Catching Up: Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. I love planning out what I am bringing to the dinner way in advance.

Aria picked what she wore - I felt like she looked like a gypsy! I loved it!

I had an awesome layout of the tables all decorated up before we sat down, but totally forgot to take a photo of it. Darn it! It was so much fun though. Gave my Mother-in-law a year off and had it at our house. Glad she spent the day relaxing!

Football lounging after dinner!

H is for Handsome Boy, Pretty Girl

Saturday I tried taking photos of the kiddos in their Easter-y outfits. Taking photos of these two is like taking photos of 2 years olds. Very uncooperative. Oh wait, that's right, they are two year olds. :)

Aren't his eyes just beautiful?! He was actually quite good with the photos. He likes saying "CHEESE!"

I couldn't come up with a bribe that she was interested in.

Sunday Morning. She still did not want a picture.

There we go! Daddy to the rescue. He's good at getting the kids to laugh and look where he is.

Patiently playing together while waiting for Daddy to get back so we could do Easter Baskets.

Aria leading Ben down the hall to find their baskets.

Fun!

I made Easter dinner. It was so yummy. The rolls were awesome! I got the recipe HERE.

Dessert! Aria wanted to get these cute cupcake wrappers and toppers for us and her Birth Mom for Easter. They looked so cute! We turned it into Strawberry Shortcake Cupcakes.

Fresh Peach Pie

I've made many pies with my mom over the years, but today I made one all by myself for the first time!

My mother-in-law makes the best fresh peach pie! Recently she made them with my sister-in-law who posted the recipe on her blog here. So I though, what the heck, I can do that! So, I did. And, I made it in my new pie pan from Aria's birth mom! (Thanks again for it!)

Turned out yummy! If you have peaches, I recommend you make this!

Danielle's Poppyseed Chicken

Ingredients:
3-4 chicken breasts, cooked and cubed
1 8oz. sour cream
1 1/2 T. poppy seed (or however much you like)
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 C. milk

Mix the sour cream, cream of chicken, milk and poppy seeds together. Then, add the chicken cubes and stir carefully. Then, pour all of that into a casserole dish.

Separately, mix these together: (note: if you like the topping thicker, add another 1/2 - 1 whole package of ritz)
1 roll of Ritz crackers crushed
1 cube melted butter


Sprinkle this on top of chicken mixture.

Bake @ 350* for about 20-30 minutes or until a little bubbly around the edges. Heated all the way through.
SERVE ON RICE

Erin's Chicken Bacon Pizza

This one is definitely at the top of the list. (Well, obviously or it wouldn't have made it to my blog!)

Rating: 
Drew: *************************
Kristine: *****
Aria: **** (only 4 because pizza is hard for a 14 month old to eat! She likes all the ingredients, but can't eat bacon with only 2 teeth...although, about 5 more are on their way.)

Ingredients:
Pizza Dough (I buy refrigerated dough, personally)
1/4 C. Ranch Dressing (little more if you like a lot of sauce)
1 1/2  -  2 C. Shredded Italian Blend Cheese
1 1/2 C. Cooked, cubed chicken
1/2 package bacon, cooked in bite-sized pieces
1/2 Roma tomato (any kind works, Roma tastes better after cooked.)

Optional: Erin adds Sausage and Onions, but I think it's better without the Sausage, personally.

Spread the dough out on the pan. Cook for 6-8 min to get the dough partially cooked.

Spread on a thin layer of ranch. Then, sprinkle on 2/3 of the cheese.

 Then, add the chicken and the bacon.

Then add the tomatoes. Slices into bite sized pieces.

At this point you would add the sausage and onions if you want to.
On the very top, sprinkle on the rest of the cheese.

Cook for the remainder of the time (usually 7-10 min). Enjoy!

Another great thing about this one is that you can pre-cook the chicken and the bacon ahead of time. Or, cook twice as much this time and freeze it for next time! 

Beckie's Awesome Potato Soup

This one is amazing! I love it.

Ratings: 
Drew: **** (He thought it could have had more Tabasco)
Kristine: *****
Aria: **** (She would have liked it to be a little thicker)

Here's the recipe with Beckie's notes.

Beckie's Baked Potato Soup (A.K.A.  Best potato soup in the entire Universe)
  1 ½ pound Baking potatoes; baked and cubed
  ¼ butter (no substitutions)
  2 cup diced onions
  1/3 cup flour
  5 cups chicken broth
  ¼ cup chicken base ( I usually use a tad less)
  1 1/2 cup potato flakes  ( add as much as you like, it is supposed to be a
  thick soup)
  ¾ tsp. dried basil
  ½ tsp. Tabasco
  1 cup heavy cream
  1 cup light cream (Half and Half )

  Bacon, grated cheese, and green onions finely sliced for garnish

  Melt butter in sauce pan.  Add onions, sauté 10 minutes or until
  translucent.  Don’t Burn!  Add four.  Cook 4-5 minutes stirring well until
  flour is absorbed.

In separate pan combine chicken broth, chicken base, potato flakes and
  seasonings.  Stir or whisk to eliminate lumps.   Add slowly to onion mix.
  Stir constantly so no lumps form.  Increase to medium heat.  Continue
  cooking until soup begins to simmer gently. 

Add cream and light cream.

Stir until smooth and lightly thickened.  Simmer 15 minutes.  Do not boil.
  Add potatoes (baked). Remove from heat. 

Garnish just before serving.  

  I have made it with  two cups whole milk instead of the cream and half and
  half and it was delicious!  Better for ya, too, I think.  I bet even 2%
  would be fine.

And there you have it! 

White Chicken Enchiladas

I've been trying lots of new recipes lately. A few people have asked me about them, so I'll start posting them as I do. 

This one I got from PW. For the step-by-step, go here.  Just looking through the picture steps on her website will make you want to try this!

Ratings: 
Drew: *****
Kristine: *****
Aria: *****

Here's mine! We really really liked this one. It froze well for Drew's lunches.

Ingredients

• 2-½ cups Cooked, Shredded Chicken
• 2 cups Reserved Broth From Chicken
• 3 Tablespoons Canola Oil
• 12 whole Corn Tortillas
• 1 whole Large Onion, Diced
• 3 whole 4 Oz Cans Whole Green Chilies, Diced
• 1 whole Jalapeno, Seeded And Finely Diced
• 1 teaspoon Paprika
• ½ cups Heavy Cream
• 2 Tablespoons Butter
• 2 Tablespoons Flour
• 1 cup Sour Cream
• 2-½ cups Monterey Jack Cheese, Grated
• Salt And Pepper, to taste
• Picante Sauce (optional)
• Cilantro, Chopped

Preparation Instructions

Heat 2 tablespoons canola oil in a small skillet over medium-high heat. Fry tortillas for no longer than 20 seconds, just to soften (do not allow to become crisp.) Place tortillas on a large towel or stack of paper towels to drain.
Heat 1 tablespoon canola oil in separate skillet over medium heat. Add onions and jalapenos and saute for 1 minute, just to start the cooking process. Add chicken, half of the green chilies, and 1/2 teaspoon paprika. Stir together. Add 1/2 cup chicken broth and stir. Add cream and stir, allowing mixture to bubble and get hot. Turn off heat and set aside.
In a separate large skillet, melt butter and sprinkle in flour. Whisk together and cook over medium heat for one minute. Pour in 1 1/2 cups chicken broth. Whisk together and cook for another minute or two. Stir in the other half of the chilies. Reduce heat, then stir in sour cream. Add 1 1/2 cups grated cheese and stir to melt. Add 1/2 teaspoon paprika. Check seasoning and add salt and pepper as needed.
To assemble, spoon chicken mixture on top of tortillas, one by one. Top with plenty of cheese and roll up. Place seam side down in a 9 x 13 casserole dish.
Pour cheese mixture all over the top of the tortillas. Top with extra cheese if you’d like, then bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Sprinkle generously with chopped cilantro.
Serve with picante sauce, if desired.
Faint. Repeat as needed.

Peggy's Apple Carrot Muffins

If you are anything like me... that title would turn you off. However, I made them anyway. I did the Bountiful Baskets thing with Peggy on Saturday and she gave me this recipe to use with some of the things we got so I made it for Sunday dinner! They turned out SO SO SO yummy!

Here's the recipe with my opinions.

1 3/4 C Raisin Bran Cereal (Minus the raisins, because come on, raisins in muffins is gross). You can also use corn flakes, etc. 
1 1/4 C Flour
3/4 C Sugar
1 1/4 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Cinnamon (I put in an extra 1/2 tsp because cinnamon was made in the heavens to be enjoyed by all!)
1/4 tsp Salt

Combine these ingredients together.
In a separate bowl, beat:

1 Egg
3/4 C Buttermilk (if you don't have buttermilk, you can put appx 1 tsp of vinegar into regular milk for about 10-15 min, stir, and then mix it in)
1/4 C Canola Oil

Then stir that into the dry mixture and mix until just wet.
Then, fold in:

3/4 C Finely chopped, peeled, tart apple (which is about 1 medium sized apple. Do not use Golden Delish apples)
3/4 C Grated Carrots (I practically pureed mine because I didn't want to get the texture too much of the carrots. 'Cause that's just gross.)

The recipe then says something about nuts, but that's grosser than big chunks of carrots or raisins in a muffin, so just leave those out. Especially if sharing with others. They'll like your cooking better. Trust me. ;)

VERY IMPORTANT STEP: Sprinkle the top with brown sugar.

Then, bake at 400 degrees for 20-23 min. 

These freeze well too!

Makes 12 muffins. Prep time is about 15-20 min.