White Chicken Chili

2- 15 oz. cans Great Northern white beans, drained OR about 3 C. cooked white beans
4 C. chopped, cooked chicken breasts OR 2 cans of chicken including the broth
1- 7 oz can chopped mild green chilies
1 1/2 tsp. dried oregano, crumbled
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
3 C. grated Monterey Jack cheese (about 12 oz) (I use way less than this.)
2 T. olive oil
1 large onion OR about 1/3 C. dried onion and 1 C. water
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp. ground cumin
6 C. chicken stock
sour cream for garnish if you like

Cook and chop chicken. (I usually use canned for convenience.) Heat oil in heavy pot. Add onions and saute about 5 min. Stir in garlic, chilies, cumin, oregano, and cayenne; saute about 5 min. Add beans and stock; bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered. Stir occasionally about 2 hours. Add chicken and 1 C. cheese to chili and stir until cheese is melted and chicken is hot. (I usually just throw the chicken in with the rest. I've never noticed it to be a problem). Season to taste with salt and pepper. Top bowls with cheese, sour cream and tortilla chips if desired.

P.S. I have never met anyone who didn't love this.

It's BEAN week

The next few posts are for the benefit of anyone who came to the bean class and wanted the notes. I thought this might be the best way of getting the info to those who wanted it instead of sending emails out to everyone who doesn't. If you are a friend or family member who thinks you are going to learn something interesting about our current lives, sorry. You may be interested in knowing that we're eating more beans than usual this week. But feel free to read about beans if you would like to.

Bean cooking tips:
1. Make sure beans are fully cooked before adding acidic foods like tomatoes, chili sauce, lemon juice, vinegar, or ketsup. This will slow down the cooking process.
2. Salt toughens beans so wait until the very end to add salt.
3. Add a few drops of oil (1/4 tsp or so) to the boiling pot. This will reduce the foaming.
4. Drain the soaking water before you begin the cooking process. This will reduce the "gasiness" of the beans.
5. If you add about 1/8 tsp. baking soda per cup of dry beans while they cook it will reduce cook time by about one-fourth.
6. Boil gently and stir very little. You really don't need to watch them much.
7. Make a big bunch at a time. Freeze some whole to add to recipes later and puree some to add to recipes later. Mark the bag with the amount. I usually freeze 1 cup portions. Then I can thaw as much as I need for the recipe I'm using.
8. Use the pureed beans in place of butter or oil in any baked good. If it calls for 1/2 C. butter, just use 1/2 C. puree.
9. Use in place of or to supplement ground beef in casseroles, tacos, burritos, etc. The beans will absorb the flavors just like the meat would.


If you have any questions feel free to ask in the comment section. I will answer.
Next up are my favorite bean recipes. These are the ones I really do use the most often. But don't feel limited. I don't. I use tons of bean recipes.

Rainbow Day

This is the coolest, clearest, double rainbow I have ever seen. I don't think the picture really captures it. The little ones are so happy. They are pretty sure they will either be turning into fairies soon, or will be seeing some. Love it. :0)

Fairy Cake

Here are better pictures of the cake. I couldn't get them to load before for some reason.

Typo???

Texting convo w/Richard who is out of town on business.

S: What are you doing today?
R: Well, I found out I just need to do a sinner tonight.
S: ???????




R: *dinner*


One of the more comical typos. :)

Easter Weekend

We opted for a little get-away this year--a road trip to Tennessee. I had never been to Tennessee before and I have to say that it was beautiful! Spring must be the best time of year there. The weather was fabulous, the flowers were blooming, everything was green and the temperature was perfect.
First stop was Memphis. I have wanted to see Graceland for a long time. I'm not a huge fan, but of course I like Elvis. He's an icon and his life is fascinating. However, I think the glory days of Graceland are over. It was so tourist-y and the house just looked old and worn. I was kinda feeling bad for the "king". I also thought it was going to be huge, but it really wasn't. I'm sure it was big for those days, but I know people who live in homes that size now and they aren't even celebrities. He had a pool, but it wasn't even very big. In a way it made me like him more. It made him seem a little more like a real (possibly humble?) person who lived in a real house with his parents and other relatives. His airplanes though, made him seem like a rock star. Very cool for those days. Totally 70's. One thing we both thought was kinda funny was his TCB logo. Apparently, Priscilla did the artwork (she drew the lightning bolt). It seemed very amateurish and he had it on everything. But again, it made me kinda like him more.
Memphis itself was a bit scary, old and rundown. We have a friend who is from there and she warned us. She says the city government is so corrupt that there will probably never be good days in Memphis again. She says it is a main stop for drug trafficking. It's sad to see a city go so completely downhill like that.
Next stop, Nashville. We got in town just in time for the Easter egg hunt at the (I can't remember the name of it) mansion. The grounds were beautiful. But, we were there about 10 minutes into the 4-hour long event and wouldn't you know ALL the eggs were gone. :( So we had to be content playing with the chicks and ducks. That was fun. Then off to the Parthenon. This was Emma's main stop. She loves Greek mythology and was really looking forward to this stop. Again, a beautiful park with the Parthenon right in the center. But, it was closed that day so she couldn't see the Athena statue on the inside. Bummer.
Then on to the Country Music Hall of Fame. I enjoyed seeing a country music presentation there and wandering the museum for a while. Hey, if you are interested in Hank Williams at all, this would be a great time to go to the museum. They have this huge display on him. I now know more about Hank than I ever will need to, I'm sure. My favorite part was the dresses. Everything from Patsy Cline, Dolly Parton, Reba McIntyre, and Carrie Underwood (that giant flowing thing she wore a couple years ago at the CMA awards--glorious to behold). Kids HATED this part of the day. Really. . .hated this whole thing. Oh, well.
We wandered downtown Nashville for a while that night. It was kinda cool because lots of people who are trying to break into the "biz" were out on the street performing. We saw some pretty talented people/kids.
Our last stop was Opryland. No show for us though. Uhhh. . . I would have had to sell a child to get in. I had no idea shows were so expensive there.
So, that was it. It was a nice little excursion that the kids pretty-much hated. But hey, at least the Easter bunny found us.
P.S.--I missed every bit of conference, so we'll be reading the next ensign very carefully. pooh!

Ellie's 7th Birthday

Well, the big Fairy Party is finally over and we can now return to life as we know it. It was actually a fun party to plan and put together, but it ended up being a lot of work. Here's what we did.
As the kids arrived I had Maddie sitting at the fairy transformation booth where they could get fairy (lip) gloss, fairy dust (body glitter), and nail stickers.
Then they went to the table to decorate their goody bags.
These were just time fillers to wait for everyone to arrive.
When all were present we started making our fairy skirts.
I had strips of tulle and sheer fabrics and taught them how to "tie" them to their elastic. They did a great job actually. I was quite pleased.
Then we had a fairy freeze dance to Tinkerbell soundtrack songs. Maddie was the DJ. She found the perfect music. Thank you, Maddie.

Then it was picture time. I had everyone pose against our fairy garden backdrop which was designed and painted by our family. Everyone helped, but I ended up doing most of the painting. This was the item that I started wondering why I thought it was going to be a good idea. Just FYI, if you are ever going to do a fairy party, go ahead and buy the fairy backdrop from WalMart for $18.00 and forget about this.

Time for outdoor games. Luckily the weather was PERFECT! I couldn't have asked for a nicer day. I told them a story about watching stars the night before and seeing a couple of stars fly right across our yard and something was falling to the ground. I finally figured out that it must have been the tooth fairy and the gem fairy, because it looked like coins and jewels that were falling. The kids were totally eating this up. I just love how their imaginations can make these things seem real. So, they took their bags to go look for "fairy treasure" (candy coins and jolly ranchers). They decided that it must have been candy fairies that I saw, because they only found candy. I loved it.
The next game we played was Fairy Freeze Tag. One girl had a yellow (fly) wand and another had a blue (freeze) wand. If the blue wand got you, you were frozen, if the yellow wand got you, you could "fly". We just took turns getting the wands (about 2 minutes each). They loved this too.
Then we played Fairy Godmother, May I. I was the Fairy Godmother. I'm sure you can figure this one out.
Time to eat. On the menu was:
Fairy Fizz- pink lemonade with 7-up
Fairy Wands- pretzels dipped in pink candy coating and sparkle sugar
Fairy Bread- bread and butter, cut in shapes sprinkled with sparkle sugar
Fruit Bouquet
Jelly Bean Jewels
and Taquitos (because it was dinner time and they needed something real to eat.)
Then Cake time. Ellie had very specific requests for the cake. It had to be 3 tiered, rainbow swirl, with fairies. So, that's exactly what she got. It was a fun cake to make. Maddie said it was the best cake I ever made-looks and taste! Wow, I don't get compliments like that on my cakes very often. Yay for me!!
Ellie opened presents, we gathered all our take-homes, and then went outside with a bottle of bubbles to wait for parents. It turned out great.