Peaceful Visit

I kissed my grandma last week, or at least it feels as though I did. We spent Christmas at Blake's grandmother's farm in Atwood, Kansas. This is very close to McCook, Nebraska- where my grandma Lehman is buried. So we took a little trip to McCook and I got to visit her grave.

I had only been to her grave once before. I was not even a year old, and it was the day she was buried. This grandmother I never got to know, I was able to know through her children. I got to know her through the pots and pans my parents used, through the old mason jars I used as vases, through the old blue spiral that had hand written recipes and clippings from the paper. I got to know her through stories and through pictures, and through the old quilts, hankies, and fabric scraps. She lived all around me through those things, and much more. I feel as though I know her well.

I haven't been able to kiss her on the cheek though, and that's made me feel sad before. When there is someone you feel like you know so well, you want to be able to do that.

When I visited her grave I left a rose. A rose that someone wore in my wedding. I'm not completely sure who though, it was just left in my car. I left it in my car because I just felt like I needed to. I gave her that rose because I wish she could have been there wearing a rose.

When we left, I felt like I had kissed her on the cheek. It was a peaceful feeling.

Cutting up a chicken isn't my talent.

I never have much been a fan of boiled chicken. I've learned that for casseroles it's better to boil or roast your chicken. So I've slowly been learning how to boil chicken. I know that sounds funny... but this stuff isn't coming to me like natural!

I started ordering my chicken from a local farm that hand processes their chicken and makes deliveries now and then. Do some research on how big companies like Tyson raise and process their chicken and you'll never what to eat it again. But I will not go into that right now. One of the more affordable ways to buy this chicken is to buy whole chickens. (The one I used today was only like $3.50... so it's really not any more expensive than the grocery store. Just throwing that out there) Whole chickens scare me though... they really do.

I needed to boil it and I didn't have all day so I decided I'd butcher it. I looked in my cookbooks and found some instructions.

Here is my chicken ready to go:

Here are my instructions:

Here is what happened:

As you can see:

A. I had no clue what I was doing.

B. I am no good at following directions (which my elementary teachers could confirm)

C. I made a mess of my chicken.

I threw it all in a pot with a chopped up onion and some water and we will see what happens. I'm sure it'll be fine... but I really don't know how to chop up a chicken.

Oh I have so much to learn!

Make Your Own Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup

Do you know what's in a can of cream of mushroom soup? I don't know either. What I do know is that I feel better about using it when I make it myself. So here is my recipe. Please note that this is for condensed soup, like what you put in a casserole or something. Not something you just put in a bowl and eat by it's self.

Also, you'll notice I'm not using home aid stock. So this isn't quite as "pure" as it could be. I'm getting there I promise! Someday!

I've found that the most effect way to make this is to do large batches, so you don't waste your time! So here is a recipe for about 6 cans.

Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup:

2 sticks of butter

2 cups of flour

4 cups of chicken stock/broth

4 cups of milk

Salt & Pepper

2 cups of chopped mushrooms

Wash and chop up those mushrooms... how ever chopped you like them.

Next, slice the butter. That makes it melt faster! I know it's a lot of butter, but this is for six cans!

In a big soup pot, cook butter and mushrooms until the butter is melted and mushrooms are soft.

Add the flour and stir together. It'll become thick and gooey.... that's what you want!

Slowly add stock while stirring or whisking to avoid lumps. Bring to a boil and cook a few min. until it's thickened.

Add milk, salt, and pepper. The great part is you can control your salt! Stir until combined and thick. The goal is to get it the consistency of what you see in a can. If it's still a little to runny after 5 to 10 min of cooking, mix some cornstarch and water together and add to the soup. Cook for a few more min. Take off the heat and even chill for a while if needed.

This is about what you want it to look like.

After the soup has completely cooled or even chilled ladle into ziplock freezer bags in 1.25 cup portions. Freeze it! When you need to use one, simply put it in the fridge over night or during the day to let it thaw.

This is a good project for a Saturday or Sunday afternoon. It's way easier to have it made before you even think you need it than to try whipping it up when you need it.

Enjoy it!

Chicken Noodle Soup

One of the classic comforts of home is chicken noodle soup. It might come out of a can, it might be from scratch. One thing is certain- it's feels good to eat a big bowl of chicken noodle soup. This is a fairly quick soup to make and simple. This recipe will serve about 4, I didn't want to make very much, but double it if you have more mouths to feed!

Ingredients:

6 cups of low sodium chicken broth

1 skinless, boneless chicken breast

1 yellow onion, diced

2 carrots, peeled and sliced

2 celery stalks, sliced

Dried thin egg noodles (how much is up to you)

3 TB finely chopped fresh Italian parsley

Salt and ground pepper

Step One: Bring chicken broth to a simmer and add the chicken. Simmer until no pink remains. Remove from heat and allow to cool for a while (You can use that time to work on your veggies).

(Looking back, I should have cut the chicken breast in half so that it was completely covered by the broth. It took about 30 min for this breast to cook all the way through. If you cut it down the middle length wise, I suspect it'd take 12 or 15 min.)

Step 2: As chicken is simmering, prepare or finishing preparing the veggies.

If you like your soup with more broth, you'll want to omit some of the veggies AFTER they have cooked in the broth. You don't want to loose any of that wonderful flavor.

Step 3:

Transfer chicken to a cutting board. Return the broth to a simmer on medium-high heat and add the veggies. Simmer veggies about 10 min or until lightly soft.

Step 4:

Shred or cube chicken and chop parsley

Step 5:

Do your best to skim away any foam on the top of the soup. At this time you can remove some of the veggies if it's too much for your taste.

Step 6:

Add noodles and 3/4th of the parsley. Season will salt and pepper to your taste. Simmer until the noodles are tender, about 3-5 min depending on how many you use and what size pan you are using.

I used around 5 oz of noodles, which is a lot. You can use as few as 2 oz though.

Keep warm until ready to serve. Scoop into warm bowls and sprinkle with the remaining parsley. Curl up on the couch and watch a good movie!

Y'all Enjoy!

Thankful

Today has been a positive day, it really has. Which is a bit different because things have been a little tough this week. Having a very sore throat and loads of ear pressure doesn't help when I'm trying to write a huge bible paper I've been putting off all semester! After much hard work and 8 hours in the library so far this week I've written the bulk of my paper! The rest is a breeze. I've got to write my introduction and conclusion, then add footnotes and do my bibliography. That's it! So I'm taking a break to write some of things that made me very happy today despite feeling awful and sleepy.

1. Last night I slept on the couch, mostly because when I feel sick I become irritable and just the sound of breathing will take over my mind. I also couldn't sleep because I thinking about my throat hurting. I was watching "16 and Pregnant" on MTV until 3 in the morning. I was a sleepy camper. BUT here comes the good part. When Blake woke up he came and got me and walked me into the bed. He re-set my alarm to later time so I would get more sleep. That made me so happy :)

2. I got a Starbucks pumpkin spiced latte and a piece of pumpkin bread before my afternoon class.

3. I was able to get a book that I've already read approved for my book review for a class. That means I don't have to read a whole book next week!

4. At tutoring today this sweet kindergartner boy ran up to me and gave me the biggest hug and said "MS. KRISTIN!!!!!!" :)

5. Blake went and got me chick-fil-a for dinner.

6. I joked about wanting a brownie from there and he went BACK out and got me a brownie from there AND cookies from McDonalds so I would have something another time. Though I told him not to go out at all!

7. I've gotten a lot done on my paper

8. The weekend is coming soon

All these things have made my day feel positive even though I'm not feeling good. That's a "God thing". God is watching over me, and hearing my prayers. I'm so thankful for how He's blessing me.

Driving Peeves

This has nothing to do with being a wife or with cooking or with crafting.

It has everything to do with being a citizen and a driver. Can you relate to those two things? OK... good... now listen up.

There are a couple of driving rules that people forget about and when they do I loose my patience with them. I have to take deep breaths and think about Christmas music.

Always be sure you can see the tires of the car in front of you!

When people ride my tail it makes me want to drive slower not faster.... in fact it makes me want to drive in the center of both lanes really slow so that they can not pass by. (But don't worry I don't do that last thing)

When I'm stopped at red lights I like to leave a pretty good distance if I can. If someone should hit the car behind me and they hit me I would like to not hit the person in front of me, or at least not cause much damage.

Let me just say that I would like for the person behind me to be so respectful themselves. Many times they are. Many times they are not.

And when they are not... I scoot up a little bit. And then some people are rude and scoot up more... so that they are still on my tail. So I scoot up a bit more... and go figure they scoot up more. At this point I have my sunglasses off and am looking at them through my mirrors not hiding the fact that I'm annoyed with them. I scoot up a bit more... but I can't do this much more because then I'll loose too much space between the car in front of me. This just really works my nerves.

And if the person is a huge car it works my nerves even more... because I think about what that huge thing could do to my little car if they got a big hit.

Anyways... this morning there was some lady in a fancy smancy Lexus mini SUV who was doing this to me. So I decided to write about this and plead with anyone reading this to NOT drive like that. Leave some space between you and the car in front of you please!

My other biggest driving peeve is when people don't know how to merge. Oh my goodness does that one drive me crazy. I'll pull my horn out on that. Or when people pass every one up to cut. That makes me mad too. If I can I'll pull out to the middle to keep people from cutting. Yes I'm one of those people.... but if you've had 2 miles of warning signs it's time to get over. I love it when the huge 18 wheelers will block so people can't cut. That just makes me smile.

But anyways.... please be a respectful driver!

What are your driving peeves?

Kristin's Chili Corn Bake

This is a great fall meal! It's warm, hearty, and who doesn't love corn bread! It's also on the healthier side of things and if you substitute the ground beef for ground turkey it would be even healthier. If your pantry is well stocked this is also a CHEAP dinner! Woo hoo! If you don't use corn meal very often then just buy a package of JIFFY mix. One should be enough.

Here is what you need:

1 lb lean ground beef or turkey

1 small onion, chopped

2 cups frozen corn

1 regular can of pinto beans, drained and rinsed

1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained

1 teaspoon chili powder

1 teaspoon low sodium Worcestershire sauce

Cheyenne pepper and crushed red pepper to taste (Start with 1/2 teaspoon of each, then add more as needed)

Cornbread toping (if not using a mix)

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup cornmeal

2 generous tablespoons sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 egg, beaten

1/2 cup skim of low fat milk

1 TB of oil of choice (I like to use corn oil for corn bread)

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees and grease an 11x7 baking dish

2. In a large skillet, cook meat and onion over medium heat. Rub a couple of paper towels in the pan with spatula to pick up extra fat. Add beans, tomatoes, spices and Worcestershire sauce; bring to a boil. Reduce heat and let simmer, uncovered for 5 min. Add corn and simmer about 3 to 4 min longer.

3. Transfer to the greased baking dish. For the topping, combine your dry ingredients and wet ingredients separately then add the wet to the dry ones. Stir just until combined, don't over mix. Spoon over the meat mixture.

4. Bake, uncovered for 14-18 min or until the filling is bubbly and a knife inserted into topping comes out clean. Let stand 5 min. before cutting.

Enjoy!!! Make some this week!