Ghoulash vs Spanish Rice

So I mispoke when I was making dinner. When asked what I was making, I said ghoulash, but I meant to say Spanish Rice. I mean, the rice was already cooking on the stove...so I immediately corrected myself. But now somebody is mad at me because I d...id not make ghoulash. (and I did not mean real ghoulash when I said it...I meant hamburger, macaroni, and tomato sauce...but I was really making hamburger, rice, and and tomato sauce) People, I ask you, what is the huge difference that could cause somebody to go from being all excited to that telling me that's disgusting?

Easy Ghoulash Recipe



2 pounds Ground beef
1 small Onion; chopped
1/2 Green bell pepper; chopped
1 jar Spaghetti sauce (28 oz. size)
8 ounces Uncooked elbow macaroni
1/2 cup Water
1 tablespoon Garlic salt (teaspoon?)
1/2 teaspoon Black pepper
1 cup Shredded Mozzarella cheese


Easy Spanish Rice Recipe

lg. (32 oz.) can tomato soup
1 sm. bell pepper (green) diced
1 sm. onion, diced
1/2 lb. hamburger
2 c. Minute rice


So, I would not have put the cheese in the ghoulash and I used tomato sauce not soup in the Spanish Rice that I made. And I added the ghoulash spices. Please, please people....tell me what the difference is?

Thank you for your help.

So....I have not posted in forever....

But, here I am again.

I think that I have mentioned before that my partner and I are foster parents. Our last child, a 10-year old boy left in June, and we have been childless since. We have only fostered the 10 and under crowd up until now. We received a phone call last month, asking us to consider fostering a 17-year old girl coming out of residential treatment. We talked about it and thought about it and talked about it some more and finally decided to meet with Miss K and find out more about her and let her find out about us. She is a cool, amazing, interesting young lady who actually holds herself to some very high standards. She loves writing poetry, reading, listening to music, and watching scary movies. Miss K has now spent several nights with us and all has been wonderful...don't get me wrong, I am sure that not every day with her will be hunky-dory, but so far things are great. Her caseworker works with the ethic, "I can't possible do that until next week", so the court has not yet been petitioned to allow her to live with us. It will probably be another 5 to 6 weeks before she actually ends up living with us. We are in the process of setting up her room the way she likes it. Like most foster parents, we have a large assortment of beds and possible furniture for bedrooms. We are also used to changing around the purpose of rooms...so in preparation for Miss K, the office is moving downstairs and the little bedroom (only big enough for a bed and a dresser) and the office are becoming the teen suite. We are saving the fish room (decorated to look like an aquarium with bunk beds in it) for the possibility of a couple of children from the under 10 crowd (I would actually like them to be in the daycare only crowd...so under 5, as I am not fond of our city's school system).

I am ready for a bigger family again. I've been tired lately, and I think it's because I have too much time to sit around. I love the level of activity that having children demands. I love hanging out with Miss K and doing things like going to Barnes and Noble to browse or cooking with her. I love when I have littler kids and we can go to the spray park or pool or play crazy games. I also love just being able to hold a little sleeping body (like the picture above). I am really looking forward to the day Miss K moves in and is not just visiting.

Miss K will be our 18th child in 4.5 years. It's hard to let go of the kids who move on, but I am always ready to welcome the new ones God brings our way.

Here is a music video that makes me cry when I think about our foster children and how it relates to them.

My friend Ron.......

My friend Ron and I used to spend all sorts of time together...very often doing crazy and silly things. We went to Church together, participated in some Prayerful Pranks together, went out to eat, and hung out. We actually did a huge amount of hanging out...with each other, and with our favorite group of friends...Rosie, Patrick, Bernadette, Ron, and me. Ron and I used to watch David Letterman's Top 10 together almost every night.....

Then Ron moved to Maryland to take care of his sick grandmother....then unbeknownst to me, he moved to Oregon.....and as far as I was concerned, he fell off the face of the earth. Then a couple of weeks ago, I googled Ron and low and behold, I found Ron....I e-mailed Ron and then my phone rang and we talked....we are both alot older and live very different lives (I'm almost never awake for David Letterman!)....but, talking to Ron was the best....I love all my friends now, but sometimes, I really long for the old days...today was like a breeze bringing back some of those goofy, crazy, searching times.....

We are waiting....

Donna and I do foster care and after the last set of kids left to go home with a relative, we took a break until after the holidays. On 1/2/09, I called the homefinders and let them know that we are open and ready. So, now we are waiting.....I am really ready to have some kids in the house. Sometimes, I really love the quiet house, but now it's been quiet for too long....let's have some noise and activities!

A Tribute to My Brother Who Apparently Wants to Go Home

I was just reading my brother's blog, and apparently he wants to go home. He used the song from the following video in a video that he posted on his blog.














Take care, Rich! You'll be home soon!

Finally, another post.......

Donna and I went out for dinner last night with Mom and Dad. We went to Rohrbach's, which is a microbrewery and has a large selection of German dishes amongst their many other dishes. The big draw for Dad was that Rohrbach's serves sauerbraten on Saturday nights.....well, Rohrbach's sauerbraten certainly does not live up to Mom's sauerbraten. I guess Mom will just have to be making sauerbraten sometime in the near future. I am eagerly awaiting an invitation!

So, going out to dinner with Mom and Dad renews a mystery that is going on here in Rochester, NY. I need somebody to tell me how Mom and Dad who are always complaining about how cold they are get hot so quickly in our car! Donna and I never complain about being cold and in our car, we never feel too hot....so what is up with the older generation's internal thermostats?

We went to Bernadette and Patrick's house yesterday evening and I got to play on a Wii for the first time. I played Wii music and Wii bowling. I think that I am addicted. Bernadette and Patrick should expect to see alot more of me just showing up at their door, asking, "Can your Wii come out and play?"

Brenda and Peg came over for pulled pork and coleslaw tonight. Last night when we came home, I put the pork shoulder in the crockpot and cooked it for 8 hours. This morning when I got up, it did not seem to be done, so I cooked it on high for 2 more hours. Then I tried to separate all of the fat and pull the pork. It was nearly impossible to find the meat under all of the fat, and then when I finally found the meat, it did not pull! How is that possible? Did I cook it too much? Or was it just a really bad piece of meat? Donna did the honors of disposing of the whole mess and off I went to Wegmans. Instead of a pork shoulder, I purchased three slabs of boneless country ribs and put these in crockpot for 5 hours. At the end of the 5 hours, I pulled the pork and it was delicious. I think that I am done with pork shoulders....what a nasty experience! Thank goodness I started the process early enough to be able to fix whatever went wrong!

Well, dinner turned out pretty well and then Brenda beat the pants off me playing Skip-bo.

By the way, I am looking for somebody to play the Seinfeld version of Scene-It with me..........