Let's store Ree's recipe for enchiladas here with a note that commenters 253 and 368 offer recipes for homemade enchilada sauce rather than canned.

I have not tried these. But I might soon.

The most expensive January tomatoes in the northern hemisphere. The Caruso variety.

Oh, dear. I've signed up for three yoga classes from the Culver City, CA, teacher that I mentioned before. And there is a Power Flow class at 9:30 a.m. that I can go to this Wednesday. This past Saturday's class was cancelled, too.

I'm looking forward, but how much of this can I put up with?

This is the worst Yoga mat that I have ever owned....the worst. Anytime I do updog or downdog the mat actually begins stretching beneath me. This is just terrible.

Lordy, lordy.

Sarah Palin's lovely campaign wardrobe is in garbage bags at RNC headquarters, according to that site.

Tell you what to do. Ship them to RNC headquarters in Dallas, TX. There are plenty of good-looking Republican women in Dallas or who can make their way to Dallas who'll be glad to contribute to charity and get a bargain on high dollar fashions. Have an auction.

Get Laura Bush involved. She'll be living there. One of her causes is the welfare of women in Afghanistan. Let her distribute the proceeds.

In the mail from Lyman's cousin Tommy:

One day my housework-challenged husband decided to wash his sweat-shirt. Seconds after he stepped into the laundry room, he shouted to me, "What setting do I use on the washing machine?"

"It depends," I replied. "What does it say on your shirt?"

He yelled back, "University of Oklahoma."

Pantone's color for 2009.

(Thanks, commenter at Deep Glamour.)

UPDATE: And there it is on a kitchen wall.

Oh, Ms. Obama. That ball gown is awful in a different way from the election day dress.

It puts thirty pounds on her and she's kicking the skirt away. What a frothy vanilla mess. She can't dance in it, and hates it.

Jason Wu, what did she do to make you so mad?

Here's an incomplete photo.

Full length.

I agree with the commenter at the LA Times blog:

Her gown tonight made her look too heavy and "fluffy." The main problem is that it was not functional. This was supposed to be a ball gown. HELLO -- you are supposed to be able to dance in a ball gown!

I'm an educator in fashion design, and I give it C-. Every single shot of the First Lady on television showed her fiddling with the dress. She shouldn't have to tug on it all night long. Form, function and fashion must work together.

Posted by: Diane | January 20, 2009 at 11:12 PM

Yikes! Look at that price.

Didn't I see those on sale at Payless for $12.99 at the end of the summer?

I bounced up, showered, and arrived ahead of time for the 8:30 yoga class to find it had been cancelled this week. Rats.

There won't be another until 6 a.m. Wednesday. I don't plan to leave my house before 6 a.m. on any morning unless it's burning.

However, a guest teacher is coming into town the weekend of February 6, and is offering five two-hour courses. I think I'll spring for the Absolute Beginners class, Unwind the Spine, and Backbends: Heart Openers. Or may be I'll opt for Hip Openers and Slow Deep Stretches.

Cultivate Strength is for more advanced practitioners.

I Like:

Freestyle Hi
by Reebok Lifestyle

My Reeboks! Oh, I have found you.

My first pair was on sale at Dillard's in Dallas for $38 in 1991. They trod the Great Wall, then wore out sometime in the late '90s, then the style went missing as far as I could see.

What a great city walking shoe it was, and not bad looking (or discreet, at least). I'm thrilled to find them again.

UPDATE: Lyman's son says these look like something that Pat Benatar wore with Spandex minidresses. I did not do that, skinny legs and all.

Yes, I know about the lousy light. And Lyman's sigh of satisfaction when he puts down his coffee cup.

But catching Lucy ringing the bell on tape is harder than you'd think.

One day when Charles was here, he had a chatty visitor, then Lyman's hard-of-hearing (thus loud-talking) parents stopped in, Charlie was whistling and whooping, and Lucy was ringing the bell nonstop for several minutes. It was a circus.

I left the room.

"Loose" for "lose" is the new culprit in sloppy Internet spelling.

Yoga. Yoga. Yoga.

I can't touch my palms to the floor anymore. My weight's the same, but I am stiffening up.

There are at least three programs in Natchez, and I'm starting on one Saturday morning.

This won't do.

Did a little housekeeping in the blogroll. Kim and Paul Palubicki have gone missing. News of the Weird has been incorporated into the Weird Universe site.

Carol Ferensak's home page for NPS was closed down in October when AOL closed all Hometown sites. She'll look for another host when she has free time.

Poor bird.

My brother came by to pick up oxtail stew for tomorrow, and greens and peas for today.

He'd found a serious ding in the doorframe above the driver's side window in his car.

Unless someone walked up and whacked it hard with a small ball-peen hammer, it's a bet that a bullet from one of those New Year's Eve shots into the air hit it.

I doubt that Longfellow would approve. Especially if it hit his car, or lamb.

I picked this recipe off of a Southern Living message board. This is as good a place as any to store it.

Oven Baked Beef Stew

1 Tbsp. oil
2 lb. stew meat, cut in 1½" cubes
1/3 c. flour or 1/4 c. cornstarch
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. marjoram
12 oz. can diced tomatoes, undrained
10 oz. beef or vegetable broth
1/2 cup dry red wine
2 cups cube peeled potatoes
1 cup sliced celery
4 medium carrots, sliced
3 small onions, quartered
1/4 tsp. pepper

Preheat oven to 325º. Heat oil in 4 quart Dutch oven over medium. Brown beef cubes in oil. Add flour, salt, garlic powder, marjoram and pepper. Stir in tomatoes, broth and wine; mix well. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Add remaining ingredients, mix well. Cover; bake for 2 hours or until meat is tender, stirring twice during baking.

I usually add fresh green beans during the last hour of baking, and frozen corn if I have it. I love my stew loaded with veggies. -30-

(Thanks, luvmyhunny.)

Happy New Year to you and yours!

To steal a quote from a commenter I read today, "May your burdens be light even if they aren't few."

The black-eyed peas are soaking, and I'll strip the collard greens soon, to have with a platter of hot water cornbread and grilled chicken.

The menu follows southern tradition.

Hoppin John I will not cook. I tried that many years ago and had a miserable year afterward. Leave that to the Carolinians.

When I was growing up in Texas, my mother's menu always included black-eyed peas, cabbage and corn.

Do you have a New Year's tradition?