Hey guys! I made a great dinner tonight that I've made a couple times before and I thought you would like. I had a great soup at a restaurant (Bahama Breeze) and they were awesome enough to have their recipes on their website

Don't skip out on the lime juice, tortillas and avocados! You are only cheating yourself!!! Calabasa is an acorn squash and a jicama is the size of a grapefruit with the texture of a ginger root. It will have a water chestnut crunch to it when cooked. Tastes like a raw peanut if eaten raw, but sweet when cooked.

 YUCATAN CHICKEN & TORTILLA SOUP

Serves: 6 - 8 Broth IngredientsOlive Oil - 1 Tbsp
*Calabasa Squash, diced ½" - 1 cup
Red Onion, diced ½" - ½ cup
Chopped Garlic - 1 tsp
Sliced Jalapeno, no seeds - 2 tsp
Chicken Broth, canned - 8 cups
Corn Kernels, canned, drained - 1 ½ cups
Tomatoes, ½ " diced - 1 cup
Jicama, ½" diced - 1 cup
Salt - to taste
Lime Juice, fresh squeezed - ¼ cup
Oregano, chopped - 1 tsp
Chicken Breast, fully cooked & sliced - 1 pound Broth ProcedureHeat the oil in a large pot until hot. Add the calabasa, onions, jalapenos and garlic, then sauté until they loose their raw appearance. Add the chicken broth, corn, jicama, and tomatoes, then bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until the calabasa is tender. Season to taste with salt, then add the lime juice, oregano and fully cooked sliced chicken breast. Simmer for an additional 5 minutes then cut the heat.
 
* Pumpkin can be substituted for Calabasa if necessary Garnish IngredientsCilantro Chopped - 8 tbsp.
*Avocado, diced ½" - 8 tbsp.
* Cut the Avocado just before serving to prevent discoloration.
 
Blue Corn Tortillas 6" - 4 each
White Corn Tortillas 6" - 4 each
Canola or Peanut Oil - 1 cup
Salt - As Needed Garnish ProcedureCut the tortilla strips in half on a clean cutting board then cut into 1/8th inch strips and set aside. Place the oil in a small pan and heat to medium heat. Add small amounts of the strips and fry until crisp. Remove and place on a paper towel lined plate to absorb the excess oil. Lightly season the crisp tortillas with salt. Repeat the process until all the tortillas are fried.
 
Serve the soup hot, and garnish with diced avocado, chopped cilantro and crisp tortilla strips.

Well, today I FINALLY managed to find some software to get my cellphone pics OFF the cellphone! Without costly fees of course, lol.

Here are some I took in the past couple weeks and some older ones.

TODAY, I pet a monkey!

Last weeks express that did NOT fit in my Cherokee. Looks like a giant phone! Nay, it is a giant BUMPER.

A couple photos from 4th of July on the water

Pretty flowers from birthday

And my trip to the newly renovated aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores

SUPRISE LEVI!

I'm so glad I got my phone to work, now I can take all kinds of photos at work for you to see! :)

Really bummed today guys...lost a friend and classmate in a skydiving accident. He became entangled with another diver and he passed later at the hospital....a good marine and a good friend.

http://www.jdnews.com/news/roulund_58914___article.html/christopher_lynn.html

First, I'd like to thank you guys for letting me know the blog eating monster is on the loose, so I'll be sure to do plenty of periodic highlighting and copying!

:)

Let me to tell before I begin that I LOVE animals, so don't think that I'm a wicked person!

Most of you know how I feel about the office situation and the people in it. For the past few months, we've had a dog coming around the office. We know it's from a few houses away and she keeps getting loose. Sometimes she has her identity collar with name and number, and other times she has one of several other collars or none at all. She even had a body harness on one day. Looks like the owner is at his wits end trying to find a way to keep the little Houdini home when he's working. I'm not sure what kind of dog she is, she's a dark golden brown with a blackish nose and eyes, very short hair and a really sleek thin body.

UGH! Don't EVER do a yahoo image search on "types of dogs", you will NOT find what you are looking for....ugh...going...to....VOMIT.

ANYWAY....

One day the dog shows up with one of those metal choke collars on with the long prong spike thingies lining the inside. Looks mighty barbaric. PM freaks out and has the cleaning man go home to get some bolt cutters so she can break it off the dog's neck.

It wasn't a day or two after that, she received an email from the great eyes in the sky about the no animal policy at the PO. Somehow someone found out about the dog.

She has ignored it and ever since we have all had to put up with this dog under our feet every day for several months.

We have a refridgerator at work, so the PM treats this dog like a living garbage disposal. "Oh, she's STARVED, look how she gobbled up the food and doesn't get full!"

The dog is NOT starved. Her ribs and bones are NOT showing. She has just been given an entire pack of hotdogs, last weeks chicken salad, your fish and hush puppy plate from day before yesterday, a box of fried chicken, half a box of treats you buy for her on top of a couple cans of cheap dog food you buy with it, that dog will eat til she BURSTS, because she is a DOG.

She feeds the dog like this everyday. And it's not only her. Her a$$ kissers do it to.

Not only are they feeding the dog, they are trying to GIVE HER AWAY to everyone. They think she needs to be saved, and they treat her like she's part of the of the PO team.

Let me tell you. The dog stinks, gets fleas in my work area that will hitch a ride home to my flea-free residence (that costs a FORTUNE to keep flea free with 5 cats!--$10+ each every month), she tries to swipe your breakfast, lunch, and snacks from your desk, she gets under your feet when you are carrying things...

And the MISERY I have in having to endure the BABY TALK to this creature is nauseating to say the least. I can't stand my PM. Having to listen to her and watch her treat this animal better than she treats her employess is crushing my nerves.

What's worse is this dog nearly gets busted on the highway running to our office every morning for handouts! She's really gonna regret it when she has to drive around the body of an innocent animal she's been luring to our workplace. That dog has a home and she needs to realize that.

I love animals, but dang it, If I wanted to have one between my legs all day I'd have become a circus clown.

I think we all have a horrible case of the summer lazies...

I sneak into work early, fly through my route and get home as soon as possible so I can immediately do as much nothing as possible to make the rest of the day drag by. Other than going to the gym, watching the olympics, piddling with some window art, and tons of summer reading, I don't do much else lately. The computer managed to suck me in today because I found myself too lazy to lift my body from this chair and move it to the other chair directly in front of the tv 10 feet away. Pathetic? Sure. But it's the summer lazies, I'm allowed :P

I'm sure my tile will be in next week to start the backsplash in the kitchen...I actually sanded the walls and ceiling this week (only to turn the kitchen into what resembled a winter wonderland--what a chore THAT was to clean up...) and then I will paint. Can't wait.

There is another mousie on the loose. Kitties have spotted him swiping food from their bowl, but it's gone before I can get a glimpse. I know it's a mouse, because low and behold there is a convenient little mousie hole about 12 inches from the kitty bowl behind some boxes I have had sitting there. Five kitties and an apparent super mouse, what's a girl to do. I don't like traps. Maybe I should get a live trap and dump it across the street under the abandoned house. Maybe I have too much of the summer lazies...

I expect we'll all be on here in the next few months rattling away about the PO...so much I have to say about it lately, but I'm just too dang lazy to type it....ugh...losing finger strength...whew....need....couch and......remote.