Amazing chicken casserole

This recipe was a fail, only because my child and husband didn't care for it. Otherwise it was perfect for me. I like lemon in my savory dishes. I should have known it wouldn't work. When I had posted about it some of my girlfriends popped up and said "sounds good to me." I think this is a great casserole for a ladies lunch.

I got the recipe from here.

Recipe:

2 cups of cooked chicken, diced
3/4 cup mayonnaise
1 cup diced celery
1/4 cup sliced almonds
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 Tablespoon grated onion
1 Tablespoon lemon
1-2 cups cooked rice
Salt and pepper to taste
1 cup crushed corn flakes cereal
1 Tablespoon melted butter

Pre heat oven to 375 degree Fahrenheit. Butter a 9 by 7 baking pan.

Mix all ingredients together well except corn flakes and butter. Pour into prepared dish. In a small bowl mix butter and crushed cereal, sprinkle on top of casserole. Bake for 25 minutes.

The original recipe called for 3 hard boiled eggs and 2 cups of cooked or 1 cup minute rice. I made do with what I had. I think it turned out great. Someday I'll try the original.

Can you believe we caught another cold so I didn't take a picture last night. My head feels like it's splitting. Mine looked a lot like the link so if you need a picture reference check them out.

I hope you enjoy it as I did.

Swimming in Ruffles

One of the things I was looking forward to with my new stay at home status was time to sew again.  It's one of those things that I love to do but just never really had enough time for...until now!!  The first sewing project I'm taking on is an outfit for Sakura-Con - which is only 4 weeks away!  I'm not going to go into details yet on what I'm making - just that I am swimming in ruffles!!  All that fabric in the picture is for one tier - out of 7 tiers (down from the original 11 tiers)...needless to say I'm going to be gathering fabric for awhile lol.  I can never quite copy patterns so I have combined 2 patterns plus I have changed a lot of the details...I'm excited to see how it comes out and I'll definitely share what went into making it.

Have a great day!

Beth

Mocha Chocolate Chip Cookies

Oh my! Why haven't I done this before. This is what my dreams are made of. I enjoy baking cookies and often my chocolate chip cookies are asked for with glee. I have been trying to satisfy a craving of mine. I finally figured out it is the best coffee flavored sweet treat. I use to eat this Mocha almond fudge ice cream and the company doesn't make it any more. It was so yummy! I guess that's not true, they do, now they put the actually nuts in and before it was smooth and amazing and now it's chunky for some reason I don't like it.

This is hitting my craving on the nose. I searched Pinterest and found nothing that piqued my interest. So I just took my standard recipe and added a packet of instant coffee. Just to see how it goes, I was thinking I would need to add 2, I found that 1 was plenty.

I was thinking while they were baking that I will make these in the summer to make ice cream sandwiches. I'm so excited!

This recipe has been adapted from Nestle Toll House

Recipe:

2 sticks of butter or 1 cup, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
2 eggs
1 generous teaspoon vanilla (meaning it's ok to spill, I do it on purpose here)
1 single serving packet of instant coffee, I would guess 1/2 - 1 teaspoon
2 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Prepare 2 half sheet baking pans, I use a silpat you can line with foil or parchment or nothing!

Preheat oven to 375 degree Fahrenheit.

In a large bowl mix butter and sugars with a hand mixer until light a fluffy.

Add vanilla and eggs one at a time, mix in instant coffee as well.

I just add my dry ingredients all at once and I don't mix before hand since I'm using a hand mixer. If you are using a stand mixer I would measure into a small bowl and mix before adding to the dough. Mix until combined and clean your beaters. Grab a spatula to hand mix the chocolate chips in. I use a medium size scoop for the cookies, about 1 Tablespoon, after filling 1 pan I place in the oven for about 9 minutes. Bake until the edges set for soft gooey cookies. Bake for 10 1/2 - 11 minutes for firm cookies.

I hope you like these as much as I did! Enjoy!

Pork Chops and Scalloped Potatoes...Comfort Food

A slight update to last week ending in our surprise get away. We don't know exactly what we have/had it could be food poisoning or the Flu. None of us really have eaten much, if we did it was light fare and slightly bland. It was terrible! So now that I'm back to normal I have looked forward to enjoying the smell and thought of food. Last night I made pork chops. I really wanted to have some potatoes that were not mashed something with a bit more substance. 

I had two ideas pop into my head yesterday, scalloped potatoes and pork chops. I hoped they would pair well together. Honestly I think scalloped potatoes would pear well with anything. It's no secret I like potatoes. There is something about this recipe that makes them feel not so heavy.

I found this recipe here, I just swapped out the cheese with what was available. By all means if you have their cheese use it, it's amazing. It's worth it! I used a semi-hard cheddar cheese.

The pork chop recipe has been in the family on my husbands side for awhile. His sister gave me the recipe. It was one of the recipes, you start with this and then you can add some of this or not, then add some of this and then let it simmer. I usually don't remember recipes, but she walked me through everything and I did have to call her once because I hadn't made it in awhile and I forgot.

I won't do that to you, I will give you the exact amounts. This is one of the recipes that you can change things out and it will still be excellent!

Let's finally get started!

Pre heat oven to 350 degree Fahrenheit. Prepare a small baking pan, such as an 8 by 8, with butter.

Recipe for scalloped potatoes:

2 lbs golden potatoes, about 5-7
1  cup whipping cream, heavy is just fine too
1/3 cup milk
1 garlic clove, peeled and smashed, you will pull this out later.
1 teaspoon Salt and 1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 cup of shredded semi hard cheese
1/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese

Peel and slice the potatoes thin, using a mandolin. Lay the slices out flat on paper towels and cover with paper towels to absorb the starches.

In a small pot heat cream, milk, garlic, salt and pepper until the edges begin to boil. Remove garlic clove. In your prepared pan layer half the potatoes on the bottom, pour half the milk mixture and sprinkle with half the cheeses, finish the remaining layers. Bake for 60-80 minutes.

Recipe for pork chops:

1 tablespoon Sunflower seed oil
3 tablespoons butter
4-6 thin pork chops
1 can of cream of mushroom soup (there are wonderful recipes to make this from scratch)
1 can of golden mushrooms
1 small half onion diced onion
6 mushrooms sliced
1 cup milk
Salt, pepper and garlic powder (I have grinders and I used a few turns on the pork and about 4 turns on the liquid, garlic powder can be over powering and I sprinkle lightly)

In a large pot heat oil and butter at medium heat. Sauté onions and mushrooms until soften. Push to the side or remove onions and mushrooms if you want to fit all of the pork chops at once. I just pushed the veggies aside and browned 2 pork chops at a time.

Before you put the pork in, sprinkle one side with salt, pepper and garlic, put that side down and do the same with the tops. Searing them should take about 2 minutes on each side, then take them out and set on a plate.

Place veggies back if you removed them, add soups, milk and season again, I just smelled and added what I thought it needed. Add the pork chops back in and reduce the heat to low and cover. I checked the internal temp after about 30 minutes and I got to 145 degrees Fahrenheit so they were perfect.

My husband and I thought we were eating a holiday meal. It was so nice to eat a real meal after our hectic week.

I hope you enjoy these recipes and give them a try.

My Cleaning Schedule

It's my first day as a housewife, and I am totally not doing anything lol!  I still feel a little like I'm on vacation - but I think that will go away soon.  Even though I am not doing anything today, I need a plan for the rest of my foreseeable future - it will be very easy for me to spend all of my time reading if I'm not careful!!

Here is my solution to keep myself in check - a cleaning schedule.  It sounds boring, and it would be easy to just think 'Duh - just clean up', but I wanted something more stable and inclusive.  I want to remember o clean everything - not just the obviously dirty ones!  Since you cannot possibly read the words in the picture above - here are some closer pictures...

 So I gave myself a list of Daily Chores which includes: The dishes, wiping the counters and table off, the kitchen floor, a load of laundry and a 10 minute tidy for the rest of the house.

The second list is a breakdown of when the Monthly Chores are done in each room.  For example - the bedrooms are deep cleaned every January, May and September.  Basically, every four months the entire house is deep cleaned - and then I start over.  Just in case anyone notices - I didn't forget the dining room, but I plan to do it at the same time as the living room (I just didn't want to mess up the look of my lists because there wasn't enough room lol).  I could have kept it as a separate section, but then it would have extended the cleaning cycle to 5 months, which I didn't like.  I'm gonna see how it goes and I can always change it up later!

Next, I made a Weekly Chore list, which includes tasks for each day.  This way I have something to do each day, and in theory my house will look clean at any given time...and Yes I am aware that it will not actually work this way but I'm hoping it will at least make it easier to clean up quickly when we are having people over!!  Here's the breakdown:

Monday - Vacuum and Dust Downstairs
Tuesday - Vacuum and Dust Upstairs and Tidy Closets
Wednesday- Sort the Mail, Tidy Desk and File papers and
                    Groom Winda
Thursday - Clean the Fridge and Wipe Down Appliances
Friday - Clean the Bathrooms and Wash Sheets and Towels
Saturday - Garden and Mow Lawn, Tidy Cars and Garage and
                  Do Monthly Chores
Sunday - Prepare Weekly Meals, Tidy Purse and Water House
               Plants

So, not a lot each day but it keeps everything cleaned up and picked up...

Finally, the Monthly Chores.  The top section is the list of things done in every room, followed by specific tasks to each room if needed. 

Every Room: Spot clean walls and dust corners, Wash pillows and throws, Vacuum and wipe down baseboards, Vacuum and wash floors, De-clutter the room, Dust/wash all items, Vacuum vents, Clean light fixtures and switches, Clean blinds, windows and sills.

You get the idea - every item is listed so I don't forget something (like the baseboards) for too long.  It might seem like a lot of things, but since these are things I have an entire month to do it actually isn't that much.  Maybe I'll even decide it's not enough and make the whole cycle two months instead of four months - but I doubt it since this will leave me lots of time to work on my own projects!!




Now that I've shared what I plan to do for my cleaning routine - anyone else have a routine or plan that works great for them?  I'm always interested in new ways to get things done!

Have a great day!
Beth