Adelei Update

My baby is now doing all sorts of fun things. She likes to grab her toes, and she's discovered her tongue, and likes to stick it out. She is now 4 months old, 24.5 inches tall, and weighs 14.19 lbs. Can you believe it? I can't. As of Sunday, she officially laughed. Before then it was more like a, did she just giggle?? Wait, do it again, Baby, I'm not sure if you did it or not. But on Sunday, there was no denying that my little 'Nilla Bean laughed. Ever since then she's laughed for me every day. It is the best thing in the world. Baby laughs are magic.
While I've taken an enormous amount of pictures of my little Lei-Lei, I decided to put some video on here just so you can see her cute little personality. She is so much fun. I'm the luckiest mom in the world.

Cooking Blog

I'm attempting to start up my cooking blog...again. Last time, my camera was at my in-laws for a month or two, and then by the time I got it back, I was so pregnant that I really wasn't cooking any more. So, here it goes! Fall is my baking season, you'll probably see a lot of that. There's a link on the side of my blog, and you can click here to view it as well.

Bon appetit!

Are you kidding me??

I have something to complain about. I went to two different stores the other day and both had their Christmas decorations out...it's early September, you ugly-little-money-grabbing-commercialized-store-mongers!!! (Try and say that five times fast. I dare you.) You ought to be horsewhipped. I know the economy sucks, but honestly...stop rushing the season. There are still at least two major holidays to go!
Which leads me to a question...why doesn't anyone celebrate fall anymore? Not Halloween. I'm talking fall, people. You know...bountiful harvest? I think that it was one of the most celebrated times through most of mankind's history and now it's not even noticed. Too lowly and unimportant to be noticed. So sad.
I'd get on my soap box and go off on how the human race is no longer close to the earth and how it's made us loose touch with our humanity, but it would sound a little too tree hugging/hippy child for my taste. Which I'm not. But really, it just might add a little bit of balance to our fast paced consumer society if we all slowed down, and took a deep breath of the approaching autumn air.



















*photo courtesy of wikimedia.org, and yes, there will be more posts of Adelei. Just had to vent, I feel so much better.

'Tis the Season

It's fun to show off your garden produce. I'm so dang proud.









































It's salsa season. Are you excited? You should be.

Because with salsa you can make things like this:





















Yes, please.

Erin's Nach-yos, Mine.

Ingredients:

• Chips (as many as you want)
• 1 Jalapeno
  
• slow cooker Mexican chicken*
  
• 1-2 cups cheddar cheese
• salsa
• (optional) sour cream & gauc
• whatever other toppings make your boat float

Layer first four ingredients, broil on low for 5 minutes or until cheese is melted. Add remaining toppings. As Don suggested, this would be good with pinto/kidney/refried beans as well. But I just happened to grab whatever was on hand.

Slow Cooker Mexican Chicken

Ingredients:

• 3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breast
• 1 (6 oz.) can diced green chilies
• 1/2 cup salsa
• 1 tsp. cumin
• 1 tsp. chili powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 3/4 cup chicken broth
• 1 (14 oz.) can pinto beans (I didn't have this on hand, thus the reason my nachos didn't have beans)

Combine all except pinto beans in crock-pot on low for 6 hours. Shred chicken with two forks put back into crock-pot with pinto beans. Cook for another 1/2 hour on high.

Salsa

Ingredients:

• 3-4 tomatoes, chopped
  
• 2-3 peppers (jalapeno, bell, habanero, whatever you like), diced
  
• 3-5 tomatillos, diced
  
• 3-4 tbsp fresh chopped parsley
• 1 clove minced garlic
• 1/2 chopped onion
• 1-2 tsp. tumeric
• 1-3 tsp. lemon juice
• salt and pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients to taste. I like to try in with a corn chip to make sure it's just right. Chill in fridge, or inhale immediately.

Enjoy.




















We did.