Scraplog

From The Kitchen: Chili

One of the first things Jason and I cook when the weather starts to turn cool is chili. We love chili. It’s the perfect thing for a cold winter’s day. Not only does it taste good, but it makes a huge batch so we are able to freeze some plus eat some during the week. It makes for one of the best leftovers too because the spices start to mingle the longer it sits. Chili is wonderful!

It’s an interesting thing that I love it so much now because growing up we didn’t eat much of it and so I always thought I didn’t like it. Then, after we got married, Jason introduced me to the recipe his Mom always made and I was hooked. It became my new favorite thing. I’m not sure where this recipe originally came from but, as we do with most recipes, we have tweaked it to our liking and now (we think) it’s perfect. Make it and see for yourself…

A glimpse into our recipe book. From my experience, the hand written recipes are the best!!

Chili

2 pounds ground beef (we have never tried ground turkey but I bet it would be good too!)
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 quarts tomato juice
1 can (15 oz) kidney beans, drained
1 can (15 oz) black beans, drained
28 oz can pork & beans
28 oz can diced tomatoes
1 teaspoon salt
2 or 3 teaspoons chili powder
1 bay leaf
4 shakes Tabasco sauce
a dash or two of hickory smoke
a bit of cayenne pepper

Using a large kettle, brown the hamburger and onion. Drain off grease. Add all of the other ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 1.5 – 2 hours (do not cover). Remove bay leaf and serve. This recipe is better with age :)

Browning the beef.

Spices, Tabasco, and tomato juice, all ready to go.

The line up. Just to give you an idea of what brands we use.

The chili while it is simmering.

When your chili is ready you can doctor it up to your hearts content (try adding sour cream or cheddar). My favorite thing to do with it is pour some over a baked sweet potato! You may be a little bit skeptical about it but trust me, it is so good. Just bake your sweet potato by adding a bit of olive oil and salt and pepper and wrap it in foil for 1 hour at 450 degrees and it’s super good. And then do it again the next day because the chili is even better as leftovers. Bon appetit!!

Add your comment »

Tagged: From The Kitchen

Scrapbooking: Noah and Lily

It’s time for another round of scrapbook pages. One for my niece and one for my nephew. I love these little people :) One of my favorite things about making their pages is I go through the past years first so I don’t make them too similar and I get to see how much they have grown and changed. It’s so fun to be an aunt!

Let’s start with Lily:

I have 4 nephews and one niece. When I make Lily’s page it is so fun because I get to use girl colors. Not that boy colors aren’t fun, it’s just that making things girly is even more fun! Lily is already two and she is so adorable. She has the most beautiful eyes, they will make the boys melt one day!

Noah came to be part of our family when he was 6 months old. He is one of the gang and we love him so much. What a little treasure :) This is one of my favorite pages I have made in a while. Of course, that isn’t saying much since I haven’t scrapped much lately :)

Happy Birthday Noah and Lily, I love you both so much!!

Check out other scrapbooking posts here.

Add your comment »

Tagged: Scrapbooking

Everyday Life 01.13.12 – 01.19.12

I am still in Oregon these days and having a great time! I am trying something new out: I’m writing a post from my phone. We shall see how this turns out :) Let me know if anything looks amiss!

Here are some photos from this past week, taken on vacation.

Our day on Saturday started early with leaving at 5:30 AM. Here I am waiting at the airport, all ready to go. I was traveling light this time with just a carry on. That is a new record for me! Especially since we will be gone for 11 days!

Yeesh! We have had a lot of rain! First it started with a couple of dats of snow (which is unusual) to crazy amounts of rain and everything is flooding. More on that later.

I am staying with my in laws while I am here and this was taken at their house. There is a creek that you drive over to get to their house and the water was creeping up so high. Usually this water is about 3 feet lower! It never did spill over though. In the 30 years they have lived here that has only happened once!

I have been continuing with my workouts while I’ve been here but without my favorite training buddy (Jason) which is sad. I miss him :) we normally do P90X but I didn’t take any of it with me (remember, packing light!). So, I got the Nike training app and I have been using that. It’s awesome, I love it! And it’s perfect for on the go and even better, it’s free!

My little 2 year old niece. Isn’t she adorable? Look at those eyelashes! I’m so jealous! The cutest thing is she holds her pencil like an adult. I couldn’t help but snap a photo :)

The game of the week has definitely been Sorry. The boys want to play it all the time. But I actually think its a fun game so I don’t mind! Plus I love being with them!

And that is a quick recap of some of the stuff that has been going on here. I have had so much fun already and there is still more fun to come!

Add your comment »

Tagged: Everyday Life, Personal, Photography

Dining Room and Entryway Changes

This will just be a quick little post to show you some small changes I made to the entryway and dining room. After all, I am on vacation so I’d better make this fast :)

Just like the living room, I put all of the Christmas stuff away and decided not to put the same stuff out that had been there before. Nothing too drastic, just a new vignette. In these rooms, all the furniture is still in the same places.

Does it look the same to you? Look closer…

I added some different frames to the wall. The bottom frame has an old post card from Oregon that I found in an antique shop here in Tennessee. The post card is a drawing of a place close to where I lived when I was born.

And for the dining room…

A peek from the living room.

I changed the vignette on the console. I like it. Even though it is a small change, it was time. It’s nice to have something new to look at now and then.

Now I need to be thinking about some new artwork. Doesn’t that sound like fun?!

And that is all for today. I’m going to go enjoy being with my family some more because vacations go by so fast!

Add your comment »

Tagged: Our House

Living Room Change Up 2012

You all know by now how I love to rearrange my house, right? It’s one of the best free things I can do to cure my boredom. And do you know what? I am not the only one. Victoria from sfgirlbybay does it all the time, even more than I do. My Mom does it too, at least as much as I do, possibly with more frequency. So if you haven’t tried it and you are bored, do it! If you change things around and don’t like it, change it back. It’s fun, trust me :)

I always tend to change things around New Years. The Christmas stuff comes down and it’s time for something different. This year is isn’t as drastic of a change as last year but it’s still fun. Ready to check it out? Here goes!

The main things that I changed is the addition of the rug, the cabinet, and another chair.

I don’t normally give sources but I figured now would be a good time just in case anyone cares. The problem is, most of them were thrifted so it’s not easy to duplicate the look.

My cat is crazy :) The pillows were all made by me using various fabrics at different times. I talked about the multi-colored pillow here some of the others are mentioned here. The couch was a thrifted find, one of my best ones yet!!

At Christmastime, I moved my plants around and they ended up grouped together on the coffee table and I liked it so they stayed that way. They are all from Ikea, the pots and the plants. The tray was a thrifted find that I covered in fabric. The vase was a gift from my Mom and the branches are from a tree at my house. The coffee table was built by my wonderful husband. He really is the best!

The elephant was a thrifted find that I sprainted white. It was formerly in the family room but I decided he needed to hang out in the living room for a while :) The lamp was also thrifted, I talked about it here. The floor pillows were the cushions to some chairs that my Mom had and she didn’t want them so I brought them home with me :) The frame is from Target and I have had it for forever.

The gallery wall has been a work in progress for quite some time and I have been collecting the frames from various places and sprainting them white so they all would match. The chair is another thrifted find and I made the slipcover. You can read about it here. The ottoman? Thrifted. My Mom actually found it for $5 and after a lot of begging, she gave it to me :) The lamp is from a wholesale outlet and I got it for $6, lampshade included! The metal bucket is from Lowe’s. I made both of the pillows, you can read about the zig zag pillow here.

The cabinet used to be in the family room and you can read about its makeover here. Both chairs are thrifted finds. The one on the right was in Jason’s office/library and I borrowed it for the living room :) The artwork was a thrifted find. Most people say it looks like Michael Jackson. I tend to agree. The ruffle pillow was made by myself, you can check out the tutorial here. The crocheted white blanket on the back of the chair was a high school graduation gift from my Grandma way back in the day.

The curtains are from Ikea and the rods are from West Elm. The rug is from World Market from quite a few years back. I used to have it in storage but I whipped it out to see if it would work for a while. Ideally, I would like to have a black and white rug in this space. And hardwood floors painted white. Is that too much to ask?!

The lamp is from Walmart and the shade is from Pottery Barn. Both I have had for a while. The paint color was mixed by me. You can read about it here.

See, wasn’t that fun?! If you aren’t tired of reading about the living room yet, check out this progression post where I catalog the changes this room has gone through since we’ve lived here.

Add your comment »

Tagged: Our House