Merry Christmas

Christmas leaving our house

I made our Christmas cards! With the emphasis being on the fact that they are done and mailed not so much the hand made part. Our cards from last year,

was photographer by my husband and I loved them. But with a little bit more on our plates this year, and the fact that I didn't really want to send out cards with my rounded face on them for everyone to remember, we decided to go crafty. It was pretty fun making the stamps and mixing paints until little man tate woke a bit early from his nap. Did I mention he needs to do everything you do? Only a hand full were ruined, and the rest were stamped and sent today! We'll deem that one a success.

I don't know if everyone has as much trouble as I do getting my 22 month old to eat anything green. He does considerably well will cucumber. But they are really just a lot of water.
Well, I was reminded (by the muffins yesterday) I could at least try hiding the green if it didn't seem so friendly at first. So I made zucchini bread. I altered the recipe a bit and used whole wheat flour and a bit less sugar. It called for a whole cup! I think its tasty. Lets hope he thinks so too. That would make my day.

Thank you Martha

We were on the Martha Stewart show today. We had a lot more fun than I thought we would. Martha served us what I believe was cranberry zuchini muffins, and gave away lots of goodies.
It was a Blueprint subscriber special. (this is how I inquired my free set of tickets). I guess they brought us there to spill the beans. Which I'm sure most of you already heard via d*s.
I'm not so sure what went wrong. This is one of my current favorites. I'm sad to see it go. If anyone happened to see the show today, that was my pumpkin belly in the bright orange cashmere sweater. I wanted to look crisp and bright, not stand out in the crowd.

Christmas in our house

I got around to making some stockings. I really wanted linen, but at $16.99 a yard, I had to look for something else. I found some felt and at $4.99 a yard I found my winner. I Oh the joys of sewing with felt. I left them completely plain. Sometimes I get fickled and I thought, the less I do to them the harder it will be to get sick of them in years to come. Speaking of years to come I bought enough to make 8. You know, just in case th kids keep coming, or some need replacement and what-not. They are a dark charcoal grey, and even thought that not what I had in mind, I pretty happy with the turn out.



We had house guests last night and this is what I served. So easy, it felt like cheating.

slow-cooked tex-mex chicken and beans
(from everyday food november 2007)

serves 4 15 min prep 8 1/4 hours total time

1 cup dried pinto beans, rinsed
1 11 oz jar mild or medium salsa (1 1/2 cups)
2 tablespoons chopped canned chipotles in adobe sauce
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs (about 8)
course salt and ground pepper
1 medium red onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper (ribs and seeds removed), chopped
1/4 reduced fat sour cream, for serving
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro, for serving

In a 5-6 quart slow cooker, stir together beans, salsa, chiles, flour, and 1 cup water. Season chicken with salt and pepper; arrange on top of bean mixture. Scatter onion and bell pepper on top of chicken.

Cover and cook on low heat for 8 hours. (do not open lid or stir)

Remove chicken from stew; shred into large pieces, and return to stew. Serve topped with sour cream and cilantro.

I used canned beans instead of dried, so I used 1/3 cup of flour instead of 2 tablespoons. I also went heavy on the salsa which was medium and used about 2 cups because I couldn't find the chipotles at all. I also used a white onion instead of the red. I have and over abundance of white onion right now.

I will be making this again.

teas please

We have been drinking lots of tea over here lately. I'm blaming it on the combination of our general appreciation for the drink and the fact that we've been under the weather for the past 2 months.

We each have a favorite. (Even though we stock more than just these 3 flavors.)
I'm stuck on traditional medicinals pregnancy tea for obvious reasons. Its very sweet and mild. Which makes it easy to drink the recommended 3 cups a day.

I got some premuim Ceylon as a gift and boy is it tastey. I think Joel would have a hard time choosing between that and a specialty chinese mango blend we picked up at Pearl River.

Sam is still training his tastes buds and goes for a good cup of decaf black. And sometimes I can get him to drink chamomile.

I like to keep a variety of honeys. Buckwheat, dessert misquite, and the regular clover. I won't lie and say I really tastes to much of a difference at all. Its just nice to have choices. :)