It's a very hearty soup

Batman and the girls aren't big soup eaters, so I don't make it very often. But today Houston had it's first snow day of the year (of the past five years, actually) and I figured soup would be a perfect dinner for such a gray and snowy day.

I've had this recipe for a while but had never made it before. I made a few changes (don't I always? that's why my baked goods never turn out) and it was fantastic--Special had thirds, and I don't think that has EVER happened for any meal. If you try it, let me know what you think.

Mexican Holiday Soup

1 cup minced onion
2 tsp olive oil
1 Tbsp chili powder
3-4 cloves fresh garlic, minced
3 cups chicken broth
1 cup water
1/2 tsp oregano
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 can diced tomatoes
2-3 cups cooked, shredded chicken*

*I used boneless, skinless thighs that I'd seasoned with salt, pepper and a little Cajun seasoning while cooking.

Saute the onion in oil until tender; add chili powder and garlic. Add remaining soup ingredients and simmer for 20-30 minutes.

Dumplings:
2/3 cup masa harina or cornmeal (I used the masa harina; it's much finer than cornmeal)
1/4 tsp salt
6 Tbsp hot water
2 tsp oil
1 tsp lime juice

Combine dumpling ingredients; dough will be soft and slightly dry. Roll 1 tsp into a ball--mash it a little with your hands so it sticks together--and add to soup. Repeat with remaining dough. This sounded time-consuming, but it only took two or three minutes.

Simmer for 3 - 5 minutes, until dumplings float. Add a little lime juice to the soup and serve as-is or with a little cheese on top, and maybe some fresh cilantro if you like cilantro, which I do NOT.

The original recipe called for a can of drained garbanzo beans instead of chicken, and half as many dumplings. We don't like garbanzo beans, and we all wanted more dumplings, so I doubled the measurements here.

I wouldn't even know where to begin

Well, the last time I tried to upload pictures here, my computer crashed. Two repairs, one new computer, and two birthdays later, I'm ready to try this blog thing again.

First, pictures of Number One's eleventh birthday:

new Penguin shirt!

Her party was at Pizza Fusion, our favorite pizza place, so I made the cake to look like a pizza. You do not want to know how much red food coloring I had to use.

Most of her presents were from Justice, her favorite store. After she opened presents, the girls got to decorate their own "pizzas"--big sugar cookies in small pizza boxes.

Then Special turned eight:

GrandBob offered to buy her dinner anywhere she wanted. She chose Jason's Deli. As you can see here, she was wild about her new Barbie head! We had another family dinner on her actual birthday at her other choice, Chick-Fil-A, and she had a sleepover party that weekend with two friends.

Halloween: zombie cheerleader and "Pajama Girl"
(her superpower: making a lame costume awesome)

And to round it out, here's a shot of Sweet Tea and her best playmate:

You gotta have faith

Last night Special was getting herself some ice cream for dessert. The carton was nearly empty, and as she scraped out the last bits she asked me, "You remember Jesus giving out the fish and bread?" (That, by the way, is her all-time favorite Bible story).

I said yes, I remembered. She said, "I hope God will do the same thing now and make some more ice cream in here." And then she commenced to praying. "Please, PLEASE, give me some more ice cream!"

Sadly, the ice cream did not multiply. "But wouldn't that have been funny?" she asked. I guess it never hurts to ask.

School's Out/Back to School

I think I've said the word "school" about a thousand times in the past week. I finally finished my MBA last Wednesday (perhaps you heard the shouting?), and Batman and the girls started back to school today, so between final projects and exams and supply-shopping and backpack-packing, it's been a school-focused week.

Six years ago Batman and I took Number One to her first day of kindergarten and then had to pull over to the side of the road because we were both sobbing too hard to drive. Today she started middle school, and although it wasn't quite as damp a morning, I still felt quivery inside.

Both girls had a great day, were thrilled to see their friends again, and came home so excited about the new year. I'm happy that I'll be able to focus on them a little more now that I have some "free" time.

But you just want to see pictures, don't you? Here you go, the first day of sixth and second grade:

Vacation, all I ever wanted

I really should be working, but it is Friday after all, and I've had two doughnuts (so far) plus an oatmeal breakfast cookie and two cups of tea, and my eyes no longer focus in the same direction. So it occured to me that I never posted vacation pictures here, and since this is supposed to be my family scrapbook because I'm so awful at making actual scrapbooks I needed to fix that immediately.

We spent a week in Flagstaff, Arizona, which was a nice little town and ended up being a great spot for day trips. The first full day we went to the Grand Canyon, which was huge and amazing and more than we could take in. On other days we went to Sedona (beautiful), we saw Indian ruins, and we hung out at the hotel pool, but the best day by far was the day we rented a boat and went out on Lake Powell. It was indescribably beautiful, and we would love more than anything to rent a houseboat and go back for a week. All together, it was the best vacation we've ever taken.

These pictures are from Batman's phone, and here is the link to my web album:

We almost named her Soda

Last week, the girls spent eight days at "Camp Pop & Baba." On the weekend Batman, GrandBob and I picked up a small little bit of fluff in Fort Worth and then drove to Texarkana to get the girls and introduce them to Sweet Tea (named thusly because who doesn't love sweet tea?!). She is good at napping, is learning to go outside very well, and gets so excited to see each of us that we all feel we're her favorite. (But I know that she really likes me best.)

I think I've made a huge mistake

Well, it wasn't that huge, but it was funny. Last night I made "Western Chicken", one of our favorite dishes. I pan-fried some chicken tenders, then took them out and made a sauce with sauteed onions, chicken broth, red wine vinegar and black pepper. I thought the broth looked a little cloudy but it had been in the fridge for a couple of weeks and I thought maybe I'd not shaken the carton very well. While we were eating, Batman said the sauce tasted awfully sweet, and I agreed but said maybe I'd not added enough vinegar.

When I was putting everything away after dinner, I decided to throw out the chicken broth, thinking maybe it was past it's prime. That's when I realized that it wasn't chicken broth. It was rice milk--VANILLA rice milk. No wonder it tasted sweet!

I'm making hot dogs, fries and frozen corn tonight--here's hoping I don't cook up that bag of Halloween candy from the freezer instead.