March 15, 2013

**Insta** Friday

Linking up with
life rearranged

 
 
At Kindergarten orientation
 
 
 'Choot em!  We love Swamp People!



Cowboy day at school
 
 
 
Beginning of our chicken pot pie
 
 

Making our chicken pot pie
 
 

I've never seen strawberries this large!  Everything's bigger and better at Sam's!
 
 
 
Someone was WORN out after playing at the park. #catchingflies
 
 


March 14, 2013

Spring Break Fun

Oh Spring Break, why are you almost over??  I love Spring Break, but the taste of summer that it puts in my mouth is almost too much to bare!!

Spencer & I had a WONDERFUL day Tuesday with friends.  We literally left the house at 10:00 & didn't get back until 6:00 that night.  He was quite the trooper and I love spending that kind of time with him!

We met our friends Hudson & his mom, Emerald at the Science Spectrum that morning.  They have a butterfly exhibit going on there now too, so we ventured into that first.

Spencer & Hudson were so stinkin' cute with the butterflies.  Every time they saw a different one, they would pull out their pamphlet, find it and show us.  They were correct every time!

Listening to the instructions...
 
 
 


 
 
Not sure how to caption this one...
 
 
 
Doing some rock climbing...
 
 
 
 
We went to eat at McDonald's afterwards and we had some really silly boys when we left.
 
 
 
 
 
And guess who had to have a butterfly net when we went to Target??  And, we had to buy plastic bugs for him to practice with. ;)
 

 
 

March 12, 2013

Homemade Chicken Pot Pie

Tasty Tuesday...linking up with 33 Shades of Green
 

Rick has been dying to make homemade chicken pot pie for some time now.  He makes the best pastry dough and I had a made a recipe awhile back that we knew we'd use to make the filling.  Sunday we did it!  OMG it was fabulous!!!

We took two different recipes and combined them into our chicken pot pies. 

Dough
(from Ina Garten - Food Network)

*This dough is good for anything you need pastry dough for.  We've used it for multiple things...sweet or savory!
  • 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) very cold unsalted butter
  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 1/3 cup very cold vegetable shortening
  • 6 to 8 tablespoons (about 1/2 cup) ice water (we use 2/3 cup of water & it turns out better)
Directions
Dice the butter and return it to the refrigerator while you prepare the flour mixture. Place the flour, salt, and sugar in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade and pulse a few times to mix. Add the butter and shortening. Pulse 8 to 12 times, until the butter is the size of peas. With the machine running, pour the ice water down the feed tube and pulse the machine until the dough begins to form a ball. Dump out on a floured board and roll into a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Cut the dough in half. Roll each piece on a well-floured board into a circle, rolling from the center to the edge, turning and flouring the dough to make sure it doesn't stick to the board. Fold the dough in half, place in a pie pan, and unfold to fit the pan. Repeat with the top crust.


And for the filling...

I just used everything but the crumble on this recipe for the filling.  This recipe is good too if you don't have time to make dough.  I'm only posting the recipe for the filling, but check out the entire recipe, it's really good!

Chicken and Sauce:
*I doubled the vegetables because we love veggies.

1 ½ pounds chicken (about three medium-size chicken breasts)
2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion , chopped fine (about 1 cup)
3-4 carrots, peeled and sliced (about 1 cup)
2-3 stalks celery, chopped (about ½ cup)
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter
½ cup flour
1 cup milk
3/4 cup frozen peas

Directions
To prepare the chicken, place the chicken and broth in a large Dutch oven or pot and bring it to a simmer over medium heat. Cook the chicken until it is just done (don’t overcook or it will dry out) – about 10-12 minutes. Alternately, if you are planning in advance, you can place the chicken and broth in a slow cooker and cook on high for 3 hours or low for 5 hours. Transfer the cooked chicken to a medium bowl. Pour the broth through a fine-mesh strainer into a liquid measuring cup and reserve. Return the pot to the stove top (no need to wash if you used it to cook the chicken).

For the filling, heat the olive oil in the now-empty pot over medium heat. Add onion, carrots, celery, salt and pepper. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until just tender, about 5 minutes. While the vegetables are cooking, shred the chicken into small bite-size pieces. Transfer the cooked vegetables to the bowl with the chicken; set aside.

Over medium heat melt the butter in the empty pot. Stir in the flour and cook for one minute, stirring constantly. Slowly whisk in the reserved chicken broth and milk. Bring to a simmer and stir occasionally until the sauce thickens, about 5 minutes, taking care not to burn the bottom. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Remove from the heat and stir the chicken, vegetables and peas into the sauce.  I added about 1-2 teaspoons of thyme and I think it's a must.

We made 4 large bowls of chicken pot pie.  Rick brushed them with the common egg wash & I think that is also a must.  They need to bake at 375 for about 35-40 minutes.

The filling before the chicken
 
 
The whole process...
That rolling pin is 150+ years old...so neat!
 

 

Please let me know if you try this or tweak it to make it your own.  I would love new filling recipes to try out!

March 1, 2013

~Insta~ Friday

Linking up with:
life rearranged

 
Captain America watching Tron
 
 
Just a jump rope tied to a tree
 
 
Crazy hair day at school
 
 
Goodbye locks
#abouttime
#toolong  #toothick
 
 
Who'd of thought a coffee table was that comfy??
 
 
 


 
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