Entries from November 19th, 2008

Slow Cooker Chicken Taco Soup

November 25th, 2008 · 9 Comments

On Sunday, Danny and Dallas mounted our TV on the wall above the fireplace. It was kind of nerve-wracking. I didn’t want to let it go once we had it hoisted up there. I need to get used to it hanging off the wall.

I got up early that morning and made slow cooker chicken taco soup. I never made soup in the slow cooker before, but when we got our last Peapod order I made sure to get the ingredients for this recipe. All Recipes says that 1,159 people have rated the soup 4.5 out of 5 stars on average. I didn’t think over 1,000 people could be wrong, so I decided to try it out.

The soup was really easy to make. You literally just dump everything in the pot and then forget about it. You don’t even have to unthaw the chicken breasts. Five hours later you take the chicken out and shred it and then put it back in the pot and let it cook for an hour or two more. That’s it.

As for taste, I thought it was delicious. It wasn’t in the recipe, but I added about six cloves of chopped garlic in the beginning. When I pulled the chicken out to shred it, I tasted the soup and added some salt, pepper, and chipotle seasoning. At the end Danny added a little more hot sauce, but I thought the heat level was perfect without it. Danny and Dallas ate this Mexican soup Japanese style, over rice. I tried that with my second serving and that was good too. Great Sunday recipe.

Slow Cooker Chicken Taco Soup

Ingredients:
1 onion, chopped
1 (16 ounce) can chili beans
1 (15 ounce) can black beans
1 (15 ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 (12 fluid ounce) can or bottle beer
2 (10 ounce) cans diced tomatoes with green chilies, undrained
1 (1.25 ounce) package taco seasoning
3 whole skinless, boneless chicken breasts
shredded Cheddar cheese (optional)
sour cream (optional)
crushed tortilla chips (optional)

Directions:
Place the onion, chili beans, black beans, corn, tomato sauce, beer, and diced tomatoes in a slow cooker. Add taco seasoning, and stir to blend. Lay chicken breasts on top of the mixture, pressing down slightly until just covered by the other ingredients. Set slow cooker for low heat, cover, and cook for 5 hours.

Remove chicken breasts from the soup, and allow to cool long enough to be handled. Stir the shredded chicken back into the soup, and continue cooking for 2 hours. Serve topped with shredded Cheddar cheese, a dollop of sour cream, and crushed tortilla chips, if desired.

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Happy 30th Birthday, Richard

November 23rd, 2008 · 5 Comments


Dad, Richard, Rachelle, Mom


Mom, Rachelle


Mom, Dad, Rachelle, Mom


Charlotte loved Dallas’ watch


Jessica wrote “The Rachelle” then “Rachelle” then “Dallas”


Richard opening his gift: Just For Men


Brewers apron and oven mitt


Gift from my parents: Packers Jacket


Too big for Aunt Sue


Uncle Doug, Dad


Sisters: Wanda, Sue, Mary


Richard & Brian


Rachelle & Richard

Yesterday we went to Wisconsin to go to my little brother’s 30th birthday party. Not so little! There were lots of family and friends. Lots of kids, actually, running around everywhere. We ate tons of food and desserts and drank a lot of beer. For some reason he got a lot of beer as gifts. We brought him Fat Tire and Oberon, two beers he can’t get in Wisconsin. We also got him an Amazon gift certificate. I thought he’d get a lot of gag gifts, but there was just one: a box of Just For Men hair dye from our cousin Kelly. All the other gifts were really nice. After the party died down a bit, the people who were left all played Rock Band, which was a gift from my sister-in-law, Amanda. My brother’s best friend, Brian, bought this random bag of liquor that we were drinking shots of later on. .. or at least I was, Dallas was our DD. It should also be noted that my brother has been growing his beard out for the month of November. You can track it on Facebook if you are his friend.

Question for Photographers: Does anyone know why my flash is throwing such a harsh shadow? Is it something I need to adjust on my camera? Or something that can only be fixed by getting an external flash? I don’t remember it being so bad before, but now it is making be crazy.

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Another Colbert/Legend Duet

November 20th, 2008 · 1 Comment

I was listening to the Fresh Air podcast today and Terry Gross was interviewing Stephen Colbert. They were playing clips from his upcoming Christmas special, talking about the election, and at the end they played part of Stephen singing the Star Spangled Banner with John Legend (above). I posted previously on a duet Colbert and Legend did to the song “Girl is Mine” and I really enjoyed that. It looks like they might sing together in the Christmas special (below). Just how many songs have these guys done together?

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I Loves Me Some Giant Muffins?

November 20th, 2008 · No Comments


Otis Spunkmeyer at CVS, River North, Chicago

WTF? I did not understand this.

The week after we bought our condo I was at CVS using the Kodak machine to make prints of the photos I took of the new place to send to our parents. While I waited for the prints to come out, this Otis Spunkmeyer muffin display was staring me down. I don’t understand how this is selling muffins. What was the creative director on this campaign thinking? “MMMM kids love giant muffins!”

Also? Otis Spunkmeyer is my new alter ego’s name.

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I Always Feel Like Somebody’s Watching Me

November 19th, 2008 · 2 Comments


Roscoe Village, Chicago

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