White Chili...A Household Favorite

I still remember Atom's reaction the first time I made him white chili. He ate 2 bowls and begged me to put it on the normal menu rotation. Since then, we've had it about every 2 weeks. I just recently added corn muffins to complement the chili and that has been a hit. It is a pretty tasty dish, especially during the cold months. Since it has been extra cold around here, I figured I would share the recipe and a few pictures from the last batch.

Here is what you will need:

That is: Olive oil, Chicken Breast (I use canned for a time saver, but you could bake/grill and chop up 2 fresh chicken breasts), one whole onion, garlic (2 cloves minced), one jalapeno, a can of diced green chiles, a can of cannellini beans, a can of great northern beans, chicken stock, salt (1/2 tsp), cumin (1tsp), oregano (1/2tsp) and cayenne pepper (1/8tsp). 

While we were visiting Atom's Aunt and Uncle in Minnesota, his Aunt pulled out an onion chopper, and I knew right then and there I had to have one. When I got home, I found the same exact chopper at Wegman's! SCORE! Look what this baby can do:

Your onion goes from 4 quarters to this...

A finely chopped onion in less than a minute! This baby has saved me a lot of finger nails and tears. I can't chop an onion without looking like Tammy Fae Baker afterwards. OK, enough onion chopper enthusiasm.

I like to chop my onion and jalapeno, while I heat up about a tablespoon of olive oil in a soup pot. Once I've chopped all the onion and jalapeno, I throw that in the pot with the garlic to saute. I cook the mixture until the onions are transparent.

Once the onions are transparent, I add in the chopped green chiles and the spices and mix. I let this cook for a few minutes. While that is cooking, I open up my cans of beans and chicken. You can use any kind of beans you want. I use white beans since I call this white chili. If I have some left over black beans in the fridge I throw those in the pot, and sometimes I add corn to the mix. 

Once your onions and peppers and spices have cooked for a bit, throw in the beans and chicken. I use a fork to break up the chicken before I put it in the pot. Stir that around and cook for a few more minutes. Then you will add the chicken stock. Add as much as you want, based on if you want more broth or less broth. Bring the chili to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer for about 30 minutes. 

 I throw the corn muffins in the oven while the chili is simmering.

I like to serve my chili with shredded cheese on top, but you could add some chopped cilantro, sour cream or whatever you fancy.

There you have it...our "old faithful" on the dinner menu. Let me know how you like it if you decide to give it a try.

I Can Check That Off My List

One of my resolutions for 2011, was to open an Etsy shop. I say "was" because I am officially an Etsy seller as of this week! I make so many things, but I received a lot of positive feedback on the netbook cover I made for Atom. That helped me finally decide what I would start with. I contemplated baby bibs, blankets, burp cloths, etc. Then I thought about camera strap covers. I may add those later, but for now I am focusing on custom covers for laptops, Ipads, Kindles, Tablets or any other electrical device out there.

It took quite a bit of time and effort to set up shop. I spent a full day on Photoshop creating logos, my banner for my shop, editing pictures and posting items for sale. I found a few useful tricks along the way so it will be easier as I go along.

I don't expect to become a millionaire (or a thousandaire for that matter), but this will keep me in front of the sewing machine and creating. It will also lead to numerous trips to the fabric store and hours pouring over new fabrics, saying "Oooooh" and "Aaaaah."  My goal is to use my sales to buy myself some nice camera equipment. I'd like to one day take family and baby portraits, so maybe this little shop will get me on my way.

I added a button at the top of the blog that will take you there if you'd like to have a look. I've already made my first sale thanks to our cousin Louise in Minnesota! Thanks Louise :)

IVG Stores: Horrible Service Alert!

Atom really wanted a nice poker chip set since his world is now consumed with the sport. I did some internet searching for good deals, because those poker sets can be pricey. I stumbled upon an online store, IVG Stores. They had a set that you could customize how many of each chip you wanted, and that is exactly what I was looking for. I noticed that they had a pretty general or blanket description for almost all of their sets, which stated I could choose from denominations from 1-1000. This was exactly what I was looking for, because Atom actually gave me the number of each denomination of chips he wanted. I was so excited to be getting such a great deal. I left the denominations I wanted in the comments in the order, because there was no option to choose from a drop-down menu. I was a little apprehensive about that process, so I called their customer service to make sure they had my denomination amounts correct. I was glad to hear that they had the information from the comments and the representative told me he would send this info to the manufacturer who would be shipping the order.

I ordered the chip set on November 22nd. It was almost the middle of December when I started to worry because the chip set had still not been shipped according to the order status online. So I called up the customer service department again. I was told that the 1K chips were not available. I was asked if I wanted to substitute another denomination. I wanted Atom to get his chips in time for Christmas, so I had them send extra 500 chips in place of the 1K chips. The order finally shipped and got here just in time for Christmas.

When Atom opened his chips, I told him why there were no 1K chips. He began telling me more than I needed to know about what poker chips should be included in a 500 chips set for tournament play. He had actually given me incorrect information on the spreadsheet, but he still definitely wanted and needed the 1K chips. I decided to call IVG to see if the 1K chips had become available and to see if we could exchange the un-opened sleeves of chips for the ones we needed. The first guy I spoke with stated that it was not possible to exchange the chips, because the manufacturer would not take them back. I didn't know what to think, so I hung up and talked to Atom about the issue. We both thought it was ridiculous that we could not switch chips, so I called back to see what the return policy was. I spoke to a woman who told me that we would have to pay to ship the set back, plus pay a 15% re-stocking fee. Shipping was $30 and the re-stocking fee would be about $20. That is a $50 dollar loss! Then if I wanted to re-order, I'd have to pay to ship it back out again. The rep then informed me that the 1K chips were never even available. I was furious! Why didn't the rep tell me that when they called to say they weren't available? They made it seem like the manufacturer was just out of stock. I looked at the description and it was the same description that I originally saw, offering chips up to 1K.

We were furious. We found another website that sold the same exact chips individually and ordered the ones Atom wanted and decided to buy $1 to use as 1K chips. That cost us an extra $60. An extra $60 to get something that is still not 100% what Atom wanted. I was so mad that I could not give him what he wanted for Christmas, because of mis-information and a lack of service.  I sent IVG an email explaining what happened and that I was extremely dissatisfied (that email was never answered by anyone at IVG). I also wrote a review of the product explaining what happened and that that particular set was not good for tournament games since there were no 1K chips available. I also decided to tweet about IVG. It pays to tweet people, whether you are mad or happy with service, let your voice be heard!

I was surprised when I got a response telling me to contact a manager at IVG with a direct extension. I decided to give it a shot, even though my instincts told me I was going to get nothing out of the call. I was right. I was told that the website says that the denominations are only 1-500. Get this...I went to the page, THEY CHANGED IT! She tried to tell me that it has always said that, but that is complete bullshit! I know what I read, otherwise I would never have ordered that set if it didn't offer 1K chips! AND...they removed my product review! I wish I had been smart enough to take a screen-shot of the previous page. If I would have known how shady they are, I would have done it in a heartbeat.  She did admit that the rep should have told me that the 1K chips were not available in this set, but her offer of reconciliation was 10% off my next order. Uh...thanks, but no thanks.

I worked in customer service from 1997 until 2007, that is 10 years of customer service experience. I know how to give good customer service and I know how to go above and beyond. The last company I worked for had a "re-stocking fee." That was basically to deter returns and justify the effort and paperwork done for the return process. When there was an issue with service or product, I had no problem waiving the fee. IVG should have offered to waive the re-stocking fee at the bare minimum. I do find it flattering that my complaining forced them to update their product information, even though it was to cover their own ass. They sent an email after the order was shipped asking for a product review. I gave my review and they deleted it. Awesome. I just found an online store review site, IVG got 2 and a half stars out of 101 reviews! Why didn't I look into that before hand? Ugh.This company is seriously amateur-hour and I will never do business with them again, well maybe there is a 10% chance.