Chicken Casserole

I am hooked on food blogs.  Every morning with my coffee, I read my favorites and try one or two new ones.  There are so many that one person could never read them all but I try to get to a variety of them.

One of my favorites is Steph at Plain Chicken.  Her recipes are easy and we have enjoyed many of them.  Last week she posted Yum Yum chicken and I knew it was going to be on our table over the weekend!

And am I glad it was. I made it Friday night so we could have it on Saturday.  Look at me, planning ahead. We tasted it when it came out of the oven and it was good.  But on Saturday, it was YUM YUM!  It reminded my of Thanksgiving in a such a way that I am now so excited about planning our big dinner

As usual I changed the recipe a bit since I didn't have everything I needed and here's my version:

Yum Yum Chicken
adapted from Plain Chicken.com

1 1/2 pound Rotisserie chicken, chopped
1 small onion, diced
4 oz mayonnaise
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 small can of mushrooms (use fresh if you have them)
1 box Cornbread stuffing, uncooked
1 tsp poultry seasoning
1 cup chicken broth
1/2 stick melted butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium bowl, mix both cans of soup and mayonnaise.  The original recipe called for 8 oz of sour cream but somehow there wasn't any in our fridge.

In a 9 x 13 dish, mix chicken, onions and mushrooms.  Spread the soup mixture over the top of the chicken and onions.

Sprinkle the stuffing mix over the top of the soup.  If you are using a seasoned stuffing mix or if your mix came with a seasoning packet, sprinkle that on top of the cornbread.  My stuffing mix was a little bland so I used the poultry seasoning.

Mix the broth and melted butter and pour over the stuffing mix.

Bake for 30 minutes.

You get moist chicken and stuffing with a creamy sauce in every bite.  It's not hard to tell why it is called Yum Yum Chicken.

I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.


Live, Laugh, Love,
Karen

Martha Mondays - Turkey Pot Pie

This week's pick for Martha Mondays was chosen by Sarah at Sassy Suppers.  We needed to post how we used Thanksgiving leftovers with a little Martha flair, of course.

This year  Charlie and I scaled it down a bit so we didn't have alot of leftover side dishes, thank goodness.  We did have a decent amount of ham and turkey, even though we only made a turkey breast.  I made turkey club sandwiches, a ham and cheese frittata and turkey pot pies.

I didn't eat a club sandwich that was inspired by some of Martha's Sandwiches and Charlie said it was delicious.  I did eat some of the frittata and it was so, so, so good.  Did you get that...you can get the recipe here.  This is how it looks...

I'm so glad there is some of this left for breakfast tomorrow morning.

Now on to the next best thing. 

I have to tell you a secret first. 

I've never made a potpie before.  Charlie thought it would be the best way to use up a good amount of the turkey.  I looked at several different recipes and most had the same ingredients but I ventured out on my own.  In other words, I used what I had in my fridge and pantry and came up with this.

Turkey Potpie

Taste of Home

1 cup cubed peeled potato

1/2 cup thinly sliced carrots

1/3 cup chopped celery

1/2 cup chopped onions

3 tablespoon butter

1 clove garlic, minced

1 1/2 cup chicken broth

2 tablespoons flour

1/2 cup milk

1 1/2 cup cubed turkey

1/2 cup frozen peas - thawed

3/4 cup canned corn

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon tarragon

1/4 teaspoon pepper.

Store bought pie crust or your favorite

Saute potatoes, carrots, celery and onions in butter.

Add garlic and continue to cook for 1 minute.

Stir in broth, cover and cook for 8-10 minutes.

Combine flour and milk in separate bowl.

Add to veggies slowly, stirring while you are adding.

Bring to a boil.

Cook and stir until thickened.

Add remaining ingredients.

Cook until everything is warmed through.

I used store bought crust.  You can use your favorite but I suck at pie crust.  And isn't the first step of recovery, admitting that you have a problem. 

Prep your bowl, fit crust inside then fill will hot turkey mixture.  Add crust to the top and seal edges.  Cut slits in top crust.

It is luscious.  Thanks Sarah.  I enjoyed trying something new.

Frittata with Ham, Cheese and Mushrooms

Making my menu for next week made me hungry.  So I ate some cornbread dressing.  It was 7:00 in the morning but ya know, cornbread dressing and coffee go together pretty darn well. 

However, I couldn't get the frittata off my mind that I had put down for Sunday.  I usually cook one large meal, generally dinner and we eat sandwiches or left overs or whatever for the rest of meals.  Sundays though, I cook a bigger lunch.  Usually something like a brunch item then we'll grill in the evening.  And I still can't get that darn frittata off my mind.

So I gave into my madness, said to heck with my good intentions of finally making a menu and walked right into that kitchen to put this nagging to rest. Random Thoughts...Great way to use leftover Thanksgiving ham.

Flying without a recipe this is what I ended up with.



What I used:

8 Eggs

4 green onions, chopped

4 slices of ham, diced

1 portabella mushroom cap, chopped

1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

1/4 teaspoon paprika

4 teaspoons of butter

1/4 cup heavy cream - decided at the last minute so it didn't make the picture

In an oven proof pan, melt butter.  Add mushrooms.  After they get some lovin' from the butter, add the green onions.  Saute.  While that's happening, Mix the eggs and the heavy cream in a medium size bowl.  Salt and Pepper.  Add cheese, ham and paprika.  Stir together.  Pour into pan.  Give one quick mix to get mushrooms and onions incorporated into egg mixture.   Let it sit on low to medium heat for about 3 - 5 minutes.  You can look at it and see that it is beginning to set.  This is when you put it in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes. 

This what you have when it comes out of the oven.  You want it to be pulling away from the sides a bit.

This is what you have when you are ready to eat.  Yum.  It was everything I wanted it to be.

Now if I can just stop thinking about brownies!

Weekly Menu

Do you make a menu for the upcoming week?  I used to.  I’m not sure what happened but I haven’t in a while and really need to get back into it.  Especially since the holidays are always so rushed and the stress level at work seems to be at an all time high. 

I would like to avoid going to the grocery store because it is a chore for me.  Many people like it.  I have a friend who says it’s the only time she doesn’t have her gets with her so she gets a Starbucks, strolls leisurely down the aisles and thinks of it as her ‘me’ time.  But that ain’t me babe.  If I can get Charlie to go, I love it.  And he usually does.  I love him for that!

Charlie likes Sam’s Club.  We do almost all of our shopping there.  Okay, Okay, He does almost all of our shopping there.  Since it is just the two of us at home now, we always have a full freezer due to the large sizes you have to buy.  I look at it as an advantage though because the prices are good and we just freeze them in dinner size portions.  If one of the kids happen to pop in, we take out two.

Dinner Menu Madness

Saturday – Turkey Pot Pie (using Thanksgiving Leftovers)

Sunday – Ham Fritatta (using Thanksgiving Leftovers)

Monday -  Kentucky Hot Browns

Tuesday – Hamburgers

Wednesday – Pork Chops with Au Gratin Potatoes

Thursday – Korean Beef and Fried Rice

Thanksgiving Blessings

I am so grateful for everything I have in my life.  There are so many good things in my life and I know that I couldn't do it on my own.

Along with my faith in God, these are the best things in my life.  My family, my faith and my job...without any of these, I wouldn't be me.

They make my heart sing!

Pumpkin Spice Mini Muffins

How's your memory?  Ever had a recipe (or anything else) simply leave your brain?  I know that I have made these pumpkin spice muffins before but I couldn't for the life of me remember how to do it.  Thank goodness for technology.  I googled 'pumpkin spice muffins' and got thousands upon thousands of results. 

After reading a few I realized that everyone has their own version.  I knew the ones I had made before were simple.  So this is what I went with:

Pumpkin Spice Mini Muffins

1 box Spice Cake Mix (I used Duncan Hines)
1 can (15 oz) Pumpkin (not pie filling)
1 1/4 cup water

Mix together and put in mini muffin pan, muffin pan or loaf pan.  You get to choose.

I baked at 325 for 28 minutes.  Adjust your time depending on your pan.

Enjoy. One Perfect Bite!

There were several sites using a very close version of this one.  Some say it was originally a Weight Watchers recipe, others used a yellow cake mix.  Since I don't remember where I got it years ago, I cannot give credit to anyone.  If you believe it is yours, please comment and accept my thanks.

My Favorite Weekend

I love this weekend.  The Saturday and Sunday before Thanksgiving.  It's the time when I take a good look at my Christmas list.  Make cookie dough to freeze for baking during the crazy rush.  Finalize the Thanksgiving menu.  Fight the crowds in the grocery stores.

It's the best of times.  Filled with anticipation and fuzzy feelings.  Filled with the gratitude of the Thanksgiving season and knowing that next is the glorious wonder of Christmas.

Spending lots of time in the kitchen.  Baking sweet treats to give as gifts.  I'm so happy I can't even come up with complete sentences.

I love this weekend.  I'm off to scratch a few things off of my list.  How about you?  Is this just another weekend for you or is it the start of something special?

Martha Mondays - Thanksgiving Centerpieces

It was my pick for Martha Mondays and I knew that I needed to scratch something off of my to-do list for Thanksgiving.  With that in mind, I picked centerpieces because it was something that I could get taken care of and just put aside until the big day.

This is what is on my table now.  Gold, glass pumpkins purchased at Sam's.  I love them.  I can put them out in September and not worry about changing anything until the day after Thanksgiving.  They are beautiful and give off the fabulous glow.

After going through Martha Stewart's website looking at all of her handmade centerpieces and table settings, I was exhausted and took a small break to get my creative juices flowing.


They didn't flow very far, unfortunately!

This is what I ended up with after my first effort.

Candles in cranberries is what I call this.  And I made a note to buy new candles since these apparently haven't been straight in a very long time.  I couldn't find any ribbon that I liked and I think it is very, very plain.  Maybe I needed to make several and group them.  This presented a problem since I don't have anything that comes close to matching.

On to try something else.



I drug out a box of old decorations that I knew just needed some tender loving care.  Ok, I admit.  I keep stuff.  It's not hoarding, more of a pack rat thing.  I come by it naturally, my Dad was the same way.  But it's all in boxes and one day I'm going to either need it or find a way to use it.  Like today. 

With all of the Martha inspiration and a little of her glitter, I turned the old pumpkins into sparkling jewels.  I even sparkled a real pumpkin too.  And after inserting some glass balls that matched perfectly, I think I've got something here. 

Reminds me of a fairyland.   I had fun and my table will now look beautiful with this in the center.  I can't wait to see what the others came up with.





Thanksgiving Humor

There are a lot of little ones in our lives.  We try to spread as much love and laughter around to them as possible.  I'm in the process of finishing up their Thanksgiving cards and looked up some silly jokes.  They are funny even if you aren't young in years.

Enjoy..

May your stuffing be tasty,
May your turkey be plump,
May your potatoes and gravy
have nary a lump.
May your yams be delicious
And your pies take the prize,
And may your Thanksgiving dinner
Stay off of your thighs.
     -- Anonymous

Thanksgiving dinners take 18 hours to prepare.  They are consumed in 12 minutes.  Half-times take 12 minutes.  This is not coincidence.  -- Erma Bombeck

How many cooks does it take to stuff a turkey?
One, but you have to work really hard to stuff him in there.


Why do we have a Thanksgiving Holiday?
So we know when to start Christmas shopping!


Jokes found on http://www.coolest-holiday-parties.com/thanksgiving-jokes.html.

Have a great day!

Karen and Charlie

Pumpkin Chocolate Chunk Bread

Over the last few days I've been searching for pumpkin bread or muffin recipes to put me in the spirit of the holidays.  Work has been so stressful and as much as I love this time of year, it's been difficult to start cooking and baking like I usually do.  After going through my old standards, I went to Foodbuzz and right there in my saved recipes was this one from The Gourmand Mom for Pumpkin Chocolate Chunk Bread.   Lucky me. Lucky, lucky me.  I had everything I needed and I went for it.

Visit her site for the entire recipe but let me tell you about it.  From start to finish, 15 minutes at the most.  Everything goes in one bowl, mix, pour in pan and your done.  Do you remember the commercial where the woman throws flour everywhere to make it look like she was doing alot of cooking?  I can't even remember the product but that's what this is like.  An hour later when you take it out of the oven you won't be able to wait to cut into it.  Believe me, the smell is overpowering.  It grabs you and won't let go until you slice a piece and see how moist it is.

This bread has everything you could want.  It's bread which is my favorite food group.  And chocolate chunks, which is also my favorite good group and pumpkin.  Ok, pumpkin is just my seasonal favorite, hopefully it won't feel slighted.  The pumpkin and chocolate go together so wonderfully, complimenting each other divinely.  I would have never thought it.

And wouldn't you know it, just as I was enjoying the first piece, my son and his girlfriend show up.  The knew immediately something good was happening and followed their noses  into the kitchen.  I told them it wasn't any good, trying to keep them from eating any but they didn't go for it.  As it turns out, about half of the loaf was gone before Charlie got home. 

Hey, you snooze, ya lose around here.  He knows that you've got to be fast when there are sweets around here.


Thanks Amy @ The Gourmand Mom for the great recipe.  I think it will become a seasonal favorite.