The results were fabulous. If you like Mexican food, you’ll love this recipe. It’s more sophisticated than tacos, but still simple to make. I served it with chips and queso, fresh tomato, shredded lettuce, salsa, and more sour cream (of course!).
You can easily alter the recipe with another meat like ground turkey, diced chicken, or steak. You can also bake it with lower fat cheese and leave out the sour cream, as Nancy suggests, for a low fat version. For more spice, turn up the heat with your favorite seasonings and peppers.
Thank you, Nancy at The Wife of a Dairyman, for a new favorite. Bon appétit!
For the despondent, every day brings trouble;
for the happy heart, life is a continual feast. Proverbs 15:15 NLT
I’m just an American citizen who discovered she, like every other American citizen, has a voice with which to speak about issues that matter to her.
Notice I didn’t say I discovered my opinions. I wrote about controversial topics like Food, Inc., Roe v. Wade, and Chick-fil-A before the election stage was set. My views have been formed by my beliefs, experiences, and observations. Same as yours have been. I simply began to voice my views more formally and in good faith that civil discourse would rule the day.
My sharing has been met with applause in some camps and disdain in others. There have been retweets and hate tweets. I’ve been unfriended and blocked. I’ve picked up a subscriber or two along the way.
Funny thing is, all this posting and dialoguing takes place outside the context of real life.
My closest friends see me as a person, not a 600-word opinion. We don’t hold identical beliefs. Do I love them any less? Of course not. What kind of friend would I be if I did? Two of my best friends don’t even read my blogs. Another nearly stopped reading once she realized we see things oh-so differently.
These women humble me and keep me real.
Perhaps I am the neighbor who offered a coat and waited with her for the fire truck when her preschoolers locked her out of the house in the snow. I am the postpartum disaster who fell asleep on her living room couch while she rocked my infant son. I am the wardrobe coach who commandeered the dressing room as we shopped for clothes for her to wear when she returned to work. Or the lady who lunched beside her and spoke freely of losing loved ones to disease. Or the nomad who lost her spaghetti colander in the move.
At the end of the day, at then end of the election, regardless of who wins or loses the White House, we will all be left with each other. Does that mean we stop voicing our opinions? Stop talking about issues in order to preserve the peace?
Silence is certainly a strategy. But as my husband told me, your friends love you for who you are. You are free to speak with respect and without fear in their presence and they in yours.
They love you none the less.
A friend is always loyal, and a brother is born to help in time of need. Proverbs 17:17 NLT
One Thing Remains by Kristian Stanfill. Reminds me of true unfailing love.
Is it better not to speak to preserve the peace or to speak trusting your friendships will hold fast?
This is Monday, and I said I would be back around mid-week. Monday is not mid-week, but some things are too important to wait to share. Like this quick Pinterest success story. An idea so simple, so ingenious, so must-do.
Swim noodles cut to size and used to stand tall boots at attention!
Less than five minutes with a bread knife and two worn-out swim noodles resulted in four pairs of boots set upright and ready for winter weather. If only all things in life could be this easy and common sense. Reduce, reuse, recycle!
Pinterest success!
This idea came from a Boutique Narelle pin. The author measured the swim noodles, cut with a saw, and vacuumed the edges of her boot stuffers, none of which I had to do because of two magic words: bread knife.
The blog’s been abuzz this week. A few links of interest:
where’s the beef
Where’s the Beef?
Yesterday BlogHer published a post you first saw here about the new public school lunch standards, Where’s the Beef?: Public School Lunches Lean on Meat. If you’re all about food and farm (And who isn’t? We all eat, right?), I’d be much obliged if you’d click over to read and comment. Your interest and engagement shows there’s an audience for stories like this. BlogHer recently updated their reach from 40 million to 50 million women a month. That’s a lot of groceries…
caped crusaders
Comic Book Capers
Did you catch the Vice Presidential debate? My esteemed Finding (Un)Common Ground co-blogger Lisen Stromberg and I commented on the matchup. Was it young man vs. old man? Rude vs. polite? Seasoned vs. green? Or the Joker vs. Robin?
Voter Prep Video Earlier this week, I changed my Missouri driver’s license to a Kansas driver’s license and registered to vote here. I video blogged about it in The Adventure and Responsibility of Voter Registration. Here’s a preview (It’s okay to laugh as I’m still learning how to vlog!):
yankee doodle
Teachable Moments During Election Season This past Tuesday, BlogHer published my story about engaging kids in the political process. Media literacy, parenting, and politics collide in You Can Watch Election Coverage With Kids. It’s an honor to publish in this forum about such important topics!
Abortion Showdown Looms Life issues plague our country. Abortion is the elephant in the room this election. Watch for Lisen and I to take opposite stands on the issue first thing this week on Finding (Un)Common Ground.
Checking Out
Everybody feel all updated now? God willing, I’ll be back around mid-week with more in store including the first of the Instead of Hot Dogs recipes and Words to Remember from a famous Greek philosopher. Have an excellent weekend.
Praise the Lord; praise God our Savior!
For each day He carries us in His arms. Psalm 68:19 NLT
This post was featured on Project Underblog on October 29, 2012.
Rumor has it you’ve changed Facebook again. It’s your company. You can do as you please. What you may not realize is that your latest alterations have the blogosphere all a-Twitter.
Mark Zuckerberg by Scott Beale/Laughing Squid, creative commons license
We blogger types write our little hearts out day after day. We work hard for our fans on Facebook. Oh, I know you have one billion people using Facebook now, so my page’s 254 likes may not mean much to you.
But to me they mean the world.
Many of us lowly bloggers have noticed a significant drop in the number of fans who actually see our posts in their News Feed since your recent changes. We’re scrambling to figure out how to manage. Do we ask fans to add our pages to Facebook Interest Lists? Do we pay to promote our posts? Do we step up our presence on Google+?
Mark,—may I call you Mark?—you may be a visionary like Steve Jobs. A person no one really understands. You may see a future the rest of us can’t quite grasp. More power to you, son.
We stood by you through the Timeline, the Top Stories, the Ticker deal in the sidebar. We survived and learned to thrive. We watched as your social media empire evolved. But there’s something you need to remember.
We make you look good.
Yes, Mark. Yes, we do. When we invest our energy to promote our content on Facebook and build likes for our pages, we add power to your platform.
On behalf of all the little (and big) blogs, causes, businesses, bands, and others who’ve created Facebook pages for fans, could you give us a break? Keep things fun, simple, and uncomplicated. I like Facebook, I really do. It’s intuitive. More personal than Twitter. More connective than Google+. I want to stick with you, but you must stay true to the mission.
Help us easily connect with our people.
Now Mark, I know the whole stock thing hasn’t worked out so well for you, but give it time. Trust me. It’s cyclical. It’ll come around. We’re in a recession, in case you haven’t heard.
Wait it out, son. Cut us some slack, and we’ll do the same for you. We’ll give you time to do that crazy coding thing you do. Just make the magic happen, and let the good times roll again on Facebook.
Sincerely,
Aimee
PS: The Social Network may be an unauthorized account of your story, but I loved it all the same.
Surely God is my help; the Lord is the One who sustains me. Psalm 54:4 NIV
I used to be a good cook before I started blogging.
trinity of gingham
My cookbook collection is outfitted with three shades of Better Homes gingham and Seduced by Bacon. I’m of Italian heritage, and I married into a Midwestern farm family. My stockpile of recipes is hearty. Well-loved. Often made. Until I started blogging.
When I write, my time flies out the window.
Some of you think my mind goes with it, but that’s just the blood sugar plummeting. I’m hypoglycemic; it’s not pretty when I don’t eat.
A couple weeks ago, I realized I’d had hot dogs for lunch three days in a row. I don’t have anything against hot dogs. I like hot dogs. Eating hot dogs once in a while should be a requirement for all good Americans. Right up there with voting. By the way, have you registered yet?
how about corn dogs?
I digress. Back to lunch. It’s time to get off the hamster wheel of writing all morning, stopping to lunch too late only to discover there’s nothing in the house to eat except hot dogs. On Facebook, I joked that grocery shopping had moved to the top of the to-do list. But I know my problem is bigger than that.
I like to write. I like to cook. I need to eat. I can pick two of the three.
Wait a second. I know a lot of women who blog about cooking. They write, cook, and eat. But how?
I asked some of them for help. What sweet salvation they delivered. During the next few weeks, my family will be cooking and eating seven eight of their best recipes. These recipes are easy to make with ingredients that are easy to find.
Explore their sites, preview the recipes, then come back to see the results of a good cooking revival at my house. This promises to be one delicious series!
Welcome wickedly witty guest blogger, my sorority sister Kim Drew Wright. Today Kim shares a glimpse of the Real Wives of Richmond, Virginia.
He opens the door, takes off his jacket and gives me that look. The one that says, “Why is the house still a mess? Why isn’t dinner ready?”
Instead he says, “What have you done all day?”
I’ve: gotten the kids out of bed, scrambled eggs and poured milk, let the dogs out, made pb&j sandwiches to put in plastic, let the kids help even though it would have been quicker if I did it myself, reminded them to brush their teeth, cleared the breakfast dishes, been saddened by the morning news, braided hair, mediated an argument, picked out clothes, nagged that they are going to miss the bus, yelled to go brush their teeth, tied shoes, found jackets, walked to the bus stop, told them to have a good day, hauled dirty laundry downstairs, unloaded the dishwasher, wiped down the table, loaded the dishwasher, scrubbed stains from shirts, thought about calling my mother before it’s too late, let the dogs in, put laundry in the washer, sent an email about a PTA fundraiser, counseled a friend having marital issues, volunteered at the school library shelving books in order, put the clothes in the dryer before they mildewed, wiped pee off the bathroom floor, forgot to eat lunch, tripped over an abandoned babydoll, tried to remember a conversation from 1982, cleaned up dog puke, ran to the store for miscellaneous items you needed, joked with the cashier to make her day easier, ran into a friend who wanted to do lunch sometime—I think she’s having marital problems, put my tennis shoes on and ran around the neighborhood because according to you a woman my age has to exercise an hour a day just to stay the same weight, gave the dogs a treat, folded laundry and carried it upstairs, took a shower, shoved my skinny jeans aside, answered 11 emails about the fundraiser, considered getting a job with a paycheck, petted the dogs so they would know they are loved, walked to the bus stop, gave our children hugs, gave them a snack, reminded them to wash their hands first, shuffled through school papers, encouraged them to learn from their mistakes, signed up to bring in cookies for a class party as soon as I got the note so the teacher would know I appreciated her, sorted through the mail, swept under the table, screened calls from telemarketers, picked up socks, shoes, jackets and backpacks forgotten in the foyer, listened to our children, reminded them to do their homework, updated Facebook with something cute our children said so I would never forget, yelled for them to turn off the TV, was ignored, took the trash out and, just now, sat down with that book I’ve been wanting to read for 3 months.
“Nothing important,” I say and get up to start dinner.
She carefully watches everything in her household
and suffers nothing from laziness. Proverbs 31:27 NLT
Presenting Steven Tyler and his little band Aerosmith with Crazy… because that’s how we feel on days when we do nothing important.
Crazy Steven & Tyler
What did you do all day?
Kim Drew Wright is a freelance writer, devoted wife, and frazzled mother of three. Most notably, she has excellent taste in dogs.
Lisen and I posted our responses to last night’s presidential debate. Click Finding (Un)Common Ground to read both posts and participate in civil dialogue.
Steady My Heart by Kari Jobe. Beautiful. Even when it hurts, even when it’s hard, even when it all just falls apart, I will run to You ’cause I know that you are Lover of my soul, Healer of my scars.
