Sunday, December 30, 2012

Bacon & Beer Chili

For Christmas Eve each year, my family has chili for dinner. This year I was put in charge of the dinner. I found a really yummy recipe but wouldn't you know it, my camera was dead so I couldn't capture the pictures on the initial try of the recipe.

With the weather being a bit on the chilly side this week, I decided to try and make it again. It turned out much better the second time around.

Ingredients include: ground beef (or turkey), bacon, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, onion, beer, garlic, beer, and worchestire sauce, and pinto beans.

Chop up the bacon and cook. Once crisp, add in the onion and garlic.

Once the onions are transparent, add in the ground beef and brown up. Once browned up, add the spices to test.

At this point, I transfer the contents to a pot and add all the wet ingredients.

Let simmer and then enjoy!

Here's the original recipe.

While I was doing this, my husband was attempting to remove a popcorn ceiling in the garage.

Yes, that's a litter box.

 

Friday, December 28, 2012

Hubby Lifting: Part 1

Now that I'm a married woman, Adam and I has delegated out duties between the two of us. I'm in charge of all decorating and Adam is in charge of the electronics and heavy lifting (aka Hubby Lifting). Where the two meet (like a media center), we have to work together to agree.

While Adam is waiting for the US Government to allow him to legally work, I've provided him with a list of honey-do items. I've got to keep him busy!

One of those items was to hang the didgeridoo that I got for my birthday from the Watts family. Adam tasked me with figuring out how to hang a didgeridoo. After much trolling of the web, I found two options - a purpose made hanger that cost a lot of money and gets sent from Switzerland (really-weird!) or as suggested on a DIY site, use a towel holder. I opted for the towel holder. So off we went to Lowe's. I couldn't really find anything I liked but then Adam found pull-backs for curtains and we thought "why not?"

After some discussion, we finally decided where to hang it and now we have a beautiful didgeridoo to remind me of my time in Australia.

 

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Christmas

This year we were supposed to spend Christmas in Australia but the US Immigration had other ideas.

To help Adam feel a bit more at home we try to incorporate some Australian traditions. We have champagne while we open the presents. We bought him some shrimp (not quite the same as prawns and Morton Bay bugs, but it'll do). We also buy bon-bons to open before dinner.

But this year my mom out did herself - she bought Adam a beach cricket set. Of course we couldn't just let it sit unused but we don't have a beach so the snow will have to do. Adam has spent the evening teaching the family all about cricket. This included hands on learning and the lessons were caught on camera.