OK here it is my famouts Chili Recipie.
Start with 2 or 3 bags of WIlliam's brand chili powder... I can't say exactly how much cause its different everytime.
Then you need 4 to 5 lbs of ground meat (the cheapest you can find is best)
(you may also use turkey, pork or deer, the truth is we're gonna season the crap out of it so it doesn't matter)
You'll need 1 whole large yellow onion, 3 cans of beans (two kidney, 1 dark red kidney), 3 cans of tomatoes (I use fire roasted), two cans tomatoe paste, 1 bottle of tomato juice, 1 bulb of garlic (15 to 20 cloves), Olive oil, 4 whole jalepenos, salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder and 2 or 3 bottles of rootbeer (for drinking while you cook)
First you chop up the onion and about half of the garlic and sautee them in a pan with a little olive oil, then set aside. Then begin browning the meat in the same pan that you just cooked the onion and garlic, add back 3 or 4 spoonfuls of the onion and garlic to each half pound of meat. Salt and pepper to taste as you brown the meat.
In a 5 quart pot begin adding the beans, chili powder, tomatos, and tomato paste. Add the meat as you brown it. once done with the meat add whatever onion and garlic is left to the pot. simmer over low heat. Chili will be extremely thick at this point and may tend to burn depending upon the pot you are using. Add tomato juice, salt, pepper and remaing garlic to season to taste and texture.
Take 4 jalepenos and cut off the stem end, make sure not to expose the seeds. (If you wish to have spicy chili expose the seeds) place whole Jalepenos in the pot of chili... stir and taste often... the longer it simmers the better it will taste.
NOW FOR SOMETHING DIFFERENT...
you will need 1 habenjero pepper, 1 green bell pepper, 1 yellow bell pepper and 1 red bell pepper and 3 whole lemons.
Remove 1 quart of chili and 2 jalepenos from previous pot and place chili in second pot... add jalepenos to other pepper and dice all peppers together add to chili... Juice all four lemons and add juice to chili... simmer for 20 to 30 min... this is one of the best spicy chilis I have ever tasted.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Christmas Update
Man, at first I was all about this BLOG... that lasted a day or two. Now I set back at my desk and wonder what on earth could I write about that anybody would possibly want to read. Well the truth is I'm not sure Iever written anything that anyone would want to read. And yet I am contiually humbled by people that come up to me at church or at school and tell me that they appreciate something that I posted on facebook.
So I guess maybe sometimes the Lord moves me and allows me to say something worth being said.
It is the 22nd of December and everyone I know is prepping for Christmas. I have most of my shopping done and only have one gift left to go pick up for my wife. I have small Tea Party table that I am paing for Ashytn, it is white but still needs butterflies. I am reaching the point that I'm not sure I'll ever get everything done. I guess the truth is, either I will or I won't either way Christmas is coming. I love this time of year, it is one of my favorites. I love the spirit that people get into. The music reaches into your soul and releases something deep down inside that reminds us that life is about giving.
MERRY CHRISTMAS... may all who read this find a little piece of hope in thier stocking this year.
So I guess maybe sometimes the Lord moves me and allows me to say something worth being said.
It is the 22nd of December and everyone I know is prepping for Christmas. I have most of my shopping done and only have one gift left to go pick up for my wife. I have small Tea Party table that I am paing for Ashytn, it is white but still needs butterflies. I am reaching the point that I'm not sure I'll ever get everything done. I guess the truth is, either I will or I won't either way Christmas is coming. I love this time of year, it is one of my favorites. I love the spirit that people get into. The music reaches into your soul and releases something deep down inside that reminds us that life is about giving.
MERRY CHRISTMAS... may all who read this find a little piece of hope in thier stocking this year.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Where has the Christmas Spirit gone
so every year we have this competition at school to decorate our doors for the holidays, I typically choose Christmas as I am a Christian. SO anyways... I like to win and I am fairly competitive, but this year the victory is hollow.
The judges typ. award 4 prizes, ine per floor and a grand prize. This year I found out I was one of only three teachers that decorated their doors...
I AM SAD!
Where's the spirit.
ON the topic of competition I must say that I am a little bothered by a Chili cook off I entered last night at Church... All contestants entered pots that had roughly 3 to 4 quarts of chili, my pot had almost 5 quarts. They only mentioned first and second place (neither of which were me and yet my pot of chili was the first to go empty by almost 30 min. In fact I was last in line and I didn't even get a bowl of my own chili. SO either the judges were wrong or everyone else was.
For those of you that don't know me please note that the above passage has only love in mind. I was thrilled to spend the time with my friends and family and am glad that all of the chili was enjoyed.
The judges typ. award 4 prizes, ine per floor and a grand prize. This year I found out I was one of only three teachers that decorated their doors...
I AM SAD!
Where's the spirit.
ON the topic of competition I must say that I am a little bothered by a Chili cook off I entered last night at Church... All contestants entered pots that had roughly 3 to 4 quarts of chili, my pot had almost 5 quarts. They only mentioned first and second place (neither of which were me and yet my pot of chili was the first to go empty by almost 30 min. In fact I was last in line and I didn't even get a bowl of my own chili. SO either the judges were wrong or everyone else was.
For those of you that don't know me please note that the above passage has only love in mind. I was thrilled to spend the time with my friends and family and am glad that all of the chili was enjoyed.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Me and the theory of Evolution
Now I can honestly say that I don't believe in the "Theory of Evolution" I am a creationist... however that's not what I am reffering to in this blog. What I am reffering to is my theory on how we become who we are and why it is so hard to be who we want to be.
There are things in our lives that we can control. I believe that the number of these things is fewer than we would like to believe. But for the most part we have control over our daily lives and directions we take. As a part of this is our ability to change and/or make choices. For instance when we are headed east we can most often easily change and head in another direction. We can choose to change our clothes, change our hair, and somtimes even change our attitudes. But the truth is when it comes to changing who we are... trying to stop smoking, biting my fingernails, alcohol, drug and sex addictions... FOr some it may be overcoming bias or learning to read our bible or pray more often. When we start to try to change these things it is not so easy... This is where my theory of Evolution comes into play.
You see, I do not belive that we have chosen to be the person that we are, rather we have evolved into this person. The little choices that we make daily are like carving a sculpture out of stone. Some time we use a chisle and take of large chunks and sometimes we use a file and round off little edges... and other times we use a sledge hammer and break the whole darn thing in half... but each time, each stroke slowly eveoles the piece of stone into an image. When we reach the point that we no longer like the image we see, we don't get the option of starting over... Instead we must begin to slowly and somtimes quickly chip away and the image in stone until we create the image we desire. Sometimes we take off pieces and imediatly notice a difference. Other times we can work for days, weeks and months and still see no noticable changes.
Unfortuantely there is one more aspect to the theory of evolution, and that is often times things evolve becuase they mutate. These are those thangs that are outside our control and power. They are the things that happen to us. When these things have impacted our lives they cause us to evolve, they shape who we become... These mutations all though outside our control when they occur are really no different that the other things in our lives... Once we see the image that results from those mutations, we must look deep within the piece of stone to see the image that we desire that lies within the stone. And then with careful, deliberate strokes we work to evolve into the image we desire to be.
There are things in our lives that we can control. I believe that the number of these things is fewer than we would like to believe. But for the most part we have control over our daily lives and directions we take. As a part of this is our ability to change and/or make choices. For instance when we are headed east we can most often easily change and head in another direction. We can choose to change our clothes, change our hair, and somtimes even change our attitudes. But the truth is when it comes to changing who we are... trying to stop smoking, biting my fingernails, alcohol, drug and sex addictions... FOr some it may be overcoming bias or learning to read our bible or pray more often. When we start to try to change these things it is not so easy... This is where my theory of Evolution comes into play.
You see, I do not belive that we have chosen to be the person that we are, rather we have evolved into this person. The little choices that we make daily are like carving a sculpture out of stone. Some time we use a chisle and take of large chunks and sometimes we use a file and round off little edges... and other times we use a sledge hammer and break the whole darn thing in half... but each time, each stroke slowly eveoles the piece of stone into an image. When we reach the point that we no longer like the image we see, we don't get the option of starting over... Instead we must begin to slowly and somtimes quickly chip away and the image in stone until we create the image we desire. Sometimes we take off pieces and imediatly notice a difference. Other times we can work for days, weeks and months and still see no noticable changes.
Unfortuantely there is one more aspect to the theory of evolution, and that is often times things evolve becuase they mutate. These are those thangs that are outside our control and power. They are the things that happen to us. When these things have impacted our lives they cause us to evolve, they shape who we become... These mutations all though outside our control when they occur are really no different that the other things in our lives... Once we see the image that results from those mutations, we must look deep within the piece of stone to see the image that we desire that lies within the stone. And then with careful, deliberate strokes we work to evolve into the image we desire to be.
Monday, December 14, 2009
Where's Waldo
Where's Waldo is a great exercise in observation. However, as I pondered the idea of where's Waldo I couldn't help but cross over into my religious beliefs. If we as christians are supposed to present God to the world. If in fact we are supposed to look like Jesus and people should know we are christians by the way we look act and talk... Shouldn't there be a whole lot more of God on the internet... or is that only sex addicted, rude, non-God fearing people are using the internet.
To make my point. Go to facebook, or twitter, or myspace... or whatever social network site of your choice and try this exercise. Start through your list of friends and count how many home pages you have to visit before you find evidence of Jesus... then do you best to make it all the way through your list of friends and see how many time you find evidence of God or Jesus and compare that number to the number of your friends that claim to be belivers...
Now I must confess that on any given day it might even be difficult to find any evidence of Christianity on my facebook page, but I think I am going to try to change that.
Maybe the reason the internet seems so screwed up is because we are allowing it to be that way. It allows us to sit in are houses and do things in the privacy of our homes that we would never do in public, and we find them so pleasing and self gratifying that the truth is that we don't really want to give them up. If we did we would pressure our government officials to better regulate the internet and better protect our children.
To make my point. Go to facebook, or twitter, or myspace... or whatever social network site of your choice and try this exercise. Start through your list of friends and count how many home pages you have to visit before you find evidence of Jesus... then do you best to make it all the way through your list of friends and see how many time you find evidence of God or Jesus and compare that number to the number of your friends that claim to be belivers...
Now I must confess that on any given day it might even be difficult to find any evidence of Christianity on my facebook page, but I think I am going to try to change that.
Maybe the reason the internet seems so screwed up is because we are allowing it to be that way. It allows us to sit in are houses and do things in the privacy of our homes that we would never do in public, and we find them so pleasing and self gratifying that the truth is that we don't really want to give them up. If we did we would pressure our government officials to better regulate the internet and better protect our children.
Blogging to myself
I sit and wonder as I have began this blog if there is something that I can do to increase the number of people who read it on a regular basis. I realize that many of the popular blogs that are out there are about sex or sports and they have a large group of people that follow them.
I have decided though that these are things that don't interest me. Instead I would like to use this blog to discuss religion, and faith, and people's desires to make life a better place. I can only hope that over time as I write down my beliefs that I might say something that will get a hit in some search engine and that slowly but surely people will find my blog and begin to read it.
I guess if I am saying things that GOd wants me to say he will lead those that need to hear it to my doorstep.
Until that day I gues I will blog to myself merely for the sake of getting things out of my head.
I have decided though that these are things that don't interest me. Instead I would like to use this blog to discuss religion, and faith, and people's desires to make life a better place. I can only hope that over time as I write down my beliefs that I might say something that will get a hit in some search engine and that slowly but surely people will find my blog and begin to read it.
I guess if I am saying things that GOd wants me to say he will lead those that need to hear it to my doorstep.
Until that day I gues I will blog to myself merely for the sake of getting things out of my head.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Why I belive in Santa
I would love to give credit where credit is due but the truth is I have no idea where I heard this story...
SO THIS IS NOT MINE... IF YOU KNOW WHERE IT CAME FROM PLEASE COMMENT.
A little girl cam home from school one day and sat down next to her grandmother and informed her that she now knew that there is no Santa Clause. The Grandmother looked with great suprise and said, "What do you mean there is no Santa."
The little girl explained that Johnny had told her that Santa wasn't real. Her grandmother said Santa Clause is real and I can proove it. She and the little girl made their way out to the car and headed down town. As they reached the down town area the grandmother pulled the car up to department store. She pulled out 10$ and handed it to the girl and asked. Is there anyone at school that you would like to buy a present for? THe girl thought long and hard and finnaly said yes there is this little boy named tommy and he and his family don't have very much. Then grand mother told the little girl to g oinsed and buy him a gift. (the story was apparently set several years ago when small towns had department stores and it was say for 10 year old girls to go inside alone). THe little girl walked inside and looked around. As she thought about it she remembered that tommy had mentioned that he didn;t have a coat. So she looked around and found a nice looking coat that looked like it would fit tommy and she headed for the register. when she reached the register she handed the coat to the clerk along with the 10$... THe clerk asked if the coat was for someone special and the little girl told her all about tommy and him needing a coat.
The clerk rung up the coat and handed the little girl the reciept. When the little girl got back to the car she handed the reciept to her grand mother, who looked at the reciept, grinned and placed it in her bible. They then drove to tommy's house where the placed the coat by the door, wrung the doorbell and ran. They hid in the bushes and watched. The little girl could see the joy in tommy's eyes when he opend the door and found the coat. When they got back in the car the grandmother explained that she knew that santa existed because he exists in each one of us. The little girl thought she understood, but didn't really understand until 20 years later when her grandmother passed away. It was then that she opened her grandmothers bible and found the reciept for the 33$ coat that she had bought with a 10$ bill. It was then that she really understood.
SO you see I believe in Santa Clause becuase I know that Santa Clause is the spirit of Christ coming out in all of us in ways that we can not really ever understand.
SO THIS IS NOT MINE... IF YOU KNOW WHERE IT CAME FROM PLEASE COMMENT.
A little girl cam home from school one day and sat down next to her grandmother and informed her that she now knew that there is no Santa Clause. The Grandmother looked with great suprise and said, "What do you mean there is no Santa."
The little girl explained that Johnny had told her that Santa wasn't real. Her grandmother said Santa Clause is real and I can proove it. She and the little girl made their way out to the car and headed down town. As they reached the down town area the grandmother pulled the car up to department store. She pulled out 10$ and handed it to the girl and asked. Is there anyone at school that you would like to buy a present for? THe girl thought long and hard and finnaly said yes there is this little boy named tommy and he and his family don't have very much. Then grand mother told the little girl to g oinsed and buy him a gift. (the story was apparently set several years ago when small towns had department stores and it was say for 10 year old girls to go inside alone). THe little girl walked inside and looked around. As she thought about it she remembered that tommy had mentioned that he didn;t have a coat. So she looked around and found a nice looking coat that looked like it would fit tommy and she headed for the register. when she reached the register she handed the coat to the clerk along with the 10$... THe clerk asked if the coat was for someone special and the little girl told her all about tommy and him needing a coat.
The clerk rung up the coat and handed the little girl the reciept. When the little girl got back to the car she handed the reciept to her grand mother, who looked at the reciept, grinned and placed it in her bible. They then drove to tommy's house where the placed the coat by the door, wrung the doorbell and ran. They hid in the bushes and watched. The little girl could see the joy in tommy's eyes when he opend the door and found the coat. When they got back in the car the grandmother explained that she knew that santa existed because he exists in each one of us. The little girl thought she understood, but didn't really understand until 20 years later when her grandmother passed away. It was then that she opened her grandmothers bible and found the reciept for the 33$ coat that she had bought with a 10$ bill. It was then that she really understood.
SO you see I believe in Santa Clause becuase I know that Santa Clause is the spirit of Christ coming out in all of us in ways that we can not really ever understand.
Friday, December 11, 2009
Fasting to refocus
In the past I have always paid attention at church when others have had times of fasting. For most of my life I have been on different types of medication and have always used my medication as a justification for NOT fasting. Maintaining that if I didn't eat my meds would make me sick.
As we approach the holidays and money seems tighter than it ever has, I have felt a sense of disconnect from GOD and those arround me. This is compounded by numerous little things that have been going on in mine and my families lives.
Earlier this week I proposed to a couple of my friends a FAST. I'm not sure what gave me the idea or even why I picked the arrangement that I did. I asked them to join me but even if they didn't just to keep me in their prayers. The terms that I set up for this time of reflection was to begin at sunrise on Thursday and go to sunset on Friday. I'm not sure what I was hoping for, or even what it was that I am missing in my life. Even now as the sun has set, I find myself wondering if I accomplished anything other than making myself hungry.
The main two things that came to me as I sat and pondered: One, I allow way too many things to come between me and GOD... all the little compromises that we make each day just to stop the yelling, so peopl will stop whining... each time we give up a little of ourselves and a little of our relationship with GOD... The second thing that I came to understand or at least see a little more clearly is the concept of change.
There are many things in my life as of late that I wish I could change about myself and I get so discouraged when I slip back into old habits or make descisions that I know are contrary to what GOD wants in my life. But what I came to see in the last two days is that is what not one decesion that got me where I am, but rather many little choices that have caused me to evolve into what I am and I can't revert years of behavior with a single momentary choice to be good... Rather it is only through years of making the right choices that I can over come the years of bad choices that I have been making.
As we approach the holidays and money seems tighter than it ever has, I have felt a sense of disconnect from GOD and those arround me. This is compounded by numerous little things that have been going on in mine and my families lives.
Earlier this week I proposed to a couple of my friends a FAST. I'm not sure what gave me the idea or even why I picked the arrangement that I did. I asked them to join me but even if they didn't just to keep me in their prayers. The terms that I set up for this time of reflection was to begin at sunrise on Thursday and go to sunset on Friday. I'm not sure what I was hoping for, or even what it was that I am missing in my life. Even now as the sun has set, I find myself wondering if I accomplished anything other than making myself hungry.
The main two things that came to me as I sat and pondered: One, I allow way too many things to come between me and GOD... all the little compromises that we make each day just to stop the yelling, so peopl will stop whining... each time we give up a little of ourselves and a little of our relationship with GOD... The second thing that I came to understand or at least see a little more clearly is the concept of change.
There are many things in my life as of late that I wish I could change about myself and I get so discouraged when I slip back into old habits or make descisions that I know are contrary to what GOD wants in my life. But what I came to see in the last two days is that is what not one decesion that got me where I am, but rather many little choices that have caused me to evolve into what I am and I can't revert years of behavior with a single momentary choice to be good... Rather it is only through years of making the right choices that I can over come the years of bad choices that I have been making.
Dissapointed in my meat eaters
SO we went to SAM's and bought the most beautiful steaks I have ever seen... 13 dollars for 4 16oz steaks... yes thats what I said 4 steaks each weighing in at a pound for only 13 dollars... SO I got home and split them up thinking that we would get 2 meals out of them.
Tonight I pulled out one of the bags fired them up... they were perfect. And, yet my family of 6 (yes there are 6 of us) barely ate one of them. My boys have left me wondering where did I go wrong. We have a friend that is a vegetarian and I am beginning to think that we have spent a little too much time together.
Meat eaters rise up and proclaim the wonderful joys of eating meat... Pork, Beef, Chicken, Fish it doesn't matter all meat is good.
Tonight I pulled out one of the bags fired them up... they were perfect. And, yet my family of 6 (yes there are 6 of us) barely ate one of them. My boys have left me wondering where did I go wrong. We have a friend that is a vegetarian and I am beginning to think that we have spent a little too much time together.
Meat eaters rise up and proclaim the wonderful joys of eating meat... Pork, Beef, Chicken, Fish it doesn't matter all meat is good.
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