Monday, August 30, 2010

Adventures in Cooking- Recipe 1


So if you remember my post a few weeks ago, my goal for the rest of the year was to try 1 new recipe a month. I got this recipe box as a wedding gift from my MIL and SILs filled w/ their scrumptious recipes, so Logan held the box and I literally drew 5 at random and he got to choose the one he wanted from the selection. This time it was.... CHICKEN TETRAZZINI.


Okay lets be honest... I don't have these "ingredients" lying around my kitchen so I had to make a list and get most of them from the store... BUT I'll get there someday.

What you need for this recipe is:
7 oz of spaghetti noodles cooked and drained (that's a little over 1/2 the bag ladies)
1 cup of liquid cream (this can be found in the milk/ coffee creamer section)
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup flour
1/4 T Pepper
1/4 T Nutmeg
1/2 T Salt
1 cup chicken broth
2 T White Wine
13 oz can of mushrooms (sliced and drained)
1/2 cup of grated Parmesan cheese
2 cups cooked chicken


First thing's first... cook and boil your spaghetti noodles like normal. Drain them, then place them back in the bowl with a damp paper towel on top. This will prevent them from becoming hard and drying out. Set that aside.


Meanwhile, pour a little olive oil in a skillet and cook 3 breasts of chicken. Unfortunately ours were frozen so they took awhile to thaw out before we could cook them- could have saved us some time! When you cook the chicken do NOT season it... just use butter or olive oil and cook 5 minutes or so on each side. (cut into it to make sure there is no pink in the middle)



Once the chicken is done, slice it up into small squares. Measure 2 cups and put that much chicken back into the skillet. Eat the rest as a snack ;)

That's about all the prep work before making the main dish... set your oven to preheat on 350 and lets start part 2!


Melt butter in a large sauce pan over low heat. Blend in the flour and seasonings illustrated above. Cook over low heat stirring until somewhat smooth and bubbly. (it will look like not a lot and kind of grainy - see below)


Remove from heat. NOW stir in the broth and cream. Heat to boiling stirring constantly for 1 minute.



NOW its time to stir in the white wine, spaghetti, chicken, and mushrooms! Keep mixing until well blended. Remove from heat.


Use a 2 qt casserole pan (this will seem too small, but I promise, its not!) - make sure it is greased w/ either vegetable oil or PAM.



Pour the mixture into the casserole dish very carefully! Now its looking like a MEAL.


NOW sprinkle your Parmesan cheese on top. We didn't have the grated kind which would have been awesome- but I must admit, the powder kind that you put on top of spaghetti worked just fine :)


Stick the dish into the oven uncovered for 30 minutes or until bubbling.


PHEW! That was quite the process, but honestly.... not too hard!



Logan LOVED IT and told me that this was a huge turning point for me... he said in the cooking world, this meal took me from receptionist to MANAGER haha- not bad! Thank you Maman Misegades for your awesome recipe!



Tah Dah!!! Goal for August= complete.

This cooking thing really is fun when you have the TIME and the INGREDIENTS.

Hope everyone is having a good week... I CANNOT WAIT FOR FALL WEATHER AND CLOTHING!!!


Logans VERY First CAR!

So if you know me or follow me on Twitter- I have been the annoying girl who for months (maybe even longer than that) has complained about Logans "Larky" car that kept breaking down, ruining our Friday nights, and we kept pouring $$$ into even though the car was worth less than $1,000. It was real frustrating, yet.... it was FREE and NO car payments. So one cannot be too picky.

3 weeks ago, the Larky died...it was totalled on the highway and although praise GOD Logan is okay - not a scratch - Larky wasn't so lucky. (And I WAS THRILLED!!! haha)

We got a check back from the insurance company + some savings to put a pretty decent down payment on this adorable KIA Optima! It is a 2005 with only 51,000 miles... and Logan drives a LOT! So we feel good about it being a reliable, good gas mileage, car for him. PLUS, the price was RIGHT! (we finally had to let go of Volvos, Acuras, Maximas to be more practical- Dave Ramsey would be PROUD!)

Logan has always had loaner cars or hand-me-down cars...so it was a stressful/ overwhelming day for him... the "vultures" (aka car salesman) were at their month end quota crunch time, and were on the prowl ;) Luckily, we got TERRY who loved Logan and they talked basketball more than CAR which I found odd but endearing haha!

We LOVE the car, it drives great, and Logan is a very proud Papa owner for the very first time!

We are still thinking of a name: Night Rider, Hot Sauce, Black Stallion are in the running... ha! We are welcoming any additional suggestions.


signing papers- look at that smirk!


Logan hates smiling in pics by himself- so he does awkward face instead 99% of the time.


TERRY!!! He even invited Logan to play bball with him Sunday mornings haha :)



Cute Optima!


CUTE BUTT!


VERY proud of him!


The first drive.... :)

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Our CUTE Humble Abode



FINALLY, I am posting pictures of our casa... we LOVE it!



Below is our living room- what you see RIGHT when you walk in our front door- the red chair I inherited from my boss' sister for FREE...so I love it EXTRA more!


This is my first original artwork painting that I purchased across from the Lourve in Paris...painted by an art student there :) I love it... and of course I have a thing for lanterns and M's!


Looking into our dining room!





Our CUTE kitchen! Love how our Misegades sign somehow matched! LUCKY!!



My dish towels say... Bonjour Yall AND I would rather be in Paris ;)


This is kind of dark, but we LOVE our built in bookcases, the stained glass lamp, and my labor of love yellow table! Remember those chairs? Yep, they survived the bike rack on the way home in the pouring rain from Canton!



Our built in mini bar... the cute stained glass!



Our bedroom... as they say on MTV Cribs "Where the MAGIC Happens" ;)





The guest bedroom/ my craft space / closet.


My crafting space/ inspiration board/ "happy place" :)



Hope you enjoyed a mini tour!

Monday, August 16, 2010

4 Simple Goals



If you didn't already know, I am in love with Elsie and her cute blog! (She also just got engaged, CONGRATS!!!) She posted a challenge for her readers HERE - Join me in making 4 goals that you want to achieve before the end of the year. Goals that will enrich your life.

I am going to list mine here, and as I acheive each of them, I will blog about it. Ready, go!

1. Sew 1 thing before the end of the year. I just inherited my grandmother's vintage sewing machine and I have GOT to put it to good use :)



2. Journal more. My therapy has always been a candle, songs w/ awesome lyrics, a journal, and a pen.... a GOOD pen. I picked up a new journal on Saturday, sat in my red chair, and journaled for 20 minutes...it is SO good for my soul... writing is truly an outlet for me. I need to commit to doing this weekly. (if not more!)




3. Finish our wedding album. I have been thinking, rethinking, re-doing, our wedding album a zillion times... I need to just be decisive and click PURCHASE :)



4. Cook 1 new thing per month! I want to whip out the trusty cookbooks I have been given and try 1 new recipe a month... maybe even start some sort of supper club??? I dont know... I tried a recipe last night from Jen Smith and I am now more confident in my cooking skills...all you have to do is put yourself out there and try new things! I even substituted ingredients... I mean who has paprika!??! not this girl... so we googled substitutes and red pepper came up! Done and Done! I have that... then we didn't have crispy onion rings (the kind you buy in a can)...so I ground up Ritz crackers... why not!??! As for the cream of celery soup, the cream of mushroom soup in my pantry worked JUST fine. So I took some risks, and it ended up being yummy!



What are your 4 goals going to be?

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