I'm a Winner!

I just started getting into digital scrapbooking, and have been finding tons of great freebie kits around the Internet! This is my first attempt at making a digital scrapbooking page:

It features my great-great-grandmother, Berber "Barbara" J. (DeJONG) VALK with her grandson, Gerrit John HEIDEMA, Jr., around 1919. The backgrounds and all the elements except for the green ribbon were from A-liya's Christmas Around the World freebie kit, while the green ribbon was from Nore's Nice-ities, who also put out a Christmas Around the World freebie kit. There are 113 kits in the Christmas Around the World event, and they are free to grab until the end of the year!

I added A-liya's blog to my Google Reader, and then found out she was having a drawing for this lovely Breathtaking Winter kit, so I signed up:

Well, today I got an e-mail saying I had won! I'm so delighted. Thank you, A-liya!

Jalapeño-Beef Stew

I know, I know, I haven't blogged here in forever, and realize I have a lot of catching up to do, but I promised Thomas that I would post my recipe for Jalapeño-Beef Stew. It's a recipe I created after hunting around on the Internet for some ideas to use up the stockpiled canned goods we have leftover from the winter. I merged a couple of recipes I found online and added or substituted ingredients I had on hand, which somehow always manages to create the best dish! My picky-eating 14-year-old son loved it; he had two servings the first night and then two servings of leftovers the next! This was cheap, easy, and delicious. The only thing I could find fault with was that you would not want to eat this if you were on a low-sodium diet.

Jalapeño-Beef Stew

• 1 12-oz. can of roast beef in beef broth, undrained (can you tell I shop at Costco? LOL!)
  
• 1 15-oz. can of corn, undrained
• 1 15-oz. can of stewed tomatoes (I used Italian-style), undrained
• 1 15-oz. can of kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 1/4 c. jarred sliced hot jalapeño peppers, drained and chopped (avoid touching your eyes or face while doing this and wash your hands well after chopping)
• 1/2 can (about 1 cup) of water (I rinsed out the stewed tomatoes can and used it with all the good juicy tomato bits in it)
  
• 2 T. powdered beef soup base (or the equivalent of beef bullion cubes)
• 2 t. chili powder
  
• dried oregano, to taste

Empty all ingredients in a quart-sized sauce pan. Heat thoroughly on medium-high, then simmer while your muffins or cornbread are baking! I got about 6 good-sized servings from this.

Would taste great with shredded cheddar cheese and/or sour cream on top.