Crockpot White Chicken Chili

Winter weather has finally hit us in NW Ohio--at least the temperatures have. I'm getting in to warm comfort food mode apparently and experimented on my day off with a new chili recipe. I thought I'd start using my blog to keep track of this winter's cooking experiments.

Crockpot White Chicken Chili

2 lbs. ground chicken

2 (15 ounce) cans of great northern beans

1 (15 ounce) can white corn

1/8 cup taco seasoning (or one packet)

1 (4 ½ ounce) can of green chilies

1 (10 ¾ ounce) can of condensed cream of chicken soup

1 (14 ounce) can of chicken broth

½ cup sour cream

Monterey Jack or Colby Jack shredded cheese

·         Brown ground chicken and drain

·         Place chicken in crockpot and top with beans and corn

·         In a medium bowl, combine taco seasoning, chilies, condensed soup, and chicken broth. Pour over top of ingredients in the crockpot.

·         Cover and cook on low for 8 to 10 hours

·         Before serving stir in the sour cream

·         Serve topped with cheese

It's November Again...

...and that means continued lack of updates to this blog while I participate in National Novel Writing Month.

Sorry, But You Can't Be Real

I love creating characters--whether it's for a character I'm going to be playing in a role playing game or someone I see winding up in a story somewhere down the road. There are an unending line of fictional people in my head waving their backstories at me on a daily basis. Then there are the real people I know. Whether they're people I've met in the real world or people I've come to know on-line, I seem to have come across a lot of people who are so clueless about reality, or have so much going wrong with their life that they scream to be "borrowed" and thrown into a story. The problem is that some of the things going on with these people are so bizarre that, if the story ever got published, most readers would claim I was going over the top and that the character wasn't believable. Then I'd have to try and explain I really knew a person like that, they'd find out I used them as a character and I'd either get sued for defamation or they'd want a cut of the profits.

People in my life really need to have more mundane lives.

Another Book Review

Here's a link to my latest book review on Troll in the Corner.

http://trollitc.com/2012/06/this-aint-harry-potter-or-narnia-kids-a-review-of-the-magicians/

Sitting At Home

I had the opportunity today, after a doctor's appointment for our son and dropping him off at daycare, to just sit at home and write. The weather is cool enough that I turned off the air conditioner and opened the windows in the living room. There's a bit of a chill, but considering the unbearably hot days I know are coming, it felt nice. My plan was to write for a little bit and play some computer games the rest of the time. I gave up on the computer games part.

It's strange to see your neighborhood going about its business at a time you normally aren't there. I watched the type of traffic that cuts down our street (a lot of pick up trucks hauling trailers full of lawn mowers and weed whackers) and listened to the neighbors. The houses are close enough together that you can't help buy hear them. I was treated to the neighbor on one side arguing with her daughter's boyfriend (he and the daughter are both early 20's and live there). They guy ended up arguing with someone on his phone while he packed his things (not much, a couple small boxes and a handfull of clothes) into his car. Then the mother, the daughter and a couple neighbor women gathered on the sidewalk and talked about things. The daughter and the boyfriend hugged a lot (while he was still on the phone) and I got the feeling he'd been kicked out by her mother. Turns out he decided to move out on his own. The mother ended up at the neighbor on the other side with two women talking about him owing she and her husband money and she wasn't happy he packed up and moved out. Colorful. I then listened to the ladies talk about the neighborhood going downhill, kids being disrespectful, and other little things that just seemed to come up. For a brief moment I thought of all the colorful characters I could have if I just quit work, took up smoking and became nosier.

And now the day is getting shorter, the clouds are filling the sky and I should really get back to the story I'm supposed to be writing.

Waiting at the off ramp.

http://instagr.am/p/Lfj4MzOZ51/

Writer's Dice

From supporting Daniel Solis'  kickstarter.

Ponderings and Musings

Sometimes all you need is the right empty notebook and pen for a story to flow.

Happy Memorial Day.

Playing with a new app on my phone. Created with PhotoShake for Android

My latest book review is up on Troll in the Corner

For The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane.

http://trollitc.com/2012/05/what-if-magic-were-real/

Sightings around Toledo the last few days

I need to start people watching again. I've had three different people give me ideas for minor characters in a story I'm working on and all they did was go about their daily business.

Friday on the way home I watched a woman who lives in an apartment over a convenience store use a table top grill out on the sidewalk in front of the stairs up to the apartments. There were two guys hanging out smoking near the convenience store entrance talking to her while she was hunkered down over the tiny flipping what looked like small steaks with a fork.

Then on Saturday while we were shopping at Walmart I caught site of someone who deserves to have a spot in  The People of Walmart. She had a white plastic trash bag ripped up and tied really tightly around her head, covering her hair. I'm thinking it had something to do with hair dying, straightening or something like that, but it was so obviously a trash bag (you could still see the red cinch tie!) it was funny. I wanted to snap a picture of her, but we were about to leave and I think hubby would have been upset if I ducked back in the store to try and get a covert shot.

This morning on the drive in to work there was douch baggery at a corner gas station. While stopped at the light, I happened to look over at the station and there was a guy in a business suit using every window squeegee he could get his hands on to basically wash down his car while the gas was pumping. The car was muddy, but I guess instead of spending part of his Sunday hosing it off, he decided to muck up all the window solution in those containers with the mud from his car. I feel sorry for someone who genuinely needs to wash their windows after that guy!

Some Days

I should avoid the internet. I find one story about a baby or child getting hurt or killed and it makes me paranoid for our son. He's our only child and I spend more time than I probably should worrying about something that I can't control happening to him. Is that normal!?

Writers and Drinkers

If, as Oscar Wilde said, work is the curse of the drinking class, then is it also the curse of the writing class? Which maybe explains why so many writers also drink. Cross classing! Saying that means my gamer life is also finding ways into my writer life. More cross classing.

What is going on in my brain today!?