Sister Najera's White Chicken Chili

White Chicken Chili -Ella Mae Najera

1 tbsp olive oil1 medium onion, finely chopped1 can (4 oz) chopped green chiles, drained3 tbsp all purpose flour2 tsp ground cumin2 cans (15 oz) Great Northern Beans1 can chicken broth1 1/2 c finely chopped cooked chicken breastshredded monterey jack cheese (optional)sour cream (optional)salsa (optional)
cook onion in oil for 4 minutes, add chiles, flour and cumin, cook and stir ofr 2 minutes. add beans and chicken broth, bring to a boil. reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes until thickened. Add chicken; cook until hot. Garnish with cheese, sour cream, and salsa if desired.

*My notes: I adapted this for the crock pot by using about a pound of uncooked chicken thighs. I followed the directions to cook the onions, add cumin, chili's and 2 tbs of flour. I also added a can of hominy because we love it, and about 1\4 c of green salsa about 30 min before it was done. I also used a potato masher about then to shred the chicken thighs, and mush up some of the beans to thicken it.

Ein Guter Kuchen- One Good Cake

This is a recipes for an awesome apple bundt cake. It was one of the snacks in the volunteer break room when i volunteered at VBS this summer. I wrote on a torn off bit of cardboard that I *must* have the recipe or die. Luckily the person brought it the next day. Whew! It appears to be from a church cookbook. The contributor says "This old German cake recipe is our family treasure." I don't know why, but that makes me happy :)

3 c. Flour (cake four is best, but AP works fine)
2 c. Sugar
3 eggs
1 c. Oil
1 tsp cinnamon
1\2 tsp baking soda
1\2 c. Hot water
1 tsp vanilla
1\2 tsp salt
3 green apples, diced
1 c. Pecans or walnuts

Mix dry ingredients first, then add the wet. Be careful not to over mix. It makes a thick, rather sticky batter. Don't worry, its normal. I stir in the apples and walnuts by hand after I've mixed the other ingredients with the mixer. Pour into a greased and floured bundt pan. Bake at 350 degrees. Start checking for doneness at about 45 min. Dust with powder sugar.

The key to making this cake awesome is to keep it nice and moist and tender. You can do this by not over mixing. Also, don't over bake. The cake is done when you put in a toothpick and a few moist crumbs stick to it when you pull it back out. If you wait until it comes out clean, it is overcooked! Let it cool in the pan only about 10 min, then take it out to cool. This cake is really good the next day, too!

EJ is 10

For EJ's big 10th birthday party, she wanted a "spa/Late-night" party.  We invited a small group of her good friends (i.e. manageable :>) and they had a blast!

The décor was colorful and fun, just like our girl! She requested a double-tier cake with blue frosting- her fave color.

We had the spa supplies ready- fingernail polish, face mask, and hand/foot scrub.

Favors included the silly headbands, and goody bags with chapstick and a bath pouf. The girls also got to take home some of the scrub.

The girls ate pizza dinner before the spa fun begins. 10 yr old parties are awesome The girls just played, danced and giggled. I just pretty much had to point them in a new direction occasionally and they did the rest. So much fun and they are a fun group of girls!

Face masks and foot scrubbing :)

After the spa fun, there was presents and cake. Then they settled down (sort of) to watch a movie.  DMP took one for the team and kept Bear, Birdy and Rosie occupied in the bedroom with their own little movie party!

Halloween

Birdy, the regal medieval princess. They don't smile at all, apparently.  She is so pretty in this next one ->

Bear, the mighty pirate.  He finally settled on this costume after considering a roly poly bug, flower, bush, minecraft creeper, and Aang from Avatar.

EJ had a vision since August. She really wanted to be a spooky ghost from her favorite books by Mary Downing Hahn (she wrote Wait 'til Helen Comes). She is a specific ghost named Sophia...

It took all my poor sewing skills to sew the dress together, but it turned out well in the end and was a fun creative project to work on together!

And, of course, our annual family picture.  We had lots of fun Trick or Treating with a couple of our friends and their kiddos! The kids got TONS of candy, too.

Halloween- Pumpkin Carving

Pumpkin carving is so much more fun with a kitten on your shoulders. He loves to be up on our shoulders, and perhaps it had a little bit to do with the fact that we tried to shove him inside one of the pumpkins for a photo. Maybe.

L-R (or bottom to top)- EJ's original stencil design, Birdy's Owl, Bear's original stencil design (cut out by Daddy).

DMP and I have started a tradition of carving our own masterpieces after the kids are done and in bed. Mine is the headless guy on the top step, his is the spooky bat-guy below.  Lots of fun to carve them now that the kids are getting older. Too bad they rot within a day or so!

Halloween- Pumpkin Patch

The day before Halloween, I surprised the girls and picked them up early from school.  I told them they were getting a shot. In the bum. Maybe 2.  They were SOOO mad and upset until they saw the pumpkin patch and realized I tricked them.  Bear was awesome because he kept the secret the WHOLE time and wasn't even tempted to tell. That is a pretty good trick for a 4 yr old!

This patch has all kinds of painted wood cut outs of different characters from movies and such. I love these extra-angsty Harry Potter people. Ron is my favorite with his pet ferret (seriously- doesn't look like a rat....) 

Birdy liked this wood seahorse.  She is sitting on it like a mermaid (of course!)

Kids with their favorite cut-outs.

The Cloffice

I finally cleaned up the cloffice enough to post "Before" and "After pics of our wet bar demo/closet office (or "cloffice") project from way back in March.  Here is the before. 

During- we had to strip it all out to the dry-wall and rip up all the flooring. Happily, the light is pretty cool, so it could stay.

After painting and floor tiling. We even had to put baseboards down. The white square is where the wet bar plumbing. We decided that with our luck, we probably wanted it a little more accessible in case of leaks and stuff :)

Ta Da! The plan was to build a built-in desk and shelves, but after pricing things and looking around, we were happy to find we could do well with Ikea pre-made stuff. Yay! Less painting!

And with the curtains that I can pull when people come over and I want to hide the messy desk :)

One Smokin' Hot Father's Day

I scored a used electric smoker for $20 for DMP's Father's day.  Our total Texification continues :)

On Father's Day, he tried it out for the first time. This was in no way an attempt to get out of making his Father's day meal :)  We decided to try chicken this first time, so if it was gross, it wouldn't be too expensive to throw out!

Lucky for us, it was delicious. He learned a lot about the smoker and we had a yummy meal.  We also had his favorite "crash potatoes". It was a fantastic feast for an awesome Daddy!

Sport Camp!

 A friend of ours told us about a free "sport skills" camp we could sign the girls up for this summer. It was so much fun!  They mostly did relays with football-type drills.  Above is Birdy pulling the tires and below going over the "hurdles" (they also had to go under them sometimes).

Above is EJ (the one in the front of the line) doing the 4 way tug of war. That was a lot of hard work, but lots of fun.   EJ enjoyed the "ladder" run relay, too.

It was an awesome, well-run camp.  The last night there was a family party. Parents (and little brothers) got to participate in all of the drills and then there was a raffle and hot dog dinner. We actually won the raffle!! It was a fancy-shmancy box of all kinds of beauty treatments and make-up. It was a great prize!  I can't wait for next year. Bear will be old enough to participate, too.

Boy Camp

The Sissies had Library Camp at their school the first week of summer. I thought it would be fun for Bear to have a little "camp" of his own. We invited two friends to come and play for a couple of days and do a "camp"- really just a more structured play date with a theme. It was so fun to do for him and they all loved it. 

The first day was Pirate day.  They painted pirate chests and glued jewels on them. Then they went looking for buried treasure in the sandbox (the best activity for everyone by far- the "treasure" is still buried and unburied regularly).  Then they had a great big pirate sword fight. They were so cute. Sometimes they fought each other, and sometimes trees, the slide, and lawn chairs were "dragons" that needed fighting.

The next day was "Super Guy" day. They came dressed in their super-guy apparel. 

The boys loved the "Hulk Smash" game I made up- stack the produce boxes in a tower and run through them to smash them down. Big surprise there :)

I was going to have them finger paint their pictures this day, but it was really funny. They did NOT want to get their fingers messy :) 

The last day was Train Day.  They painted with trains (so fun! Just put a glob of paint on the page and let them drive through it with cars/trains. It makes painted "tracks"). 

Then they worked together to build and run their trains around the wood tracks. It was a simple and fun day!

Last Day of School

Just for fun, a side-by-side First and Last day of school pics:

 First Day:

Last Day: