September 30, 2011

• If you were to come to our house on a chilly fall evening I might serve you white chili. With thanks to my good friend Margie in Wisconsin, who was preparing it in her warm, clean kitchen when I was visiting her one afternoon. It looked so good that I asked her for the recipe, which was an immediate hit with all of us. Maybe it’s  been around the block already, but someone asked me for it a long time ago. So here it is:

  1 lb. chicken breasts

  1 small onion, chopped

  2 c. chicken broth (or more)

  1 (4 oz.) can chopped green chilies

  1/2 tsp. each:

  garlic powder

  cumin

  chili powder

  oregano

  parsley

  1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper

  2 cans white beans (great white northern), rinsed and drained

  1 c. sour cream

  1/2 c. milk

  Cook chicken breasts and onions. Cut into pieces. Add beans and seasonings to broth. Simmer. Add milk, sour cream and chicken last. Heat thru. May serve with tortilla chips.

  Variations: I just cook chicken legs and backs and don’t usually bother measuring the broth before adding the rest of the ingredients. (of course the chicken breasts make nicer soup, but are more expensive.) I have a hard time finding great white northern beans up here. Any white bean works. I use white kidney or navy beans, but like navy better. And I never drain them.  With both the cayenne and the chilies the soup can be quite spicy. I forgot both last night and no one seemed to notice. Liesl was trying to eat her soup and it was hot. She would blow it so hard that it sprayed off her spoon and then gobble it down. I’ve never served this with tortilla chips. Last night we had it with garlic toast and garden salad.

  (The only bad thing about sharing your favorite recipes is that you can’t wow people with them if they are ever your guests.

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  We’re here to teach our children, I know. But more often they teach me.

  Why, just yesterday I learned:

  *That you can make words by tearing orange peelings into letters.

  *That macaroni is a vegetable. (at our smorgasbord leftovers lunch I told the children they all had to take at least one serving of vegetables and when I was filling Andre’s plate he said, “I’ll take macaroni for my vegetable.”)

  *That a house left to itself (or to the preschoolers) brings a mother to shame. Which is why the old diaries I’ve been wasting time reading were put away for the day and we cleaned this shameful house. (But look what I found when digging for old diaries.  The sweater set I wore when I was a baby.)

  

   

  *That cards you buy can totally disappear when you finally get around to sitting down to sign and send them. (I knew this before, but yesterday confirmed it.) That beautiful card seems to be gone.for.good. Maybe my children didn’t teach me this. Whatever.

  *That chapstick always tastes good to a 2 year old. It doesn’t matter how often she’s been disciplined for eating it.

  *That you should never buy a Canada hoodie for your 13 year old son and plan to wear it yourself once in a while because you like it too.

  *That nothing makes a 9 year old feel more insecure than a disagreement between Dad & Mom. (I knew this before too, but it’s one I need to be reminded of too often.)

  A happy Friday to you.

  May you soak in the beauty of the season.

  May you thank God for the gift of today.

  May you know the truth of “for it’s only in Your will that I am free.”

  　

  • 12:51 pm
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