I was reading a remarkable blog by Jon Swanson and thinking about his community and role as a pastor and blogger and thought it would be neat to have someone with Jon’s writing skill, love of God, and abilitity to communicate his faith in a modern voice work on a project with me – something simple.

The light bulb that went off in my mind was to present to Jon and a few other friends  an idea, a great idea, to develop a following of daily readers interested in what a modern Jesus would say, 140 characters at a time.

That’s right, Jesus on twitter.

Well, that idea doesn’t sound too original, but my concept was to have a twitter account setup on the idea of “what would Jesus tweet” if he was around today – not bible quotes as we know them, but tweets in our own common language – words about life from the Son of God via twitter. I’d be happy to see those tweets – surely others would too.  It would be a great outreach effort.

Knowing that I would need more than just an idea to present to Jon, I thought I would go ahead and setup the gmail account and then the twitter account that would be needed to run this idea.

Ten minutes later I realized my idea was not so new afterall, wwjt@gmail.com was taken and so was wwjt and jesustweet on twitter.  While I could re-imagine this and come up with a new email and a new twitter account, my motivation was displaced once this reality set in.

For me, knowing that I could not (or would not) run this by myself, I hit the first dip in this idea and decided to abandon it after less than 15 minutes of conceiving it.  As mentioned in an earlier post, I’ve put my own advice to work and made the effort to unclutter my mind by working this idea out so it doesn’t consume my brainwidth – which is important for me since I have so many things bouncing around in my mind. Knowing when to quit is just as important as knowing when to stick with it.  For now, “what would Jesus tweet” has already been done so you can find me following wwjt and jesustweet looking for the next new idea!

What’s your new idea?  Did you see if it’s really a new idea, or just new to you?

Sorta Simple Tortilla Soup

So, I don’t cook often, but when I do, its always an experiment er I mean experience.
And this Sorta Simple Tortilla Soup is no exception.

So tonight, on the way to the store I called my friend Brandon East
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/profile.php?id=1371484155
who writes a Beer Review article for a local lifestyle magazine
http://www.vipbrew.blogspot.com . He makes some amazing beer and food pairings and has a good reputation doing so. Anyway, he’s pretty passionate about flavor concoctions and I see him as a taste guru so I gave him a call for a quick run down on a tortilla soup recipe.

I get him on the phone and skip straight past the usual greetings and asked if he knew how to make tortilla soup to which he immediately said “yeah man… yeah… of course, yeah..” and then he went on to explain a pretty simple tortilla soup made up of onions, celery, stewed tomatoes, corn, beans, rice and some chicken broth.

While he explained the recipe I was thinking to myself that his recipe is more or less what I would have done… hmmm what’s special about this?…. And then I heard Brandon say “So yeah, that’s what I would probably do off the top of my head”. Then he goes on to tell me that he “has never actually made tortilla soup”. *chuckles* … Okay, so we are both making this up on the fly. Anyway, before we got off the phone Brandon asked for me to tell him how it turns out.

So here we are. “Hey Brandon, it turned out pretty darn good”. Taste pretty light with a very full flavor. Its, by far, better than any tortilla soup I’ve had at a restaurant. Just my opinion.

Sorta Simple Tortilla Soup
by Justin

Ingredients list:
YELLOW ONION – 1
CELERY – 5 stalks
MINCED GARLIC – 1 tbsp
BUTTER – Half a stick
BABY CARROTS – 10 chopped
GARLIC SALT – 1 tbsp
Knorr Caldo De Tomate Con Sabor De Pollo (Tomato Boullion with Chicken Flavor) – 2 tbsp
Knorr Caldo Con Sabor De Pollo (Chicken Flavor Boullion) – 2 tbsp
Del Monte Stewed Tomatoes (Mexican Recipe Style with jalepenos, Garlic and Cumin) – 1 (14.5oz) can
Rotel Chunky Tomatoes & Green Chilies – 1 (10oz) can
Rotisserie Chicken – 1 already cooked
Spanish Rice mix
Kraft Mexican Cheddar Jack

Boil 6 cups of water and add 2 tbsp of the tomatoe boullion with chicken flavor and 2 tbsp of chicken flavor boullion then keep on low heat for later… (just to be clear, that actually is two different flavors… one is just chicken and one is chicken and tomatoe)….

Cut up your already cooked rotisserie chicken breast and legs. Either pull it, shred it, dice it or whatever you like to do. I cut mine into very small cubes. Keep on the side for later…

Put your chopped onions, chopped celery and chopped carrots in a ‘big pot’ with a half a stick of butter and 1 tbsp of minced garlic and 1 tbsp of garlic salt. Cook down for about 10 minutes on medium heat stirring often. Then add about a cup of your boiled boullion mix and let it boil with your onions and celery for about 10 minutes.

Add your can of stewed tomatoes and Rotel tomatoes and cook just below a boil for about 10 minutes. I drained the juice from the tomatoes, but its your preference.

After your 10 minutes with the tomatoes mixed in, then add the remainder of your boullion mix into the ‘big pot’ and cook just below a boil for 20 minutes. Then add your cooked diced rotisserie chicken to the mix and boil for 10 minutes.

Serve in a bowl with half a cup of Mexican Cheddar Jack cheese on top and serve a side plate of your Spanish rice.

I’ll leave it to Brandon to suggest the Beer you should drink with this meal.

Hope you try my Sorta Simple Tortilla Soup sometime.

Best,
Justin McCullough
leader4hire.net

PS – No, I don’t think I’m a chef. No, I don’t actually think anybody here  will try to recreate the recipe. But if you do… tell me what you think and what beer your drank with it *wink*