Experiments

Today was our "kinda second" Easter with my family. My parents came up to visit for the weekend and my brother and his wife came over, we all hung out this afternoon and I made a dinner that was supposed to be like Grandma's. We've spent all our Easter's at Grandma's house and she always made great dishes! Growing up, Grandma would occasionally make this chicken and broccoli casserole in a 9x13 glass pan. It was creamy and good and full of cut up chicken and broccoli and topped with sliced almonds. Well, she didn't remember what I was talking about and couldn't find the recipe. Between my mom's cookbook, my cookbook and both our memories, we came up with our own recipe and experimented and I was dissapointed. Grandma also always made the green bean casserole that's topped with those fried onions, so naturally I also made that, along with a vinagrette pasta salad, mandarin orange jello like salad, dinner rolls and plain steamed broccoli for the sis-in-law and kiddo. It was a pretty tasty meal!!

Experimental Chicken & Broccoli Casserole
3-4 cooked chicken breasts, cut up (I added some seasoning and cooked in a tablespoon of oil on stove top)
2 cups understeamed broccoli
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1/2 to 3/4 cup Stove Top stuffing
1/2 to 3/4 cup milk (I would make it 1 cup)
2 tblsn cooking sherry (or chicken broth or white wine)
1/2 tspn dried chopped onion (I was too lazy to sautee half a chopped onion)
1/4 tspn curry powder
1/4 tspn mustard powder
Topping: 1/2 to 3/4 cup Stove Top stuffing and 1/2-3/4 cup shredded pecorino romano (or parmesian)

1. In 9x13 pan, layer chicken, stove top, then broccoli.
2. In separate bowl, mix rest of ingredients, then pour over chicken/broccoli.
3. Top with Stove Top and shredded cheese.
4. Bake 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes.

Here's my only complaint...my brother and I thought it was little on the salty side. My mom, dad, and husband did not. I was trying to figure out if maybe I added too much seasoning to the chicken before I cooked it, which was in a little oil on the stove, or if it was the Stove Top since it has all that seasoning in it already too. I would love for someone out there to try this and report back to me with any suggestions or recommendations. Other than that, it was pretty tasty, not quite like grandma's but good enough to have created a whole new recipe that I will probably alter some more when I make it again.

ENJOY!

Happy Easter!

A little late, but that's okay! We dyed eggs Friday night with the little one, this is how they turned out. The interior designer in me just had to put them in order by color....it's always more pleasing to my eye. I look at A LOT of paint fan decks....to me, the colors needs to be orderly. So pretty!! This was our first Easter we stayed home. It was so quiet, it was almost sad and lonely. But then our friends came with their two toddlers and the quietness was gone. It's always fun to watch them play. Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

Grosgrain: Pleated Petal Tank ANTHROPOLIFICATION GIVEAWAY!!!!

I've always been inspired by Anthropology to create my own clothing, I even have fabrics and patterns and pictures pulled together in the depth of my sewing area...I guess I'm not the only one. Grosgrain's Pleated Petal Tank ANTHROPOLIFICATION GIVEAWAY!!!! has that same feel...I would LOVE to win this giveaway. You gotta check it out and read her story about it...she did such a wonderful job! And it's not totally from scratch, she recycled an existing silk top. I LOVE IT!! How cool is that??

Featuring...

A new baby Orangutan!! You have GOT TO check out this beautiful new baby orangutan...he was created by Planet June who's been working on him for a year or so. There's more pictures on her blog, they're cute! She has so many wonderful crochet patterns, they're just awesome. Someday I hope to be able to purchase a few and make cute little creatures for my kiddies.

Happy Wednesday!

Contests and Giveaways

Well, I submitted my bracelet for the semi-precious gemstone contest last night. YEAY!! Wish me luck! I'll find out more around April 17. I think I'm going to put together a tutorial on how to make it, it was pretty fun and easy. Although, before I get carried away, I need to finish my Golden Compass Lyra Hat from this post. I need to keep my promises. I'm also almost done with my PIF...another big YEAY!!! I've been so excited to show it, until I get it to the lucky receiver, it's a top secret project. Here's a sneak peak though...

This isn't my picture, but it's a free pattern from another blog that I took a part of from and created something different. I'll tell all in good time.

On another note...it's looking as if our Etsy shop is dwindling. I'm considering letting all the items expire and posting new and different product. I've been looking into ideas of mine, some are saturated already on Etsy, some have none at all. I'd like to sell something that is desired but not overly sold already. We didn't get many bites, nor sales, with the jewelry and buttons, but they are both areas on Etsy where's there's plenty to look at. It would have helped if we added new product weekly. My mom, aunt and I all work full time and just didn't get to it as often as we should have. We shall see!

Delicious Cake!

The past two nights I've been working on this delicious beast! Today was a birthday party at work and I offered to make the cake. Neopolitan! The bottom layer is from scratch, it's the recipe off the back of the Hershey's Unsweetened Cocoa Powder tub, the middle layer is a box white cake and the top layer is an actual strawberry cake!! Oh! It's so moist! Here's the recipe for the strawberry layer...




Strawberry Cake:
1 package Betty Crocker SuperMoist white cake mix
3/4 cup water
1 package (0.14 oz.) strawberry flavored Kool-Aid (or other pink colored flavor, I used cherry)
1 package (10 oz.) frozen sliced strawberries, thawed, undrained
3 eggs
frosting




1. Heat oven to 350 degrees, greese/flour or spray 13x9 or two 9" rounds.
2. In large bowl, beat cake mix, water, Kool-Aid powder, thawed strawberries and eggs with electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds, then medium speed for 2 minutes.
3. Bake 30-35 minutes for 13x9 or 20-25 minutes for the round pans.
4. Let cool completely before frosting.




I like to layer the two rounds with the confetti frosting in between. Originally the recipe is one I found for a strawberry daiquiri cake, it includes 1 tablespoon grated lime peel and 3/4 teaspoon rum extract. The frosting also called for 2 teaspoons grated lime peel added to a tub of vanilla frosting. I've made it this way too, it's not bad. Either way, it is a really moist and flavorful strawberry cake!




This next pic is my contest piece that I will be entering shortly. I can't decide about the background, black makes the opalite glow, white makes the new jade stand out. I don't know which one I want to accent more. This picture is much better than the one I mentioned two posts ago.


Happy Wednesday!

Second Baby

Today was our 20 week ultrasound, so exciting!! It's so cute too!! It didn't want to turn around and allow for good pics for the technician. It just wanted to stay curled up in it's little ball facing mommy. So precious. It even yawned and rubbed it's eyes.

In the first five minutes of tuning in to where baby was, she found it's hand giving the thumbs up sign. Then when she went back to it, it was giving the peace sign. That was funny, she said you don't see that everyday. I think being an ultrasound technician could be a fun job!

Latest Projects

Well, I finally got around to taking a pic of at least the fabric I used for the nursing covers that I mention is this entry. I've given them to all the area La Leche League leaders to sell at their meetings as a fundraiser. I even sold one this past Sunday at the Baby Fair. So cool! I could sell them on Etsy, but after having done a quick search I saw that this area of the market was already a little saturated. So I'll just stick to the local LLL leaders and their meetings. If you're interested, I sell them for $25.00

I want to enter this gemstone beading contest using the square new jade beads I showed in my Leavenworth post. I've designed a bracelet using 4mm square new jade, 6mm opalite rounds and labradorite rectangular chips with various silver beads and components. I'm not experience enough with clasps and finishing simply strung beads on wire. I bought a crimper and crimp beads to attempt a few ideas, but I'll have to pull out all my magazines to get techniques and ideas. The deadline is March 31, time is running out! I'm pretty excited to enter it though. It will be my second beading contest that I've entered! Maybe I should'nt be showing my design...hhhmmm.....oh but I must!

I just had to show this picture...

One night I was getting ready for bed, my husband was in bed reading, and all I heard was this thump-thump-thump of little feet from the bedroom to the living room over and over and over. When I finally came out of the bathroom and entered the bedroom, this is what I found all across the foot of our bed. My sons Cars stickers, all in a row at our feet! He even put one on my jeans which were hanging off the foot of the bed and were apparently in the way of his line up across the bed. He was so proud of himself it was too cute to pass up the photo op!

AWESOME GIVEAWAY!!!!

Two of my favorite blogs that I follow have teamed up to do a giveaway!! I LOVE these necklaces!! I've been eyeballing them since last November. I WANT ONE....any of them!!! YEAY!! Check it out here...Grosgrain: Muntedkowhai Necklace GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

You Are Not Alone...

I'm not huge into politics, but I am huge on my freedom and living a happy life. Since I've become an adult, I've learned more and more about politics, especially with this past presidential election, which to me for the first time was very frustrating. My adult life has also opened my eyes to world history, war and fighting, how some things came to be, religion, greed, etc. All this information has led to adult nightmares, not like the simple running from the monsters of my childhood or aliens coming from above, but the invasion of our city, of our country, of America. I've had dreams of running from foreign invading soldiers and hiding in my basement, of airplanes coming to drop bombs and tanks rolling through the streets, and fearing for my childrens future. I've had some scary dreams being a military wife with a husband who was once in Iraq and with children in our lives, a whole new set of bad dreams. But these dreams are scarier than all of those dreams I ever had because they threaten my freedom. Not to be glum on Friday the 13th....moving on...


I'm also a Glenn Beck listener and I do agree with many things he discusses, a lot of which tends to be politically related. In a few more hours he will be discussing his We Surround Them - The Unveiling which will discuss how we as Americans can UNITE and FIGHT the helpless feeling that is occurring more and more frequently among us. He will be discussing 9 principles and 12 values and more. I will not be able to watch it live, which is 5 eastern time, and 2pm here, but I will see it later. I encourage every one to learn more about this and participate. Here's a map of the USA so that you can find one in your area.


Happy Friday!!