WOW...how'd it get to be Thursday??!!!

This week is just flying by!!   I can't believe I've posted basically nothing all week!

My apologies and I believe I promised you a weekend full of hubsters cooking.  He was supposed to help me write this post but we're gonna just wing it and see what happens--be forewarned...there are TONS of photos today!!!

One day last week hubster wanted salisbury steak...he made this...we disagree I say this is chicken fried steak, he says it is salisbury steak. Breaded and pan fried cube steaks with white gravy over rice and green beans. Call it either one but it was good.  BTW- we still disagree on what to call this.

Saturday comes and hubster drags all this stuff out of my cupboards. Glad I was outside doing the man's 

woman's work and planting flowers and shrubs.

Flour mixture he used to cover the chicken

Pouring the beer into the can over the melted butter

yep, it's butt chicken  :0)

pooor Mr. Chicken, doesn't have a clue what's about to happen to him

well, at least he got rubbed first

he got a nice coating of the flour mixture

then he got a can full of beer and butter shoved up his honkus!!! heee heeee

Now he's hanging out on the grill where he stayed for several hours.

Hubster turned the grill burner on low on one side of the grill and Mr. Chicken hung out on the other side of the grill.

This my dears is a London Broil.  He's been hanging out in a marinade in the freezer for a couple months.  I put him in the marinade, then I food savered it and into the freezer he went.  We had high expectations for this guy and he did not disappoint. 

Hubster snuggled him into a blanket of foil and off to the grill he went

These are just canned baked beans

He apparently added all this to the beans

then he decided to add this too

then he so kindly wrapped my uber-expensive one of my favorite LeCreuset casserole dishes in foil before he put it on the grill. Sometimes I KNOW he loves me! 

This stuff just all hung out on the grill pretty much all afternoon while we slaved away in the yard getting flowers and shrubs planted!

Then our friends came over for dinner and brought this amazing potato dish and a salad (I think hubster forgot to eat his greens!!) and some bread.   We had butt chicken, london broil, potato casserole, beans, salad, bread and a strawberry cake dessert thingy. (that was from Kroger and it was surprisingly good)

Now on Sunday we have leftover chicken and the weather went from 80+ on Saturday to 40'ish on Sunday!!   great googly moogly

What's a girl to do???  Well, tell hubster to make homemade chicken & rice soup with the leftovers

Looks like we have celery, carrots, green onions in the pan.  I think there was some butter or oil in there too so they could saute but I'm not positive.

Now he added this stuff 

Let it simmer on the stovetop

Chopped up that leftover chicken from yesterday

Added it to the pot, now he just let it cook for a few hours all nice and slow

then we had a snack.  Yessireeeee bob that's the strawberry jam I made the other day and let me tell you...it is goooooooood stuff!!!

It's cold and icky outside and hubster added some rice to the soup, let it cook and made me this nice plate of soup and bread.  It was yummmo

Well, don't you know we had some leftover london broil so hey....Monday night dinner was born!!!

I just put that London Broil over some salad and then enjoyed a big meaty salad. It was good too!!

Chicken gone, meat gone, bread gone, and the beans...well, I had those for lunch with a veggie burger pattie broken up in it on Monday.  No more leftovers. 

So what's your favorite way of cooking a lot and then re-using the food in a completely different way to use up the leftovers??    Leave me a comment and tell me about your big weekend cook once but eat all weekend escapades!!   

Peace, Love and Yummies!!!

Hot chocolate

If you are out of milk and want hot chocolate....ice cream makes a NICE substitute. Just sayin'
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Strawberry Freezer Jam

Happy Sunday ya'll

Man o man...it was 85 degrees and sunny bunny all day yesterday.  The hubster and I got the flowers and lots of new plants and hanging baskets and they are all planted with only 1 minor incident involving the sprinkler system.  I am proud to say it was not me who hit the sprinkler system with the shovel! :-)
But holy smoley...it's in the 40's and 50's today and all cloudy and gloomy like.  It's a gloomy gus day for sure so I'm gonna stay inside, blog a little, do a little taxes and work on the condo bills and some new reservations that are coming in and maybe watch a little basketball!!   I'm a Kentucky girl at heart so I gotta cheer on UK now!

I bought some strawberries at the Sam's Club the other day and then I didn't know why so I made jam.  Seems like a logical thing to do.  Yeah, it's kinda jam because it's freezer jam but hey....I'm just beginning at this canning stuff so I gotta take it slow and easy.

Put those nice cleaned berries in a big bowl and smash 'em really good like.  I used a potato masher but I suppose if you have a food processor you could use that.  I don't so I mashed the old fashioned way...mashed the berries and working on my arm muscles at the same time!!

Get yourself some of this cool stuff at the walmarts store

Bowl those lids in a pot of water...yeah, yeah I only boiled the lids

Mix that packet of pectin and about 2 cups sugar in a bowl

Now pour the sugar over those smushyed up berries.   Mine are still chunky but I like my jam that way.

Now stir that all together for 3 minutes...yep, we are working out those arms today

Now ladle that jam into the hot jars and slap those lids on nice and tight

Let sit out on counter for about 30 minutes then send them to the freezer but save one jar for the fridge.

This will keep a year in the freezer and about 3 weeks in the refrigerator.  That's why I use the really small jars.  We don't eat a ton of jams or jellies so I would rather have the small jars and take them out of the freezer more often. 

Here is mine and the hubsters snack this morning.  This was some gooooood stuff!!  We were churning over all kinds of fruit jams to make as the fruit starts coming in this year!
He's making chicken soup now with the leftover chicken he grilled yesterday.  Tomorrow the post is gonna be his weekend cooking post.  Make sure you come back and see what my crazy hubby has been doing this weekend while I yard worked and he cooked!!!!

Stay warm and don't hurt yourself cheering for those CATS today!!! GO BIG BLUE!!!

Peace, Love & Yummies

Chicken pot chicken pot...chicken pot pie!!!!

For the love of Pete and everyone else I wish to goodness I could remember who sang that little song "chicken pot chicken pot chicken pot pieeeeee!"  If you know could you please comment and tell me because it's gonna drive me crazy and yes, at the moment I'm too lazy to google it.  :0)

Let's make this dish and I've done it before be we are revisiting it because it's so insanely awesome good and easy!!

These are the ingredients you'll need

Open the can of chicken and drain (you might want to rinse a little too with some water to cut the salt out of the chicken)

Just throw the can of vegetables in the same drainer with the chicken and let them drain together.

Spray an 8x8 dish with cooking spray.  You'll thank me later for this tip!

Spread out 1/2 of the crescent rolls into the pan

Pop those in the cold oven and set the oven to 375 degrees.  Just let those crescent rolls hang out in the pan in the oven while it's preheating.  I promise I'm not leading you astray with this one!

 Stir together the salad dressing, flour, bouillon cubes and pepper

Add the milk and stir together well

Cook on low heat until thickened.  I like to use a whisk as it gets all those pesky little lumps out of the gravy mixture

Once that is thickened just add the chicken and the veggies.  Yeah, you can use turkey too if you prefer!

keep on low heat until chicken and veggies are warmed throughout

Now run over to the oven and yank that pan of kinda cooked crescent rolls out of the oven and then add the meat/veggie mixture over the top

Take the other half of those crescent rolls and spread out over the top of the mixture

It's not necessary but I like to add a little brushed egg and paprika to the top of mine.  You know...to make it all fancy and all!

Bake that in the oven for about 15-20 minutes.   Splash a little flour on your face so your family thinks you really exerted yourself in the kitchen and sit down to a plate of this goodness!

You can serve a little side salad or something with it but hey, it's got the meat, the veggies and the bread all rolled into one so we just eat it like this!

What's that you say....can you use biscuits?  Well sure you can or you can use a pie crust.  Whatever your family likes.  I've made it will all three but we all love the crescent roll version the best.  No matter what you use I still suggest prebaking the bottom crust in the oven.  It just seems to make a nicer bottom layer if you do that and hey, if you don't like a bottom layer of crust... WHAT?? What's wrong with you???!!!!    heehee   just kidding but not really.   No, you can leave the bottom layer off if you like.

Now here is the handy little linky to the printable copy of the recipe.  You know the official put together one without all my snide comments.

Chicken Pot Pie

well, it seems my linky isn't working so here you go, sorry about that I guess I need to work on my google doc skills!

Chicken Pot Pie

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Serves: (4) • Prep/Cook Time: 30 minutes

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Ingredients

• 1/2 cup Miracle Whip
• 2 Tablespoons flour
• 2 chicken bouillon cubes
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 LARGE can chicken, rinsed & drained
• 1 can Veg-All vegetables, drained
• 1 can crescent rolls, divided

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place 1/2 of crescent rolls in 8x8  pan and put in oven while preheating.
2. Stir together the salad dressing, flour, bouillon and black pepper in a saucepan.  Add milk
3. Cook over low heat until thickened (gravy consistency) then add the chicken and vegetables.
4. Cook on low until chicken and vegetables are warmed throughout then spoon into dish.
5. Use other half of crescent rolls and spread over top of mixture, pressing seams together
6. If desired, brush beaten egg whites and sprinkle paprika over the top
7. Bake in oven for 15-20 minutes until golden brown.

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Special Notes

• use an 8x8 square pan for easiest crescent roll spreading
• may use biscuits or pie crust in place of crescent rolls

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Peace, Love & Yummies!!!!