White Bean Chili

sorry for the craptastic picture

I hate cooking. Despise it, really. I don't find it fun, relaxing, zen-like, exciting, or any other positive adjective. I do find it to be a pain in the royal you know what. If I didn't hate rinsing & washing a Crock Pot so much, I would cook in a crock every single day! {I won't use the liners, I don't trust their safety}

So when I come across a new recipe, but more importantly one that involves the CP..... I sing a little tune, do a little jig & praise the food gods. If it comes out yummy, even better.

I found this delicious recipe over at Cooking with Libby for Becka's White Bean Chili & just had to give it a try. The recipe is from a friend of hers {apparently named Becka}.

I love it. My husband loves it. It is one of the most delicious things I've ever tasted. And that says a LOT for this non-foodie. I'm usually just like "meh, tastes good." No, no, no.... this is AMAZING. Try it out!

My changes: 

I substituted 98% FF Cream of Chicken
Organic Northern Beans
Low Sodium white corn

And I just threw 3 HUGE Tyson chicken breasts in & I use my Pampered Chef Mix-n-Chop at the very end to break it all up {shred it}.

Becka's White Bean Chili

1 pack of boneless, skinless chicken breasts, chopped and uncooked

1 packet of Taco Seasoning

1 can of diced chilies

2 cans of great northern beans, semi-drained

1 can pinto beans, fully drained

1 can white corn, fully drained

3 cans of Cream of Chicken

Mix everything in the crockpot and let it cook on low for 6 hours.  

From Yuck to Yowza! {I'm biased}

A few months ago I bought 6 chairs off our local Air Force Base's Virtual Yardsale site on Facebook. I paid $20 whopping buckaroos for all 6 chairs. Great deal. I had every intention of redoing them all, but it ended up that they matched my antique dining room table perfectly! I was looking for two for that table & the rest would be used in my new crafting area/room. I also had hoped that two would flank our giant china hutch, but unfortunately they would not fit in the tight corners. 

It took awhile, but last weekend I finally took the seats off & dug through two ancient layers of seat covering in order to find the foam underneath. I sprayed it down with Febreez & let them sit in the sun for a good LONG while {err, until they went flying up the street when the wind kicked up}. I then took some Krylon white primer & semi-gloss paint to them. It took three cans, I'm not quite sure why. I was hoping to get by with two cans. 

Anyway, I touched one of the grossest things I think I've ever touched - the bottom layer of upholstery. If you can even call it upholstery. It was more like a table cloth from the 1970's that someone had initially covered them with. Ugh. DIS.gust.ING. I needed a gas mask. The crap {i.e. dust} that flew out of those things was enough to make you gag a maggot. 

Two for the craft room

Two layers of funk

NASTY, nasty, nasty! They had to be ripped 

(well, they really didn't give a choice)

 & dust went flying out of them when ripped. GROSS.

 Funkilicious

So much better! Duck fabric from Hobby Lobby. 

About $8 a yard, but use one of those handy dandy 

40% off coupons - because they rarely put the Duck on sale! 

I'm stoked at the outcome. So stinking pretty. 

I do need to distress them a bit, but I'll do that on a rainy day.

Linking up to these fabulous parties:

Fantastic {thrift store} Find

I had a fantabulous Friday off work today & hit up our local base thrift store. As soon as I saw this gem, I knew I had to have her...

Ahh... don't you just LOVE a good thrift store find. I can't wait to put it to use.

A moment of 'weird'

Such an odd, perplexing morning. I woke up to the sound of something seemingly scraping the side of the house (or the garage, our bedroom is over it). I got up & went into the kitchen to ask my husband what he'd just been doing. Nothing. 

A bit later I step outside to enjoy the cooler weather for a moment & ask him where he put my umbrella. I'm assuming he cranked it down & put it on the deck. He looks at me baffled & says "I didn't touch it," I said "no, really..." He says he didn't touch it & so I realize it must have blown off the deck onto the ground. I go outside & look over the edge and.... well.... NO umbrella. He gets shoes on & walks down to look under the deck ...... no umbrella. It's not on the side of the house, nor anywhere else in the yard. 

Someone stole our umbrella?

I mean I know I just bought it, but REALLY? Someone STOLE our umbrella. There's a pressure washer sitting RIGHT THERE. Someone came onto our deck and STOLE our umbrella!??? We could not wrap our minds around this. I said, well I'm calling the police. I'll report it missing & it's seriously bright & beautiful, so I'll find it in someone's yard & report them! LOL 

My husband says to go check out front. Um, okay? So I go out the garage & walk to the other side of the house & there is my umbrella. 

So... that noise I heard? Yes... that was the umbrella flying over the roof of the house & scraping down the side. :) Oh what a morning. There wasn't THAT much wind. Plum weird, if you ask me. 

I go inside after closing up my now broken umbrella & as I'm walking inside I reach down & scratch my arm. I feel a bump (that wasn't there a mere five minutes ago) & realize I've been stung by something. 

What is going on? Am I in the twilight zone. I don't have freakishly active or exciting mornings. The extent of a.m. excitement in our house is usually what DVR'd show to watch while we eat breakfast. 

My sting was so bad I had to take an antihistamine. Which didn't help the fact that I had to be at the fair grounds in oh... two hours.... to work the Sarpy County Fair for TEN hours. But I made it. The Benadryl fog   hit me about three hours later & I swore I was going to fall asleep. But I made it through. It was a beautiful day for the fair - highs in the high 70's, a nice little breeze.... we have the windows open right now at home & it's supposed to drop to 58 tonight. I'll take it! You can see the dead grass in my umbrella pic. Our entire city's grass has just turned to hay for the most part. It's heart-breaking to see the shriveled up corn stalks. 

The rest of the day was your typical 'county fair' variety - seeing every 'what not to wear' rule broken, mullets from the 80's, hearing accents you can't understand, and seeing food you have no idea what you're supposed to do with... 

But all in all, it ended up a pretty normal Saturday after all. Ya know, besides the fact that I could cut off my feet because they hurt so bad :) 

John Sandford: Mortal Prey

What I'm currently reading: 

Here's a tip. It's very rare that you'll find me reading something on some list somewhere. Something that is thought provoking &  life altering. Something that an AP English teacher would be proud of. I read to escape. Give me a good serial killer & I'm good to go...

I also like Amish fiction. Go figure. I'm an enigma like that. :)

Top of the month: August 2012

It's August 1st. How did that happen?

Seriously. I think I ask that every month. What's up with time seemingly flying by these days? Does it just seem to get worse for you as you get older? It does for me. I blink my eyes & a year goes by. I honestly don't understand. I'm not that busy of a person. We're not that busy of a family. Where does it go? WHY does it seem to blow by us with no regard for tomorrow?

This month holds a few things in store for us:

1. I work the Sarpy County Fair every night through Saturday for my place of employment (we have a booth, I'm not a carnie) ;)

2. FOOTBALL starts. #thankyougod

3. The Olympics continue. We've been having such a good time watching them. But I don't look forward to track/field. My husband will be GLUED to the tv. He loves that stuff.

4. I will finish my new craft cave!!

5. I might start school again :)

6. We're going to our first real baseball game & it's vs. New Orleans! Yay!

7. We're going to try out a new church

I'm looking forward to cooler nights if not cooler days. By the end of August up here we always have cooler evenings. I'm not looking forward to less daylight hours. We learned this past winter that we both have SAD (seasonal affect disorder). Tonight I was able to tell that it got dark much earlier (8:40ish vs. after 9) & it seriously bothered me. Not a happy camper. Speaking of camping - I hope we can go camping when the weather cools a bit :) Happy August to you! I'll be {attempting to} participate in the August Photo a Day over at Fat Mum Slim's - haven't done it since February. Looking forward to it keeping me accountable to paying attention to daily life.

Cheers!

Day One: Outside

we've been ravaged by drought & heat waves here in the Midwest.

 It's heart breaking.

A gift for mom

My parent's are full time RV'ers. They hit the road after retirement in 2010 & have spent the last 2.5 years traveling this great country of ours. Since we moved to the Midwest, it's actually pretty convenient for them to swing by on there way here or there. We've hosted them twice here locally & I flew 'home' to Mississippi {actually where I moved up here from} in April for a quick visit. We were fortunate enough to have them here with us for about a month this summer. Lots of fun {& unfortunately illness} was had by {almost} all. A couple years ago, I discovered making yarn wreaths through DIY/crafting blogs. I fell in love with them - the versatility is endless! So I made my mom one she can use this autumn & she one-upped me! Check this out...

Here's the wreath I made with yarn/flowers.

Here's the wreath after she added a tin Fleur-de-lis :) I love it!