Best present for Carl...I mean us ;)

Hehehe...
Merry Christmas ;)

For Sara...I love you

Matt and Dann made green chili tonight...They don't really have a recipe, so here are the best measurements I could get out of them ;)

-Brown 2 1/2 lbs of pork loin (cubed) in about 3tbsp butter & 2tbsp olive oil (add more if needed for each batch) medium high
-lots of pepper and a heavy pinch of salt for each batch of pork.

-remove pork, add one white onion diced reduce heat to medium low (two large pinches of salt)...we use A LOT of salt
-deglaze with whatever you would like...Matty uses beer ;) and puts another tbsp of butter on the onions (it's a wonder that I am not 300 lbs)
-cook onion till softened, add 4 cloves of garlic 3/4 of the way through cook til soft

-put pork back into pot, add diced green chili...we used 12 small ones(from our garden) probably about 2 cups. The picture of the chillies next to the 7 inch knife...double that :)
-then add 2 cans (14 1/2 ounce) tomatoes (whatever is on sale...diced, whole, etc...) use the juice from one can
-more salt and pepper ;) cover when it comes to a simmer its ready, but if you let it simmer for a while it tastes better (if you want to add more liquid you can...however thick you want; and by liquid I mean stock, beer, more tomato juice, water, whatever you like) tonight we used both tomato cans and a cup of water, and a glug of beer-in the past we have added potato chunks to the stew too.
Sorry its not the most organized recipe, but hopefully its a starting point for you to make it your own :)Best served in my new bowls I got for Christmas...pretty much every color of the rainbow :) I love them :)

Just a side note...if you have extra pork loin make some pot stickers and save them for later ;) Alton Brown has a recipe that we use...it's fantastic :)

PS Sara - You owe me a white chicken chili recipe!!! DO IT ;)

Christmas Weekend...

Merry Christmas!!Our weekend is passing by very quick. I am not ready to go back to work. We actually ended up having a "White Christmas" this year, we got about 6 to 8 inches on the 23rd and it snowed last night down in Parker :) Matt and I opened presents from each other Wednesday night, then we went down to Colorado Springs for Christmas Eve with my family and most of Christmas Day. We are now in Parker with his family, we just got back from the gun range where Pete and Goose got there first taste (literally) of being bird dogs ;)

Santa Cause

My friends Kim and Chris are teachers at an elementary school here in town... they found out this year that there is a ridiculous amount of homeless families in their school. This inspired Santa Cause 2009-a bar crawl, toy drive. We were a pretty small crew, but everyone brought several toys to give and throughout the day we were given donations and made about $60 some dollars...Not bad at all for the first Santa Cause event ;)

All dressed up

Christmas Tree Hunting

Yesterday, Matt and I took the dogs up to and area near Red Feather Lakes and cut down a "Christmas tree".  Riley loved it, Pete was a trooper...I had to carry him for a while because he got too cold.  All in all it was a successful trip, we ended up with a slightly "awkward" looking tree, but we love it :) 

Thanksgiving

Happy (late) Thanksgiving

This year we had Thanksgiving at our house, Matt's family and mine came up, and we had our friends Dann, Whitney and Mike over too.

Matt and Dann made 2 turkeys, one smoked and one roasted, and there were PLENTY of sides!!! There was way to much food...even for the 11 of us!  But it was all fantastic.  I ate leftovers for about 4 days, then gave up ;) 

That weekend Matt went hunting in Nebraska again with his parents and I went down to the springs to hang out and help decorate...I think its been about 6 years or more since I have helped :(  It was a very nice weekend.