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Dinner by The Fire 2 - Roasted Corn & Chicken Soup

Photo and recipe by Joyce Bahorich

Roasted Corn and Chicken Soup

4 tablespoons olive oil divided
1 can (15 ounces) yellow corn, drained
1 can (15 ounces) white corn, drained
1 medium onion, diced
1 can  diced green chilis
1-1/2 pound cooked rotisserie chicken, shredded
1-2 packets taco seasoning mix
4-6 cups chicken broth
½ cup instant brown rice
1 can (15 ounce) black beans, rinsed and drained
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

Garnishes:  Southwestern tortilla chips, sour cream, cheddar cheese, fresh guacamole , more cilantro

Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat in large skillet until hot.  Add corn.  Cook until brown, about 10 minutes; stir often to prevent corn from burning.  Add remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil, onion, and chiles.  Cook and stir 5 minutes.

Transfer mixture to a large pot.  Stir in shredded chicken.  Add seasoning mix and toss to combine.  Stir in chicken broth , black beans, rice, and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to low and add more chicken broth and taco seasoning if soup needs more liquid; add cilantro.  Simmer 15 minutes.  

Makes 8 servings

Joyce Bahorich

What are fireplace inserts?

by Richard Winter - How Stuff Works

Ah, the crackle of a fire in the hearth. There's nothing like a blazing fireplace to create a sense of warmth and comfort. However, there's a major downside to the traditional wood-burning fireplace, whether it's a factory-built fireplace or a masonry fireplace: heat loss.

Fireplaces are, by nature, not very efficient. They pull warm air out of the room and into the fire. A lot of t­hat energy -- heat -- is lost up the chimney and through the material that surrounds it. When temperatures drop below freezing, a fireplace exhausts more energy than it creates. The Hearth, Patio and Barbecue Association rates older fireplaces' efficiency at 5 percent to 10 percent [source: Kaufman].

Most fireplace inserts are designed to increase fireplace efficiency. An insert is basically a fireproof box that's surrounded by steel or cast iron and fronted by insulated glass, creating a closed combustion system. The steel or cast iron helps to trap the heat. Some inserts have a blower that pushes the hot air back into the room through front vents. Properly installed, fireplace inserts can be a much more efficient supplemental zone heater than a traditional fireplace [source: Wood Heat Organization].

Inserts can be powered by electricity, gas, propane, wood, pellets or coal.

Electric, gas and propane inserts also offer owners a big time saving advantage. Consider this: To build a fire, you have to gather the materials, which in some cases involve a tree, an ax and a great workout. Even if you buy wood, you will still have to haul and store it. There's also preparation involved in setting up a fire: You need seasoned wood, papers and kindling to get it going. Smoke might get in your eyes (especially if you forget to open the flue!) as you tend to the fire to keep it going. And afterwards, you've got to clean all the ash out of the fireplace.

With an electric or gas insert, all you have to do to start the flames is push a button, which, depending upon the model you buy, might even be on a remote.

Read on to learn about electric fireplace inserts. (CLICK HOW STUFF WORKS TO CONTINUE READING)

Also Check out these suggestions: 

Brick Paint for your fireplace  Fireplace Glass Door Replacement  Economy Mantels

Top YouTube Videos on Decorating Your Fireplace

Fireplaces are well known for the comfort, warmth, and relaxation that they bring to a home. They serve as the center around which a family can gather, a common space aside from the ever-present television. Fireplaces can also double as display spaces: mantels are commonly home to pictures of loved ones and often serve as canvases for holiday decorations. Here are a few YouTube videos that show some ways to get creative with fireplace decoration.

1. How to Decorate a Fireplace Mantel for Fall

With summer winding down and fall just around the corner, the time for a change in decoration is coming. This video contains some helpful tips on decorating the fireplace for autumn.

• Use natural elements that give the feeling of the fall season: pumpkins, gourds, warm colors, and berries.
• Use candles for extra color and added ambience.
• Antique books create visual interest, an aged feel, and a nice aesthetic. They can also be used to add height.

There are other videos to keep your fireplace looking great year-round: winter, spring, and summer.

2. How to Decorate an Unused Fireplace

A lot of homes have fireplaces, but not everyone makes full use of them. If you don’t regularly hold fires, you can still make your fireplace a focal point:

• Use your empty fireplace as a display case.
• Use wood, river rocks, and dried flowers for a natural, rustic look.
• Use candles and a mirror to mimic the ambience of a fireplace fire.
• Fireplaces work as a great frame for plants, boxes, and books.

3. Decorate Your Mantel

This video has some general tips for decorating mantels, particularly the best ways to use a mirror as part of an attractive display.

• Make sure that the mirror isn’t reflecting anything unsightly or distracting.
• Add other elements to balance the display.
• Use plants to bridge the gaps between objects.

With these techniques, you can make your fireplace a unique and attractive focal point and comfortable gathering space in your home, even when a fire isn’t burning.

Author Bio:

YTD is a producer of free software that allows you to convert videos into the format that works best for you. So if you are trying to download vacation videos to your iphone, ipad, or other video devices, YTD’s software can take the headache out of video formatting.  

Advantages of Fireplace Glass Doors

If you have a fireplace, then you are already highly familiar with the crackling, spitting and spilling that is associated with having a life fire in you living room. Asides from having a dustpan and brush nearby, there are other ways that you can make your fireplace more manageable in the form of fireplace glass doors. So today we are going to go through the main advantages of fireplace glass.

1. Clean-Factor

Glass fireplace doors keep you fire and anything it wants to spit out, behind glass: making it easier to keep the areas around your fireplace clean and tidy. Knowing that anything that cracks and pops out of your fire will stay behind a glass door is also good because you can now experiment with different tools, and even visit the bathroom without being worried about what your fire is throwing onto your rug whilst you are gone!

The other major cleaning issue with fireplaces is with the ashes that are leftover when a fire is done. Ash that is left from a fire can blow into your living room whenever there is a strong wind outside, blowing down your chimney. Fireplace glass provides a barrier between the ash and your living room, so you will no longer be surprised by small grey clouds arising from your fireplace, threatening your lovely rugs.

2. Temperature regulation

Fireplaces are attached to chimneys, and chimneys like to blow! Whether the fire is on or not, one major issue that homeowners with fireplaces regularly complain about is the unwanted air conditioning effect that kicks around the fireplace when the winter sets it. Not only do chimneys and fireplaces let a lot of cold air in, they also such a lot of warm air out: and so your heating bills goes up and your temperature goes down! Fireplace glass is a good draught excluder for such situations, meaning that you can keep the cold air from the chimney out of your living room, without disturbing the peace and quite of your living room décor.

3. Safety

Any children, or pets that are allowed to roam the house are at risk of getting hurt if they come too close to a burning fire, and fireplace glass is one way to minimize any damage that can occur in the event of accidental contact. Fireplace doors are built to keep the heat within the fireplace, so when they are closed (such as when you are done with your fire and waiting for the hot embers to cool) your fireplace glass will keep curious little fingers and noses as safe as possible.

4. Better fires

A common trick to get the fire going, when it really doesn’t want to, is to hold a newspaper or some other blockage over the fire to guide the wind up the chimney, giving your fire a good blast of oxygen to get it roaring. Rather than faff around with paper and cardboard, fireplace doors will block the wind for you without risking you, or your newspapers. A great advantage.

Ben works for Speedy Services and loves to write about home improvements.

5 DIY Fireplace Makeover Ideas

Few things can bring down a room than an outdated fireplace. And because it’s such a permanent-looking feature, it can feel like there’s nothing to be done about it other than a major renovation. But you can substantially transform the look of just about any fireplace with some simple DIY projects. Here are a few ideas.

Cover-ups and Accessories

When your fireplace and mantle are passable, but just need some punching up, accessorizing can save you a lot of work. If the stone is attractive, but just overwhelming the space, cover some of it up with an art piece or a mirror that fits the shape of the chimney. The idea here is to use the existing brick or rock face as a backdrop for other visual elements. If you’re willing, you can install a few light fixtures, set some large vases or candlesticks on the mantle to take the focus off of the mediocre facing and onto those items.

Tile or Stone

Depending on what kind of fireplace you have, demolishing the existing stone or brick to replace it with something else could be a lot of work. But the effect of replacing that outdated surface with something attractive is truly transformational for the entire room.

A glass tile fireplace will offer sparkle that you won’t get with slate, a common choice for fireplace makeovers. Of course, you can always apply a new stone veneer that better matches your design plans. Smaller tiles and stones can make a tiny fireplace seem larger or create a mosaic pattern that’s more appealing than ugly old lava rock or boring stone.

Don’t Fear the Paint

Sometimes the ugly stone or brick surrounding your fireplace is beyond saving. If you don’t want to rip it out, you shouldn’t hesitate to try painting. One mistake a lot of people make is painting a fireplace neutral, blending colors, but that ends up sterilizing a space of color and texture. You’ll want to do all your prep work before interior painting, but just be sure to choose a color that doesn’t blend in with the color of your existing walls and floors.

Reclaimed Wood

One of my favorite looks for remodeling fireplaces, or just an accent wall, is wood. It’s such a rustic look to have the wood texture of reclaimed or aged hardwood surrounding a flickering fire. Horizontal beams are usually the best. The larger your fireplace, the wider your planks should be, I think. This rustic touch is just the thing to rough up an ultra-modern room makeover, and the contrast is just stunning.

Added Surround Bookshelves

Built-ins around the fireplace prevent the walls from appearing too bare. They also help fireplaces from appearing to extend too far into the room, just hanging there. Shelves and cabinets also draw visual attention away from the fireplace, diffusing it as a focal point; just what you need if the fireplace itself is a bit underwhelming.

Author bio: Robin Matthews isn’t always rearranging the furniture and hunting for paint swatches; sometimes, she blogs on home improvement, décor and style at HomeFashionCentral.com.

Easy Solutions to Bring Back the Zing to an Unused Fireplace

Breathe new life to your unused fireplace and make it a functional and visual masterpiece with these quick and cheap solutions.

During cold winter months, nothing feels better than the warmth coming from a fireplace. But, what good would a fireplace be during warm summer days? Or perhaps, how do you make use of a fireplace that is not operable? These are some problems that many homeowners have to deal with. And if you happen to be one of them, you are probably looking at your unused fireplace as though it is a major mistake.

However, do not let the soot-stained interior of your fireplace make it into an eyesore. Your fireplace, though unused, can actually be made to look a visual masterpiece and the focal point of the space. Likewise, you can assign a new purpose to it so as to make it functional again. Here are some quick and inexpensive solutions you can do to bring the zing back to your unused fireplace.

Turn it into a display case

An unused fireplace makes for a great place for you to show off your collection of decorative item such as candles and vases. However, rather than using the mantel to hold the accents, consider arranging them in the opening of your fireplace. Simply gather the items together and arrange them accordingly. A variety of shapes and heights are what will make an arrangement interesting. If your collection lacks variety, especially in terms of height, use a dark-colored stool to elevate some of the items, then spread out other pieces in the opening with the smaller ones filling in the nooks.

Use it as a book shelf or storage space

If you are voracious reader, your unused fireplace provides you the opportunity to remodel it into a books shelf. Of course, before you proceed making your “fireplace library,” clean it well so that dirt and soot will not get into the pages of your books. Once cleaned, integrate two or three layers of shelves into the fireplace opening then stack up your books on each shelf.

If you are not too keen about the idea of piling your books into your unused fireplace, then you can outfit the shelves you made with baskets and use them as storage solutions for other items for easier access.

Creatively cover it up

Instead of leaving your fireplace like a black hole on the wall, cover it up in a creative way. You can board up the hole of your firebox with a decorative tin cover to give it a vintage charm. Or, if your fireplace is just taking a break from its warming duties, cover it temporarily with a folding screen or a curtain.

Another great creative way to conceal the dark interior of your firebox is to put a large piece of canvas print, painting or mirror in front of it. For a more personal touch, have your favorite photo blown up and printed on a canvas, then use it to cover your fireplace opening and turn such unused feature into a focal point.

These are just some of the many things you can do to make your non-working fireplace functional again without necessarily replacing or removing it. With little investment of money, time, energy and creativity, it is possible for you to enjoy your fireplace even without the fire and warmth it emits.

The article above was contributed by one of the writers of Steel Building Design <http://www.steelbuildingsdesign.co.uk/>, one of the leading companies in the UK that designs, supplies and erects bespoke steel framed buildings.

May I also suggest a new: Fireplace Glass Door or a Brick Paint Kit ?

How to Clean Fireplace Glass Doors

Fireplace glass doors give your home fireplace an elegant, finished look. Fireplace glass doors are available in a variety of designs, including bi-fold and tri-fold glass panes. A lit fireplace creates dust from ash from wood and coal fuels that build up on fireplace glass doors quickly. Ash residue on fireplace doors is difficult to clean and ruins the look of the fireplace. There are several ways to clean fireplace doors…

• Soft cloths and a basin of sudsy water
• Household ammonia and water in a ratio of one part ammonia to three parts water
• A dampened newspaper roll and fireplace ash
• A razor blade
• Hire an experienced contractor - Save yourself a Messy Chore

Soft cloths And a Basin of Water

This is not exactly the ideal way to clean your fireplace glass doors. The cloths tend to create streaks on the glass, the basin of water is awkward to transport, not to mention, the water quickly becomes a thick mass of ashy sludge.

Household Ammonia and Water

Household ammonia always has to be used with care. The noxious fumes are unpleasant even when ammonia is neutralized in a ratio of one part ammonia to three parts water. It's important to ventilate the room where the fireplace is located properly to avoid a reaction to ammonia vapors.

Using a Razor Blade to Clean Fireplace Glass Doors

This is most likely the least safest way to clean fireplace glass doors. There is also the possibility of seriously scratching glass panes in the fireplace door frame. This depends on how much residue will be removed. Take extreme care when using a razor blade for this job.

Hire an Experienced Contractor - Save Yourself a Messy Chore

There's no avoiding the job of keeping fireplace glass doors clean. It's a chore that can't really be ignored for very long. It just doesn't have to add to other domestic chores. An experienced contractor can save you from a messy chore. In addition, your contractor will offer a regular annual maintenance contract that tracks each cleaning of your fireplace doors.

This post was brought to you by Phil Henderson, President of Henderson Properties, a leading community association management company based in Charlotte, NC.

May I Also Suggest: 

Brick Fireplace Cleaner

Fireplace Glass Doors

Black Firebox Paint

Where there’s fire there’s smoke - Cleaning a Brick Fireplace

Where there’s fire there’s smoke, so a working fireplace naturally accumulates smoke and soot. The stains and residue from smoke and soot can be especially hard to clean. If you are not careful, you might damage or discolor fireplace bricks. The following guidelines can help you clean brick fireplaces safely and effectively. 

Smoke
Smoke is a difficult stain to remove. Try scrubbing with scouring powder (preferably one containing bleach) and a stiff bristle brush. You can also try alkali detergents and commercial emulsifying agents; apply these with a brush or spray and be sure to give them sufficient time to work. Test these chemicals on a small area that is not too visible before using them on a large area. (These compounds have the added advantage that they can be used in steam cleaners.)
For small, stubborn stains, a poultice using trichloroethylene will pull the stain from the pores. Exercise caution when using Trichloroethylene in confined spaces. Ventilate the fumes.

Soot
For small areas of soot, press light-colored children's molding dough onto the brick and lift the soot away. (Be careful--you don't want to pull off any surface material.) Or dip a scrub brush into a pan of full-strength white household vinegar. Scrub a small section at a time, working up. It may take a lot of elbow grease and several applications to remove all of the soot. 

Bucket and Brush Hand CleaningThis is probably the most popular but most misunderstood of all the methods used for cleaning brick masonry. Its popularity is due to the simplicity of execution and the ready availability of proprietary cleaning compounds.

To select the proper cleaning solution (proprietary compounds, detergents or acid solutions) follow the steps outlined below:

1. For proprietary compounds, make sure that the one selected is suitable for the brick and follow the cleaning compound manufacturer's recommended dilution instructions. Brick-Anew fireplace cleaner is specially formulating for just this purpose, unlike many commercial cleansers. Although these other cleaning solutions generally perform in a satisfactory manner, you should test each product being considered in an inconspicuous spot.

2. Detergent or soap solutions may be used to remove mud, dirt and soil accumulated during construction. A suggested solution is 1/2 cup dry measure (0.14 L) of trisodium phosphate and 1/2 cup dry measure (0.14 L) of laundry detergent dissolved in one gallon (3.9 L) of clean water.

3. For acid solutions, mix a 10% solution of muriatic acid (9 parts clean water to 1 part acid) in a non-metallic container. Pour acid into water. Do not permit metal tools to contact the acid solution. There is the temptation to mix acid solutions stronger than recommended in order to clean stubborn stains. The indiscriminate use of any acid solution may tend to cause further stains.

Caution
Improper or overzealous cleaning may damage even new brick. If your fireplace brick is old and crumbling, any cleaning may cause damage. Test any cleaning material in an inconspicuous spot. To remove soot from brick that is not in good condition, mix a 50/50 solution of laundry bleach and water, pour into a spray bottle, spritz the bricks, then scrub with a soft-bristled brush. Rinse with water.

Painting Stained Brick
Fireplace bricks that are permanently stained, discolored, or damaged may not be worth the time and effort to clean. Another option is painting the fireplace brick. Although many people are opposed to painting brick “on principle,” in reality this may be your best option for unsightly or ugly bricks. Try an all-in-one fireplace paint kit for an end result that has the look of real brick.

Also Consider these products as I did:

Brick Fireplace Cleaner

Fireplace Glass Doors

Fireplace Paint Products

Make Your Fireplace Beautiful For Less - Rebate Offer

This week I have been talking to you about Glass Doors for Fireplaces. We have seen all the many different variations of all kinds of beautiful fireplace glass doors. How to install them, what good pricing I had found, and the suggestions I gave at the bottom of every post was for a wonderful company with great quality and cost efficient products.

I have recently found out that the company has an August special going on and I wanted to share it with you. Also remember, not only do they have this top of the line fireplace glass doors but they have a one of a kind masonry paint. What is masonry paint? A pretty name for brick paint for your fireplace. There are beautiful themed color's and a great way to really give your brick fireplace a warm and cozy feeling, as well as match your decor.

So, with all that said, here is there wonderful rebate. Please make sure you check out all the wonderful things this rebate has to offer by visiting their website: Fireplace Glass Doors & Quality Brick Paint 

Click Here to read more: Cash Rebate Offer