So I did it!

I submitted Alex's photo to the Great American Photo Contest! So please, please, please!! Vote for my cute baby boy!

Fun Foto Friday!

 

I was having fun in my kitchen and I'm going to post a blog about this later, but it's about which utensil to use to make omelets. 

A taste of home (New Mexico home!)

New Mexico is not the most well known state. But if you're from the Southwest and are familiar with Mexican cuisine, you KNOW about green chile. And the rule of thumb is, if it isn't from Hatch, it's not any good. Hatch is a small town in the southern part of New Mexico and every year, the town holds an annual chile festival. People from ALL over come and get their roasting on to get some good chile. And you're not limited. There are reds, greens and about all in between. When we lived in Albuquerque, there was a chile roaster on about every corner and just the smell made your mouth water. Every year, my mom goes down to Hatch and gets at least three 10 lb bags of green chile. They will roast them for you and then my mom, James and I would go through the task of peeling the chiles. It was marvelous and hot! Mom would freeze a few bags for us and we'd keep it in our freezer, using some here or there. Being Asian, we'd sometimes eat green chile, rice and seaweed. Oh it's so good! New Mexico puts green chile on everything, you name it and they ask "Red or green?" I always ALWAYS say "Christmas chile" because I want both! And I'm greedy! Well, today, I missed New Mexico so much that I busted out the green chile.

Tonight I made turkey green chile enchiladas! They were quite delicious and it was great to have a taste of home! I got the recipe from the Hatch Green Chile note page from Facebook. All I did was change it to ground turkey and it was still quite yummy! Here is the recipe:

Turkey Green Chile Enchiladas

Ingredients
1 pound roasted skin-on green New Mexico chiles
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
5 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth, divided
10 (7- to 8-in.) corn tortillas
1/2 lb of ground turkey, cooked
2 cups coarsely shredded cheddar or jack cheese, divided
Sour cream
Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 400°. Peel, stem, seed, and chop chiles.

2. Heat oil and butter in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add chiles, salt, and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, 3 minutes. Add 1 cup chicken broth and simmer until reduced by one-third, about 10 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, prepare tortillas: In a small frying pan, bring remaining 2 cups chicken broth to a gentle simmer. Working one at a time, very briefly dip tortillas into broth to barely soften. Transfer each tortilla to a large baking sheet (you may need 2 or 3 sheets). Do not overlap or tortillas will stick.

4. Divide 1 1/4 cups cheese equally among tortillas and top each with shredded chicken, dividing evenly. Wrap tortilla around filling and transfer, seam-side down, to a 9- by 13-in. baking dish.

5. Pour chile sauce over enchiladas and top with remaining 3/4 cup cheese. Bake until cheese is bubbling and browned, 15 to 20 minutes. Serve with sour cream.

If you can't smell the goodness from here.. Well, I feel sorry for you!


Oh the green chile goodness!

GOALS!

I have a long list of goals, like finishing my Master's, getting a teaching job, learning how to cake decorate..

But one of my goals that I have to constantly work on right now is my weight loss goal. I know I've mentioned it before, but I recently got inspired so I'm going to stick to my guns! Especially since my and James' birthday is soon and our anniversary is coming up after that and I want to look pretty in pictures and in dresses! Anyway, this is one way of keeping me accountable.

I'll be updating as I go, so let's hope a true transformation will begin!

Interesting read

I am reading the most interesting book about the legacy of divorce. Basically, how divorce affects the children and the future. It's a longitudinal study that has been going on for 25 years. The Unexpected Legacy of Divorce: The 25 Year Landmark Study reads like a novel. Very informative and shocking!

Hoarse baby

I'm concerned about my boy. I don't think he's been crying more than usual, but his bedtimes are getting more and more difficult. As a result, I think he's losing his voice. He doesn't have any cold symptoms or anything indicating that he's sick. So he's just got a hoarse voice. I feel awful. I miss his cooing.. If it doesn't get better in a day or two, I may call the doctor.

Marriage

Don't take this as a bad post. It's just me venting about what I think marriage should be. Believe me, I love my husband and he's doing such a wonderful job. I couldn't ask for a better man. I have a lot of faith in our love and marriage because of our foundation.

My parents have rules since being married and James and I have adapted them as our own. A lot of it comes from observation, and the fact that it helps our marriage. These are a list of our own rules and we're pretty good at following them.

1) Never talk to a member of the opposite sex about marital problems. It's okay to talk to family, that's a given. But I would never find it appropriate to talk to a guy about my problems with James. Just sets up for a bad situation.

2) Never go to bed angry. This is based off the biblical verse to not let the sun set on your fury. And I agree with that. There have been nights where James and I would be up for hours, just talking and trying to resolve whatever is going on. Plus, when you fall asleep angry, you just start your day angry and that's never a good thing.

3) Always sleep in the same bed. This was a huge observation based on divorce parents. As long as you're constantly there with your problem, you have to face it and deal with it. It's always better to deal with it and resolve it than sleep in another room and avoid it.

4) Never storm out during a fight. Walking out is always a bad thing. It usually makes things worse. I found that it just makes James even angrier with me because it gets the public involved.

5) Never fight in public. Stems from the storming off rule, it would be embarrassing for us to fight in public.

6) Don't use the "D" word. The word "divorce" is poison. How can you expect to stay with someone forever if all you say is that you want a divorce?

We're not perfect. We don't follow the rules all the time. But to make sure that there isn't more complications to it, these are our rules. We love each other and that's what a marriage is truly based on.