Sculpture

Well yesterday I did something new! I tried sculpting and made this. I took over 300 pictures of the process, so wait with bated breath while I create "the making of" claymation video - coming soon!!! :) Life is fun.

A trip to France

From July 13-22, Dan and I visited France, thanks to the generosity of his parents. It was a lot of fun. We saw so much and I have fallen in love with pain au chocolat!

We spent the first several days in St. Marcellin, a small town in the Alps near Grenoble.

We could look out over the town and the mountains from the deck of the house in which we stayed. While there we explored, and saw the hanging houses in Pont-En-Royans.

From there we went to the Grottos de Choranche, which is full of "soda straw" stalactites made by water dripping slowly through tubes of of crystalline limestone to create amazing chandeliers of stalactites up to almost 10 feet long.






The same day, we went to where monks make Chartreuse, a green liquor made of 150 different herbs. Only 2 monks know the secret recipe, and they monitor the oak vats of liquor from their monastary via computer. :) How modern!

The next day we took an amazing drive switchback-style up one gorge and down another, visiting a monument to the WWII French Resistance Fighters before visiting a Rhone winery and nearby a chocolate manufacturer (YUM!).

Then we took a fast train to Paris, where we visited
Sainte Chapelle (the stained glass) and Notre Dame (across the Seine in the picture),


















the Louvre, the Musee de Orsay, Montmartre and the Basilica of Sacre Coeur, the Eiffel Tower, and my VERY favorite, the Rodin Museum.

RECIPE: Chicken & Corn Chili

This is a great recipe I adapted from a Yourself Fitness dish. It takes time to simmer, but is otherwise a very simple meal that's just as good as leftovers. To make cooking quicker, I boil a chicken in advance, pull off the meat in bite-sized chunks and freeze it. I find the meat from one average-sized chicken is about right for this recipe. You'll get about 6 servings.

(In the photo I used baked beans because I didn't have black beans. This makes it sweeter - I don't like it as much.)

You will need:
4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts (or an equivalent amount of boiled chicken)
1-16oz jar garlic salsa (I prefer Green Mountain Gringo Roasted Garlic)
1tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground cayenne pepper
salt and pepper to taste
1-11oz can Mexican-style corn
1-15oz can black beans

Then:
Place the salsa in a pot and put the chicken on top, along with all the spices, then stir. Cook about 1hr on low or until the chicken is cooked through, or just until hot if you have pre-cooked chicken. Shred the chicken breasts, if using, then pour in the corn and black beans. Cook for 2 more hours and simmer until ready to serve. You can serve it as soon as it's hot, but the flavors really blend the longer it simmers (up to 9 hours in the original recipe, but I've never gone more than 5, and 3 is plenty). Serve hot.

This is great with cornbread. Enjoy!