Spanish Chicken

I tried a great new recipe this week from the Rachael Ray magazine subscription my sister got me for my birthday:

Spanish Chicken

2-4 chicken breasts (I used frozen)

3 cups chicken stock

2 T butter

1 C white rice

3 cloves garlic (I used minced garlic instead, powder would work too)

1.5 t ground coriander

1 t ground cumin

1/8 t ground cinnamon (trust me!)

A few pinches of cloves (I left this out)

Salt and Pepper to taste

1 can diced tomatoes

Combine 2 cups chicken stock, garlic, coriander, cumin, cinnamon, cloves, salt, pepper and tomatoes in a blender or food processor. Blend well. Pour over chicken in crockpot. Cook 4 hours on high or 8 hours on low.

Cook rice as directed, using 1 cup chicken stock and 2 T butter in place of water (I used Minute Rice).

Serve chicken on top of rice, drizzle sauce over.

By the way, this wasn't originally a crockpot recipe, but I adapted it for the crockpot since I think it's so much easier! Enjoy!

NOTE: This recipe would also be good with beef, but you would have to use pre-cooked or frozen beef pieces because fresh won't get fully cooked in the crockpot. Also, the original recipe calls for 1 large ancho chile, seeded and stemmed, 2 onions and 2 ribs of chopped celery. If you're into these ingredients (which I'm not), you should cut them up and saute them in EVOO in a skillet for 7-8 min to soften before adding them to the rest of the sauce mixture in the blender.

So close

The craziest thing happened today. Levi ran into the Norman fire chief for the THIRD time at the gym (first time since he found out he didn't get hired). Naturally, they struck up a conversation about Levi's interview and, come to find out, the department hired 15 people and Levi was number 16 on the list. NO. JOKE. The worst part is, they originally planned to hire 17 people, but because of the economy they had to cut two.

Now, to me (and likely you too) it seems terrible of the chief to point out to Levi that he just barely missed the cut. However, Levi explained that the chief prefaced his comment with the fact that he was trying to be encouraging. And the chief went on to tell Levi that they're planning to hire another 25 people next year for a second new station they're building. That's good news. What's better is that Levi said the chief seemed like he really wanted to hire Levi because he kept encouraging him to reapply next year.

The chief was really impressed with Levi and told him that NO ONE ever makes it to the final interview on the first try like Levi had. When Levi asked what he could do to move himself up higher on the list next time, the chief said to to do what he did this last time. The other candidates were just more polished (from multiple times through the process).

It's encouraging to finally get some good news (though we wish Levi would have just gotten on the department this time!). Levi really is a good candidate for the fire service, it's just a matter of waiting on God's timing.

Here we go again

After working toward his firefighting goal for a year to no avail, Levi got back on his horse and applied to the Stillwater Fire Department last week. It's about an hour and a half drive from where we live, but at this point he's wanting to get on almost anywhere. He doesn't have high hopes for Stillwater (OSU offers a fire science degree so he's sure they have no lack of qualified candidates), but it's worth a shot.

At this point neither of us see a clear direction about where we're headed, so we'll continue to pursue all available opportunities until God makes his will known to us. Please continue to pray that that would be sooner rather than later.

Take II

After the house fell through, Levi and I agreed to continue to rent until next April when our lease runs out, but we found another cute house for sale! We'll be looking at this one tomorrow. We haven't fully recovered from the last whirlwind almost-house-buying experience, so we haven't decided whether or not we'll make an offer. We're just looking (isn't that how it starts?).

Nevermind

So, we won't be getting that house after all. The sellers can't afford to make the foundation repairs at the current sales price and we're unwilling to pay more for the house since we wanted to make so many updates to it. Oh well, good thing we had already signed our lease renewal a week before we made the offer on the house! We'll just be renting for now and maybe try again after I rest up from this crazy roller coaster ride.

Foundation Update

We had our foundation inspection last Friday and there are a couple of places that need some work. Both the east and west walls of the foundation have been laterally displaced toward the east. This means that the foundation moved, but the walls of the house didn't go with it. So, the walls of the house are sitting an inch or so on the foundation and the rest of the width of the walls are hanging out over thin air.

The foundation inspector explained that the fix is not ridiculously expensive (like most foundation work), and that it's a pretty easy fix. The contractor will basically build a second foundation under the parts of the walls that are not supported. Sounds easy enough, right?

The next battle: getting the sellers to pay.

We bought a house!

In light of the recent disappointing news, I thought I would bring you happier news: Levi and I bought a house last week! We just got the inspection done yesterday and learned that there might be some problems with the foundation (the house is 70 years old), so we'll be having a structural engineer look at it Friday. If all goes well, we'll be closing at the end of the month.

Unfortunately, I can't seem to copy the picture from the realtor's site and can't do a direct link, so I'll have to take a picture soon to post. It's a 2 bed 1 bath bungalow style house with a big porch that's located in the Miller Historic District in Norman. It needs a lot of work, but it's all liveable and we're getting a great deal for the area.

Keep your fingers crossed that the foundation inspection goes well on Friday!