mm-mmm goodness

I made this chicken enchilada dish last night for a gathering of some girlfriends I had last night. The recipe comes from one of the nicest ladies at our church, Esther. She brought this meal to us while Gary was recovering from his stroke. She didn't even know who we were, she just felt compelled to bring us a meal. After talking with her a bit, it turns out that she was friends with G's grandma...I know, small world, huh?

Her dish was so delicious, I asked for her recipe. She chuckled to herself while giving me a sly grin and said that her recipe has a secret ingredient in it and that I would never guess what it is. She then made me guess a few times and I was wrong on every attempt. Do you see what her secret ingredient is? Kind of makes sense that it would be in there.

chicken enchiladas
(okay, this picture is what was left over after everyone dug in....I know it doesn't look all that appetizing, but trust me - it's chock full of yummy goodness!)

INGREDIENTS

1 can Cream of Chicken soup
1 TBSP cocoa
½ cup water
1 bottle (6 oz) mild green chili salsa
¾ cup finely chopped celery
½ teaspoon ground cumin
2 cups shredded cooked chicken
1 ½ cups shredded Mexican-style cheese
1 ¼ cups thawed frozen corn
1 can (4 ounces) chopped green chilies
12 corn tortillas

TOPPINGS
2 cups shredded lettuce
1 cup diced tomato
½ cup diced red onion
8 oz. Sour cream

DIRECTIONS
In one bowl, mix: soup, cocoa, and water. Stir in, mild green chili salsa, celery, and cumin.

In a 2nd larger bowl, combine: chicken, cheese, corn, and green chilies.

Combine 3/4th the bowl of sauce and the bowl of chicken mixture, reserving the remaining 1/4th of sauce to pour over the top.

Working with 1 tortilla at a time, spoon 1/3 cup chicken mixture down center; roll up and place seam side down in 13x9 baking dish coated in non-stick spray. Pour remaining sauce over top; sprinkle with any remaining cheese. Cover dish with non-stick foil. Bake 30 minutes in a 350 degree oven, uncover and bake 20 minutes longer, or until sauce bubbles around edges and cheese has melted.

To serve: sprinkle with some of the lettuce, tomato, onion, and dollop of sour cream
Also nice to serve with: refried beans (one 16 oz can heated in oven) and cooked rice.

Enjoy!

Quote of the night from my soon to be 15 year old niece and Rachel Ray wanna be: "Oh Aunt Val, you MUST give me this recipe". She cracks me up!

game on

Family game nights always seem to heat up in the summertime. More family. More games. More challenges to see who is going to be named champion. Not that we have any kind of competitiveness in our family or anything but bragging rights are everything 'round here. Pass by our house on the weekend and you might hear, "Oh yeah, it's ON now" accompanied by a lot of screaming and/or cheering. Don't worry, it's all rated PG. Okay, maybe it's more like PG-13.

What's that?? I thought I heard someone challenge me for a game of Wii bowling. All I can say is, "bring it!".

Can you identify some of the games we were playing? There are 5 distinct games being played within all of that silliness.

family reunion

Last weekend was our family reunion on my mom's side. In addition to the aunts and uncles and cousins, some 2nd cousins and a great uncle were present and accounted for, as well as my soon-to-be aunt (Jo from NC). OMG, and the FOOD...oh yum!! We've got some talented cooks in our family, that's for sure! My Uncle Mike and Aunt Rose graciously volunteered to host the event at their house...which worked out fabulously...lots of space to run around and do different activities.

Like visiting and catching up with everyone...


Playing cornhole (Uncle Danny and Uncle Tim, a.k.a. Colonel Sanders)...
Golf/chipping practice (Uncle David {all the way from NC!}, Uncle Mike, Great Uncle John, and Gary)...
Walking around and visiting (cousin Mallory and her mom, Aunt Suzi)...

Gabfest (2nd cousin Colleen, Mom, Michael, G.U. John, and 2nd cousin Kristie)...


Cooling off in the pool (soon-to-be new cousins Julia and Bugga, and cousin Maggie)...

More coolin' off with Michael and Mom in the mix...

We had to leave right when the big family pics were being taken, so I don't have any pics of that...boo-hoo! I also didn't get any shots of Uncle Bill and Aunt Donna, cousin Tyler, 2nd cousin Kathy and her family, Aunt Rose, cousin William, and (almost) Aunt Jo - oy vey!! We were so pressed for time to get Michael to his final baseball game of the season and the awards presentation after the game...15 minutes to make it from Westerville to Dublin...NP with Gary driving! Safely, of course. :)

The gathering was such a good time, G.U. John requested that we all get together again as one big extended family. Aunt Rose thought we could shoot for Labor Day next year and make it a tradition. Sounds good to me!

the beach

Michael loves the beach. We've been doing the sand and water on our deck most of the summer, but I thought he might enjoy going to a real beach. Today was the perfect day to head out to Alum Creek State Park and hang out at the beach.
We noticed that when he's happy or excited, he'll sometimes roll his tongue (above).
The little hambone had quite a time playing in the sand, splashing around, riding on my back while I jumped up and down in the water. We only had one little challenge and that was when a little boy came over to Michael and asked him if he was a monkey (what the heck??) and then proceeded to scream and splash in front of him. Thankfully, he didn't stay near us too long and Michael was able to recover and enjoy himself some more before we left.

more rainbows

I usually see a few rainbows each year at our house. Here's the first one of the season that I caught (aside from the Niagara Falls rainbows).

4th of July....Canadian style

Gary and I took a little trip to Niagara Falls over July 4th, alone. We thought it would be good to get away (alone) and it came with a bonus photo op for me. Thanks to our moms who watched our kids while we were out playing, alone.

Here are some of the pics from our trip. View from Skylon Tower of the American and Canadian Falls.

The weather was a perfect 76 degrees and mostly sunny...which, combined with the mist of the falls, made some cool rainbows.

So, I'm leaning over the edge of this wall taking a picture of the daisies above and Gary says, look down.....yikes, little black snakes slithering around!

The brink of the falls...Canadian Horseshoe Falls. We also did the "Journey Behind the Falls" on the Canadian side, which was pretty neat and very misty.
We managed to get a pretty good spot for the fireworks. Of course, after seeing the snakes, this girl wasn't going to be sitting in the grass. So I thought we had great seats on a concrete wall next to a walking path. Which turned out to be a good thing because it got so crowded I would not have been able to see over everyone.

We could see most of Buffalo's fireworks and they were great! We wished we would've been at their fireworks instead! They lasted a good 30 minutes or so.
The Niagara fireworks, weren't bad. They just didn't last as long (maybe 10 minutes) nor did they have a grand finale. M-ville's are better. Turns out, Canada just isn't into July 4th and Independence Day like us Americans are... go figure!!

All in all, it was a very nice getaway. We even stopped at a winery on the way home and did some tasting and purchasing...for G's mom's favorite vino...which was a real chore tasting all the different wines. She's so lucky she has us to do this awful favor for her. :)

I hope you had a nice 4th too. Thanks to all the servicemen and women and veterans that make July 4th, our Independence Day, so meaningful.

Does anyone have any special 4th of July traditions or did anyone do anything different this year?

fork in the road

Let me preface this post by saying that I haven't NOT worked since I was 15....but here's what I am working on this week.



Don't worry though, I think I hear opportunity knocking. I just have to open the right door. :)