Barnaclebutt

really good slow cooker chicken tortilla soup

these are great for seasoning taco meat too.

Here's the recipe:


• 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (Just put them in frozen)
• 2 Tbsp minced garlic
• 1 onion, chopped
• 16 oz can  black beans, drained + rinsed
• 16 oz can kidney beans, drained + rinsed
• 8 oz can tomato paste
• 10 oz package of white corn, frozen
• 2 — 10 oz  diced tomatoes with chilies
• 1 Tbsp chili powder
• 1 Tbsp cumin
• 1/2 Tbsp coriander
• 2 tsp oregano
• 2 tsp dried cilantro leaves
• (really I don't measure any of the spices. I just put in a lot because it cooks so long in the slow cooker that you lose flavor if you only put in a little)
• 4 Cups of water 
• 4 Herb Ox Chicken Bouillon cubes (or 32 oz. chicken broth) I like these cubes though.
•  
• I topped ours with:
• light sour cream
• lime wedge squeezed over it
• crushed tortilla chips
• chopped avocado
• chopped  cilantro

1. Place chicken on the bottom of the slow cooker. Add remaining ingredients.
2. Cook on high for 4 hours or on low for 8 hours.
3. Remove chicken breasts and shred with a fork, return to slow cooker and mix well.

   this is how mine looked

4. Spoon soup into bowls and top with crumbled tortilla chips. 
5. Add optional toppings, especially the lime. Okay, especially all of them.

 List 10 books that have influenced or stayed with you. The rules: "Don't overthink it; they don't need to be literary masterpieces, just books that have influenced you in some way. Tag friends, have them list their 10 books and also tag you so you can see their picks."

About a million years ago I blogged here about how I wanted to paint my kitchen floor on account of it being covered with nasty linoleum with nothing of redeeming value underneath. I had excellent intentions friends, but they were hijacked by Maddie's wedding along with all of my money. More on that another day.

But after the fabulous wedding in question we did begin our multi-stepped kitchen face lift. It had to be a face lift because a remodel was out of the budget. I think a true remodel will be possible in a couple of years, but in the meantime, I needed relief from this:

I am so happy that I ended up with this.

Shortly after we moved in we replaced the fridge, dishwasher and cooktop with black KitchenAid appliances that we had brought with us or found on Craigslist. And here is a photo detailing my plans for the rest of the update.

 Oops, I forgot to put 8.replace fluorescent light fixture.

Because I'm thinking of this face lift as a kind of band aid until we do the whole remodel enchilada, we didn't want to spend very much money on it. I needed to be able to do most of it myself, which to me means PAINT. And the first thing we did was the floor.

Let's take a photo tour of the process shall we?

Umm, umm, that is so beautiful. First, we sanded all the sub-floor, put on a coat of primer, filled in the large gaps and gouges with wood putty and then sanded again. We did a ton of patching but the floors are so old and beat up there was no way we could make it totally smooth. We decided not to worry about it and embraced the "old ranch house" vibe that we have going on here.

We did the same thing in the eat in area and then swept and vacuumed the heck out of it. After that we wiped the whole thing down with tack cloths. 

Then Marc sprayed a final coat of primer.

In here too. Then we did another quick light sand, vacuum and wipe.

Before we took down all the plastic Marc used his sprayer to put on a coat of Sherwin Williams Porch and floor enamel in a creamy white color. Then we started measuring and marking our squares. We measured to find the center of the floor and then worked out from there. 

I used my acrylic quilting square to make sure all the squares were really square. We marked everything with a regular old pencil.

Then we started painting in the first set of grey squares. You can see we changed from normal blue painters tape to this green stuff called Frog Tape.

It is the real deal my friends. Don't paint stripes or squares or whatever without it. There is virtually no bleed through and you get beautiful, crisp lines.

Once those squares were dry we pulled up the tape, re-taped and painted the rest of the grey.

It looked kind of cool just like this. Do you like my fancy painter sweats? I think I work that look.

And here is the finished product.

When the paint had cured for 48 hours during which time I vigilantly freaked out if any kid tried to set foot in there Marc rolled on two coats of Varathane floor finish.

I did a bunch of reading about what to use as a top coat for painted floors and I chose this because all the reviews said it dried clear where other finishes yellowed. It did dry clear and has held up super well so far.

 I am so happy with how it came out! If you want to know more about how we did this click here for painting the counter top grout, and here for how to paint a wooden sub floor.

I'm linking here:

click here

Gather round dear friends, it's time for me to tell you a story. A true story. A stupid true story that illustrates why I will never be a real grown up no matter how old I get and why does this stuff happen to me anyway?

Last Monday was my special day to drive Jonathan and his friend Stas up to NYLT (National Youth Leadership Training), an invitation only Scout Camp. I love driving hyper teenage boys to camp two hours away, except not really.

After I dropped them off I picked up a diet coke and started the trek home. After about half an hour of driving, my car started making weird noises, and then my steering wheel got all jerky-wonky. At the time I was driving with one hand because I was trying to get the last bit of ice from my diet coke and I wasn't exactly sure what was going on.

But you know what was going on, don't you? Because only a dork like me thinks, "Wow, the wind must really be blowing hard." Then I thought, "Ummm, or maybe I have a flat tire?". So I pulled over to the side of the freeway and got out to check my tires.