White Chili

 

This is a tasty chili that will feed a crowd. Plan ahead because you need to soak the beans overnight. I first posted this recipe in early 2012 and you can find the original post here. This recipe originates from the Junior League of Seattle.

Ingredients:

1 pound Great Northern white beans, rinsed and picked over
2 pounds chicken breasts (2 large half breasts are about 2 pounds)
1 Tablespoon Vegetable Oil
2 cups onions, chopped
4 medium garlic cloves, minced
2 – 4oz. cans chopped mild green chiles
2 tbsp. chili powder
1-1/2 tsp. each of  cumin, and dried oregano leaves
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. cayenne
salt and pepper to taste
8 cups chicken stock
3 cups Monterey Jack cheese shredded and divided
sour cream
salsa
fresh cilantro leaves, chopped

* Place beans in a large, heavy pot. Add enough cold water to cover by at least 3 inches. Cover and soak overnight.

*Spread a little butter on the skin of each half breast of chicken and season it. Place on shallow pan and roast in 375 degree oven till cooked through. Let cool. Remove skin and bones and cut chicken into cubes.

* Drain beans into large colander. Heat oil in same pot. Add onions and saute over medium-low heat until translucent, about 10 minutes. Stir in garlic, green chiles, cumin, oregano and cayenne. Saute 2 minutes. Add beans and stock. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until beans are very tender, stirring occasionally, about 3 to 4 hours. Add additional water if necessary. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. When you are ready to finish the chili cover and bring to a simmer before continuing.) Add chicken and 1 cup of cheese. Stir until cheese melts. Ladle chili into bowls. Serve with remaining cheese, sour cream, salsa and cilantro leaves to sprinkle on top. Of course it’s up to you which of these additional ingredients you add to your chili.

We also like to serve this with some warm cornbread.

Serves twelve to fourteen…

Dublin Day Two ~Tour Part Two

Our second stop on Saturday September 16th was Dunluce Castle on the Coast of Northern Ireland at the North Atlantic Ocean. We were able to see Scotland!

The sun came out for our stops here and at the Giant’s Causeway. We gave thanks to the LORD for this smile of sunshine on our day!

Wonderful time spent here and onward to lunch and then the Giant’s Causeway.

At our lunch spot we were last to order our lunch (back of the bus) but we had enough time to enjoy it. This Cafe was fine tuned to serve a crowd. We had a very short hop to get to The Giant’s Causeway which will be my next post.

Truth for Today #72

Thursday October 5th

On Thursdays my posts will include verses that stood out in my readings from the Bible during the week. One, two, three or maybe more. If you have a verse/verses that you read during the week and would like to share, leave it/them in the comments and I will add it/them to the post. Let’s dig deep in God’s Truth again this year!

Ephesians 5:1-5

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

From Vera:

“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”
‭‭Colossians‬ ‭3‬:‭1‬-‭4‬ ‭ESV‬‬

From Karen:

Romans 8:28
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

We’re Still Lagging Hodgepodge

Jet Lag ~ Jet lag is caused by a mismatch between a person’s normal daily rhythms and a new time zone. It is a temporary sleep problem that usually occurs when you travel across more than three time zones but can affect anyone who travels across multiple time zones. Jet lag can affect your mood, your ability to concentrate, and your physical and mental performance.

It’s time again for Wednesday Hodgepodge. Thank you, Joyce From This Side of the Pond for the questions!

1. What’s something that scares you? 

Snakes, wild animals and stupid drivers.

2. Do you care where the food you eat comes from? To what degree? 

I prefer local food especially when it comes to produce and fresh fruit. I want meat from U.S. ranchers. I prefer food canned and bottled and packaged that comes from the USA or Canada. Mexico is fine for certain products that we enjoy, too. I am not obsessive about it. I pray over the food I eat and ask God to protect me from evil. 🙂

3. What’s something you wish you’d spent more time doing when you were younger? 

Memorizing more Bible Verses while my brain was sharp!

4. Let’s play autumn this or that….

Pumpkin spice or apple cider? Fresh pressed Apple Cider, please.

Corn maze or haunted house? Hands down…Corn Maze. We have an amazing Corn Maze in our town that we try to conquer every year.

Horror film or Hallmark movie? Hallmark Movie that is part of the Murder Mystery side of things.

Blanket or sweatshirt? Out and about, a sweatshirt. Inside on the couch, a blanket.

Watch football or watch the World Series? College Football but really and truly Futbol (Soccer) and especially English Premier League games and the Seattle Sounders MLS are my favorite games to watch.

Foliage-red, yellow or orange? This is hard but since I have to pick I’ll go with orange.

5. This time last year where were you and what were you doing? 

We were at the Marcus Cider Fest last year at this time and this Saturday we will be at the Marcus Cider Fest again. Our kids entered their  vintage Ford Thunderbird in the car show part of the Fest. There is a parade and booths and fresh apple goodies galore including fresh pressed apple cider.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

We are still recovering from Jet Lag from our trip to Dublin and England. We arrived home on September 27th. Jet Lag is real and especially for us older folk. We will live with the lag since we love traveling to that part of the world. We finally were able to hug our grands after three whole weeks apart. Our Colville kids came for lunch on Tuesday (yesterday). It was so good to have a meal with them and spend a couple hours with them. The Grands are growing so fast!

It will be nice to come around and see what all ye Hodgepodgers have been up to.

Dublin Day Two ~ Tour Part One

Up while it was still dark to get ready for our all day Paddywagon Tour to Dark Hedges, Dunluce Castle, Giant’s Causeway and Belfast. We were the second pick up spot at 7:20 am, Saturday the 16th of September. That meant we ended up in the back of the bus with 50 of our one day ‘friends’ in front of us. Looking a little blurry in that selfie I took.

This day will have to be split up according to our stops or else I’d have way too many photos. I’m sorry to have to mention that we were not enamored by our bus driver and the information he chose to dwell on and drone on during our trip. We did choose joy at each of our stops! We were last off at each stop which meant we had a few less minutes at each of our stops. We were last back to the bus on most of our stops because of that…

There was a stop about an hour into our trip at a motorway stop with many choices for food, drinks and other conveniences.

A while after our convenience stop, we pulled into a parking lot for cars and buses and were directed to the path to Dark Hedges. There were minimal services here. We were beginning to see the chance for some blue skies ahead.

Stop #1 ~ The Dark Hedges

None of the four of us are fans of Game of Thrones but we were happy to see this row of beech trees.

The Dark Hedges is an avenue of beech trees along Bregagh Road between Armoy and Stranocum in County Antrim, Northern Ireland.

 

 

Our daughter-in-love has an eye for photography and putting it all together in a collage. I’ll be sharing many of her photos and collages, too.

We were only at this stop for 20 minutes. We beelined it to the restrooms first and onward to the Hedges. The lines for the conveniences could take a while so we tried to be quick on the draw when we could.

Our next stop would be Dunluce Castle and it was my favorite of the stops on this day.

Thank you for following along.

Back to the present…

We are already enjoying Fall colors out our windows here at our country bungalow. How about you?

Dublin ~ Day One

This will be the start of a several post travelogue of our time in Dublin, Northern Ireland and England. There will be many photos to accompany the many posts. You have had your fair warning, dear readers.

The six of us parked and shuttled to the Seattle Tacoma Airport for our check-in and wait for our flight on Aer Lingus to Dublin on Thursday evening September 14th. The security line was especially long but we were at our gate with time to spare.

After arriving in Dublin on Friday September 15th, these two split off from us and headed to the train station that would take them to Galway for the start of their Wild West and North Ireland 6 day tour.

The other four of us waited in the taxi queue for our ride into Dublin to our hotel for 3 nights. Edward, our taxi driver, shared a lot of things with us and suggested we try The Celt for a meal before we turned in for the night.

The main section of the Pub was full and hopping but there was room in the back room for us.

Slainte! Our first Guinness in the land of Guinness.

We all enjoyed our meal choices, too.

From the The Celt we made our way to O’Connell street and walked down to the bridge to view the river. We snapped a few photos of our first views in Dublin.

 Sir John Gray (1815-75),  honours his efforts to bring a water supply to Dublin in 1868. 

O’Connell Monument

Freestanding commemorative bronze monument, commissioned by Dublin Corporation, conceived 1866 by John Henry Foley and completed 1883 by Thomas Brock. Located at southern entrance to O’Connell Street comprising numerous bronze figures on large granite plinth surmounted by bronze figure of Daniel O’Connell (1775-1847). Tall bronze cloaked figure of O’Connell standing on tall cylindrical pedestal, encircled below by bronze frieze of people of Ireland in high-relief, having nearly thirty figures symbolizing church, professions, arts, trades and peasantry. Central figure of Erin trampling upon chains, points upwards and holds 1829 Act of Catholic Emancipation in her left hand. Larger limestone-clad drum sits on square granite base, at angles of which are seated four winged victories, grandly scaled bronze figures representing Patriotism, Courage, Eloquence and Fidelity. Evidence of bullet holes on arms and breasts of two victories, legacy of unrest in 1916-22.

The River Liffey with the Ha’penny bridge beyond, a landmark 1800’s pedestrian bridge.

The O’Connell Bridge, historic stone and granite road bridge.

Before we turned back to our hotel we made a final stop at Brannigan’s. Another pub that was full to the brim with room for us upstairs! It was a Friday and raining when we arrived to Dublin so I’m assuming more folk were seeking shelter in a cozy pub.

Back to our hotel for hopefully some good sleep before our 7:20am start to our all day tour on Saturday.

While we were all away we enjoyed updates from our Colville kids and Grands. Miss Addy lost another tooth so is in the right position to be singing “All I want for Christmas are my two front teeth!”

Grander Than Ocean’s Story ~ Hymn

Grander Than Ocean’s Story

Grander than ocean’s story,
Or songs of forest trees;
Purer than breath of morning,
Or evening’s gentle breeze;
Clearer than mountain echoes
Ring out from peaks above,
Rolls on the glorious anthem
Of God’s eternal love.

Dearer than any friendship
Our truest comrades show;
Stronger than all the yearning
A mother’s heart may know;
Deeper than earth’s foundations,
And far above all thought;
Broader than Heav’n’s high arches—
The love that Christ has brought.

Richer than all earth’s treasures,
The wealth my soul receives;
Brighter than royal jewels,
The crown that Jesus gives;
Wondrous the condescension,
And grace beyond degree!
I would be ever singing
The love of Christ to me.

Words: William F. Sherwin, 1872.

Iced Ricotta Cookies

These cookies are soft and cake like. You could choose different colored sprinkles for any holiday you might be celebrating. They would make a real nice Christmas cookie with red and green sprinkles. They are good without frosting, too.

Ingredients:
1/2 lb. butter
2 c. sugar
15 oz. or 1lb. Ricotta Cheese
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
Zest of one orange
4 1/2 c. flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda

Method:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cream butter.
Add sugar and continue creaming.
Add eggs and Ricotta and vanilla and orange zest; beat well.
Sift together flour, baking powder and baking soda, salt.
Add to batter and mix well.
Drop the dough by tablespoon on ungreased baking sheet. (use a cookie dough scoop for easy scooping and dropping of dough) (dough will be very sticky)
Bake in a 350 degree oven about 10 minutes or until edges are lightly browned.
Cool.
Yields 6 dozen cookies.

FROSTING:
2 c. confectionery sugar
1/4 c. butter
3 tbsp. fresh orange juice (use the orange that was zested)
Candy Sprinkles
Combine the first three ingredients and mix well.
Frost top of cookies then dust with sprinkles.
This amount of frosting was enough for about 4 dozen cookies.
Double the frosting recipe if you plan to frost all the cookies.

Tomato Rice Soup

My husband has been making this soup longer than I’ve known him. That’s a lot of years! It’s our go to soup for a comforting meal for travelers.

Tomato Rice Soup

1 medium onion chopped
5 cloves garlic minced
olive oil
1- 28 oz. can of petite diced tomatoes
6 cups chicken broth
1- 6 oz. can of tomato paste
4-5 small bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
small pinch of saffron
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1/4 teaspoon fennel seeds crushed in mortar with pestle
1/2 cup uncooked rice
salt and pepper to taste

Heat olive oil in heavy bottomed pot or cast iron Dutch oven and add chopped onion. Cook until almost translucent and add garlic. Cook the onion and garlic for a minute or two longer and then add the diced tomatoes. Cook till bubbly. Add broth and tomato paste. Add all the bay leaves and spices. When the soup comes to a boil add the rice and return to boil. Lower heat and allow to simmer partially covered until rice is cooked. Remove bay leaves before serving.

Serve with a good loaf of bread.

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety Jig!

Our outbound flight from Seattle to Dublin on Aer Lingus on September 14th at 6:50 PM arriving in Dublin on Friday September 15th at 11:45 AM. We are sandwiched in our seats by our youngest and our oldest with their wonderful spouses!

Our homebound flight from Dublin to Seattle on Tuesday September 26th at 3:10 PM arriving in Seattle on the same day at 5:05 PM.

We went through customs in Dublin which made things so easy when we arrived in Seattle. We picked up our luggage and shuttled to our cars and got on our familiar roads driving on the comfortable side of road for us. Our vehicle made it’s way to a familiar Mexican restaurant for a comfort meal before arriving at our son’s home for the night. Our daughter and hubby headed straight home to be reunited with their cats!

We basked in the memories of a most wonderfully blessed trip with so many ‘wow’ moments to remember and share. We thank our God for His special care over all of us every day and for now especially the days we enjoyed in Ireland and England.

On Wednesday morning still working on Dublin time Dear and I packed up our vehicle and started on our 5+ hour journey over the mountains and home again home again jiggety jig. When we arrived in Spokane (an hour and a half south from our home) we did our usual ‘petrol’ stop at Costco ($4.55 per gallon not liters). A quick stop in the warehouse store for a few items and on the road again reaching home at 1 pm. Our Colville kids prepared a welcome home meal for us that waited for us upon our arrival. They made Greg’s famous Tomato Rice Soup and Jamie baked an amazing fresh loaf of bread to accompany the soup. Perfect for us to enjoy after our long journey. Thank you to all our kids who made this trip special from beginning to end.

Funny note: I sent the photo of me sitting and enjoying my soup and bread to our kids and our granddaughter asked why we were eating on the couch! Oops, I’ve got a lot of explaining to do. Our Grands are being raised proper.

Now that we are home I’m looking forward to those special hugs from our Grands…soon!!

I’ll need a few days to catch up with Pacific Coast time before I can make my rounds to visit. Happy Autumn to all of you!