PILA Month day 21

Day 21 - a recipe.

Like a thousand years ago I nannied for a family where both parents worked full time. I was more of a house manager as I made sure the house ran smoothly by hiring workers and cleaners and doing all the groceries and dry cleaning etc. I also cooked for the family most nights. I got this recipe from the mom. We are not friends anymore, sadly. I really liked her in the beginning. It went south after we got too close and I had opinions of my own. (NOTE to nannies: Your boss is NOT your friend. It almost NEVER works out)

Anyway, she used to make this recipe and ask me to as well. Since I can't ask her for it now I found a similar one online and here it is.

Jarlsberg Chicken

• 4 whole boneless chicken breasts (8 breast halves)
• 8 slices jarlsberg cheese
• 1 (10 1/2 ounce) can cream of mushroom soup
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 1/2 cups breadcrumbs
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 1/2 lb asparagus, washed and trimmed (optional)

Change Measurements: US | Metric

Directions:

Prep Time: 15 mins

Total Time: 50 mins

1. 1 Place chicken in baking dish.
2. 2 Layer cheese on top.
3. 3 Add asparagus, if desired.
4. 4 Mix the soup, wine, garlic, and pepper.
5. 5 Spread over chicken and cheese.
6. 6 Top with bread crumbs and lastly drizzle with melted butter.
7. 7 Bake at 350 degrees for 35 to 50 minutes (until chicken is done through).

pickle is as pickle does...

I guess it should come as no surprise that my children love pickles since Zack and I both LOVE pickles but there is something just odd about an infant with a giant pickle in his hands. :)

Happy Birthday Jesse!

My little brother turned 24 on the 15th. We had dinner for him tonight at our house. I made a yummy sunset chicken (which was peppers and chicken and Catalina dressing in the croc pot) salad, deviled eggs and Italian bread.

We sang.


Then for dessert we had chocolate chip cookies and rice crispy treats with sprinkles and ice cream. (Jesse didn't want cake)

Happy Birthday Little Bro!
*our gap in age is closing!*



*cause I am 29... *



*again*



*and again*

Crepes!

When I was a little girl, about 5 years old I enrolled in Daisy girls scouts. Our year was actually the first year of the Daisy level! In that group I met many of my kindergarten pals, a few I am still friends with now. Bonnie is one of them. She and I have managed to stay friends all this time, with few breaks in the connection. Even with her moving out of state when we were 14.

When we were in junior high together we were absolutely best friends, from twins day every Friday where we would wear matching outfits (cringe!) to spending most weekend nights at each others houses.

It was one of those sleep overs that I learned about Crepes and it was love at first bite! Her parents

photo by Bonnie Swenson

make fantastic crepes! I have had an infatuation with them since. Almost an obsession. When Belle (another friend from kindergarten) was in Seattle last spring I drove up and we wandered around Pike's Place Market. Tucked in the back at the tip top of the shops is this amazing little crepe shop.

We almost thought for a second that we had died and gone to Heaven! She loves crepes too!

Fast forward to last weekend. I randomly decided I was going to make crepes with the pan I was given 3... okay 4! years ago as a birthday gift. I emailed some friends and asked for recipes and was told about this one. Julia Child was a genius, "that's all I gotta say about that."

Let me just say YUM A LUM!! It only took me one try to get it right and then after Grayson and I ate 2-3 (or 6 but whose counting?!) a piece I made an additional 16 for the freezer!

Strawberry and Whip cream filled with powdered sugar on top! I seriously may gain back ALL- and then some- of the weight I lost!

Food Revolution!

Have you watched Jamie Oliver's food revolution? It just had its season finale on Friday. It was a such a great show! We all know that we have the third fattest/unhealthiest country in the world and Jamie has set out to do something about it. He is trying to show people that healthy home made food it NOT HARD to do. You don't have to be a chef to achieve quality results for your family.

Jamie started the season by going into an elementary school in Huntington WV. Huntington was voted the fattest city in America and Jamie sets out to change that, one school at a time. He looks into our countries school lunch program with shocking results. He finds and shows that a french fry counts as a vegetable (WTF?!) and strawberry milk is considered "good" for the children. Supposedly because its better that they drink milk... even if it has more sugar than a soda.

He does this fantastic demo of what goes into a chicken nugget. If you are about to eat them you may want to skip this video otherwise they will become inedible.



After I saw this I decided that the bag of Mickey mouse shaped chicken nuggets in my freezer will be our last. I decided I no longer can ignore what I know to be in those types of foods. You know, the ones we have in our homes that we can't read or understand a thing on the ingredient label. We all know they are bad for us but for the convenience we buy them anyway.

I have been making fresh meals for my family for a long time and ever freezing them so that the nights I am lazy I have something to make that is easy. How hard can chicken nuggets be to add to the list? Not hard at all I found out.

These were SO easy! I used the recipe from this book.
This is a double recipe. And I am happy to report it made three full trays. (a gallon ziplock after we ate dinner.) And G LOVED them!!

Baked Chicken Nuggets
serves 12

ingredients:
4 lbs boneless/skinless chicken

sauce option 1:
1/2 cup mayo
1/2 milk
1T+ 1 t dry mustard
2t onion powder

sauce option 2:
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup ranch dressing, bottled

coating:
2 cup bread crumbs (I used a combo of herbed and plain.)
1t paprika

Directions:
Choose a sauce and mix all ingredients with a whisk. Cut chicken breasts lengthwise into strips and nuggets. Place all of the chicken pieces in the sauce and stir well to coat. Place the coating in a bag or bowl with a lid. Place about 1 lb of chicken in the crumb mixture and shake well to coat. Place chicken pieces on Demarle silpat or spray-treated cookie sheet. Bake at 375* for 15-20 min, turning once. Remove from oven and cool on the baking sheet.

Freeze in ziplock or container for short term storage or in food saver bags for long term freezing if making many batches. Only about 300-324 cal per serving depending on the sauce.

Take a second to sign the food revolution pledge.

And for the fun of it here is the is my cranberry chicken recipe.

Cranberry Chicken

ingredients:
8 oz catalina dressing
1 pkg dry onion soup mix
1-1lb can whole-berry cranberry sauce
4 boned chicken breasts

serves 4 (I double or triple it for freezing)

Cooking day instructions:
Mix together dressing, onion soup mix, and cranberry sauce. Place chicken and mixture together in a freezer bag. Freeze in a freezer bag. (lay flat to take up the least amount of space once frozen)

Serving day instructions:
Thaw completely. Place chicken with cranberry sauce in Demarle round mold on perforated tray or greased baking dish and bake uncovered at 350* for 1-1.5 hours.

The Pioneer Woman Visits Portland

A few years ago I ran across this recipe (this is an old family recipe blog that we never really use anymore- sadly) and was first turned on to The Pioneer Woman- Ree Drummond. I have been hooked ever since. She is an amazing writer/blogger who started her blog 4 years ago as a way to keep her family updated on her children's and her life. And today she is blogging phenomenon who gets millions of hits a day! She lives on a working cattle ranch in rural Oklahoma.

She came out with a cookbook last year
and I have wanted to get it since I heard it was pre-selling! Unfortunately, it wasn't in the budget and she wasn't coming to Portland for a book signing so I figured there was no rush.

Until I hopped on her facebook page on day and there was a new post about coming to Portland!
Woohoo!

I may have peed a little in that moment!
Oh sorry, TMI?

So last Monday I tossed J in the car, I dropped G at a friends, picked up another friend Gretchen and drove over to Powell's to meet PW! (I had bought the book 2 weeks before on ebay)

I made this shirt (CBE= cutest baby ever) hoping to use J as bait. :)
PW LOVES babies! (yes I totally pimped out my kid- shameless I know!)

We got to the book store about 4. There had been people waiting to see her since 10 am!!
So we waited.

And waited.

She was supposed to be there at 6 but got a bit lost.
So we waited some more.

It made no difference though, she was as amazing as we hoped she would be! She was funny and sweet and very candid.

(there is a "WOOHOO" about 29 seconds. That was me- and I woke up Jax. hehe)

Her singing!


Here she is signing my book and a little something for Geneva who'd had a c-section the week before and wasn't up for the adventure.

And here she is taking J's picture! Bait may have worked! Check back later to see if I have updated with a link to her blog if she posts his pic... fingers/toes/eyes crossed!

Signing J's shirt.

Gretchen was in love too.

Powell's had given out 360 tickets to meet PW, and we were 151/2. It took just about 2 hours for us. There was SO many people there. If I had to guesstimate, I'd say 1000 or so. So when we were done we decided to clear out to make more room.

It was CROWDED!

Then we went down the hall in the mall and got Peach wave frozen yogurt. I fell in love all over again! 16 self-serve flavors and ALL the toppings, in HUGE cups for .36 and oz. I have a huge bowl and it was only $4! The one down the street I was eating when I was pregnant with Jax is $2.50 for a 3 oz cup, and they make sure they weigh it to not give you too much. Oy.

Honestly, maybe the perfect date. Now to get my husband to take me to meet my "girl-crush" and get frozen yogurt....
I swoon! LOL

Absolutely perfect night! Oh! and Jax was a fabulous adventure-r with us! He took a brief nap, fussed just long enough to nurse and played "cute baby" the rest of the time!

Here's another one: my head is about 3:13. LOL :-D

p.s. tell everyone you know about my blog! I wanna be her when I grow up! :)

4 days to go! {39 weeks/ 3 days}

Today was a lovely day! About 1130 we decided to change out of pj's and get moving, since I am feeling very sloth like and movement might cause movement from the Hotdog... I had said we would go to the park down the street and just enjoy the day but as we walked out Zack asked if I thought it'd be fun to into Portland and do something.

We rarely do this. Sadly. So I said yes.
We ended up going to Washington Park, which is where the Zoo and Children's museum as well as some other fun attractions are. We went to play in the huge children's play park.

This building housed the restroom- and you know pregnant woman- I know every restroom in a 5 mile radius! Anyway, it was originally the Elephant house at the original Oregon Zoo which was housed there from 1880-1925. It is the only original structure left over from the original zoo.

It is covered in cool mosaic animals and inside is this amazing elephant "carving".

When G had had enough of the park we went to find somewhere to get some grub. We rarely eat out and even more rare is to eat out in Portland. We drove to the gorgeous NW 23rd ave. which is full of shops and yummy eateries. We drove until we found one that look like it tickled our fancy, settling on Rose's Deli and Bakery.

It wasn't until after we sat down and were there a while that I realized it is THE Rose's that is on almost every MUST EAT at list for Portland. OMG! It so lived up to the "hype". Zack and I split the Philly Cheese Sandwich and the French Dip. Both were AMAZING! And we are both picky on those. The meat inside was not fatty at all (the problem with the last ones we had. Gagging amounts of fat- bleh) They were juicy without being soggy and cheesy without being overwhelming! If you are in the area I HIGHLY recommend! (And no I am not suddenly a food critic and am not getting anything out of that rec)

While we were there I saw in the glass case next to all the 8 inch tall cakes and other delicious looking treats, a rocky road brownie. L-O-V-E. We were already spending "too much" so I decided to go home and find a recipe. To be honest I found a recipe while I waited for our food. Turned out I had everything for it at home.

Grayson got to lick the beater for my mixer. He was quite proud of himself.


And these are the finished (uncooled) product.

Recipe review: EASY! I bet anyone who bakes EVER has all of the ingredients on hand. The brownies were moist and chewy- just the way I like them. They didn't cut easily but I didn't wait for them to be totally cooled either. I will make them in individual cups next time, probably a Demarle muffin tray or something. Overall- YUM A LUM!! 2 sticky thumbs up! :)

Oh and btw: this basic brownie recipe (before the toppings are added) may take me away from ANY boxed brownie mix ever again. It's that easy and good.