Chicken Pot Cobbler

Yeah, I know Chicken Pot Cobbler...doesn't sound very appetizing but it was good.  It's kind of like chicken pot pie but only has a top crust and pot pies to me have a top and a bottom crust so this is a cobbler.  See, if you think about it that way it makes perfect sense!

You'll have to forgive my weirdness as  I'm sitting in the chair in my jammies at 10 a.m. eating leftover ghoulash from last night so I fall into the weird category right now.  If it makes anyone feel better, I spent my time productively while the pictures were uploading and as soon as I'm done I'm getting a shower because I have to run pick up the Aboggs contacts so he can see again!

I don't have the recipe typed up just yet so we're gonna do the whole recipe right now in pictures.  So follow along and check back in a few days and I'll have the link to the recipe posted, promise.

Go to the store and grab a nice rotisserie chicken.

(no, I didn't know how to spell rotisserie I let spell check figure it out)

You can also use 3 cups of cook it yourself chicken if you so wish.

Put 1 1/2 cups of chicken broth and 1 10 oz can of cream of chicken soup in a saucepan and slowly bring to a boil.  Stirring occasionally.

While that is warming up grab yourself a nice 2 qt. casserole dish and start pulling the meat off the bones.  Oh, take the skin off too please.

Don't worry, Hubster will come home from work and steal some skin and finish licking the meat off the bones that you missed.

See you have a nice pan of chicken and all you had to do was pull it off the bones.

(which in my mind is a very difficult task, I hate touching chicken)

I grabbed a can of mixed vegetables and mixed it in with the chicken.

Cause I like my mixed veggies in this kind of thing. 

Now pour that soup/broth mixture over the chicken/vegetable mixture.

Make sure you get it all mixed in really good.  Spread the love around.

Rinse that saucepan you just used out and drop a stick of butter in there and let it melt.

While the butter is melting put 1 cup Self Rising Flour in a bowl and add 1/2-1 tsp pepper.

Combine those together.

Grab 1 cup of well shaken buttermilk.

Take the melted butter and pour it into the bowl of flour.

Then pour in that cup of buttermilk.

Just mix that all together and yes, it will be thick and gooey.

Take that batter and plop it over the top of the chicken mixture

Just drop plops of it all around the pan.

Gently spread the batter out over the chicken mixture then pop in the oven at 425 degrees for about 35-45 minutes until top is browned and bottom is hot and bubbly.

Pull that out of the oven and let it rest for a few minutes.

It's pretty hot you know.

I popped some frozen lima beans in a pot while the casserole was cooking.

Bring it out and serve it up.

I think you can now see why I chose to call this chicken pot cobbler.

Funny thing about this.... Hubster liked the top better than my regular chicken pot pie but likes the middle of the chicken pot pie better.  I liked the middle but not the top.   HOWEVER the next day he decided he liked them both but maybe the middle would be better with the other top.  Confused yet?

I'm thinking next time I will just buy some pre-made flaky layer biscuits and split those up a bit and put on the top or find another quick drip biscuit recipe that I really like.

That's really the nice thing about trying new stuff you know, sometimes you have a couple of recipes for the same thing and you like different things about each one so you mix them together and make something your family enjoys!  

Not a very colorful dinner but it was good and we had lots of veggies and that reminds me there is just enough lima beans left in the fridge for a nice pre-lunch snack.  WINNING!

How's your week been?  Any of you try the blog reader suggestions I talked about yesterday?

Hopefully tomorrow we'll have the ghoulash recipe.  It involved too many tomatoes and an hour long phone call to my mom to discuss the reasons why mine didn't taste or look like hers and most importantly this time it was not the lack of butter!   I'm still not over the fact she uses two sticks of butter in my beloved Macaroni & Tomatoes.  My arteries just clogged up again.

Peace, Love & Yummies my friends!

Blog Reader Conundrum

Ok ....so I'm a blogger. Not the epic blogger like Ree, or Sophie or Meg or any of the other hundreds of bloggers I follow.  Yes, I said HUNDREDS but I am in fact a blogger and a fan of blogs.  How do you find time to read 100's of blogs everyday you may ask?  Well until recently it has been through the glorious efforts of Google Reader.  Yes, another amazing google product BUT it's going away!!! WTH??!!!!  
So along with all those other ah-maze-ing supercalifragilistic bloggers I follow I'm frantically searching for a new blog reader.   I've tried a few but so far I'm "settling" for 2 replacements.  I'm ok with two options because 1 is on my Ipad and 1 for my laptop.  I'm happier with my iPad app more so than the laptop app.   Let's elaborate shall we?

My favorite iPad app:   Newsify
It gets its feed from Google reader so my question is, Are they going to pull it together before July 1 and find a way to keep the app running?  I hope so because I like the way it functions on my iPad.
They are searching for options and this is directly from their website and somehow I'm not finding that information very comforting.

FAQ > General > What will happen when Google Reader shuts down?

Search the FAQ for entries containing:

 

We're still investigating options, but our desire is to keep Newsify working after Google Reader shuts down. Follow us on Twitter for updates.

I've used Feedler as well.  Feedler is the most popular iPad app for a reader but I found it crashed on me...like a LOT.  So I've been using newsify and I'm liking it very well.  Making it the most likely choice for me but just in case I have both apps installed on my iPad and I've got my imports from Google already set up so come July 1 I won't be scrambling to remember what blogs I was following. 

Mac Laptop Alternatives

I'm not sure that being Mac or PC really factors into this but it is definitely something to remember to take into consideration.  The worst part is by every review I find Google Reader is hands down the favorite and most widely used Reader.  WTH Google??   It's like saying you aren't supporting google search anymore!!!    I'm sure you have your reasons, however invalid they are, so we must select a worthy replacement. 

1) At this time I'm using FEEDLY and I'm ok with it.  It has a nice look but I'm not completely happy with it just yet.  That's just yet, not saying I won't grow to love it but at this time it is definitely in the lead.  It also relies on a google reader feed but they are promising that the new backend server "Normandy" will be completely ready on July 1 to take over.  I will give them this....the switch could not have been easier.  I mean really, could not have been easier which makes me think this will be my replacement. You know because I've already imported all my blogs and I know I won't miss any updates when reader shuts down.

2) I've just learned of this reader and it seems to be a favorite in the geeky tech world so I might have to give it a whirl before making the final call.  I mean I have until July 1 you know and I tend to thrive on the geeky tech side.   (Yes, it's true I was an IT nerd long before a blogger-bet that's something you didn't know about me-which is something some of my children fail to recognize.  They will call "dad" for computer problems completely forgetting that I used to get paid to resolve computer problems, teach classes, manage networks, perform upgrades and such.  We live in such a biased world thinking boys are better than girls at computer stuff.  Silly society, girls are geeks too!)  Ok back up the bus and return to reader replacements.  It's called NetVibes.   It will have to be easy to switch otherwise it will most certainly lose out to Feedly.  

3) Another new one to me is relative newcomer NewsBlur. I'm excited to give this one a try because I don't have to actually create an account to see what it looks like and how it works.  That's a bonus for sure.  I have enough extraneous accounts flying around out there on the internets.

4) I also intend to try this one out there strictly for Mac, NetNewsWire.  They are making big promises to have the issues resolved to pick up where google stops come July 1.  Not as comforting as Feedly but something to try out.  You never know until you try, right?  And the fact it is a Mac solution gives me hope that it will be a good option. 

5) One that seems to be very popular in Blog Land is BlogLovin.  One downside of this is you must create an account before seeing how it works.   Is it worth one  more account floating around out there that I don't use anymore worth trying out? Yes, I think so.  

6) I've also read that hotmail's replacement Outlook can function as a reader. Sorry guys, not interested as I'm not really that pleased with what Outlook did to my Hotmail email account so I'm not interested in using you more.  In the words of the Donald...you're fired.

7) Digg has announced that it is going to build a new reader and have it ready by July 1.  The people have spoken and asked Digg to 1) Keep it simple 2) Make it fast 3) Synchronize across devices 4) Make the import from Google reader super easy.  To this I say Amen, Amen, Amen and Amen.  Unfortunately it also feels the need to sync in my other social media...thanks but no thanks.  Do one thing and do one thing well Digg.   Google didn't include that in the Reader because we didn't want it.  I don't want my friends dog pictures from Instagram, to know who has been to the gym today and why someone is passing judgement on another persons actions, political views, religious beliefs into my reader.  I can go to Facebook, Instagram and Twitter on my own just fine thankyouverymuch.

So there are my top contenders, some possibilities and some definite no's.  What about you?  Do you already use one of these?  Are you sitting in your chair going What the Heck is she even talking about?  Isn't she supposed to be cooking?  Did I click on the wrong website?  Are you like me and wanting to call Google and BEG BEG BEG them to reconsider this discontinuation?  Just wondering what I'm having for dinner?  Talk to me peeps!!!

Peace, Love & Readers

p.s.  Ghoulash, we're having ghoulash for dinner.  That's a question I can answer.  We had Chicken Cobbler last night and you'll get that recipe tomorrow!

Two Weeks of Tuesday Tumblings

Hey Peeps...it's TuTu Tuesday and I'm back.  I was a little busy getting ready last week for our trip to visit ASU with the Merebear so we've got two weeks worth of ramblings to cover so we better get started.  Besides that it's 10:15 in the morning and I'm still in my PJ's and haven't really accomplished much but breakfast, making the bed and cleaning out my blog reader so I figured I should be somewhat productive while I sit here and watch Kathie Lee & Hoda.  

We had some leftover spaghetti one night and I had a big ole' zucchini that needed to be used so I julienned it and boiled it like pasta.  It was pretty good, next time we will do a thinner julienne but it was pretty good, not pasta good, but good.

(by the way if you notice the WHITE pasta-that's what happens when you let Hubster and a 17 year old grocery shop.  Oh and they took the opportunity to "load up" on it so I won't run out! sneaky devils)

We had a stinking crap load of leftovers so we had a leftover buffet before we left.

See, I have been cooking after all!

I made The Pioneer Woman's Chicken Tortilla Soup, gosh it's really good.

I mean like really good!!

On Pi day (03/16) I decided to make pies!

Brilliant I am I know!

Just a little pie crust, canned pie filling and a little time.

I made cherry (my fave!) and peach and strawberry.

They were really good the day I made them, the next few days not so much.

Pie crust is hard to store but the Hubster took them to work and they gobbled them up.

This is late afternoon, he just follows the ray of sunshine around the yard.

Yeah it's cute in March, in August he'll be praying for shade!

In 5 more days I could have a REAL shamrock shake except Mickey D's has the audacity to stop selling them after St Patricks Day.   LENT Mickey D's LENT for gosh sakes don't discontinue something before Lent is over.  I swear all I'm eating is ice cream on Sunday. 

source

Of course we had Shepherds Pie on St. Paddy's Day

Here's the link to the Shepherds Pie recipe in case you need a dinner idea.

I'm not a huge fan but this recipe I like, no really I do.

This was breakfast one morning....whole wheat waffle, peanut butter, banana and some honey drizzled over the top then lovingly devoured by Moi!

Then Court and Aus stopped in before they began their 17 hour road trip to North Carolina.

I made them some Scooby Snacks.   You gotta have Scooby Snacks for a road trip, it's the law.

source

I'm still morning the loss of the other earring.

I seriously loved those earrings, my ears are very lonely.

We took a little trip out to Tempe, Arizona.

The Mere has already been accepted here and we are doing visits to narrow down the choices.

(shhh...don't tell her but I think this school is just darn near perfect for her)

Her dad and I are trying very hard to make her choose the school she attends all by herself, the weather certainly helps out here for sure!

We climbed the "A" Mountain one morning

That's the school behind her.

These orange trees are everywhere and seriously the smell coming from them is certainly directly from heaven.  I mean it, it's just heavenly.  The best part, they can leave their windows and doors open so the smell permeates the indoors as well.

(p.s. they taste just awful...very bitter)

She met Alonzo, he was pretty cool.  I asked him why she should choose ASU and he said "Because it's the greatest school ever" 

I don't know about the greatest school ever but the Fear The Fork logo is pretty stinking awesome!

Go Sun Devils!

This is the Palm Walk on campus, it was gorgeous!

"Palm Walk is a popular corridor among students, faculty, staff and university visitors alike. Palm Walk is the most photographed site on the Tempe campus, and extends from the University Bridge on the north to the Student Recreation Complex on the south.Palm trees at the north end of the walk were planted in 1916, and are over 90 feet tall; those planted on the south end are over 70 feet tall and were planted in 1930."- ASU website

Something besides the weather in Arizona to love.....they had Sparkle Cherry Laffy Taffy.

No seriously, it has sprinkles and is the best ever.

This is another reason to visit Tempe, Arizona.  It was just outside our hotel. We stopped in twice.

Great googly moogly!!!  I'm attempting to make them at home and yes, I'm well aware that last summer was the summer of the popsicle.  I see no need to stop the trend!!

Paletas Betty

(this is frozen fruit and in no way violates my Lent requirements-thankyouverymuch)

Ok folks I've talked and rambled and droned on for long enough.  You have things to do and I have a shower to take and dinner to figure out.  It's time to face the real world and leave the world of the recliner and Pj's.  

So what's new with you peep???

Peace, Love & Paletas