Chicken Chili Recipe

By popular request I am posting the Chili recipe that we made this past weekend. 4 15 oz. Cans of Stewed Tomatoes 1-2 Cans Kidney Beans 3-4 Stocks of Celery 1 Medium Sized Yellow Onion 1 Green Bell Pepper 3 Large Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts Salt, Pepper, Chili Powder, Ground Cayenne(Red Pepper), Garlic Salt, White Pepper, and Ground Cumin are all used. No Specific measurements though. It just depends on how spicy you want it. The longer you let it simmer with all of those spices, the HOTTER it will get. Start by Baking the chicken at 350 deg. 30-45 minutes. Season with salt, pepper, and a little white pepper if you like it spicy. While that cooks, finely chop Onion, Bell Pepper and Celery. Saute them in 2-4 Tbsp of butter in large pot until Celery is soft. (the peppers and onion will soften before the celery will) Add all cans of tomatoes and 1 can of water. Be sure the tomatoes get broken into bite size pieces, most are sold just sliced. Rinse Kidney beans thoroughly in strainer and add to pot. Stir together and start adding seasoning. Once you have your desired taste, simmer for just a bit. While simmering, chop chicken in to small cubes and add to mix. Simmer all together at least 10 minutes. Keep in mind that the longer it simmers, the hotter it will become if you have used all the spices. I prefer it HOT and usually would let it simmer for a couple hours. It is best with shredded cheese mixed in to your individual bowl and served with either scones, or buttered toast with honey. Enjoy!!!

Fall date night

Saturday night, Nic and I planned a "date night" that involved everything to do with Fall/Halloween...

We decided to make Chicken Chili (that was Nic's job). Nic chopping away...

And my job was to bake (I was proud to be wearing my Christmasy apron)

Look at those beautiful pumpkin sugar cookies. I also did leaves.

Here's the finished product of the Chicken Chili. It was so good, but a bit too spicy for me. Nic tried to tone it down a bit, but even he wanted it to be spicier. Needless to say, I put quite a bit of shredded cheese to tone down the spiciness. It was very tasty - we ate our chili while watching The Skeleton Key (cookies were baking and cooling).

Next it was on to carving pumpkins. Nic has only carved pumpkins once! I couldn't believe it. I always remember carving pumpkins in our garage growing up - I haven't done it in awhile though.

Beware of the Master Carver...

After taking out the guts (which are tasty to eat I might add), I like to bake the seeds. I remember my mom always doing that when I was growing up. Add some butter, stir them around until they are nice and golden brown, and add some salt - delicious little treat. Nic thought I was wierd because I like to eat some of the guts and the seeds...more for me! :)

Nic carving away. I did carve my own pumpkin, but he did help me clean it up.

Some of the finished sugar cookies. They were delicious!

Here are our pumpkins glowing in the night (Nic's is on the left and mine is on the right). I love the way they both turned out!

dancing shoes

Who's ready to put their dancing shoes on? I AM! Today was another exciting meeting: OIT dance team. That's right - I am joining the OIT dance team. They dance during half time at the men/women basketball games. Anyone is welcome to join. Before a game, you have to try out for the game to make sure you're ready. No one is required to dance at halftime - you could join just to join! I'm joining because I miss dance like crazy! You could say that this is more of a rally squad. The dances will be mostly hip hop (not my strongest). I'm so nervous though. I haven't danced in a few years, but this will be so good for me. I had been talking to Nic and telling him that I miss dance. He said to go dance then. Where? With who? Dance classes are out of the question right now...until now! Even though I danced for quite some time, I feel like I haven't had my fill of it. I've got a fever and the only medicine that will cure it is more dancing! haha Nic is so excited for me and I'm so grateful that he's supportive of me doing what I want to do. This will be so good for me. It's time to get out my dancing shoes!

MSW???

Last night I went to a meeting about Portland State's Distance Option for a Masters in Social Work... Background info: Last Summer my mom and I were planning a trip to all of the MSW schools I had researched and were going to apply to...then I met Nic and my plans changed. I was going to be able to get my MSW in 1 year because of an advanced standing program. You are able to do that if you have a BSW. Because my degree has changed, so have my plans... Getting an MSW is on my bucket list. I don't know when I will accomplish this or if I ever will, but it's a goal of mine. I decided to go to this meeting last night to see what one of my options is. In a nutshell: mostly online work - travel to Portland 4 times/term for the 1st year - travel to Ashland (SOU) 4 times/per term 2nd and 3rd years. The travel would be for 2 days, on campus classes from 9 am - 4 pm on Friday and Saturday. I have heard that PSU has an amazing social work program and this was one of the schools on my list. It was a very informative meeting...Problems? Cost is unbelievable. They just raised their tuition by about 10% which was huge! They still plan on raising it more next year. Ahh! That's where FAFSA comes into play. That's an option...I don't know what it is, but something is holding me back. Nervous? Too young? I was the youngest person at that meeting. haha I think what it boils down to is that I don't feel confident enough in myself. I don't know why...Timing is everything with this. I have no idea if this will be in 2, 4, 8, 10 years. Who knows?! I don't. Nic was thinking like in a couple of years. Ahh! This would be such a huge committment and I would need all of the support I can get. I can't even believe I'm even talking about it. Crazy! Nic did say something so sweet to me last night; he said that no matter what I decide, he is completely supportive. It made me so happy to know that Nic is 110% behind me no matter what - that's amazing support every girl deserves. :) I'm really glad I went to the meeting. I've got some praying to do to figure out what the best decision is for me/us/my family. I'm researching other online MSW programs. Texas University. University of North Dakota. ???

Don't Look Down

As you can see to the right, I have a column called Don't Look Down. I like putting happy/exciting/fun/:) things that are going on in our lives or are coming up. As you can see I have an MSW (Masters of Social Work) meeting tomorrow (Oct. 6). I would love to one day get my MSW and there's a meeting about the MSW program from Portland State University. I'm very excited to go and learn about their program. I'm hoping one day they will bring an MSW program here to OIT..... You might also notice in this same list that I have put "dance team." OIT has a dance team! Do you know excited I am about this?! I AM SO EXCITED! I have missed dancing. I got an email for tech news DAILY (I'm the official editor) about a meeting that's on Wednesday. Count me in! My friend is advising it. I told her I would help out with ANYTHING! They will be dancing at the Men/Women basketball games. Woo hoo! I have no idea when try outs are, but count me in! :)

4 Ds Day

I officially declare October 5, 2009 as 4 Ds Day: Dumb Dumb Driver Day. Yes that's right, every driver today in KTown has been a dumb dumb. I don't know what it is, but I have been stuck behind quite a few people from Nevada. People from Nevada can not drive. I think everyone is dazed on Halloween candy or they don't know what to do about the cold weather. Whatever the reason may be, welcome to 4 Ds Day!

Hello Fall

Can I just say that I'm so happy it's Fall? I'M SO HAPPY IT'S FALL! I love the smell of the air, the leaves changing, the cold, I love everything about Fall. Nic and I have no Fall decorations, so I decided to get my craft on while he was at mutual. I bought materials to make a Fall wreath and hadn't made it until last night. Here's the finished product: I actually hung it on my back door, because no one every comes to our front door. People would think that our back door is our front door, but it's not. So it hangs on our back door for all to see. I love how it turned out and Nic loves it! :) He was impressed. I got the idea from Sumo's Sweet Stuff (my sister). She always has great crafts to do!