Tasty Tuesday

Today is a terrific time to share this recipe with you. This is some real comfort food and it is so easy. With all the snow on the ground it just makes me want to be in the kitchen. Cooking just seems like what you should do when it is cold and blustery outside. It warms up the house as well as bringing folks together in the kitchen. 

Chicken Pie

1 fryer chicken

2 cans of cream of chicken soup

1 can of cream of celery soup

2 can chicken stock(made from cooking the chicken)

3 cans mixed vegetables

3 cups SR flour 

3+ cups buttermilk

Cook chicken until done and allow to cool so you can remove from the bone. Sit chicken stock aside. Place soups and stock in a large pot. Mix till creamy and then stir in mixed veggies(drained) and chicken. Heat on top of stove till warm through. Place in a large casserole dish. Mix flour and buttermilk only till wet. Drop small spoonfuls onto top of chicken mixture to form crust. Place in preheated 350* oven for 40-50 minutes or until biscuit crust is browned nicely. Remove from oven and allow to sit for 10 minutes before serving.

******Now if you follow me here you know I do my cooking from scratch so let me say I have had this recipe for many years, it was given to me exactly as you see it written. But I do not use the canned soups, I make my own. And you can too! I do not use the mixed veggies. I make my own and you can too! And you will probably have some stock left over from cooking your chicken. So do as I do and freeze it for later use. I only use this recipe as a baseline and then make it my own. I am sure you will love it as much as we do. It is even a winner at the church potlucks.*******

Leave me a comment and let me know how things are going in your neck of the woods. Are you snowed in or basking in sunshine and warm breezes? 

Monday's Musings and Menus

 Our windchill is right now at like -15 below. And we had 4 inches of snow on the ground this morning. So I did what any girl would do, I cleared a path to get the newspaper and fixed a cup of coffee. And in just a few minutes I am putting on a pot of soup.

I guess I better get to the dinner menus for the week:

Sunday......Fagioli Soup and homemade beer bread w/cheese and garlic

Monday.......Chicken Corn Chowder and cracklin' bread

Tuesday........Jambalaya(chicken & sausage) and crusty bread

Wednesday.....chopped salad with soup leftovers of choice

Thursday.......chopped salad with soup leftovers of choice

Friday......Pan fried Walleye, oven fries, coleslaw and mexican cornbread muffins

Saturday.......homemade pizza and a chopped salad.

Now you might say I am cooking alot of soup. Well let me tell you it is cold here and soup is what a body wants to warm it up! Plus with soup in the fridge it is easy to get dinner ready and I might find the time to be creative this week. If so we might be eating soup more often!

Planning my menus out allow me to use what I have and not allow things to go to waste. In other words it saves me money. So tell me what good food is going on your table this week.

Happy Valentine's Day

I just wanted to spend a few minutes sharing something as a reminder to all of you how much you are loved. Or how much you do love. We start our lives off as little children surrounded and cherished by our parents. They loved us unconditionally and would do anything for us. And we in turn started to learn what love feels like, both the giving and the receiving parts.

As we grow and mature as children we start friendships and learn how to love our friends. Sometime in our teen years we all have had that "puppy love" moment. At the time we all believe it is the deepest feeling in the world. But that usually passes. 

And before we know it and when we least expect it, the real thing comes along. And we fall in love. Head over heels in love. Its a different kind of love that we have ever experienced before. If you have that someone in your life than you know what I am talking about. Then married life brings children and the truly amazing part is that the love you feel for these children is yet a new feeling, one that you have never had before. It is so strong and steadfast that you would not think twice to cut of your arm if it meant saving your child. And then down the road the grandchildren come. I was present for the birth of my first grand and it was amazing. From the first moment I saw his head I was in love. 

And if all of that is not enough love for you then think about the Agape Love of the father. A love unlike no other. Not a sappy, sweet kind of love. But in 1st John 4:8 we see that God is love. He does not merely love, but he is love itself. He made the ultimate sacrifice, he sent his son to to pay the price for us. 

******For God so loved the world he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. 

John 3:16

Monday"s Babblings and Menus

The weekend was great we had 2 days in the 50- 60 degree range. Can you believe it, in February! But today is back to reality for sure. It is 38* out and raining. So gloomy is the name for this day. 

Hubs had some errands to run today so I have been a buzzing bee this morning. I can get so much done when he is out and about! This morning I was up early and I have filled several bottles of water for long term storage. We had a boil water advisory about a week ago and I did not worry with it I just used water I had in storage. So that needed replaced. 

I also had a bag full of veggie "scraps", things like broccoli and cauliflower stems, the ends off of celery and carrot peels. All the veggies were cleaned well before I started to cut on them so I use the scraps to make veggie broth. I canned 7 pints this morning. I will use the broth in place of water in soups and stews or any other place I would add water.

I made a pan of granola. This batch had almonds in it. I love to use my granola as a crunch on greek yogurt. Or with fresh berries and just a touch of Almond milk for breakfast or a recovery snack after working out. I only add enough Almond milk to get the granola wet. I do not want to crunch to go away!

I also mixed a batch of my homemade Bathroom Cleaner . I use it in the bathroom and around the sink in the kitchen. If you have never tried this you should. You will not believe the shine it produces on chrome. And I thought my shower door was frosted till I used this cleaner! 

(hiding eyes!)

Okay....moving forward to this weeks menus.

Sunday..........I made a marinara sauce with some ground white meat turkey in it and used whole wheat spaghetti, chopped salad with balsamic vinaigrette

Monday......Gourmet grilled ham and cheese and a chopped salad w/choice of dressing

Tuesday........Turkey Kielbasa with sauerkraut with onions and hot peppers and home canned pinto beans

Wednesday.......roasted chicken and veggies. Did not have this last week because I had to many leftover to use up. 

Thursday........leftovers from yesterday and a chopped salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette .

Friday...........goulash and a chopped salad. (I also add some veggies to my goulash)  

Saturday.....I have no idea!  

Girl Talk Friday

Well it is cold outside. The weatherman says we are having these extreme cold temps with no snow to speak of because it is dry. And it is dry because we have had no snow. Boy being a weatherman is tough! I am a bit more concerned about what no snow means to the water tables come spring and summer. Could be a problem for gardeners and local farmers.

Had a wonderful breakfast this morning of veggie hash and fried eggs. Here is a pic of the hash, it looked so good I could not resist a picture. 

It has broccoli, cauliflower, onion, yellow bell pepper, mushrooms and a dash of a salt free seasoning. Its yummy, and the perfect way to get your veggies for breakfast.

Well along with it being February and cold and gray outside. I have to say that the winter is catching up with me. Can we all say depressing! It is for me! I would like to be like that crazy groundhog from Pennsylvania and crawl in a hole! It seems this winter my body is not adjusting to the cold. I have always been out in it and not had a problem. But not this year. I try to go out in it and I just freeze. I mean the other day I was so cold and hubs said, "you must have a fever". I do not have a fever, I am cold, not hot! But to please him I took it anyway! 2x's with .....2 different thermometers, are you ready for this..... 92.2*. And of course I said I told you so!! Had to take a hot bath to get warmed up. 

Not only am I freezing but I need some sunshine. We get a ray every now and then and I am so grateful when we do. But I can't wait till April when we can count on it more often. So in the mean time I am doing all I can to "put some sunshine in my life" And lately I have been doing that with my sketchpad. 

So tell me what kinds of things are you doing to beat the "winter blues"  All I can say is I am not going to take this cold and gray winter sitting down! I am determined to go down fighting or hopefully not go down at all! 

Tasty Tuesday

Well they tell me today is "Carrot Cake Day" so I thought it only fitting to share a few Carrot Cake recipes.

The first one is a wonderful addition to any breakfast. It is great with homemade biscuits or we like it on toast from my beer bread. It is for Carrot Cake Jam.

Carrot Cake Jam

1 1/2 cups finely grated carrots

1 1/2 cups chopped apples

1 3/4 cups crushed pineapple w/juice

3T. lemon juice

1 tsp.ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp.ground cloves

1pkg. low sugar fruit pectin

3 c. sugar

Combine top 7 ingredients. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cover and boil gently for 20 minutes.

Place into jars as you would any jam or jelly.

***** I will tell you it is great fixed just as is. But a bit sweet for us, so I used a sweet apple and reduced my sugar by about a 1/2 cup. So feel free to experiment with this recipe and let me know what you did and how it was.****

Here is another Carrot Cake recipe I use and like very much.

Carrot Cake Bread

4 eggs

1 1/2 c. sugar

1 1/12 c. oil

2 c. self rising flour

11/2 tsp. vanilla

11/2 tsp. cinnamon

1 1/2 c.shredded carrots 
1 cup chopped walnuts

Cream eggs, oil and sugar together till well incorporated. Add vanilla and cinnamon. Slowly add flour. After flour is mixed in, add carrots and nuts by hand.

Bake in a loaf pan that has been greased and sugared with regular white sugar. Bake at 350* for 50 minutes then test to see if toothpick comes out clean. If not bake till it does.

******The sugared pan makes all the difference in the world with this bread. It is good enough for dessert or a great breakfast bread.**** 

Don't forget I am working on a recycling post so if you are not following me you just might miss it when its done!

Monday and Menus

Cold........Windy..........Wet!!

And it looks like that will be it for the day! So I am staying inside and staying warm.

Well SuperBowl food was great and the game ended the way I had called. But I will have to say I was a bit disappointed in the half time show and the ads throughout the game. Was it just me? I really thought they could have had more UMPH to them, for what it cost to produce them and have them aired. Well that just my humble opinion.

With all this cold weather that is hanging over us, food for the week will be of the comfort variety. So here goes.

Monday.......Split Pea with Ham Soup and Grilled Cheese made with homemade Beer Bread

Tuesday.......Salsa Chicken rolled in Joseph's Bread and a Chopped Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette

Wednesday........Macaroni and Tomatoes and a Chopped Salad with Sun-Dried Tomato Vinaigrette

Thursday......Roasted Chicken w/onions/carrots/yellow squash/cauliflower

Friday.........Chicken Quesadillas and a Chopped Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette

Saturday........Chicken Salad on top of my Chopped Salad.

As you can see we like salads! And salads are good for us and since I started making chopped salads the hubs is always ready to eat one.  Friday and Saturday's will be made using the leftover roast chicken.

I see that a few of you shied away from yesterdays post. But I was hoping you would make it to the bottom of the post since I let you in on something to look for in the next few days. Hope you don't miss any good info!

  

Changing Of The Mug.....and other stuff too!

It is time for the "Changing of the Mug", and I must say that January just flew by!

This month I decided to borrow a mug from the hubs. 

A mug to remind me of something. You see, I have always wanted to go Elk hunting and since we live in West Virginia it would be a far piece to make that happen! 

Well in the local paper last week was an article about the Elk population in Kentucky. In particular a certain county about 50 miles from me. In order to do some population control for the herds( which have no natural predators there) They are going to take applications for license and only something like 50 will be given. They are also for only like 3 days. I guess this is like a lottery you could say. They will charge a small fee to enter your application and then if you get the license you pay for that as well. SO it is a win win for them. 

So I chose this mug for February (I know you were expecting pink and red hearts), because I am trying to decide if I want to apply. I talked to hubs about it and he said he did not think he wanted to but has encouraged me to if I want. I just get so excited thinking about it.

*********Disclaimer..... This post was not meant to be offensive to anyone. ************

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Now as you know I am trying to eat healthier and incorporate as many vegetables as possible. So I just had to share with you one way that I enjoy some veggies that I probably would not have thought of a couple of years ago. 

I love to have a veggie hash for breakfast with a couple eggs over medium. This particular hash has onion, bell pepper, broccoli, cauliflower and spinach with about an ounce of a real lean ham chopped finely for flavor and a shake of a no salt seasoning.

One more way to help me get my veggies.

I have a post in the works about recycling so if that is something you are interested in make sure you join and start to follow me so you won't miss out on anything.

Thanks for hanging in with me all the way to the bottom of the page!