It's a perfect day for bananafish...

RIP J.D. Salinger. :(Image, and accompanying story can be found here.

I really loved his writing... my favorite being Nine Stories. I hope his unpublished works fall into good hands.

"Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody."

Chicken Tortilla Soup

I realize that my food photography leaves a lot to be desired... but bear with me... we're hopefully getting a better camera soon, and maybe that will help me improve. My biggest problem is lack of natural (and unnatural, for that matter) lighting in our home. Anyway, here's my first recipe post! This chicken tortilla soup was delicious... the perfect recipe for a cold winter day. I hope you enjoy!

Also, a note... I very rarely measure anything when I'm cooking. (Only when I'm baking, and I don't even like doing it then, I just know I have to). Therefore, all of these measurements are approximations.

Chicken Tortilla Soup
Recipe adapted from Star Pooley

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
2 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
salt, pepper, garlic powder to taste
1 large onion, chopped
6 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons chili powder (we like it spicy, feel free to reduce this)
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon cumin
1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
2 (14 ounce) cans chicken broth
2 teaspoons lime juice
1 cup frozen corn kernels
1 can white hominy
1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chile peppers
2 jalapenos, minced
1 (15.5 ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
Optional garnishes:
tortilla chips, or fried tortilla strips
sliced avocado
shredded Monterey Jack cheese
sour cream
lime wedges
cilantro

Directions

1. In a medium stock pot, heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium heat. Meanwhile, season chicken breasts with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Saute chicken breasts in oil, then remove and set aside.
2. If necessary, add 1 tablespoon of oil to stock pot. Saute onion and garlic until soft. Stir in chili powder, oregano, and cumin, until aromatic. Add tomatoes, broth, and lime juice. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low/medium-low and simmer for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, shred chicken.
3. Add in corn, hominy, chiles, jalapenos, beans, and chicken. Simmer for 45-60 minutes.
4. Ladle soup into serving bowls, and top with preferred garnishes.



I served this alongside some Mexican cornbread, which I will blog about another time!

Simply Amazing.

I stumbled across this thanks to my friend Christina. It's beautiful, and I love it. Click here to find out how it's done, and to see more incredible sculptures.

A little insight...

in to what I meant when I said I would blog about things that I love.

These things include, but are not limited to: a bed full of big squishy down pillows, road trips, the sound of little kids laughing, all laughter in general, music!, finding forgotten money in pockets, dancing in the rain (if it's warm out), the color red, black and white photography, hot soup on a cold day, bubble baths, singing in the car, singing all the time, dance parties with my husband, traveling, eating!, Europe, behavior analysis, home decor, potatoes in any form, watching sappy girl movies, crying during sappy girls movies, waking up and seeing perfectly white untouched snow on the ground (but having the option to stay inside in the warmth), college football (go Noles!), being in the sunshine, freshly squeezed orange juice, soft sheets, snow cones, beautiful smiles, smiling all the time, pralines and cream ice cream, working out, my dog, chapstick, sushi, being around fun people, good beer and wine, cuddling during thunderstorms, fireplaces, hot chocolate in the winter (or really during any season), fashion, the smell of spring, the colors of fall, avocados, live music, people-watching, summer nights, star-filled skies, the moon, people with good memories, wrapping presents, cooking!, the food network, pottery barn, top chef, the sunrise in Hawaii, the sunset in Italy, spontaneous people, intelligent people, low-rise jeans, candles, riding my motorcycle, HGTV, life, and being in love.

You'll find me writing about many of the above... but probably mostly about cooking, fashion, home decor, music, and... life.

Score!

One of the things I love most is finding a really good deal on a cute clothing item/accessory. Living on two graduate student incomes (can I even consider it an income when we still have to take out student loans?) really puts a damper on my shopping, so I strive for steals. I'm quite happy with my most recent purchase (and am pretty impressed with myself for scoring it, if I do say so myself).

I got this super cute military style jacket from BR for a whopping $3.38! It was on sale for $25.99 (originally $89.50), and they were running a 30% off sale items special, plus I had a $15 off coupon for my birthday. Total score.

(Photo courtesy of http://bananarepublic.gap.com/)

I've already worn it out once, and I love it. The only downside to this whole thing is that I know I'll never get out of BR that cheap again.

You smiled...

when I said the leaves were just the color of your eyes...(Photo courtesy of http://www.hickerphoto.com/)

Oh, hi.

Did you know that as of a year ago, there had been 133,000,000 blogs indexed by Technorati (an Internet search engine for searching blogs) since 2002? I'd also venture to say that that number is a huge underestimate (esp. since it is from last year), considering they no longer index non-English blogs. And I would think it would be largely impossible to index every single blog in existence. I'm pretty sure if I tried to search my (admittedly brand spankin' new) blog through Technorati, I wouldn't find it.

And, did you know that, as of March 2008, 346,000,000 people read blogs? Geez o petes, that's a lot of people. And a lot of reading. (FWIW, I'm hoping for all of about 3 (maybe 5) people to read my blog. That's about 0.0000014 percent of the blog reading population... sweet! I would consider that a success.)

Anyway, when I decided (read: got coaxed by many) to start a blog, of course I had to do some research. Because that's what I do. I don't really know how to make a decision without researching it first. Sometimes this proves to be a good thing, many times it works against me. But regardless, it's me. So naturally I decided to let you benefit from my Google searching. If you're the curious type, I found those stats here.

I'm not quite sure of the true purpose of this blog yet. (Who am I kidding... it's just another procrastination tool I can devote my time to when I don't want to do schoolwork/workwork.) But, I can tell you that it will be about all aspects of my life. Mostly it will be about things that I love, but I'm sure some of the things I don't love will creep in from time to time. Regardless, here goes nothing... (or hopefully something...)