Shoe-Stravaganza

For those of you who enjoy shoes as much as I do, I have some more shoe pictures to share.

But first, since I know not everyone shares my love of shoes, some food pictures and recipe links…

We tried a new slow cooker recipe tonight - White Bean and Apple Chili from A Year of Slow Cooking. To make it Husband-friendly, I replaced one can of beans with 2 boneless chicken breasts.

Other changes:

- I think I used slightly less chicken broth; probably 2 1/2 cups instead of 3.

- I added some chipotle chilis for a little extra heat and some smokey flavor.

- Shortly before serving I mixed together a bit of corn starch & flour then added it to the chili in the slow cooker to thicken it up.

- I didn’t add cheese, because I thought Husband would prefer it without, but I did sprinkle a bit on top of mine.

To to with it, I made this cornbread recipe. For the corn bread, I halved the recipe, switched the amounts for the flour and cornmeal (so more cornmeal, less flour) and used melted unsalted butter instead of oil. Just because I prefer butter.

Both came out really well. Husband had 3 pieces of the cornbread, so I think that was the favorite tonight.

On to the Shoes!

I mentioned on Monday that I made a return trip to the shoe sale. On the previous Friday I had bought the one pair of boots, but there were some other items that I was considering…

The pair that I had bought on the Friday were a no brainer. As I said, I’d been admiring them since the fall, they fit and felt very comfy. The other reason I didn’t hesitate is that they are Naots.

I have a pair of Naots that must be at least 5 years old, if not older. They have been worn regularly, they are still comfy and still in good shape. Here are the new and the old, side by side:

I still love the first pair, even though I’ve had them for a long time, so the new pair of Naots seemed like a safe bet.

I initially decided to stick with that one pair as my purchase in an effort to avoid impulse purchases. I regretted it almost right away, and almost went back the next day, but the sales lady had said that if I came back on Monday there might be an even better deal going on (at the time everything was 50% off). So I made myself wait until Monday.

On Monday when I went back, the sale was buy 1 item (at 50% off) and get the second item for 75% off. And both of the items I wanted were still there.

First – Anne Klein pumps.

I hesitated the first day because there was also a pair of black patent pumps that were quite nice and seemed maybe more practical. But I couldn’t decide so I left them both. After leaving the store, these Anne Kleins were the ones I regretted leaving behind.

Second – Green boots!

I can’t help it. I love them.

But, while I was there grabbing the two pairs of shoes that I had been obsessing about all weekend, I also saw a couple of other things…

Honestly, I just tried these Clarks boots on for the fun of it. They remind me of the granny boots I had…well…quite a while back now. Late 80’s? Early 90’s? But surprisingly they looked really cute with my jeans and were very comfy. What’s a girl to do at a shoe sale? Ahem.

The purse is larger than what I would usually buy – I’m only a small person after all and I don’t think my purse should be bigger than me. But I quite liked this. It’s got a sort of luggage look to it and I think it would be good for travelling.

So that was my haul. No shoe shopping for me for a good long while now, I think I’ve hit my quota…Well, at least until summer anyway.

Yes, I am fully aware that I have a shoe problem. I just don’t really want to do anything about it. :)