Last night I started a pot of Green chile chicken chile.  I had quite a few e-mail messages about that, so I decided I would share the recipe with you.  This comes from years of living in Texas and Florida, and attending my share of chili cook-offs through the years.

Ingredients:

• 2 lb. chicken.  I use boneless just to make things easier, and I've sometimes added 1/2 lb. of turkey to it as well.
• 1 sweet onion, chopped fine
• 2 T. vegetable oil
• dash of salt and pepper
• 1 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
• 2 T. Wondra flour
• 32 oz. Chicken Broth (carton)
• 1 can of Rotel Tomatoes (mild)
• 1 jar of Goya Salsa Verde (17 oz.)
• 2 cans of Ortega diced green chiles (4 oz. ea.)
• 1 T. ground cumin
• 1 1/2 tsp. ground sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. oregano
• 1 can Goya small white beans (optional, many chili lovers insist that beans are NOT allowed)

Heat oil in a big pot and cook chicken and onion, adding salt, pepper and garlic powder as meat cooks. When chicken appears cooked through, add flour and mix in thoroughly.  Cook for another few minutes and then add chicken broth, Rotel, Salsa Verde and chiles.  Bring to a boil.  Add cumin, sea salt, oregano and let simmer for 30 minutes.

Let cool completely and set in refrigerator overnight.

Next day, transfer to a crock pot and add beans if desired.  Simmer on low heat for four hours.

Serve with shredded monterrey jack cheese and a side of tortilla chips.

While that was cooling down, Courtney started working on her tie project.  Her Tech Ed teacher challenges the kids to make him a tie as one of their projects.  Courtney decided to make an 'I Spy' Tie.  She went spelunking in the basement playroom and found a large selection of small things nobody cares about any more.  She created a basic arrangement on the tie.  Here is her first take.

Overnight, I sprayed the tie with gesso spray and gave it two coats.  Then, this morning, Courtney attached her objects to the tie using Beacon's 3-in-1 adhesive.  To make the project a bit more challenging, she decided to spray over all of the items with the Gesso spray.  Here is the tie after two coats.

I love it.  Now, it isn't at all apparent what he will be wearing.  When you get close, that is when it becomes interesting.  She is going to put together the I Spy list to go along with the tie.

P.S. I love how the caterpillar ended up riding the skateboard!