February is sneaking up on me

Where do the days go? Its already almost the end of January. I can tell that the semester is back in full swing, as I get busier and busier at work. Thank goodness I started my job in a non-legislative year, so I could get up to speed on most of our responsibilities and get used to all the reports we do to the state before they move up the deadlines to have data for the legislature. I know it will be busier before it gets better, which is why I am really enjoying working on our vacation plans. Kevin and I have wanted to go to New York City for a while and so we are planning to travel there at the end of April, when the weather there is warmer and my crazy time of the semester is over. I'd ask for ideas of what to see (feel free to send them), but I think that as it is we'll be pushing to see all the things that come to mind when you think of NYC: UN, Statue of Liberty, Times Square, Chinatown, Ground Zero, Central Park, Wall Street, the list goes on and on. I'm reading a guidebook, finding accomodations and know that soon I'll be wondering if we can just go now!

This weekend is the Super Bowl and we are ready. There will be a 3-D commercial for the new Monsters vs. Alien movie, so we got our glasses. They are about the cheapest glasses I've ever seen, but I guess they have to be to give away 125 million of them. We got 4 pairs and they came all connected together, basically a sheet of tough paper with plastic lens sheeting across the back of them and I had to punch and cut them apart. We'll see how good the 3-D affect is. I hadn't been to a 3-D movie in years until I went last spring and WOW has it come a long way, it was about dinosaurs and I really felt like I could reach out and touch them. I am looking forward to the game, but admit I watch it more for the commercials, I don't really care who wins between the Steelers vs. Cardinals, but will probably root for the Steelers since their QB was my fantasy football QB. Frustrating that he didn't do well enough (well, probably the rest of my team and me as the manager didn't do well enough) to get me into the playoffs but he's in the Super Bowl. Come on good commercials! I've heard that some companies changed their approach of commercials because of the economy, but others are of the thought that - you still need to laugh, really you need to laugh even more since the economy is doing so poorly, so I hope they can make me laugh. If you want to see some you missed in previous years, go here.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Sticking with our resolution, we have been trying new recipes, Some have been successful and some not as successful. A couple of weeks ago, we made baked potato soup and more recently we made a roasted pork tenderloin. The baked potato soup tasted great and (bonus!) let us use a bunch of potatoes we had at home already. The pork was ok, but we probably won’t make it again. It was good to try something different, but think I’ll stick with chicken and beef.

The weather today was colder and we didn’t have plans to be gone from home, so we decided to make another soup, and it was delicious! We based it on a couple of different recipes and used our crock pot – which let us smell it cooking away most of the afternoon. Here is the recipe we came up with:

4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs

1 can (4 oz) chopped green chilies

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 yellow onion, diced

2 cans (15 oz each) diced tomatoes (including juice)

½ to 1 cup chicken broth

1 T cumin – we plan to add more next time

Cayenne pepper to taste – we plan to add more next time

2 T chopped fresh cilantro leaves

4 corn tortillas, sliced into small strips

Shredded cheese

Place chicken into crock pot

Combine chilies, garlic, onion, tomatoes, and ½ cup chicken broth in a blender. Blend until smooth. [This was our own invention, Kevin’s idea, so that we could have the vegetables without the textures he doesn’t like].

Transfer mixture to large pan. Bring to a boil, add cumin and cayenne pepper.

Pour mixture over chicken in crock pot. Cook on HIGH for 3 hours.

~~enjoy it cooking away while you can do what you want or need to do~~

At about 2 ½ hours, remove chicken and use the tines of 2 forks to shred the meat. Return meat to the crock pot and continue cooking. Add remainder of chicken broth if needed [We didn’t add additional broth, and added a small amount of cornstarch to thicken the soup].

Corn tortillas – bake at 400 degrees for 8 – 10 minutes, until crisp.

Top with cheese, corn tortilla strips, cilantro (can also top with avocado, lime juice).

Welcome to the World

Welcome to the World Gabriel!


My good friend (and college roommate) Gwendolyn and her husband Jay had their baby on Monday. Congratulations to both of them on becoming parents! If you'd like to see photos, please follow this link to their blog. He's so tiny...hard to believe all of us start out that small.

I am still in disbelief sometimes that people I know are parents and have little people who are completely dependent on them. I am not sure if I could do it. For now, I'll stick with taking care of my four-legged 'kid', who barely listens to me but is fun to play with and a great companion to both of us.

Congratulations again and I can't wait to meet the little guy.

New Header

Thank you to Allison for our new header! She is a whiz at photoshop and wanted an excuse to learn more about it, so was taking requests for headers, layouts, etc. and I took her up on it! Our blog is almost completely vanilla Blogger template and I know very little about photoshop (and even less about HTML) so haven't done any customizations except adding photos. She may've created a monster because now I am getting ideas into my head about asking her to do an entire layout. I don't know how that would work though, since the entire conversation about what I want would have to be over email (she's in Germany) and with my limited knowledge and vocabulary I don't know how I would even say what I want....mostly it'd be "I like what that blog looks like" I'm afraid...oh well, for now I will just enjoy my new springy header.

If you want to read a fun blog, read hers The Displaced Texan. Thanks again Allison!

No Ping Pong Champs Here.

We got our ping pong table yesterday! It has been years since I've played (and it shows), but it was fun to play again. We played at least 7 games last night. Neither of us are going to be champions, or tour the world (a la Forrest Gump), but its a fun activity we can do together in the evening, better than zoning out to the tv every night. Smokey likes it too, but he likes it because he likes to grab the ball when it falls off the table, or worse over the railing and down to the first floor. We have to work with him on that.

Getting the table to the house was an adventure. We ordered it from Sam's and took the lowest level of shipping because the next level up made shipping more than the table itself. So, it came on an 18-wheeler truck and we were told that we'd be responsible for getting it into the house, etc. once it was off the truck, doable - though a bit intimidating seeing that it was listed as weighing 125 lbs. I took the morning off work since we had to schedule the delivery during the day. Turns out the truck couldn't even come into our neighborhood, our streets are too narrow or where it is wide enough there are too many turns for it to manuever through, so we drove to the front of the neighborhood and went a short distance up the exit ramp the wrong way to park behind him.

We got it out of the truck and it was too big to fit into our 4-runner, even at an angle. I'd worried about dealing with it due to the weight of it, but never thought to look at the dimensions for getting it home (of course I hadn't realized that the truck wouldn't be able to get into the neighborhood either, naive Carol). So, we needed to put it on top of our vehicle. Luckily we had a couple of tie-downs, so we got it on top of the truck and secured it as best we could by hooking both tie downs together and ran the length of it to keep it on the roof until we got home. We then drove the short distance VERY slowly. At home, we were able to get it off the vehicle without too much trouble and down on the ground and into the garage. We opened the box in the garage, and brought each of the two pieces into the house individually - much easier! We carried them upstairs and measured and put the pieces of foam on to cushion our pool table (its a conversion top to go over our existing pool table), and ta-da! we have a ping pong table. Later in the day, Kevin bought the posts, net, paddles, and balls (and also some additional tie-downs so we're better prepared) and we are ready to play!

Recipe 1 - Success!

Our first try at a new recipe was a success! On Sunday we made a Garlic Curry Chicken and Spinach. I am so proud of Kevin, he ate the spinach, and actually liked it :) His ongoing challenge has been to find vegetables he likes and work them into his diet, so this dish helped that goal as well as being fairly healthy. We used light coconut milk and it still tasted good. Next time we make it, we'll spice it up some more - I doubled the curry from what the recipe called for, but it could still use more curry and garlic. I'd picked this recipe up as a freebie at Wal-mart a while ago, and found it in my recipe files. We'll file this one under GOOD! I wanted to type the recipe to post it, and had the thought I wonder if its on their website, silly me, of course it is, they actually have an entire recipe section, located here.

Here is the recipe: Garlic Curry Chicken and Spinach

Hot cooked rice (optional)

2 Tbsp. olive or vegetable oil

1 Lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch wide strips

2 Cloves garlic, minced

1 Tsp. curry powder ( we doubled this and plan to use even more next time we make it)

1 Cup coconut milk (we used light, and the entire can because we like a lot of juice to pour over the rice)

4 Cups fresh spinach, cut into strips

Directions

Prepare rice, if desired.

In large nonstick skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat until very hot but not smoking.

Add chicken; cook and stir 4 to 6 minutes or until browned.

Add garlic and curry; cook and stir 30 seconds.

Stir in coconut milk; reduce heat to medium-low.

Cook 3 to 4 minutes or until chicken is thoroughlycooked.

Add spinach; toss to mix. Cook just until spinach is wilted.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with hot cooked rice, if desired.

Resolution - cooking

One of my resolutions this year is to improve my cooking and add more variety to what I can cook. I have a few dishes that I make pretty well, but I hope to expand what I can cook and be more confident in my cooking abilities. I plan to take a class or two at Central Market, but know that most of it will be trial and error on my own, with my sweet husband as my guinea pig. I'm also recommitting myself to being healthier - both by working out regularly and being consistent with logging what I eat in Weight Watchers - so I'd like to find healthy recipes. They are separate but connected goals.

We already plan out our meals a week at a time, and I think the most attainable goal is to try one new dish per week. So, what are some of your favorite dishes to make? I hope to post my success stories as I work on this.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year! Time flies, I couldn't believe it was Christmastime and now it is 2009! We had a great New Year's Eve. Kevin and I hosted a party at our house. We've done a lot to improve the house over the last year and have a nice set-up for parties, so wanted to take advantage of it. We had good food, and a lot of it since everyone brought something. The food included: Texas chili, shrimp gumbo, cheese fondue with dippers, fruit and veggie trays, and brownies for dessert. We had quite a feast, and though the food was really different, it went really well together. We also had spirits for all tastes - alcohol with mixers, wine, and champagne at midnight.

It really is true that the heart of the house is the kitchen, everyone was in the kitchen for much of the night, that's where the food is and so even though we had chairs set up elsewhere everyone stayed in the kitchen to chat and eat. I had a great time getting to visit with everyone and since it was a smaller group I really did get to visit with everyone. We are all so busy that it is a treat to get to spend an evening together.

After everyone had eaten, we spent the rest of the night playing Rock Band. It is a fun game to play, especially with a big group and I think its even funnier for those watching when you don't know the songs, Kevin is hilarious when he ad-libs and does 'shout-outs'. None of us missed our calling as rock gods, but it is so much fun to play. I love to do the singing, and usually do it badly. In my house is the closest I'll get to karaoke.

Everyone had a good time, everyone but Smokey. Our dog is spoiled, and doesn't like it when his routine is upset (no animals do) and is very vocal to let us know it - he also doesn't like the loud sounds of the game, so he had a stressful night with so many people in his house and being up later than usual...but we'll get him back into his routine and he'll love 2009.

We had a wonderful 2008 and I hope that 2009 is as good to us and that it is a better year for our nation. I do not know what all that this year will bring, but already know we'll have at least two babies to welcome into the world! We can't wait to meet Baby Johnson and will have a new niece or nephew in the summer. Happy New Year to everyone and I wish you health and happiness this year.