chicken pot pie

of all the things i cook, i think pot pie makes me feel the most housewife-y.

ingredients:
2 pie crusts
2/12 cups chopped vegetables (corn, peas, carrots, celery, potatoes, broccoli... really anything)
1 cup shredded chicken
gravy (recipe below)

directions:
in a 9 inch pie pan layer the first crust, vegetables, chicken, gravy, and second crust. pinch crusts together and trim off any excess. bake at 425 for 25-30 minutes, until the crust is golden brown. let set for 5-10 minutes before serving.


gravy ingredients: 
1/3 cup butter
1/3 cup chopped onion
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon celery seed
1 3/4 cup chicken broth
2/3 cup milk

directions: 
cook butter and onions on medium heat until onions are translucent. whisking constantly, mix in flour, salt, pepper, and celery seed. slowly add chicken broth and milk, simmer on low heat until thick (approximately 5 minutes).

source:
all recipes

notes: 
measure the ingredients for the gravy ahead of time so you can dump them in when it's time. unless you're more talented than i am (totally possible) and can measure quickly and whisk continually without making a mess.

it's almost december

there is far less complaining about who has to wash the dishes when the sun is shining. 

and because it's almost december it means we're nearly out of the cloudiest month of the winter. not that the rest of winter is sunny, but november is historically the worst. 

also, where did all the snow go? it has 25 days to make a reappearance. i demand snow on christmas. 

happy thanksgiving!

i watched the beginning of the macy's parade and now we're waiting for kick-off -  green bay vs. detroit. yea!

and maybe i'm mean, but i write off any musician who can't remember the words to the national anthem. seriously? take cue cards if you need them. of all the songs to mess up it shouldn't be your country's anthem.

mac n cheese

this recipe claims to be revolutionary so naturally i had to try it myself.

ingredients: 
2 cups dried pasta
2 cups 2% milk
1 cup loosely packed shredded cheddar cheese
1 tsp salt
1 tsp dijon mustard

directions:
in a saucepan simmer milk and pasta for 20 minutes (or until pasta is tender), being careful not to boil the milk. add cheese, salt, and mustard - stir to combine. remove from heat and let set for 5 minutes. serve.

yields:
4 servings (if served as a side dish)

source:
blog - macaroni and cheesecake


notes:
boiling the pasta in the milk was revolutionary as far as mac n cheese goes and i loved the extra creaminess it added. the mustard was the miss for me. i love the flavor of my mom's homemade (baked) mac n cheese and this just was not comparable. if i try it again i'll leave out the mustard and lean more towards mom's recipe for flavor. A+ for easy cooking though. just as easy and healthier than boxed kraft dinner.

(chewy) oatmeal chocolate chip cookies

the only thing better than a chocolate chip cookie is an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie.

i've tried at least a dozen recipes with varying success, but the major flaw in all of them was a lack of chewiness. and an already dry cookie is made worse in a dry climate. so wouldn't i be the person cheering when i found a recipe with great reviews, but with the shared caveat of "it's too moist, needed to add flour." well, in this desert i'm usually decreasing my flour so this was perfect. 

ingredients:
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups oats
1/2 cup chocolate chips

directions:
preheat oven to 325*F.

combine butter, sugars, egg, and vanilla. in another bowl mix flour, salt, and baking soda. add dry ingredients to wet and combine. add oats and chocolate chips, stir until combined.

drop by the teaspoon onto greased baking sheet. cook for 8-10 minutes.

yields:
24 cookies

source:
all recipes

notes: 
consider reading the reviews on the original recipe and adding more flour. it was perfect for me, but given my experience with other baked goods, i do think it would be too moist as is for my east coast fam. 

sunday, crafty sunday

as far as sundays go, yesterday was top notch. i slept in while fitz got ready for work, got up at nine to watch football and then crafted my little heart out the rest of the afternoon. 

advent starts in nine days! nine! time to finish the advent calendar. or else. all of the parts and pieces are created, now i just need to fill the little bags with goodies. i was so nervous to paint the numbers freehand. i don't have the nicest handwriting let alone painting skills, but it turned out better than i expected.  

and a boring, unoriginal faux moleskin notebook ($3 at superstore), covered in scraps of canvas and wrapped with an old shirt tie ribbon thing. good repurposing/crafting is about knowing what to keep and what to throw away. i'm not sure i've mastered this skill, but i'm getting better at it. mostly i keep everything initially and then go through my collection periodically and purge the items that get passed over again and again. 

lucky scraps got to live another day and now i have a pretty notebook to contain all my scribbled nonsense. 

for jon... and fitz, but mostly jon.

realized i never updated this. whoops.

i painted this for fitz a while ago and kept forgetting to photograph it. so you're getting a poorly lit, shadow-y iphone picture. you're welcome. 

if fitz ever questions my undying love, he need only remember that not only is there a harry potter reference decorating our living room, but i thought it up and created it all by myself. all for him. because my best friends are not wizards. 

remember those winter headbands we used to wear?

i'm bringing them back. 

one knitted, ear-warming headband at a time. 

i love

today i love fitz. 

why?

because he let me cry when i was so angry at the pennsylvania dvm for yet again messing up my driver's license and then taking me to winners to look at all the purses until i found the perfect one. he's a good husband.

and thanks to mom and dad for the belated birthday purse. (the belated was my fault because i couldn't decide what i wanted two months ago.) i bet you never would have guessed that i'd buy a new bag with my birthday money, hey? the obsession lives on. 

i love

... wandering the mall with no real agenda. i feel very alone in this passion, because most people cringe when i tell them that i make unnecessary trips to the city just to look at the sales racks, but it's always so relaxing even when i don't buy a thing. although today i bought a shirt.

... cooking supper for fitz and friends. tonight was red curry and na'an. yum.

... christmas music. it's the most wonderful time of the year.

... staying ahead of the housework. i've done really good this week and it's nice to wake up to a clean house.

somewhere the sun is shining

but not here. not today. 

what a difference 24 hours makes.

(both yesterday and today's pictures were taken at 4pm. no wonder everyone is depressed when it's cloudy.) 

the rarest of days

november sun

i love

... making plans to build a desk. even if it's proving impossible to find the legs that i want.

... getting rid of things we don't need that are cluttering up our life. so freeing.

... discovering that we do get tsn and we can watch green bay play tonight.

... and then watching them destroy the vikings.

i love

... snow on the mountains tops and the rare ray of sunshine to make it sparkle.

... football and tacos on sunday. although it was painful to watch the jets and patriots play.

... phone calls from family.

i love

... christmas music steaming on itunes.

... my house warm and full of friends. the more people the better.

... cranberry ginerale. 'tis the season.

i love

we've officially hit the dreary days of winter. cold grey skies reflected in a colder, grey-er lake. no sun. dusk at 3:30. wind. rain. snow.

bleh.

so...

it's time to focus on happier, prettier, cheerful-er things.

today i love...

1) comfy clothes from fitz's closet. why buy my own sweatshirts when i can wear his? and when they shrink just a little too small for him they are the perfect size for me!
2) the scrambled eggs i made yesterday. they were so good i'm still thinking about them. eggs, milk, tomatoes, corn, onions, black beans, a bit of cumin and a dash of cayenne pepper, salt. so good and super healthy.
3) our kids. the teenage ones that aren't really ours. youth group was super fun tonight, one of the best nights we've had in a long time.

the most wonderful time of the year

i was so excited to walk into the boss's house last night and hear christmas music playing in the background. it is the most wonderful time of the year.

i've been planning and dreaming about christmas for weeks. and while there are a million and one beautiful ideas, i try to focus on ideas that are realistic for us both financially and space wise. since neither money or square feet are abundant in this house.

(maya*made)

fitz and i like to drag out special events. birthdays aren't a mere twenty-four hours in our house, they are a week (or more). we love finding excuses to splurge in little ways and make special events that much better. creating an advent calendar with little sweets or notes helps extend the christmas season and add to the fun of surprises. 

(anna k originals)

we live in a tiny apartment and try as we might, a full size christmas tree is just not a reality for us right now. so the challenge is to find ways to create smaller tree-like decorations that fit. we already have our living christmas tree that stays on the porch until christmas eve, but i'm also loving the idea of filling a vase with twigs and branches and displaying some of my favorite ornaments.

(allora handmade)

i love recycling. and saving money. so newspaper wrapping is right up my alley. and i adore the lettered name tags. adore. if you're coming to my house for christmas you can count on them to label your gifts. 

i am so so excited for christmas. i brought out our felt tree the other day and placed it on top of our crates. fitz gave me the look so i put it back in the closet for a few more weeks. he said we're not allowed to decorate until advent. or until there is snow on the mountains around the lake. and since canada continues to disappoint me in the weather department, i'm convinced we will still have brightly colored leaves on the trees for december 25th and the snow will still be weeks away. bah humbug.  

it's official

fitz and i are obsessed with green bay football.

today's game was intense. it's a good thing landlord wasn't home because we were yelling and dancing and cheering (loudly) at various points of the game... he would have been concerned and/or annoyed, no doubt. and as much as i want to give the credit to aaron for a job well done as quarterback, it was really the defense that pulled out the win today. three interceptions - two returned for a touchdown and one to end the game (when the score was scary close) - definitely earned the collective defensive live a game mvp.

and because one game wasn't enough, now we're watching pittsburgh v. baltimore.

the highlights

elk walking down the road near banff, maybe 10 feet from our car. he was quite uninterested in fitz taking pictures. 

between banff and lake louise.

lou, fitz, and i at lake louise.