Homemade Chicken Pot Pie

The weather did turn chilly.. its raining and cold two things together that can make it a miserable day. Unless your in Texas and still in a drought so bring on the rain! We want the lakes to fill up before summer since we got a new boat!!!

When its cold out we tend to want cozy comfort food. Tonight I whipped up some homemade chicken pot pies. The house smells wonderful! This is fairly simple and I'm not sure where I found this recipe. But I'm pretty sure a lot are basically the same. Last week I roasted a couple of chickens to freeze for later. I used one of those today which helped put this together faster. You can always just buy a rotisserie too!

Here is what you will need...

1 rotisserie chicken, with meat pulled off the bone and chopped in bite size pieces

2can cream chicken soup

chicken broth

Onion, carrot, potato diced

Frozen peas

Dried parsley, thyme, sage, salt and pepper

Frozen puff pastry or pie crust dough

Directions

Preheat oven to 425

Saute onion, potato and carrots in a large stock pot until tender, about 10 minutes

Add cream chicken soup and chicken broth, stir and then add chicken, peas and seasonings

Place in ramikins and top with dough, sealing the edges and using a knife make a slit across the top.

Bake at 425 for 10 minutes on a cookie sheet, then cover lightly with foil and bake additional 20 minutes

Now let me say I made some modifications.. one, because this did not come with exact measurements and two I was cooking for just me and my son tonight so I did not use a whole chicken! Nor would I have needed to it was plenty. I used maybe half a chicken and about 1/2 cup chicken broth then added a little more water to thin it out some. I chopped up half an onion, one decent size potato and I had matchstick carrots I just used a good hand full and gave them a rough chop. About 1/2 up frozen peas and on the seasoning I just sprinkled it on stirred then tasted. Added more if I needed too. This would for sure make 4 pot pies just divide the filling. I filled our two up to the brim and still had some left over.

My son smelled the onion, potato and carrots saute and was having a teenage melt down of hunger! By the time we were on the second half of foil wrapped cooking he was doing a strange count down dance around the kitchen table. (wish I had video of that haha!) Lets just say he wrinkled his nose once he found out what I was cooking but he loved it so much he ate every last bite!

For sure a keeper! YUM! Sorry Chyanne this one is for me!

Hitting the antique mall on a Sunday

I've been to all the antique malls around my area, I got brave today... I let my son drive us out just north of Cresson, TX to a place called Grandma's Attic. I say that because it involves him driving at speeds of 65 mph..... but he did fine! Back to the mall, it was huge!!! I know they have around 100 booths maybe more.It was so cram packed full of wonderful! I had been looking for old metal cookie cutters, found them in Glen Rose but for $5 and $6 each or even higher. Here I got a bunch for only 90 cents each!!!! Yay I'll be making some ornaments with those. Such as these precious ones..

Source

Around every corner I looked high and low. So much to see..some things priced sky high while others were more humble and offered a cheap gal like me a chance! Then I spot them laying a bowl under a table in one booth. I just couldn't believe my eyes! A bag full of glass knobs for $30!!!!!!! And 2 small bags with 6 and 9 white porcelain knobs for $3 and $4 ! I snatched those up so fast! 

Ended up there are 2 oval glass knobs and the rest are a rounded petal or a diamond point..best way I know how to describe them haha! I'm so thrilled and hope to use them on a future dresser project! My son came away with a Simon and Garfunkel album $5 along with a grey and black fedora hat $5. It turned out to be a great day. :)

Day of cleaning

Today I decided since the weather was going to be 70 in January to clean out our work shop. I moved around things, went through boxes, threw junk away and finally got something accomplished... you can now walk around!
Here is what it looked like before I started.....

And now...

Look how much floor space there is! Maybe I can get around to finishing the armoire now that I have room!

It makes me happy until we clutter it up again.. I still have tons of boxes to go through that are in the attic portion of the shop. I thought today I'd only tackle the floor area, boxes above my head which require a ladder to reach can wait another day. Like when hubby is here, he is good for that kind of stuff! :) 

So ready to start new projects! I've been piddling with the idea of opening a booth at my local antique shop. But before I can do that I need to have plenty things to put in a booth. We will see how it goes...

Until next time :)

Pinterest Goodies!

Recent Pinterest finds ......

Cabinet Spoon Pulls

Seriously a cool idea to give character to any cabinet door!

Moon shaped lounger

Just perfect for a quiet cozy spot for a child to enjoy a book or nap!

Kids apron using pot holder and matching kitchen towel!

Adorable! And the instructions are so easy!

DIY Sweater Pillows

Recycled sweaters or thrift store finds transformed into simple pillows!

Crispy Southwest Chicken Wraps

Yum!!!

Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries

Oh wow, great idea! Will definately be making these in the future!

Cinnamon & Sugar Pull Apart Bread

MMMM!! My mouth is watering already..

The Southwest Chicken Wraps and Cinnamon & Sugar Pull Apart Bread is on the menu tonight... will let you know how they turn out... Suuuuuure looks yummy!

New year.. new start

Happy New Year hope everyone survived the holidays safe and sound! I'm still trying to get my house back into an everyday routine and order. The decorations have been packed away and my small living room seems so big now! This week I plan on organizing the kitchen and doing a major clean out. I have accumulated many small appliances that I'm not even sure when they were last used. Rule of thumb if you haven't used something in 2 years its time to get rid of it!

I also am trying a new cooking thing. Freezer cooking... spend one day cooking up meals or just the meats to make dinners faster. Today I roasted two chickens, stripped the meat and put them in freezer bags. I also made a large pot of homemade Minestrone soup and Chicken Penne. I found these containers at Wal-Mart that worked out perfectly for the soup..

Ziploc Twist Lock Containers

Then for the Chicken Penne I bought these

Glad Simply Cooking OvenWare

You can bake, serve and even store in the freezer with these! Awesome! I don't have to keep my glass baking dishes in the freezer. Plus they are a perfect size for my side-by-side fridge that is narrow.

The temps will be in the 70's later this week... yep thats Texas in January for ya! So that means I will be in the shop organizing and cleaning out boxes. Trust me it needs it badly. Maybe I should invest in hooks or shelves to try and make the chaos into something. In a way I'm looking forward to it and in a way I'm not.. the end result will be worth it..............the end result will be worth it! Yea I keep telling myself that! haha! I'll snap some before and after pics see if I can even tell a difference once I'm finished!

Handmade Ornaments

 Hi all, its been a hectic day! Last day of school, early release, kiddo is hungry, kiddo wants to go to the movies with his girlfriend, I need to buy some groceries, pick kiddo up from movies and kiddo is hungry again. Ahh teenage boys they are like an empty black hole .. I have no idea where he puts all this food! I'm still working on cleaning up our guest room for next week. While trying to finish up a few last projects for homemade gifts, sometimes feel like I'm a rubber band being stretched and snapped back into place! You do to? We need to start a club or something about that..haha!

 So while I'm sipping some coffee and watching Ghost Adventures figured I might want to get a post up on handmade ornaments to share over at Funky Junk Interiors tonight. Some were made by my mother-in-law and some by me. All were pretty simple to make... so lets get started.

 Popsicle sticks and pre-cut snowflakes painted and dolled up, simple and cute!

From left to right, pre-cut mitten from Michaels painted. Crochet santa. Flower Angel made from a carnation, wood bead for the head some leaves for wings.

On the left recycled Christmas cards cut, folded and glued together. Right, square glass ornament stuffed with red pompoms and paint markers to make the santa belt.

Snowman, stuffed with little bitty styrofoam balls and paint markers for the face.

And last is a monogram ornament.. the one I made for us is a shiny silver and the pics were not working out for me. So I unwrapped the one I made for my sister and brother-in-law to get some better shots. Its just stickers how much more easy could it be? Their last name initial is the larger letter in the middle with their first names on either side in lower case. On the back side I added a silver and black fancy sticker topped with a simple black ribbon hanger.

Can't wait to see what everyone else has been busy making! 

Sharing at:

Cake pops!

I love my sister... I really do she bought me a cake pop maker! I have been searching the internet for pictures of cake pops. Saving and filing them away in different categories for future creations! There are so many variations out there I just couldn't believe all the creativity. Bakerella has so many wonderful designs and ideas.
Such as this cute reindeer...

Source

I'm so excited to try it out using anything! So today I made ones using brownie mix (because that is what I had in the pantry).  The instructions tell you to wipe the cake wells with a paper towel dipped in vegetable oil.. ok this was a pain and didn't seem to be working all that great. I just sprayed each top and bottom well with non-stick cooking spray. After many trial and errors I figured out to fill the bottom well to the top with the batter.

Otherwise they come out looking like cones if there is not enough batter. I just popped those mistake ones in my mouth as I kept on working! I closed the lid and set a time for 5 minutes... 

Here they are all cooked and so cute. Placed them on a plate to cool and made a few more batches. Then I took a good few spoon fulls of a store bought icing and put it inside my small glass measuring cup. Popped it in the microwave for 10 seconds and stirred it around checking that it drizzled smoothly. Stuck a stick in the icing then inside the cake pop and dipped it into the icing.

The icing was still too runny might let it cool some either that or I didn't wait long enough to allow the cake pop to cool. Either way it was yummy and they are so cute. I can't wait to make some more!