Best Chili Recipes, Ever!!!

As one of our regularly scheduled blizzards howls across the prairie, it seems seasonally appropriate that February 28th is National Chili Day, because nothing warms like a tummy filled with a heartening bowl of chili!

Here are some chili favorites, including recipes from +Amie Valpone of The Healthy Apple, +Jennifer Silverberg of  Eat Yourself Well, Pillsbury and Hooray Puree.

The recipe list below was created in a free Facebook app called myList, and will dynamically update as new recipes are added!

Have a to sigh for chili recipe? Please add a URL in the comments and I will be happy to add!!! In the meantime, enjoy!!!

Top 10 Twitterati Tweets About Flowers

This list was inspired by an Instagram moment involving a jar of tulips, and made possible by a search on Twitter. The blogging equivalent of a random act of flowers.

1.   A flower has to go through a lot of dirt  
      before it can bloom. Unknown Ann Tran

2.   Personality is to a man what perfume is to 
      a flower. Charles M. Schwab Nina Garcia

3.   Happiness held is the seed.....Happiness  
      shared is the flower. Unknown Kevin 
      Green

4.   Love is a flower, let it grow. John Lennon 
      Rock Christopher

5.   Autumn is a second spring when every 
      leaf is a flower. Albert Camus A.R. Karthick

6.   Life is the flower for which love is the honey. Victor Hugo Loren Ridinger

7.   The flower that blooms in adversity is the rarest and most beautiful of all. Mulan Elizabeth   
      Berkley

8.   There are always flowers for those who want to see them. Henri Matisse Bobbe Brooks

9.   Every flower is a soul blossoming in nature. Gérard de Nerval Brainy Quote

10. If I had a flower for every time I thought of you, I could walk through my garden forever. Alfred,  
      Lord Tennyson Roger McNamee 

Processors see the big picture in packaging

If product is spoiled or damaged, then it doesn’t matter how “green” or sustainable the packaging is. Dairy processors are moving beyond waste and recyclability and taking a holistic view of product packages. 

While cost is the top factor driving the packaging industry today, sustainability concerns will dominate packaging industry work in 10 years in both Europe and North America, according to a recent study conducted by Packaging World magazine and DuPont Packaging & Industrial Polymers. Consumers also care increasingly about the environment, and they expect the products they buy to be produced in an environmentally responsible way. Milk is no exception.

Processors see the big picture in packaging 2013 02-18 Dairy Foods from Gail Barnes

How to save and share your favorite Facebook photos and posts

 myList helps Facebook users and Pages discover, save and share things 

  with their friends, all inside Facebook, like this album of Moonalice posters.

As the social network manager for his band, Moonalice, I have often heard Roger McNamee say that serendipity is the greatest force in the universe. So, it was apt that I met +Jennifer Silverberg, VP of marketing for myList, when both of us made a bee-line for a front row seat to hear Roger share his newest insights into the future of digital during his presentation on How to Revive the Web at last the MashableConnect conference, last year.

Roger McNamee, acclaimed technology investor and co-founder 

of  Elevation Partners, at Mashable Connect 2012 during his 

presentation on How to Revive the Web.

After Roger's presentation Jennifer and I stayed behind at our table and she showed me what was at that stage a very early version of myList. My first reaction was, "This is pure genius! It's like Pinterest for Facebook, but way, way cooler!"

I had often wished that there was a way to create "Favorites" on Facebook, so myList's value prop. of not having to leave Facebook to be able to save and share favorite photos and posts, was compelling.

In the announcement of the launch of myList at the end of last year, +Rob Wight, Chief Executive Officer of myList, described the free Facebook app, “While myList was born from our 14-year ecommerce business, Channel Intelligence, it takes a completely different approach. myList focuses on the Facebook user, allowing them to personalize their experience to what matters to them – an online world of things that have been filtered through the collective lenses of the people and organizations that they know and trust.” 

According to myList the app, "Transforms the social sharing experience from “crowd-sourced” picture viewing into a connected community of self-expression and discovery made up of things and people that matter. This provides an unprecedented opportunity for Facebook Pages of all kinds, including manufacturers and retailers, to share the things they make, sell, or recommend in a connected, contextual way with their Facebook audience."

So, what does myList for a Facebook Page look like? Thanks to the myList "Embed" feature now available to Pages using myList on Facebook, you can share your favorite lists, like this +Moonalice News list and the +Hooray Puree recipe list. Not only can lists easily be shared, but when doing so, lists retains the full functionality that they would have on Facebook. Click on any of the images in the two lists below and see for yourself.

My relationship with myList is that of very early adopter (I created the first myList page for a brand, for +Roger McNamee's band, San Fran. carnival rock phenom. +Moonalice ), and major fan.

Social PR campaign helps The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust smash though their petition target

Say NO to ivory by signing the iWorry petition

A social PR campaign initiated by +Roger McNamee, founding partner of the venture capital firm Elevation Partners and leader of the band +Moonalice, is leveraging collaboration between conservation and entertainment communities, namely the +The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust (DSWT) and +Moonalice's highly cohesive social network fanbase on Twitter and Facebook, to support the DSWT in gaining the required number of signatures targeted for their iWorry campaign which aims to raise awareness of the urgent need to stop all trade in ivory internationally, in order to protect the future of elephants.

The results are exceeding all expectations. The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust has smashed though their target of 36,000 signatures for their iWorry petition a full month ahead of schedule, and is now targeting 50,000 signatures by the end of March.

Barsilinga, one of the orphaned elephants being rehabilitated by the +The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust (DSWT).

The DSWT was founded by Dr Dame Daphne Sheldrick in Kenya in 1977, in memory of her late husband, David Sheldrick, the naturalist and forrunder warden of Kenya’s Tsavo National Park. The DSWT embraces David Sheldrick's vision for the protection of wildlife and habitats and undertakes a variety of projects aimed at ensuring a viable future for animals and people, where they might live in harmony.

+Moonalice is a band of seasoned musicians who feel that live music should be a communal experience where the listener and musicians feed and derive inspiration from each other. Their songs try to speak to everyone, mixing a variety of genres with extended musical improvisations that evoke a sense of adventure and exploration. 

Super Bowl Sunday Healthy Snack Down

Twice-baked potato skins with a delicious filling of Hooray Puree Carrot.

It's Super Bowl Sunday and when it comes to what to put on a snack down menu, I am reminded of the +Moonalice song by +John Molo and +Roger McNamee, which includes the refrain, "Everyone has an opinion."

With obesity levels reaching astronomical levels in the US, much of the advice is health focused, including some from the CDC with an article on how to kick off a healthy Super Bowl celebration. The word on the tweet is also all about health with +The Huffington Post heading the Top News on Twitter with where to find healthy food in the Big Cheesy.

Closer to home, chez moi we are going the healthy / Google+ crowd-sourced route at our snack down today, with twice baked potato skins and deviled eggs using Greek yogurt and pureed carrot from +Chobani and +Hooray Puree.

Deviled eggs.

Also on the menu is guacamole from a recipe by +Jim Carver with avocados from +Whole Foods Market.

+Jim Carver's Killer Guacamole

"Take the avocados and slice them around the middle as close to the center as possible. Lose the seed and remove the material and make your favorite blend. I like to mash it with a fork or mortar and pestle if there is a lot and add garlic, maybe onion or green onion, salt, pepper, chili powder and some lemon or lime juice. I usually don't use mayo in this. Put the mixture back in the "shells" and serve with some tomato slices, cheese and whatever. Depending on what the "fans" like, you can also have hot peppers around and of course some nice corn chips."

Veggie bites including broccoli, celery and carrot sticks will complete the party tray. Yes, we will be snacking down, but in a healthier way that we have done before.