Mexican Soup with Homemade Tortilla Chips!

NOT pictured are the BEST ingredients:

A nice drizzle around the pan of EVOO

2 Cups of diced red onion

 1 Cup of Bells (I used half and half of green and red)

1 Tbsp of garlic

 2 Chipotle peppers (in adobo sauce) 

2 tsps of chili powder, cumin

1 tsp of oregano and cayenne pepper

 3 cups of diced, cooked chicken

2 cans diced tomatoes

2 cans of Mexicorn

1 can of black beans

1 can of Rotel

1 cup of water or so (however much you want, depending on how much you want to stretch the soup)

1 cup or so of chicken stock

 As with any good soup, you start by sauteing the veggies. Throw the onions and peppers in a hot pan with some s and p. Cook for a good 5 minutes before adding the garlic and seasonings and chipotle peppers. Cook for another 5 to 10 minutes (letting all that yummy goodness coat the pan) and then add the chicken! Let the chicken absorb that goodness! Next you wanna' deglaze the pan! I use the chicken stock to do that! Then add all the other ingredients!

 I just used a pizza cutter to cut triangles out of tortillas! Definitely not original, but delicious! Bake at 350 degrees for 5 - 10 minutes! I had to really watch these, they cook FAST. Each oven is different.

 I GREW this cilantro!

 Top with Shredded cheese, sour cream, cilantro, and homemade tortilla chips!

Cake, Cookies, Decor and Pizza!

 This, my friend, was a VERY delicious pizza! It starts with a sour dough bread starter! I made the starter myself about a month ago! Then I made batches of the bread, divided them into what looks like a small cantaloupe, and froze them!

 Then you take the dough out of the freezer when you are ready to use it and let it rise all day in a draft free, preferably warm room! I stick my oven temp on warm and place a damp towel over them and they rise much faster!

 Once dough has rise, knead into pizza shape of your choice, don't forget to place corn meal on the on bottom of your nonstick pan! Top with pizza sauce, protein and veggies of your choice! I used 'shrooms, pepperoni, sausage, red and green bells, and red onion! It was DELICIOUS!

 These are homemade chocolate chip cookies and I was playing around with the Easter M & M's! This recipe is soooooooo good! These are, by far, the best chocolate chip cookie if you like crunchy on the outside and softer in the middle! I like mine crunchy all the way through, but bake time is essential for that. Here is the recipe (I omit any kind of nut and add m&m's):

http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/ultimate-chocolate-chip-cookies/77c14e03-d8b0-4844-846d-f19304f61c57

 As Sandra Lee says, this is my "tablescape" for Easter Sunday when we also celebrated my grandparents 50th wedding anniversary...but really, what DO you call it?

 We did red and gold for anniversary colors!

 The red was my grandmother's china!

 These are my sour dough yeast rolls!

 This was a lesson in complete experimentation! This is my made up recipe for ganoshe cake! I couldn't find a recipe online for this believe it or not! Not one I trusted anyway! Thanks to Windee Robinson for the BEST chocolate cake recipe! Chocolate Cake Recipe (I ignored the peanut butter part)

 Ok, so I NEVER claimed to be a cake decorator! Actually, I'm a fabulous cook and baker, but I am too careless to be a decorator! I'm fast and sloppy! Anyway, with that said, I think it turned out beautifully! I had to freeze the cake overnight to ice it and I had to apply one very thin coat of ganosh, let it set, apply another coat, let it set, etc, etc....until all the ganosh was gone with the exception of about 1 cup! OHHH, ganosh recipe was 2 cups of cream and 20 oz of chocolate. Steam the cream and off the heat add chopped chocolate! It should melt smoothly!

 

I topped the cake with chocolate covered strawberries, drizzled with more chocolate and at the very last minute powdered sugar (which did melt away)! Then I SERVED the cake with chocolate whip cream (which is also what I FILLED the cake with) and the rest of the ganosh! It was ridiculously yummy! 

Oh and a sprig of mint in the center! 

Perry and Becca Get married!!!!

 Calvin had to go straight to the wedding right after work! So there was no one to take pics of little D and I in our cute outfits! So, I had to take pics of David AND of David and I together! But doesn't he just look adorable in his little monogrammed romper?

 I love those Mickey Blue Eyes!

 No Smile for you Mommy!

 Still no smile!

 Found a pink and green patterned dress! My favorite colors! Thanks Lindsay!

 FINALLY! David smiled! AND it turned out blurry of course! Same for the next pic!

 I think that's the face I make at David if I want him to smile, and I thought if I made that face he would smile before I realized that he wasn't looking at me!

 The Curd men!

David wouldn't look at the camera for anything! 

 It was SO sweet to watch my crazy brother-in-law get married to his new, sweet wife Rebecca! Perry is a great guy and now he's a great husband and father! I got a new sister-in-law and nephew in one weekend! How exciting! The wedding was at Lockland Baptist Church in East Nashville. It was beautiful and the bride looked beautiful! There was a photo booth, too, which was fun! David and I got in, Cal refused, but it was very hard to get funny pics with a baby. I guess if you count the fact that the baby never, not once, looked at the camera then they might be funny! 

 

So these are a bit out of order! But this is Easter Sunday! We had a blast letting David open up Easter presents! He was quite a bit more fun at Easter time than he was at Christmas time (seeing as he was only three months old at Christmas). God was so good and he blessed our Sunday!