What I'm Cooking Wednesday: Southwestern Chili and Sweet Cornbread

It has been COLD where I live lately. I'm talking take-a-warm-bubble-bath-then-crawl-under-a-blanket-and-don't-move-for-the-rest-of-the-evening cold. FRIGID.

There are many bad things about the cold weather, but one GOOD thing is that it's a good reason to make delicious soups, stews, and chili. So today I'm sharing a recipe for:

I found the recipe in the cookbook Luke's grandma gave me when we visited in Arizona.

The recipe is SO simple. I've tried to make chili a few times before, and it just never quite turned out right. But this recipe was literally too easy for me to mess it up! And that's the kind that I like ;-) Here it is:

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Serves: 5

Ingredients:

1 1/2 lbs. ground beef
1 onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
3 (15.5 oz.) cans red beans (we left this out because Luke and I are weird and don't like beans in our chili)
2 (6 oz.) cans tomato paste
1 tbsp. chili powder
2 tsp. salt

Directions:
Brown the beef, onion, green pepper, and garlic in a large frying pan. Drain fat. Mix in the rest of the ingredients, and 2 1/2 cups water (you can add more or less water depending on how thick you want it). Simmer uncovered for 30 minutes.

Mmm, look at those beautiful veggies on top. My favorite part about cooking is chopping or peeling the vegetables. Not sure why, but it's strangely therapeutic for me.

It was delicious, and the perfect meal for a cold, cold day. YUM.

The meal was completed with my favorite sweet cornbread. I found the recipe online right after we got married (in other words, right after I began cooking) and I've been using it ever since. It's delicious, and the perfect contrast to the spicy chili. You can find the recipe HERE

And don't forget to top your cornbread with honey. It's the best!

That meal really hit the spot and warmed me up. And after we had eaten and cleaned up, I took a hot bubble bath while blaring country music throughout the entire downstairs of our apartment (poor Luke) and then I curled up under a blanket and read a good book. So I guess the cold weather isn't so bad after all :-)

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Past Wednesdays:
Christmas Treats
Buffalo Chicken Dip
Chicken Stir Fry
Bacon Alfredo Casserole
Parsley Potatoes
Semi-Homemade Chicken Pot Pie

New Venture

Recently I was asked to be a contributor on a new blog: In my twenties. I was so excited to take part in this project!

There are 6 ladies who will be writing for the blog: Hollee, Neely, Heather, Leslie, Elizabeth, and me! I have loved meeting all of these lovely ladies, and can't wait to get to know them better!

On the blog we'll be writing about anything from life to love to cooking to fashion and pop culture, and anything in between. It should be a great place to get lots of ideas and hear from 6 very different and unique women.

So go ahead and check it out: In my Twenties blog

You can also follow us on Twitter

Or ask us a question on Formspring

My First Vlog!

Today I decided to do my very first vlog ever! I love having the iPhone because it can take pretty nice videos! I just had to try it out, so I thought I'd show you a tour of our living room since we've made a lot of changes recently. Here it is!

Living Room Tour from Jessica Wallace on Vimeo.

Luke has been a furniture-making machine lately, and I love all he's made! In addition to all the pieces I showed you in the video, he also built this hall tree:
I never knew how talented he was in this area! I'm definitely reaping the benefits, and along with the couch we bought in November, our attic room is my favorite place to be! It's so cozy!

Thanks for watching my first vlog! Now you all can put a voice with the face. haha! (Speaking of which, I had NO IDEA that my voice sounds just like Amy from Secret Life of the American Teenager. haha! Why does your voice always sound so different on video?)

Have a great Monday :-)

Week in Review: snow days, basketball, and projects

Sunday 1/30 - I went out to lunch at CiCi's with Luke, JC, and Stan after church. Then I came home and rested most of the day, which was amazing! I read for most of the day and into the evening. I just couldn't put the book down! (My Sister's Keeper).

Monday 1/31 - After work, the roads started getting bad and icy, so other than cleaning, reading, and watching Desperate Housewives reruns on Netflix, my day didn't involve much.

Tuesday 2/1 - I got a call a little after 5 saying that school was closed due to the severe ice storm. Poor Luke still had to go to work :-( But I enjoyed my day off finishing some projects around the house and reading some more. I had enough time to organize and label 8 months of photos into folders on my computer, so the day felt pretty productive :-) Later in the evening, I turned out all the lights, lit some candles, and watched a movie with Luke (127 Hours). It was nice to be iced-in with him! :-)
Wednesday 2/2 - We had another day off due to the ice! Cabin Fever was setting in, but I found some things to do around the house to keep me busy, and of course, enjoyed reading some more. In the evening, my parents came over to install some things onto my computer and to see our new projector. It was nice to visit with them!

Thursday 2/3 - Although we had a 2-hour delay, the weather was finally good enough that school wasn't completely canceled. And after finally returning to work for the day, I went all the way to Columbus with JC and Luke for the Ohio State basketball game. They are still undefeated, so it was really fun to see them play! Especially since they were playing Michigan. It was a great night, and Ohio State won! And to make a great night even better, we ate at Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers before the game. LOVE that place!Friday 2/4 - We had our first full day of work since Monday, so it felt like a really long day! Afterwards, I ran a few errands, and then my iPhone arrived! I was so excited to finally have one, and I'm still in awe of all it can do! Anyway, in the evening Luke and I went to his cousin Jack's birthday party, which was fun :-) And later that evening after Luke got home from basketball, we both chilled out and watched reruns of The Office and Parks and Recreation that we had missed. It was so relaxing that I fell asleep pretty early!

I just like this picture that I took on Friday...2 days after the ice storm and this is what our walkway looked like. I felt like I was risking my life every time I had to walk to and from the house! Luckily it's pretty much gone now.

Saturday 2/5 - Luke and I went shopping for our Super Bowl party, and after that I spent the day getting some projects done around the house. The major project I worked on was making some curtains for our living room. It was the first time I'd really used my sewing machine for an actual project, so I felt pretty good to accomplish that :-) Later, sometime after 11:00 PM (what were we thinking?!) Luke and I watched a movie.

Here are the curtains!

Milestones this week: Went to my first Ohio State basketball game, which was fun! Also, used my sewing machine for my first big project: to make the curtains for our attic room (technically I didn't make them...I just altered them)

Movies I watched this week: 127 Hours (A)

Books I'm reading this week: The Bible (I Kings), finished My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult, and started A Thousand Days in Tuscany by Marlena De Blasi.

Things I'm looking forward to next week: Our Super Bowl party (Go Packers!!) and getting ready for Valentines Day.

Project 365 - January

Here is the month of January in pictures from my Project 365 blog. You can click on the images to make them bigger:

January 1: Snow-less New Year's Day

January 2: Packing Christmas away

January 3: Winter Survival Kit

January 4: Starting the morning out right

January 5: Outside looking in

January 6: Ugly day

January 7: Gabby

January 8: Cupcake-decorating party

January 9: Stuff Christians Like: drinking coffee at church

January 10: Melt my Heart - Little Miss Auburn fell asleep in Luke's arms

January 11: White Out

January 12: Experiencing Arizona - The San Xavier Mission

January 13: Touring Tombstone - poker table at the Birdcage Theater

January 14: Sedona - love at first sight

January 15: Seeing the Grand Canyon for the first time

January 16: Beautiful red rock mountains on the Soldiers Pass Trail

January 17: Shopping in Tubac

January 18: Saying goodbye to Arizona

January 19: I seem to have acquired a few books while on our trip...

January 20: Ellie being lazy

January 21: Luke's latest creation

January 22:

January 23: Cabin fever sets in

January 24: Ellie, peeking

January 25: Getting tired of gray skies

January 26: Trying out Luke's new toy - an HD projector

January 27: Missing Arizona. This Christmas ornament is staying out all year long

January 28: Girls Night! I'm going to need to go on a diet after this...

January 29: Out to a breakfast date with Luke

January 30: Church building progress in the cafe

January 31: Cotton candy clouds on my way to work

And that rounds out January! I was stuck inside a lot, which didn't give me a huge chance to get lots of great pictures. But at least I had my week in Arizona to be outside a lot of the time! Unfortunately, I'm afraid I'm going to be stuck inside during much of February, too. At least Valentines Day helps to break up the month a bit!

What I'm Cooking Wednesday: Semi-Homemade Chicken Pot Pie

Well, I had plans to share a mocha drink this morning, but either my coffee maker doesn't work, or I'm doing something wrong. (Today is the first time I've even gotten it out of the box since we received as a wedding gift 2.5 years ago. haha).

So instead, I'm pulling a recipe out of the archives. I'm bringing back a post I wrote in October for:
I think it was good enough to share twice, anyway...

You can use whatever vegetables you want to mix with the chicken. I used carrots, celery, and potatoes. The actual recipe called for peas, but Luke hates peas. So I substituted the potatoes for peas, and I'm glad I did!The recipe I used can be found here, but I'm going to re-type it with some changes I made:

Ingredients:

1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cubed 1 cup sliced carrots 2 large russet potatoes, peeled and cubed 1/2 cup sliced celery 1/3 cup butter 1/3 cup chopped onion 1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon black pepper 1/4 teaspoon celery seed 1 tablespoon garlic powder 1 3/4 cups chicken broth 2/3 cup milk 2 (9 inch) unbaked pie crusts

Directions:

1.	Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C.)
2.	In a saucepan, combine chicken, carrots, potatoes, and celery. Add water [or chicken broth] to cover and boil for 15 minutes. Remove from heat, drain and set aside.
3.	In the saucepan over medium heat, cook onions in butter until soft and translucent. Stir in flour, salt, pepper, celery seed, and garlic powder. Slowly stir in chicken broth and milk. Simmer over medium-low heat until thick. Remove from heat and set aside.
4.	Place the chicken mixture in bottom pie crust [I had brushed the bottom pie crust with egg white and baked it for 5 minutes by itself before doing this]. Pour hot liquid mixture over. Cover with top crust, seal edges, brush with egg white, and cut away excess dough. Make several small slits in the top to allow steam to escape.
5.	Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until pastry is golden brown and filling is bubbly. Cool for 10 minutes before serving.

[cell phone pics]

This meal was absolutely PERFECT for a cold day. It is one of those foods that really "sticks to your bones," as my mom would say. I felt so warm, full, and content after eating this for dinner...just writing about it, my mouth is watering for more. Try it!

Next week when this annoying ice storm is over with, I'll be able to go to the grocery store! And I'm going to try to make a recipe for chili that I found in my new Arizona cookbook from Luke's grandma. Hopefully it's better than the last time I made chili, because it did not turn out well last time. Ha!

Past Wednesdays:
Christmas Treats
Buffalo Chicken Dip
Chicken Stir Fry
Bacon Alfredo Casserole
Parsley Potatoes

The Key to Peace in my Home

We are in the middle of a pretty intense ice storm today, so I was blessed with a day off from work. And for once I'm having all kinds of blogging inspiration!

About a month ago, I wrote about my word of the year:
Here is the post where I wrote about why I'm pursuing peace in 2011, and how I plan to do that.

Today I write with an update on some things the Lord is doing in my life, and how they have brought peace.

Let me begin by admitting that the major struggles for me in my home are organization, motivation, procrastination (technically I guess I don't struggle with that one...I'm actually very good at it!) and even responsibility. Getting married was a rude awakening for me because I realized just how scattered and crazy my life really is. And how lazy I could be. My house at times was not only cluttered, but also dirty, and I would be embarrassed every time an unexpected guest would show up.

I hated living this way for basically the first year of our marriage, and the second year and first part of the third were a constant battle to keep my house clean. The best way I can describe it is that my cleaning habits had bi-polar tendencies. I would clean like a mad person for a few days, and do absolutely nothing for a few days. I felt dread and guilt about my home most of the time. I was trying with all my might to make it a clean, peaceful home, but I felt like I was fighting a losing battle.

The scary thing about it is we don't even have kids yet!

Needless to say, my house has not been as peaceful as it could have been in the past 2.5 years since we've been married. And as a wife, I think one of my most important responsibilities and privileges is to make a my house a peaceful haven for our little family.

Thankfully, things have changed. I am writing today to say that I have finally found the key to peace in my home...

Did you notice I mentioned a few paragraphs up that I was trying with all my might to make it a clean, peaceful home? That's the problem. I guess I always knew that I needed to let God control the big things. But I was forgetting about the little things. I was trying to bring peace to my home all by myself, when in reality, God is the only one who can do that.

The thing that made the recent change in my heart and my home is the change in my quiet time. Or more specifically, beginning my prayer journal. Writing in a prayer journal each morning has changed my life. You can read more about how in the link above. But recently I began earnestly asking the Lord for motivation and energy each day in my prayer journal. Sounds simple, right? That daily request has absolutely changed my life.

Lately I've been able to write a daily schedule and to-do list. I've done this many times before, but it always fizzled out. This time, though, it's been going strong for awhile! I've been able to transform my house in the past few weeks. I've kept it clean and organized, and daily I'm accomplishing more and more tasks that had been pushed to the wayside for months. The only difference now is that I'm praying for my motivation and my home now, instead of trying to handle it all myself.

I feel so at peace in my home, today. I'm no longer embarrassed when people stop by for unexpected visits. And I hope Luke feels a little more comfortable and peaceful, too!

In addition to having a peaceful home, I've been blessed in so many other ways, too. First of all, I feel like I've somehow added more hours to the day! I've been able to get my daily tasks finish, accomplished things I've been putting off for months, and STILL have extra time each day to read or spend time with Luke. Just look at the reading list in my sidebar for proof...I read a measly 12 books in 2010, and I've already finished 4 just in January of 2011 (and it will probably be 5 by the end of today :-)). I've been getting to bed earlier and feeling more rested all day. And we have been blessed with the possibility of using our home for some fellowship in the near future (I will write more about this later if and when it comes to fruition).

Not only that, but I've been able to use Sunday as a day of rest and worship. I've found that Sunday as a day of rest works as a cycle: I get a lot done during the week, so I have time to rest on Sunday. And since I rest on Sunday, I have so much more energy and motivation throughout the week. I'll probably be writing an entire post about this sometime soon.

I am thankful that our lives have been changed. I've learned that no situation is too small for God!

Before I sign off, I'd like to share a book that has helped me a lot in my quest to find peace in my home and every other area of my life. I've mentioned it before, but I think it deserves to be mentioned again:
Joyce Meyer writes a lot about peace and how to pursue it in our daily lives. The book contains short but powerful daily devotions.

Now I'm off to enjoy my ice day :-)