daily glimpses

Recipe Share: Chipotle Chicken & Rice

I came across this recipe in my latest Everday Food magazine and thought it sounded pretty good. And I love any recipe that gives me the excuse to use my dutch oven (mine is kiwi green). This isn't like Chipotle the restaurant, just used some chipotle peppers in the recipe :) It was good and we really like it....however it is pretty spicy. I think I should have taken the seeds out from the chipotle chiles. I'll try that next time.

 Here's the recipe...

Chipotle Chicken and Rice
served 4 | Prep Time 20 min | Total Time 1 1/4 hour

2 T vegetable oil
8 bonesless skinless chicken thighs (about 2 lbs)
coarse salt and ground pepper
1 medium red onion, thinly sliced lengthwise (I used a yellow onion)
3 garlic cloves coarsely chopped
1/2 tsp cumin
1 canned chipotle chiles in adobo, minced
2 large tomatoes, diced large (I only used one because we're not big tomato fans)
1 cup white rice
lime wedges, for serving
cilantro - chopped for serving (optional)

1. In a large dutch oven oe heavy pot, heat oil over medium high. Season chicken with salt and pepper on both sides with 1 teaspoon salt and 1/8 tsp pepper. Working in batches, brown chicken on both sides about 6 minutes total. Transfer to a plate.

2. Reduce heat to medium. Add onion and saute until soft, about 5 minutes, scraping up any browned bits from bottom of pot (if necessary, add a bit of water to release browned bits.)

3. Add garlic, cumin, and chiles; cook until garlic is soft and fragrant, 2 minutes. Add tomatoes and 1 tsp. of salt and cook until tomatoes begin to break down and release their juices, 3 minutes. Stir in one cup of water and return chicken and any accumulated juices to pot. Cover, reduce to a simmer, and cook for 25 minutes. (see picture below for this step).

4. Remove several pieces of the chicken and stir in rice, making sure it completely submerged in liquid. Replace chicken, cover, and cook until rice is tender and liquid has been absorbed, 25-30 minutes more. Serve with lime wedges and cilantro if desired.

Give it a try :) You spicy dish lovers will really enjoy this dish.

this morning I woke up to...

rain. :) I know some of you are shaking your heads and thinking I am nuts. But really, I do enjoy the rain. I love where I live (Washington state). I love that it rains year round here. I love the sun too, but I enjoy a nice balance. This past month there has been no balance. lol It's been sunny for the past month - with no rain. So I snapped a couple pics because the rain made me happy.

This is how I know I could live in Kauai. :) It is sunny and rainy there every single day. What else can you ask for? :) Well, maybe a macro lens :) haha.

through the years

It all started when Maegan was 4 months old. My aunt had a field of daisies. I love daisies. I loved pictures. So I took my chubby 4 month old out there and tried to take her pictures. Not too easy considering she couldn't sit and Eric really didn't care for pictures of himself sitting in a field of daisies (I don't know why not? lol). but in the end, I got a couple I liked. This being one of them.
(excuse the picture quality on some of these earlier pics, I had to dig through some files to find them and I only had little ones saved, plus they were in the days of film. lol)

The following year, I was window shopping at Baby Gap. They had a beautiful eyelet white dress. I could just picture it on Maegan in that same field of daisies. I bought it. Which for me, spending $30 on a dress wasn't something I would do. We really didn't have the money then to do that. I got lots of pictures of her that year and I felt better about spending that money on that dress. She was walking and totally loved the field of daisies.

In 2004, Andrew arrived in June. We barely made the daisies that year. By the time, I was out and about, the daisy field was already gone but my Grandma still had some daisies in her yard. We picked them and made a little bouquet and put one in her hair and called it good. lol The dress from the previous year still fit!

Then it happened. 2005. I missed a year. No picture with the daisies :( I'm still sad about it. We'd moved to Puyallup that year. I didn't find any daisy fields around and we just didn't make it up to Grandma's before they were gone. I did find a daisy somewhere and tucked it behind her ear and snapped a shot. But that's all I have from that year.
 

Here's the shot from 2006. I didn't get a white dress that year. In fact this year we almost missed them too. We snapped a couple quick one summer day while visiting Grandma. She was 4. I can see such a difference in her between three and four. That's part of why I love doing this every year. :)

In 2007, I got one of my most favorite pictures of her. A little closer, so you can't see the daisies as well, but they're in the background (hiding in the depth of field. lol). Reintroduced the white dress. :) Another huge difference between 4 and 5. This year Hannah joined us. :) I was bound and determined to not miss a single year for her. I found her a little white dress and because she was only 3 months old I had to lay her in a basket. She was not impressed. This was the best I could get from her.

Last year, 2008 went much better. I managed to find them both white dresses again. :) By now, I know when I see one to buy it. It will fit at some point, right? lol Maegan looks a lot the same between 5 and 6.

Hannah on the other hand, big difference. She was walking all over the place and didn't want to sit still for a minute....until I gave her some daisies to hold. :) She was 15 months here.

This year we managed to find a field closer to home! So excited about that....and it was FULL of daisies.  Here are some of Maegan's pictures...notice the first one is SO similiar to the 2007 one.

Notice the dress? Same one Maegan wore 5 years ago :) Still love it. Here's some more of Hannah....

I wanted some of them in regular everyday clothes too so I had them change quick and got these cute ones too. :)

Okay, I think I've bombarded my blog with enough pictures for today :) I really need to take my boys out and do some pictures with them. Maybe this weekend sometime.

layout shares

It's layout sharing time again. These just went up at Two Peas in a Bucket this month. :)

 



I also did a mini album for the "Mini" theme for June. Here's the first page and you can see the rest of the album here

Thanks for looking! :)

a new favorite...

I took this last night of Hannah and Maegan. Definitely my new favorite picture. It makes me smile and melts my heart :)
 

today he turns five

Five years ago today Andrew joined our family. I couldn't imagine our life without him. He is hilarious, adorable, cuddly, affectionate, stubborn, ornery and very very loved! Here are a couple pictures of him today in the backyard :) He's grown a little bit...
 

Memorial Day Weekend - beware...

picture overload ahead. :) Last weekend, as we have for years and years, we headed to Pacific Beach, Wa to join our extended family for a three day weekend full of fun. This year we were so lucky to have sunny days. It's been a couple of years since that has happened so we were all very excited! It was so great to go and relax, read a book, play games, hang out with cousins and grandparents and aunts and uncles, and sit on the beach (even if it was cold, despite the sun). One of these days I am taking my children to a beach where it is warm and they can get in the water!!

That is my nephew, Kason. He loved playing in the sand! Check out his cute sandy toes!
They all had fun with the sand toys and trying to build sandcastles. Matthew however decided he was going to dig a hole. The above picture is at the start. Notice the tiny shovel. My dad didn't think that was doing the job quick enough so he got him the shovel in the picture below from his car. lol Matthew dug a pretty good one and was so excited when he hit water. :)

I love this shot of my mom and all my kids :)
Right after I took the picture below the water started to come in and Hannah was definitely was surprised by that. She started to run parallel to the water but soon realized that wasn't going to work for her. Then she started running at more of an angle. I wish I would have caught that with my camera. It was so funny to watch. She didn't freak out but she ran as fast as her little legs could carry her to Daddy. :)
My Dad found a crab and showed all the kids. Brinnon and Hannah werw quite fascinated with it. Although Brinnon (my nephew) thought he would use his "walking stick" as a pinata. lol Don't worry, the crab was already dead.
This is the first picture with all 6 of us since Hannah's blessing over two years ago. So sad.
And a picture of my 5 most favorite people. :)
Hannah couldn't decide who she was going to walk with so she would go back in forth between the two of us.
And last but not least, a pretty sunset we were treated to one night from the house we were staying in. The kids were SO excited and ran to get their cameras so they could capture it. It was kind of funny to see everyone scrambling to find their cameras.

lilacs

Thought that I would share some lilac pictures I took recently for my mom. Lilacs are a favorite by many in my family. :)
 

 

 

Hope you are all enjoying this spring day! :)

Mother's Day 2009

This year for Mother's Day the guys planned a special weekend for us. We didn't know what was in store for us except we were doing an activity on Saturday. Early in the week my brother called each of us (my mom, sister, sister-in-law and me) and told us he was with the "agency" and that we had been enlisted at secret agents. We were to be ready at a certain time on Saturday for our mission. That was it. We weren't allowed to talk to each other about it or anything. Saturday morning at 7:30 (the time I was told to be ready) I received another call from the "Agency" that I had 15 minutes to pack an overnight bag with whatever I would need for trip of relaxation. My destination had a forecast of 64 degrees. I was to be waiting in my driveway at 7:45am for my ride and was to have no contact with the others. I quickly packed (only forgot one thing!) and said my goodbyes to my family. My dad picked me up and we were off. He wouldn't say a word about where we were going or anything. We picked up each person on our way back to  my mom's house where she was waiting and ready. My dad secretly put the destination on the GPS and gave us two envelopes and sent us on our way. We didn't know where we were going still. The 1st envelope told us we could make stops along the way if we wanted to and to have a good time. We did make several shopping stops along the way. We ended up in Seaside, Oregon. It was a beautiful drive down. :) After our arrival we opened envelope #2 which told us to go and check in at the hotel and have a great time. Our only requirement was to eat at Pig'N Pancake for a meal and to be back to my parents' house by 4pm on Sunday for dinner. We headed out to get lunch and do some shopping and site seeing. We ended up down at Cannon Beach to see the haystacks.





Then we headed over to Fultano's to have some pizza - and it was SO good. We're going to have to go back sometime!

We headed back to Seaside just in time to catch the sunset from our balcony at the hotel and do some reading and get in the hot tub. Thenext morning we headed out on the promenade to walk down to more shopping and breakfast at Pig'N Pancake. It was delicious and it was half off because it Mother's Day! :)
 
We headed back home and arrived to a houseful of kids (and husbands) happy to see us. They'd gone all out and made us a delicious dinner and more gifts. :) We had a really great time and are grateful the guys planned such a wonderful trip for us. I've wanted a girls weekend for a long long time and it was more special knowing Eric helped plan it for me :) Thanks honey! Can't wait to see what you guys do next year! (hint, hint!) lol

 

feeds & scrapbook shares

I didn't realize that I didn't have an option to subscribe to a feed for my blog. So I have added that option to the left side of my blog if you're interested.

I also thought that I would share some recent scrapbook pages that I have done for Two Peas In a Bucket.

     
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