Chicken Cacciatore Recipe

Here's the chicken cacciatore recipe:

(and I fixed the spelling on the precious title. Ugh.)

http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/chicken-cacciatore-10000001536187/index.html

My review on the Chicken Cacciatore

I'm going through a "I hate everything I cook" phase. I gleaned some new recipes from the Real Simple website set off to Publix to get my ingredients. It was an expensive trip, but I didn't care. I was ready for some new food.

So this was my first recipe I tried. I can't post it from here, but I will later.

This recipe took 2 hours to make. The recipe told me that was going to happen, so I started at 4, and we ate at 6, which is a tad late for us. I was glad I planned ahead!

I saw a lady make a version of this recipe on the news last week, which is one reason I wanted to try this one. She said to use thighs and legs, which I did. I'm not sure I'll use them again, because I was so ready to eat, I didn't want to pull all the meat off the bone! :) I may try boneless breasts next time!

That said, this was SO good. I mean, it was "I can't believe I cooked this" good. So good. I made spaghetti to spoon the meat and sauce over, and just made a spinach salad to go with it. I had too much meat to go into my Dutch oven, so I just roasted some of the chicken legs in the oven for the kids. That was good for them!

I'll definitely make this again!!! Yum!!!

Just checking this out

My sweet friend Jackie found this great app for blogging, and I thought I'd try it. It's easy, so far! It'd be a great way to do a picture a day sort of thing. Hmmm...

As I hang out on the couch this morning, recovering from the sickness that won't die, I had time to play. Here's my iChalky person thingie. It's much cuter when she dances, but you get the idea. I need to get well. Now. ;)



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Just for fun!

http://www.careerpath.com/career-tests/colorcareercounselor.aspx

Take this quick quiz. It's fun, and was scary accurate for me!

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Today

I was thankful to be able to go to the doctor. To have access to medical care. I keep thinking about the people in Haiti who wait, under tents, sick and hurting for care. I think of the doctors and nurses that are working tirelessly to try to treat them.

I heard, as I waited in the waiting room, Chris Tomlin's "How Great is our God," and I heard a lady who was leaving singing it on her way out.

That doesn't happen in a lot of other countries. Heck, it doesn't happened in some parts of THIS country.

I really think there is going to be a day when we can't be free with our beliefs. I think that persecution is coming.

Although I was aggravated that two sinus infections cost us $200 to treat, I am still thankful for the simple fact that we have doctors that we can go see when we need to. And I'm so thankful for a job that can pay those bills.

I think that about sums up my Facebook statuses and Twitter updates for the day. Just wanted to nail those down somewhere. Be a tangible thankful. Or something like that...

Zane

This is one of those, "feel free to ignore" posts. It's really just for me. :)

Zane is officially 3 1/2 now. I can't say things are easy, but I can say that they are easie-R. I can also say that I can look back now, and, with some degree of separation, see why God gave him to me. I don't think I'm quiet ready to put all the reasons down, but I do think I can summarize them by saying that I am at my best when I think I'm at my worst. I seem to create destruction when I'm at my "best." I'm also trying to see how God is going to use me without keeping me beat down. Or maybe He is.

Didn't mean to William Faulkner there. Back to the point...

Zane. Oh yes. I'm starting to see some of the big kid come out in him. It's been fascinating. And reassuring. I see qualities in him that God is going to use in a very mighty way. I'm praying that I'm the mother that he needs me to be. And that He needs me to be.

So on a lighter note, he has been hilarious the last few days, and I just wanted to get these down before they are gone forever.

We were at the McWane center yesterday, and we were hanging out at the shark/sting ray touch tank. One of the sharks, a barracuda shark, I think, was asleep on the bottom of the tank. The nice McWane lady was telling us that they are nocturnal, which made sense to all of us but Zane, and I didn't think to explain it to him. He studied it for a minute, then looked at me and said, "Do they (the McWane center) have him turned off?"

Um, yeah. They do...

This morning we were watching "Monster Jam" and Zane was crawling all over me. I told him that Daddy used to called him "Monster Truck" because Zane just rolls over and knocks down everything in his path: people and objects alike. He grinned and looked at me and said, "Except I don't have wheels."

I can see his critical thinking skill wheels start to turn... ;)

And the last one.

All of my kids have been especially interested in human death here lately. I can't find a reason why-nothing in school precipitated it, nothing in church, and nothing we've really talked about. The older two and I have had numerous conversations about death, heaven and being with Jesus, and I guess Zane has been listening, and processing.

So last night, just after he gets into bed, we have this conversation:

Zane: Mom, where is Heaven?

Me: Up in the sky.

Z: Why do we go there?

Me: Because you love Jesus in your heart. When you die, you go to sleep on earth and wake up in heaven.

Z: But you said we don't sleep in heaven. (This was a conversation in regards to Jude's numerous questions about heaven, one of which was "Do we sleep in heaven?" to which I answered, "No.")

Me: Okay, well, you don't sleep in heaven. You go to sleep here and WAKE UP in heaven.

Z: (he's not done yet) So how do we get to heaven.

Me: (It's late and I'm tired) We fly.

Z: But we can't fly.

Me: (Sensing that I'm going not going to get out of this one easily) Yes, well, our insides fly. You know, like our heart-our spirit. (Holding my breath and wondering how to explain this further to a 3 year old.)

Zane studies me for a minute, and I'm waiting, trying desperately to formulate the answer to the next question he might ask. Then he sits up straighter in the bed and announces:

"Wolverine can't fly either. He just has to poke people..."

Zane got some random Wolverine figure in a bag of toys from the thrift store, and Allen told him what Wolverine's name was. And you can certainly see why Wolverine has to "poke people." As to his inability to fly, I'll have to trust Zane on that one since I have no idea. I do reckon that having those razor thingies would make it hard to fly, never mind trying to brush your teeth. I guess super heroes don't have to brush their teeth, but it seems like I've William Faulknered again.

I am ever so thankful for Zane, and more thankful for what God has taught me through him. I think last week, as I reflected back on some really hard times, I admitted to myself that there were times with him that I really didn't think I could do it. That speaks so much of God's grace and strength that He so freely gives.

Lately

You know how when you drip a drop of paint into some water, and the color is so vivid and bright just for a few seconds? Then the color kind of blends into the water, slowly, and then you can't even see the color anymore?

I tried to take pictures to illustrate my point, but it was a small disaster. So I'm stuck with saying, "you know...?"

That's how my blog posts are in my brain. I get a big glop of a thought, an issue, an idea, and I just plop it on this blog, and then, with the weight of it off my mind, it just kinds of blends way into the other watery parts of my brain.

I like to blog when it's a big blob, because if I wait too long, I don't feel as passionately about it as I did before it got diluted. Sometimes I probably don't wait long enough, and the gloppiness is too evident. Maybe.

Here lately, though, instead of one big glop, my brain as been more like a rain puddle of little glops. Thoughts splash down on my brain and in my soul like little drops, coming so fast and so small that I can't grab hold of any of them long enough to sort through what's going on. The drops hit, then ripple into one another, and I'm left with sort of a rainbow throw up mish mash of all the colors of thoughts that haven't been processed.

You know, like how your kids think they are going to get a new magical, beautiful color when they mix all the colors in their paints together only to find out that what they end up with is a really gross brownish mess.

My brain feels like a gross brownish mess.

So it's been lots of praying and praise, trusting and waiting, loving and adoring. Maybe my brain works better this way. I'm certainly less theoretical this way. Less pondering. More floating and resting. Quiet. Still.

Enjoying all the seasons of my walk with Christ; Even the places we've never been before. Even when, all the while, I'm longing for the comfort of my overthinking.