February Recipe of the Month: Chicken Enchiladas

Our family's recipe for February is one of our all-time favorites:  chicken enchiladas.  I attained this recipe in a wedding gift from from my friend (and former high school physics teacher) Janet Richardson: she gave me  a recipe box of full of her favorite recipes.  We make it several times a month.  Enjoy!

1 tbsp. unsalted butter

1 small onion, diced

1-2 large cans of chicken 

(we use 2, but if you're serving less people you may want to use 1)

1 cup of picante or salsa

3 oz. cream cheese

1 tsp. cumin

1 cup of cheddar cheese, grated

1/4 cup of gren onions, diced

8 large tortillas or 12 small tortillas

If you missed Christopher's instructions, here's a copy:

Cook butter and onion in a pan until tender.  Add chicken, 3/4 cup picante, cream cheese, and cumin.  Remove pan from heat.  Add 1/2 cup of cheddar cheese to the mixture.  Divide chicken mixture into tortillas.  Fold flaps together.  Top with remaining cheddra, remaining picante, and green onions.  Bake at 350 for 15 minutes. (Christopher accidentally said 40 minutes on the video.)

-Kara

Happy Birthday Mom!

On the 15th of February, I was blessed to be in West Virginia to celebrate a very special birthday of my beautiful, intelligent, kind, Godly, faithful, stylish, talented, generous, fun, and all-around amazing mom.  Mom is my favorite girlfriend, and we have such great fun together!  Of all the many things she has taught me through the years, the greatest has to be how to be a good mother.  I LOVE YOU, MOM, and if I turn-out just like you I will have considered myself a tremendous success in life!!!

 For Mom's birthday I made a scrapbook of birthday wishes from some of her favorite people.  I think she liked it...

As a special surprise, two of her favorite writer/commentators from FoxNews wished Mom a happy birthday... Bill O'Reilly sent her a postcard and Charles Krauthammer sent her an autographed book!

A birthday is just the first day of another 365-day journey around the sun.  Enjoy the trip.

-Author Unknown

I intend to live forever.  So far, so good.

-Steven Wright

The Cold Never Bothered Me Anyway...

While the kids and I were in West Virginia celebrating Mom's birthday last week, we got hit by a surprise snowstorm which brought about 11" of snow.  What was amazing was that as of 36 hours before the snow, the forecast had been "clear and sunny."  Ha!  What was supposed to be a 3-day trip turned into a 6-day snow-in.

I have always been one who loves a good snow.  

I must admit that after transplanting to the South,  I've missed winter.  Granted, it's scary to drive in snow and ice.  And pipes freeze.  And people get cabin fever.  But I love how quiet it gets outside as snow falls, I love the thrill of boots crunching in a freshly-fallen drift, and I LOVE breaking-out my camera and taking pictures in the wintertime.   And I have to ask you:  If we don't have winter, then can we truly enjoy springtime???  I THINK NOT!

Above is a picture of Mom and Dad's driveway after about 8" of snow had fallen.  And somewhere in the picture below was their street!  My parents live at the top of a steep hill that gets treacherous in the winter, and one is at the mercy of the city's road-clearing crew during storms such as this.  My little mini van is comfy and roomy to travel in and she gets great gas mileage...but she is not great on a snowy hill.  So she was parked from Friday evening when I arrived until Thursday morning when I left.

 Below, me and my mom.  :)

 Christopher learned the manly art of shoveling snow during this storm.

 My dad, on the other hand, relied on his leaf blower to clear the path.  This particular snow was very light and dry and its type is often referred to as "ski snow" because it's similar to what ski resorts make.  The bad part is that you can't build snowmen or make snowballs with "ski snow."  But the perk is that there is little concern over downed power lines and it's easy to clear.

 I love photographing wildlife during winter snows, such as these birds at Mom and Dad's feeder.  This HUGE birdfeeder has to be refilled once a day because so many birds eat from it all the time.  The birds that come are all different varieties and colors.  It's quite beautiful and relaxing to watch!

 And the other wildlife that was enjoyable to watch was this squirrel.  Mom was on the computer when this little guy parked himself on her deck right outside the window.  He just sat there.  And watched her.  And watched her.  Until Mom and I figured-out that he was waiting for her to bring him something to eat.  Which she did.  A hamburger bun.  This type of thing apparently happens quite often with my mom, whom Tim and I have nicknamed "The Deer/Bird/Squirrel Whisperer."

But Mom and Dad's dog, Zoe, who was shorter than the snow, would NOT be categorized as "wildlife."  Zoe is much happier in the recliner than in the elements.  The picture below illustrates why shih-tzus don't run the Iditarod...

Winter is the king of showmen,
Turning tree stumps into snowmen
And houses into birthday cakes
And spreading sugar over lakes.
Smooth and clean and frosty white,
The world looks good enough to bite.
That's the season to be young,
Catching snowflakes on your tongue.
Snow is snowy when it's snowing,
I'm sorry it's slushy when it's going.
-Ogden Nash

You can't get too much winter in the winter.

-Robert Frost

Happy Birthday Tim!

 We had a wonderful time on Friday evening celebrating Tim's 42nd birthday...  

The kids could never ask for a better dad, and I could never ask for

a better husband!

 "Marsh at Sunset" by Christopher, age 12.  

16x20 oil on canvas.
Teacher:  Melody Panneton of Melody's Art World - Jacksonville, NC.

100th Day of School

The kids and I are celebrating our 100th Day of School today!  

This year the four of us have learned plenty of lessons in math, history, reading, art, music, science, English, Bible, and Greek.  But our greatest lesson is that 

the Lord has mercifully taught us

RESILIENCE. 

Thank you, Lord.  Lesson well learned.

When I spent those years in college dreaming of and studying to become a teacher, I never imagined that God had such wonderful plans for me!  What a joy it is to go to work as my children's teacher every day...

-Kara

The Duke Museum of Basketball...and Some Other Unimportant Basketball Museum

 As a treat for my guys, I planned a visit to the Duke Basketball Museum on Friday.  Whether you're a Duke fan or not (and there's a good chance you're not, because for some reason there are a lot of Duke Basketball haters out there), you'd really enjoy a stroll through this museum at Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham.

Anybody who was alive and watching sports in 1992 has to remember this thing called "the shot."  There's a display about "the shot," which is consistently ranked as one of the thrilling moments in basketball history.  (I don't know if they have a display of "the shot" at the UK Basketball Museum, but probably not...)

 Below, the guys try to replicate "the shot."

 It was very cool to be at the museum the Friday before Coach K plays for his 1,000th win in Madison Square Gardens on Sunday....

Below: It's goofy, I know, but I'm a sucker for detail.  Ha!

The most shocking thing I saw at Duke Friday was K-ville (I'm not EVEN going to try to spell that!), which is the area outside Cameron Indoor Stadium where students are camping-out for 6 WEEKS to get tickets to the Duke-UNC game.   The game isn't even until February 18th, but here's a picture of those students out in the freezing cold rain.  There's a reason they're called "Cameron Crazies!"

There was actually a sign in the museum that details the very specific rules for K-Ville, including how many students can stay in a tent, how many students must be at the tent at any given time, and the exclusions about when your tents can be vacated (under 25 degrees or in 2" or more of snow).

Ok.  I'm not a big basketball fan, but I have to admit I really had a great time!  Anna, however...not so much.  If Anna had to see one more basketball trophy, basketball picture, or just plain basketball...I think she was going to lose her little girl mind!  :)

Cameron Indoor Stadium looks pretty big on ESPN, but in reality it is TINY!  In person, it doesn't look much bigger than a high school gym.

Also surprising to me was that when we popped into the court to take a few pictures, there was a recreational game in progress.  Who would have thought that the #5 basketball team in the country would allow faculty/students to use the court to play a pick-up game - right in the middle of basketball season?

And oh yes.  That "other" basketball museum.  Tim, John, and Christopher aren't UNC fans; but you just can't live in Basketball Country without ever visiting the Carolina Basketball Museum at UNC Chapel Hill.  So we stopped by there, too.  You can find the Carolina Basketball Museum right beside the Dean Dome.

And although they went, my guys want to make sure you know that they DID NOT like the Carolina Basketball Museum.  So there.