Happy 33rd month birthday to Carmen!!! Three more months and you will be 3! Last summer we didn’t think you would make it to two years old and here you are a year later. We hope you have a comfortable, peaceful day.

Thank you Ada for coming over this morning and bringing coffee cake and tea! What a lovely way to start the day!

Since we have a new recipes category, I decided to post a recipe. This soup is one of my favorites. I make it once per week and eat it for lunches. Dave likes it too, especially with chips and sour cream. Lauren used to eat the black beans but now says “no black beans for me”! I got this recipe from http://www.crockpot365.blogspot.com/.

Salsa Chicken and Black Bean Soup
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts or tenderloins
2 cans black beans, drained and rinsed
4 cups chicken broth
1 cup frozen corn
1 16 oz. jar prepared salsa (I use mild Sante Fe style salsa)
1 1/2 tsp cumin

Add everything to the crockpot and cook on low 8 hours. After 8 hours, take the chicken out and cut up or shred. Put chicken back in soup. Serve plain or with chips, cheese, sour cream, avocado, cilantro, etc.

This soup is good the first day and FANTASTIC the next day!

I recently made a big pot of collard greens. I don’t make them the traditional Southern way (ham hock and lots of grease) but I think they are great. Maybe not quite as good as the greasy kind but really good. Lauren holds her nose every time I pull these out of the fridge. Dave won’t go near these. Carmen was my vegetable eater so if she could still eat, I bet she would like these!

I’m as southern as cornbread and collard greens! What are you?

Collard Greens (NOTE: You could easily half this recipe as this makes a lot.)
2 lbs. collard greens, chopped and woody pieces removed
4 cups chicken broth
1 1/2 cups water
1-2T. olive oil
4T. white wine vinegar
2 t. sugar
salt and pepper to taste

Boil chicken broth, water, olive oil, vinegar and salt and pepper. Add collards and sugar. Boil 30 minutes. Add more vinegar and sugar to taste. (The sugar is to cut the bitterness of the collards, not to make them sweet. So only add extra sugar to make them less bitter.)

Carmen update: Nothing new going on here which is always good! The C-diff continues but we are hoping that six weeks of Vancomycin might get rid of this Super Bug.

Big thanks to Monica the Magnificent for watching the girls today!

Over Christmas break, NY Grandpa made 7 chocolate pecan pies. Six of us ate all of them. I suspect Dave and Uncle Tony ate more than the rest of us! I am certain I did not eat a whole pie all by myself! Last week NY Grandpa made two of these delicious pies at our house.

I think I should add ‘recipes’ to the categories section on the right!

Chocolate Pecan Pie
1 ½ cups coarsely chopped pecans
6 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
1 9-inch unbaked pie crust
3 large eggs
1 cup Karo Syrup (corn syrup)
½ teaspoon Vanilla extract
¼ cup butter, melted and cooled

Directions: Sprinkle nuts and chips over bottom of pie shell. In medium bowl, whisk together eggs, corn syrup and vanilla. Blend in butter and pour mixture into pie shell. Bake at 325°F for 50 to 60 minutes or until firm. Serve slightly warm or at room temperature.