Bunco

I'm in a Bunco group. A group of 12 ladies get together once a month, eat supper and play Bunco. Bunco is a very simple game played with 3 dice. Every woman/mother needs one thing that is hers. One thing that she can go and do by herself or, even better, with a group of her peers. Bunco is a time for us to come together, share stories, lift one another up and essentially just remind each other that we're all in this together. (how cheesy sounding)

Anyway, this article was in the paper today. It is a story about a group of ladies who have been getting together to play Bunco since the Depression. They decided to call it quits after years of gathering once a month. It made me think of my group. I hope we can keep rolling as long as they did.

Have you seen my spoons?

A strange phenomenon has come over our house. We seem to be missing quite a few spoons. I noticed the other day that there weren't many in the silverware drawer. I just thought the kids had eaten lots of cereal and they were in the dishwasher. Instead, our spoon supply seems to have dwindled.

When Robby and I married 10 years ago we started off with enough silverware to serve at least 12 and probably 14 (can't remember the exact number of place settings we received.) I haven't counted, but I think we are down to something like 8 spoons, maybe less. So where are they?

• Were they inadvertently thrown in the trash?
• Did the kids "borrow" them to play something and forget to bring them back to the kitchen?
• Are they where the lost socks go to play?

I'm pretty sure that somewhere in another dimension are lonely single socks and lost spoons trying to figure out how to re-enter the world and find their mates and place in the drawer.

Recipe of the Week: Baked Chicken and Cheese Enchiladas

This recipe is easy and yummy. I made it yesterday for mom's bunco group. I think they put "baked" in the title to make you feel better about the cheese, cream cheese and whipping cream.
I found this recipe in a magazine, I'm not sure which one. You can rest assured that I don't come up with any of my own recipes. Sorry for no pictures, I haven't yet mastered cooking and taking photos at the same time.

Baked Chicken and Cheese Enchiladas
1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese
2 cups chopped cooked chicken
1 (4 oz.) can diced green chilies
1/4 cup chopped onions
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
3 cups (12 oz) Monterey Jack cheese
10 (6-inch) corn tortillas
1 (14.5 oz) can petite diced tomatoes with mild green chilies
1 (15 oz) can tomato sauce
1/2 cup whipping cream

1. Stir together first 6 ingredients and 1 cup cheese in a large bowl until well blended.
2. Wrap tortillas in heavy-duty plastic wrap; heat in microwave according to package directions.
3. Spoon about 1/3 cup chicken mixture down center of each warm tortilla; roll up. Place in a lightly greased 13x9 inch baking dish.
4. Cook diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, and cream in a 2-quart saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring often, 10 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Pour tomato mixture evenly over tortilla; sprinkle with remaining 2 cups cheese.
5. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until cheese melts and tomato mixture is bubbly. Serve with desired toppings. (They suggest sour cream and shredded lettuce.)

Cook's notes:

• I like to cook the chicken and mix up the chicken mixture and refrigerate it the night before. If you do this it may take a little longer than 20 minutes to heat up.
• The diced tomatoes with green chilies is NOT Rotel.
• When I heat the tortillas, I wrap them in a damp paper towel and microwave for about 45 seconds.
• We generally serve this with guacomole and chips.
• These heat up well the next day.

Mom served it with a good salad last night. I'll try to post that recipe next week.
Enjoy!!

Still on my mind...

This story about the 100-0 blowout is still on my mind. There was even an editorial about it in today's Amarillo paper. I posted about it here. Rather than dwell on the negative, I decided to share this story with you.

Here is the headline for the story: "There are some games in which cheering for the other side feels better than winning." It's about a football game played between Grapevine Faith Christian School and the Gainesville State School this year. Gainesville is a maximum-security correctional facility 75 miles north of Dallas.

It's a story about a Christian school going above and beyond to make a difference for some boys who are living in what could seem like a hopeless place. It's a story that should make you feel good and should restore your faith in coaches, kids, parents and sports today. It might even make you tear up.

Picture(s) of the Day

For some more great pictures, check out the ones Sadie took today. She posted them on our family blog.
Our gate--Robby had to chip ice off of the handle to open it this morning.

I finally bit the bullet and went out to water the chickens and cats. Here are some pictures I took while outside. I'm experiencing camera-envy right now. I've seen some great photos on other blogs. If I had a camera with an interchangeable lens I could have gotten some neat close-ups of ice and ice crystals and some pictures of the seven (Yes, seven!) coyotes I saw running through the pasture. I tried to take some pictures of them, but my zoom is just not that powerful. I thought about coming in and getting the gun but wasn't sure which gun to use and figured I'd probably hit a cow or something instead of a coyote. I am keeping an eye on them to be sure they don't mess with the cows and calves in the pasture across the road.

The chicken pen--I thought the ice on the chicken wire was cool. The chickens really gave me a talking to this morning.

Cold

I took these pictures from our front (South) and side (East) door. I'm hoping to venture out and get better pictures of the trees with ice/snow on them, but it is 11 degrees. I'll have to water all of the critters at some point, so maybe I'll be brave then.

What do you think?

I read in the paper where the basketball coach at a Dallas Christian School was fired this weekend. It appears that one reason he was let go stemmed from his girls' team beating Dallas Academy 100-0 earlier this month. You can go here for an article about the Dallas Academy coach's perspective; which I admire. (There is also a handy box on down in the article that will connect you to previous stories about this.) Covenant school posted an apology to Dallas Academy on their web site. The coach apparently disagreed with the statement and posted his thoughts somewhere.

The coach says the game, "just happened." What? I've played in some lopsided games and scoring 100 points doesn't "just happen." I remember one game where our coach wouldn't let us start playing defense until the other team got to the free throw line--then it was a 2-3 zone. On offense, we were required to pass the ball at least five times before shooting and then the coach called out the shooter's name.

Could we have run-up the score to 100? Probably. Did we want to? Sort of. Who doesn't want to play in a game where you score 100 points? Would that have been the right thing to do? No. Would we have learned anything? Probably not.

I could expound on this for a while, but won't. Read the articles and let me know what you think.