This may look like a bowl of baby poo, but it is not!  It is quite possibly the tastiest soup/chili you will ever have!  For reals though, you must try this.  Not only is it an explosion of flavor in your mouth but it’s super healthy to boot!

Salsa Bean Soup (aka Black Bean Soup)

1 tsp. vegetable oil (I use olive oil cause it’s GOOD for you!)

1 tbsp. minced garlic

2 cups water

1/2 tsp. chipotle chili powder

3 (15 oz) cans black beans, rinsed and drained

1 (8 oz) bottle salsa (medium heat is good)

1 tbsp. fresh lime juice

1/4 c. chopped fresh cilantro

Heat oil in a large pot over medium-high heat.  Add garlic, saute 1 minute.  Stir in water, chipotle powder, beans and salsa.  Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer 1 minute.

Place 3 cups of black bean mixture in a blender; process until smooth.  Return pureed mixture to pot.  Stir in lime juice; simmer 10 minutes.  Remove from heat; stir in cilantro.

The recipe calls to top your bowl off with Montery Jack Cheese, but I use Mozzarella since that’s what on my Blood Type Diet and it’s just as good.  I also like to eat this with broken tortilla chips in it, or use them to scoop out the chili-goodness like a dip.  Oh, and do yourself a favor and just make a double batch of it—trust me.  You’re welcome.

Well it has FINALLY arrived.  Our first HDTV.  46” seems a bit ridiculous for a bedroom though.  Oh well.

This is a fun Halloween story!

We went up to my in-laws for Halloween.  Every year they carve over 30 pumpkins, decorate the yard, and do a Haunted House walkthru on Halloween night.

This year they carved 34 pumpkins.  Halloween Eve at about 130am, we were in bed.  I was just starting to fall asleep when I heard a popping noise.  I became more alert and listened to see if I could hear it again.  And again, pop pop pop.  As I shot out of bed and ran to the window, the sound was too familiar.  And there I saw out in the street, smashed pumpkins.  I yelled “they’re smashing the pumpkins!” and woke everyone up.  I went tearing down the stairs and out the door in pretty much just my underwear.  I was livid and ready to take a baseball bat to some kneecaps.  By the time we all made it outside there was no one in sight (which was really really perplexing).  Keenan cleaned up the 5 pumpkins [left side of picture] and put them back in the yard.  We went back upstairs but were too angry to fall back asleep.  I was positive they would be back to take out more—and we were ready to go postal.  An hour later, Keenan’s brother’s came home from the bar and we could hear them outside being really loud—obviously they had discovered what had happened.

When morning came, we found out that his brothers had come home to find more smashed pumpkins.  So between 130 and 230, while we were laying there awake, the bastards came back and took out the other side [right side of picture].  The reason we didn’t hear them was because instead of smashing them in the street, they came back and kicked the fronts in.  All of the damaged pumpkins are in color in the picture.

Such a lovely thing for people to do, no?  If we all ever find out who did it….let’s just say things aren’t going to turn out too nicely.

Okay, it’s not just his feet.

The only photogenic part of Loki are his feet.  Fact.