at Cathy’s house. Cathy threw a great party with a plethora of delicious food. The next morning was a little rough, due mainly to a giant bottle of Jack Daniels that someone decided we should all finish off. Rick and I had a great Christmas dinner with Dad in Pasadena on Tuesday and then I spent a little time with Mom in the hospital. She’s doing okay. We’re still waiting for various test results.

We drove back to Paso Robles on Tuesday night and then on to Sacramento in the morning. My Grandma Helen (Gene’s mom) passed away last week in Los Angeles. Her funeral was in Sacramento on Wednesday. She was such a wonderful woman and I wish I had the opportunity to spend more time with her when I was younger. After the funeral the whole family had dinner together at my Aunt Carole’s clubhouse and it was great to see them all again after so many years.

We stayed overnight in Sacramento and then drove back home today. I am so grateful to be out of the car and back in my own place tonight.

*Edit: Just spoke to Mom’s RN and she said that they’re tapering her off the Dopamine. If her blood pressure stays up they will transfer her out of the ICU tomorrow!