Week 17 Sunday, December 6, 2009

Chicken Potato Casserole, Cinnamon Bread

Sunday's meal was decided upon by the fact that I had chicken and potatoes to use for ingrediants and about an hour or so before the kids would become ravenous. I found an easy casserole recipe and tried this different version of another one that I make. This was easier and quicker to get in the oven but longer to cook. Bottom line is I would make this recipe earlier in the day when the kids aren't ready to eat their toys.

As for the dessert, since we had reached a bit of a saturation point on sugar with all the holiday baking, we decided to try a new sweet bread recipe. It turned out scrumptous and one I would definitely make again.

Hmmmm Where are my helpers???
Building mega lego houses.





Starting the Potato casserole before it's too late!

The kids take over the Cinnamon Bread.

Laney can never resist playing in the flour and sugar. If an open container is left unattended for too long. You can bet their hands end up in it.

Goofy Girl!

They were happy to have something to taste while they licked their chops waiting for dinner.

Good job Pouring Jordan!

Good job Tasting Girls!

I love the little mini loaves.

The kids were using their special Christmas wear they got on our "Polar Express trip." JJ's parents and his little brother Zach were in town this weekend (they left sunday morning). JJ's mom and I decided on Saturday to do our own Trip to the North Pole with the kids. We went to the dollar store and got them each their own Christmas Mugs and plates and set of antlers to wear. We told them we had a special surprise and they had to get in their jammies. Then they came down the stairs and we gave them tickets we made out of gold paper. JJ was the conductor and punched the first letter in thier ticket. Then we choochooed around the house and ended up in the family room where they sat down to watch The Polar Express on the projector screen. When it was the hot chocolate scene, we served them hot chocolate in thier mug, with chocolate cookies and popcorn on their plates. At the end of the movie JJ finished punching their tickets. Isabel's was Love, Laney's was Laugh, Jordan's Live, and Zach's was Sing. It was such a fun and magical night! So they spent a good portion of Sunday wearing their antler ears and I did too as you can see.

Chicken and Potato Casserole

3 Boneless, skinless chicken breasts (chopped into pieces)

6 Tablespoons of butter

4 large potatoes (peeled and sliced into round pieces)

10 oz. Cream of Mushroom soup

salt and pepper

I added:

a chopped onion

Mushrooms
Cheese
Minced garlic

Pour butter in the bottom, ( I didn't use as much as it called for). Spread potatoes over it, spread out chicken and onions and pour cream of mushroom over it. It calls for cooking 45 min- 1 hour @375 but it was will over and hour before the potatoes were soft enough to eat. And even then While we were eating JJ said they were too hard for his liking. But we were so hungry we kept eating until it was pointless to try to cook the last of it longer in the oven. At the end I cranked it to 400. I would probably cook it @ 400 for 1 hour next time. I like my other chicken divan recipe that my mom makes better, but with that one you cook everything first and just melt the cheese in the oven at the end. This one is nice if you don't have enough time for preparation but flexibility to let it cook a long time. Unfortunately that night I really didn't have either.

Cinnamon Bread

2 cups flour

1 cup sugar

4 tsp. baking powder

1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup buttermilk

1/3 cup oil

2 tsp. vanilla

2 eggs

Struesel Topping:

2 tsbsp. sugar

1 tsp. cinnamon

2 tsp. butter ( melted)

Directions:

Mix dry ingrediants. Mix wet ingrediants separately. Stir dry and wet together just until thouroghly mixed. Do not over mix! Pour into mini loaf pan and bake @350 for 15-20 min. Or Pour into 9x5 loaf pan and bake 45-50 min.

It was very tastey especially with butter on it! It makes a great breakfast bread or holiday bread treat!

In our Christmas Hats. Jordan wasn't as depressed as he looks. It's hard to get them smiling with the timer :)

Video



I love this of Laney experiencing the hazards of chopping with antlers!

Week 16 Thursday November, 26th --Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Feast


Since this was another vacation weekend, I decided to feauture our Thanksgiving meal instead of what was served on Sunday. Being busy helping with dinner I forgot to take more pictures of the preparation, But I did manage to chronicle some highlights from the big day.

This is Alexis, my adorable and tech savy niece trying to teach my mom (her grandma) how to Scype.

An iconic depiction of modern communication




Ready for some grub!

The Sacrificical Bird

Turkey, Carrot Casserole, Broccoli Salad, Stuffing, Rolls, Yams, Cheesy Potatoes, And a family classic-- The Cranberry Jello Salad. Mmmm Mmmm!

I love our Thanksgiving meal. While it can be tiring for everyone involved, I think we all agree when we are stuffing our faces, it was all worth it. Especially when we are warming up left overs the next day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner!

The Kids Enjoying Their Meal!

Laney

Isabel

Alexis

Jordan????

Jordan has become quite an expert at his disappearing act from the table.

JJ and I sitting down to stuff our bellies. Somehow the commemorative feast of Thanksgiving has been turned into an excuse for gluttony.

Alexis and Isabel are sister cousins

The Four Musketeers

They have so much fun together. Although they miss their other cousins Maddie, Nicholas, and Audrey! It's just not the same with out them. We missed you guys, and Aunt Nichole and Uncle David, and of couse we will forever miss our late Uncle Greg!

We had a great time with the family and I have been reflecting on things that I love about my family. Here are 10 things of many that I love about our visits together. In no particular order.

1. I love our long chats/ occasional debates. I love how they can sometimes get heated, given our passionate natures, but we are always friends afterwards and agree to disagree.

2. I have grown to love that it often takes us until 2pm to all get out of the house together to go to the beach, but once we do make it, we stay a long time and agree it was worth the effort.

3. I love that most of the time we look like the tourists at the beach with all our gear and food.

4. I love how it only takes one person (usually dad) to snitch a piece of bacon before all bets are off and everyone feels entitles to snitch. We can empty a plate as fast as clearing the floor playing spoons.

5. I love how we can end up consumeing an entire dessert simply by "evening" out the edges.

6. I love that no matter how insurmountable the task of fitting the left overs into the already packed fridge seems, we always manage to do it. It's a miracle every year and I think the reason I have good packing skils. In fact through a team effort this year, JJ and I managed to fit all of our luggage and Christmas presents inside our van to take home. This included Isabel's large bike, and Laney's Easel and without dismantaling them. Believe it or not, we still had room for our children :)! I was pretty impressed.

7. I love our appreciation for a good movie. It wouldn't be a family vacation without atleast one trip to the cinema. By the way we haven't watched What's Up Doc in awhile-- a definite family classic!

8. I love watching my kids being loved and loving their aunts, uncles, and grandparents. It's wonderful to see the next generation able to share in the relationships that I have enjoyed throughout my life.

9. I love the more I get to know and understand my family members the more I learn and understand about myself.

10. I love that it takes at least a half-hour in good-byes and hugs to leave. There are the hugs in the house as we are leaving. Then the hugs as we are walked to our car. Inevitably we start talking again. After which we must hug again because all previous hugs have expired. Then we wave and slowly back out as we say good-bye again. I am always sad to see the faces of my family fade away in the rear view mirror and wish we lived closer to each other!

All these and more I love about our family, though some things may be frustrating in the moment they are our funny quirks that make us--us!

Week 15



Sunday, November 22, 2009



Chicken Curry in a Hurry, Carmel Brownies

It was good to be well again and back to our normal routine. Always appreciating a good Curry, we decided to try a recipe called Chicken Curry in a Hurry. Since I am often in a hurry when I am making dinner this sounded like a good one to know. We had a bunch of carmels left since we had been too sick to make the caramel apples I had planned. So, we found a caramel brownie recipe that combined two of my favorite sweet temptations, Caramel and Chocolate-- Mmm Mmm! We set out on a culinary journey that led to not only a delicous meal but also answers to such life pondering questions such as "Which is healthier, carrots, pasta, or chocolate?" and how many barbies does it take to have a million "doll hairs?"

They had fun unwrapping the carmels for which I was grateful because I find it tedious.
The joy of unwrpping has long lost it's savor in my years-- oh to be young again (wistful sigh)

Elayna made sure that each one didn't touch. Too bad they are all going to melt together in the pot.




Look at all those caramels! Yum Yum!

He's Panting



I love Jordan's face as he cringes, waiting for her to spill the milk.

These are some Naughty Brownies.

Preparing the Curry

I always cringe when Jordan has a knife in his hand.

This is why...

He looks like he's enjoying this knife business a little too much

Mmm, I love yellow curry!

Isabel the "scavenger" harvesting the carcuss for leftover chicken. Yummy!

One of my favorite things about this recipe is that it calls for Precooked rotissere chicken- hence the "Hurry" part. It's so much nicer carving up chicken already cooked, than dealing with raw chicken. I know my ancestors are rolling in thier graves at my complaints of touching raw meat. I am grateful I don't have to hack off the head, pluck the feathers, and then figure out how to cook it. I am even more grateful when I don't even have to thaw and cut the boneless skinless prepackaged breast halves. Who needs all that when you have Fry's and Safeway?"

Chicken Curry in a Hurry

1 1/2 tsp. Oil
1 yellow onion
2 tsp. curry
1/2 cup plain yogurt
3/4 Heavy Whipping Cream
1 can diced tomatoes (we used fresh tomatoes)
1 rotissere chicken
2 cup cooked rice
1/4 c cilantro leaves

Directions:
Heat oil in a skillet and saute onions for 7 min. sprinkle with curry powder and cook 1 minute more. add the yogurt and cream; simmer for 3 min. stir in salt and pepper and tomatoes and remove from heat and serve over rice. Sprinkle with cilantro. we changed it by adding the tomatoes and simmering it for about 20 min. It wasn't so in hurry that way-- but it was Tasty. Thumbs up on this recipe!

Interesting Dinner Conversation

This is Jordan proving he can eat his dinner.

It started when Isabel and Laney said how much they loved dinner and Jordan said he didn't. We chided him saying the only thing he loves is "junk food" which most days is pretty true. Isabel said "I don't think you want to be in the healthy family. You want to belong to a "junk" family. " I think Jordan took it as a challenge, because he began to heartily eat his dinner after that. The conversation continued on about healthy eating and then somehow we got on the subject of money. during the course of the discussion JJ introduced the kids to the "doll hair" trick. You know "I'll give you a hundred "doll hairs" if you ..." I know my brother played that one on me when I was young. As we were finishing up dinner, Isabel was quizing everyone with nutrition questions. (see video below) The final question was worth One million "doll hairs."

Isabel's Healthy Eating Game Show

Isabel's pay out in "doll hairs"

This is Isabel bringing the Prize "money" This prompted another thought about whether we were getting "paid in full. " Exactly how many barbies would it take to have a million "dollhairs?" We decided to consult the omnipotent internet and see if anyone was dumb enough to figure it out. Appearantly we aren't the only ones to ponder this important question, but there weren't any legitimate answers. Soooo... (yes this is how pathetic we are) we decided to be "dumb enough" and figure it out. JJ counted his barbie and I mine so we would have an average. The kids were smart enough to know they didn't want to count hairs when they saw the wads of barbie hair up close.

They didn't know tricks to estimation. JJ halved his barbie's hair into sections until he only had to count 1/1024 th of the hair which turned about to be about 19 hairs. Soooo. 19 times 1024 equals about 20,000 hairs.

I unfortunately, didn't half mine quite as much. I did 1/256. I had to count 189 hairs. So mine had roughly 48,000. My barbie's hair was quite a bit thicker. So since a barbie has anywhere between 20,000-50,000 hairs it would take about 20 to 50 barbies to make good on 1 million dollhairs! I don't think Isabel had quite enough. She owes us some barbies. And now we know how many hairs a barbie has. Ahh, I can finally rest at night.

Jordan's helping.

Carmel Brownies

Melt in pan:

1 14 oz. bag of Kraft carmels

1/3 cup evaporated milk

Mix:

1 German chocolate cake mix ( I just used a regular chocolate cake mix)

1/3 cup evaporated milk

1/2 cup butter

1 tbsp. water

Topping:

1 cup semi sweet choc. chips

Directions:

Spread half of mix into greased 9x13 pan. Bake @ 350 for 6 minutes. Pour caramel mixture over it. Sprinkle over carmel the chocolate chips. Pat the rest of the dough over the top and piece it together. Bake 16-18 @ 350 let carmel harden before serving.

These were mighty tastey. Honestly, how can you go wrong with Carmel and Brownies? I think you are supposed to let these cool for 24 hours before cutting. Yah right! No one seemed to
mind them gooey. Like this little girl for instance!

Ooey Gooey, nice and Chewy!






I'm not sure what they are doing. But I am thinking of using it as our Christmas card, with the message... "Have a Merry Christmas, or else...."


How's that for spreading holiday cheer?