Chicken Tortilla Soup

Today at the collaborative blog that I write for, Focusing on Life, I posted a story about my chicken tortilla soup, just the story, no recipe.  Well, after several people have requested the recipe, I decided to post it here.  So here goes:

Chicken Tortilla Soup

3 chicken breast halves, including skin & bone

1 tsp. garlic powder

1 tsp. salt

2 32 oz. cartons of chicken broth + 1 14.5 oz. can of chicken broth

2 14.5 oz. cans of diced tomatoes

2 chipotle peppers in abobo sauce (or less if you don't want it too spicy)

1 medium sweet onion

2 cloves of garlic, crushed

olive oil

1 bag frozen sweet corn

cilantro, chopped

avocado, chopped

tortilla chips

Cover chicken breasts with water in large pot; add garlic powder and salt.  Bring to boil and then lower heat to medium and cook for approximately 30 minutes until chicken is done.  Remove and let cool.  Dispose of cooking water.  Chop onion and saute with garlic in olive oil until opaque.  Add onion/garlic, one can of tomatoes and some of the chicken broth to a blender and blend.  Pour into same pan you  used to cook the chicken.  Add second can of tomatoes, some chicken broth and chipotle peppers to blender and blend. Pour into cooking pot.  Cook on medium heat for 30 minutes.  Meanwhile, shred chicken, discarding skin and bone.  Add chicken, corn and cilantro to soup and heat for 1-2 minutes.  Break tortilla chips into serving bowls, spoon soup over chips and add avocado.

That's all there is to it.  Enjoy!

Behind the Scenes Mouseover

I have been enjoying all the amazing techniques I've been learning in the Behind the Scenes class with Kim Klassen and Xanthe Berkeley. One technique that Kim uses a lot is called a "mouseover" where you can move your mouse over the photo and see the before and afters. To create the image above, I used two of Kim's textures, "Epiphany" and "Sunday", both at soft light. I liked this so much that I ended up printing it at 12x18 and framing it for my studio!  If you want to see the "before", just move your mouse over the  photo. Enjoy!

Persistence and finally . . . I did it!

A while back when I was taking Xanthe Berkeley's Capturing Time Capsules class, she taught us how to create an animated gif file.  I had troubles with it and ended up never learning the technique.  Now in the Behind the Scenes class Kim and Xanthe are teaching the same technique and I was determined to figure it out.  Success!  This is a very simplistic attempt at it, but now that I know how, you will definitely be seeing more animation in my blog!

Sunflower Love

I had picked up some sunflowers at Trader Joe's a few days ago but hadn't had a chance to take them outside for a photo shoot.  Then this afternoon I noticed that the sun had gone behind some clouds and I thought it was the perfect opportunity to try to capture some sunflower love! Their color just makes me happy!