Merry CHRISTmas

I love this time of year and I love my Savior. I am glad for the opportunity to celebrate his birth and hope I instill in my children the importance of Jesus Christ in their lives. I know he is the most important person in my life.


I love to collect nativities and I try to keep them the focal point of my Christmas decorations. The nativities come from all over the world - Jerusalem, Venezuela, somewhere in the Caribbean, Germany (Playmobil), even Texas and China.

My favorites are the Playmobil
and the wood one carved from olive wood from Jerusalem.

Here is my collection. Now I just want to get the Fisher Price Little People one.Merry Christmas! Enjoy it and remember to keep Christ at the center of all your celebrations.

30 Desserts for 30 Years

I have the most thoughtful husband in the world and I am the most thoughtless person and forgot to take a picture, so you must use your imaginations.

For my 30th birthday (yikes I'm middle-aged now) Tom threw me a 30 dessert party. I think his original plan was a more figurative thing, but I told him after he started inviting folks that if you advertise 30 desserts, you better deliver. and he did despite our family being sick all week.

Desserts ranged from cookies to pie to ice cream and rootbeer floats, to runts and nerds and chocolate covered cinnamon bears. There really were thirty thanks to Tom and some great friends who contributed.

We had tons of funs with friends and lots of sugar. Thanks for the great birthday! I'm just really sad I forgot to take a picture.

Award Winning Chili Recipe

I feel a little sheepish posting about this, but oh well, if you can't brag a little on your blog where can you?

Our ward had a chili cook-off for our Christmas party. I wanted to make a green chile-turkey chili. I haven't ever made chili before so I found a recipe that looked pretty good and used that as my guide and just kind of made it up from there. Two things made this chili so delicious, thanks to my friend Renee. First, she suggested a hint of unsweetened chocolate in the chili so I put in some cocoa. Second, I used her leftover smoked turkey from Thanksgiving. It was good turkey. The recipe would probably still be good with any old turkey, but her smoked turkey I think gave me the edge.

I am a little hesitant to share the recipe because how will I win next year, if everyone has the winning recipe? But here goes.

Green Chile Turkey Chili

1 lb. ground turkey
1 lb. cooked turkey
2 onions, chopped
2 T oil
4 t cumin
2 T chili powder (more or less to taste)
2 t oregano
2 T cocoa
1 t cinnamon
2 cans tomatoes with green chiles
1 can diced tomatoes
2 8 oz cans tomato sauce
2 4 oz cans green chiles
3.5 cups chicken stock
2 cans hominy, drained and rinsed
2 cans white beans, drained and rinsed
2 cans kidney beans, drained and rinsed

Brown ground turkey until no longer pink. Drain and set aside. Sautee onions in oil until soft. Add both turkeys and sautee 1 minute. Add cumin, chili powder, oregano, cocoa and cinnamon. I used extra spicy chili powder and made mine very spicy, but use less chili powder or don't use extra spicy to get the heat you desire. Sautee 1 minute. Add tomatoes, sauce, chiles and stock. Bring to boil. Turn down and simmer 45 minutes. Add hominy and beans. I chose the hominy to give the chili a little color and southwest feel. The white and kidney beans added good color as well, but you could use any beans. Salt and pepper to taste. Simmer 15 minutes or just keep on low until ready to serve.

Huevos Rancheros

I haven't posted a recipe in a long time. I actually haven't been cooking a ton of new food lately. I have been lazy and have relied on old favorites. I did make a yummy dinner last night, but forgot to take a picture, but I'll post the recipe anyway because it was so good and easy and inexpensive.

I don't remember where the original recipe came from, I think it was Bon Appetit, but I can't find it on their web page. I altered it anyway, so here is my version of

Picture from epicurious.com

Huevos Rancheros
6 teaspoons minced garlic or 6 garlic cloves
6 T oil, divided

2 cans of black bean, undrained

2 cans diced tomatoes ( I used one with green chiles and one just plain)
1 1/2 c diced onion
half bunch cilantro
1-2 tsp. diced chile adobo (it makes it pretty spicy but deliciously smoky)

10 corn tortillas, deep fried until crispy (or use tostada shells)
20 eggs, cooked anyway you like. (We mostly had them over easy)

Queso fresco or other cheese
Diced avocado

Heat 2T oil in small skillet. Sautee garlic on medium until soft. Mash if using whole cloves. Set aside.

Heat 4T oil in medium saucepan. Sautee onion until soft. Add tomatoes with juice and cilantro. Add half of the garlic and adobo, if using it. Simmer until thick. Salt and pepper to taste.

Heat undrained beans with remaining garlic. Heat through and mash slightly.

Cook eggs using desired method.

Place a tostada shell on plate. Top with a generous spoonful of beans. Gently place on 2 eggs. Top with a generous spoonful of sauce. Top with cheese and avocado if desired. A squeeze of lime is very good on top as well. Enjoy.

We ate our with potatoes fried with peppers and onions. Very delicious.

Tumbling Blocks, The Easy Way

Our nephew, Baby Benji, was born in August. It is the first baby for Tom's brother, so I thought I would make a quilt for him. I learned how to make this quilt at quilt guild.
It is much easier to make than it looks. I had tons of fun designing it and finding fun fabrics for it. A few of the fabrics are Laura Ashley prints that my mom bought over 30 years ago in England. It is fun to use them.


Whenever I make a quilt, I try to convince my mom to let me use her fancy machine for the quilting part of the project. My machine can handle the piecing, but not the quilting. This time, I decided to try out her stippling stitch, and I think it worked out well.

You can find basic instructions for the quilt here. And you can see an even cuter version of the quilt made by my fellow quilt guilder here.

Porter is a Seed

Last week, Porter participated in the storytelling contest at his school. He had to go to a workshop every week for about two months. When he came home one day and told us he was going to do the contest, Tom and I were a bit hesitant. He loves to read, but he didn't read very loud or clearly. But he was very dedicated. and practiced his story until he had it memorized, had actions to go along with it, could tell it clearly and with emotion.

This video was taken on my phone, so you can't even hear him, but he did a great job even without a microphone. In fact, he did such a great job he was announced as the winner for the first grade. Yea for our little boy.




"I'm a seed."
"I'm a seed, too"
"I'm going to be a marigold when I grow up."
"Me too."
"No you're not."
"Why not?"
"Because you're a different kind of seed."
"What kind of seed am I?"
The story continues and the seeds grow into marigolds and pumpkins and the cycle starts all over again.

I love my little seed and love to watch him grow.

Halloween 2008

For Halloween this year, we went to Porter's school parade, the library parade and we went trunk-o-treating and a tiny bit of trick-o-treating.

I was lazy with costumes:

Porter's - DI for $5, Eliza's - Ross $6.99, James - Old Navy $5 and I decided last minute that Tom and I would be the corpse bride a groom. I am wearing my mom's wedding dress (shhh, don't tell her).Next year, I promise to be creative and maybe even have a theme. I am thinking maybe Alice in Wonderland.