Lazy Sunday Evening

Today was a good day, nice and quiet. I love it!!

This morning I looked up from the sewing table and caught something out of the corner of my eye. It was Lucky Red in the front yard! He's been MIA, but for some reason I guess he was just hiding and wouldn't come to me when I called. But... he's back now, scratching all over the yard and eating the bird seed that's been spilled from the bird feeder.

Hubby and I have both just lounged around today, he's in his sweats and I'm still prancing around in my jammies. I did make a Country Chicken Pot Pie today though, and as usual it was delicious. Barkley even had some, he enjoyed it so much he licked his plate clean.

This recipe has been in our family many years. My Mother found it in a newspaper long ago and fed it to us on a regular basis. When I got older and out on my own, I brought the recipe with me. Now my daughter feeds it to her family as well. So, you can see that it is a tried and true recipe. Hope you like it also!

Country Chicken Pot Pie
1 chicken, cut into pieces (I use legs & thighs)
3 cups water (more if needed)
1 teaspoon accent
2 teaspoons salt
3 ribs celery (leaves and all) cut up
3 sprigs parsley
1 onion; cut up
Place the chicken in the kettle with water and remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover tightly and simmer one hour or until tender. Remove chicken to large platter, cover loosely and place in refrigerator until cool enough to handle. Remove meat from skin and bones and cut into rather large pieces. Strain broth; return to kettle and boil rapidly, uncovered until stock equals 3 cups.

Prepare Pot Pie
1 cup sliced carrots
1 pkg. frozen peas, thawed (I substitute 1 1/2 cups frozen broccoli)
1/2 cup margarine
1 small onion
1 cup sliced celery
1/2 cup flour
3 cups chicken broth
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon dried thyme
Salt & Pepper to taste
5 to 6 cups cut up chicken
1 can refrigerator canned biscuits
Place carrots in saucepan with small amount of boiling water. Simmer covered for 10 minutes. Add peas or broccoli and cook 5 minutes longer, drain. Melt butter in large saucepan. Add onion and celery; cook until tender. Remove from heat and blend in flour. Gradually stir in chicken broth and milk. Add thyme. Cook, stirring constantly until mixture thickens and comes to a boil. Remove from heat. Add chicken and veggies, mix well. Turn into casserole dish. Top with biscuits. Bake in oven at 400 degrees for 18 to 20 minutes, or until biscuits are golden brown. Serves 8.
*Make sure the filling is really hot when putting the biscuits on to ensure they cook all the way through. I usually put my baking dish of filling in the oven for about 45 minutes, pull it out, then put the biscuits on it, then continue to bake while the biscuits cook.

Hope you had a good weekend! Hope your week is filled with sunshine and rainbows!!

Dinner With Daughter's Family

Just talked to Hubby on the phone, he's on his way home. He and my Nephew didn't catch a fish today! Hubby said the river was up from all the rain we've been having lately. Oh well, I guess you can't catch one every time! He had a good time, that's the main thing.

My daughter called this afternoon and invited me to eat dinner with her family tonight since I was by myself. We had a good time, the food was good and the company was even better. Those Grandmonsters of mine are a bunch of animals! lol When you go to their house, it's like being at a zoo. They are VERY active kids and someone is always getting hurt. Tonight Honey Wayne put this truck up to Jaylan's hair and it wrapped all around the tires and axle. It was one of those trucks that you run on the floor and it powers it's self then, kwim? While it was tangled in Jaylan's hair, the wheels kept trying to turn. Needless to say, Jaylan was screaming bloody murder and Honey Wayne was running in circles saying, "Woo Hoo!". It's always an adventure visiting with my daughter and her family.

Lucky Red has gone to chickie heaven, I believe. There has been no sight of him all day and I didn't hear the usual crowing throughout the day. Poor guy, guess he wasn't as lucky as I thought he was, huh? I am officially chickenless.

I got 20 burp cloth centers cut out today and probably 50 scrunchies. Now I get to sew them all up. Part of the burp cloths are pinned on, just needs to be sewn. For some reason lately I haven't been wanting to cut up most of my fabric, I just feel this need to hang on to it. I had lots of small pieces, maybe 1/3 yard or so, and just didn't know what to do with them all. I've finally decided it's time to get rid of it... use it up and do it now!! So that's where all the scrunchies came from. And as for the bigger pieces, I just started cutting and didn't think about it. I have to use it up, I'm running out of space. I do have some earmarked for certain projects, but don't have a clue when I'll get around to them.

I bought a couple patterns from "You Can Make This" for my oldest Grandmonster and have the fabric picked out for the outfits and everything, just haven't gotten to it yet. I also have some summer shorts cut out for Honey Wayne, they've laid here on the sewing table for probably a month and I'm still looking at them. Think I need to get my tushie in gear, whatcha think??

Oh! Hubby just pulled in the driveway!

TGIF

Will wonders never cease??!! Our lone rooster is still kicking. I've had this big guy for about 2 years and I think it's time I named him. Since he's the only one left and he's red in color I think I'll call him Lucky Red. lol Appropriate name, don't ya think?

Hubby is leaving this evening for a weekend of fishing with my nephew. Hubby is excited to be fishing someplace new and Nephew is excited because Uncle Mike is coming to spend time with him. My nephew, Cody, lives about 2 hours from us, and like his Uncle, he's an avid hunter and fisherman. They're going fishing on the James River, where it's at I really don't know. lol All I know is that I'm getting to spend the weekend all by myself, in the midst of peace and quiet, and not having to cook!

My tummy bug has finally passed so it's back to work for me. I only work part time so I'll be home early enough to enjoy the evening lounging or sewing. But first I must get a couple loads of laundry done so I can do absolutely nothing in the line of work all weekend.

I just finished sewing up a burp cloth, the first of this kind. It's made from a cloth baby diaper, the ones with the padding in the middle and you just put fabric on the padded part of the diaper.... very cute. Of course I couldn't just leave mine plain so I added this cute little pink ribbon along the edges of the fabric. It made so much difference in the way the burp cloth looked. I've been seeing them on eBay and Etsy, selling for a pretty good price. And I've never seen them listed unfolded, they've all been folded so I couldn't get a good look at one. I saw one in a store recently and got to look it over real good. By the time I got this one made I had about $1.95 in it, they're easy to make and very quick. They'd make a great affordable baby gift. I've never done a tutorial before, but I might try one for these. The only bad thing about it was picking all that pilling off the diaper after I washed it!

I wanted to wash the diaper before making the burp cloth, didn't want it shrinking the first time the recipient used it. I washed it and poured the fabric softener to it, then put it in the dryer. When I got it out of the dryer I was amazed at the little white balls all over it! I decided I'd try ironing it, hoping this would calm down the balls... no such luck! It took care of a few, but low and behold I'm gonna get to pick all those little things off by hand. Nothing like plucking fuzz balls for entertainment on a Friday evening! hahaha

Yucky Day

Today has been a yucky day, I'm sick with some kind of a tummy bug. Had to stay home from work, I felt so bad all I wanted to do was sleep. I finally woke up around 7 this evening and now I'm wide awake, but feeling some better.

I ended up cutting out some wallets, using a Lazy Girl Design pattern for their "Wonder Wallet". These little things are so much fun to make, takes very little time, and very easy. It's a shame the pattern has that copyright thingy on it stating that I can't even sell the finished product. ".... no part may be reproduced for commercial use or resale in any manner, including finished product made from this pattern." How can they do this?? Would it stand up in a court of law?? It looks to me like they'd want people using their pattern to make items for sale. I would think this would sell more patterns plus get their name out there into circulation. Oh well... I might feel differently if I were smart enough to make a pattern of my own, who knows. Oops... got a little side tracked there. Anyway, I'd recommend this pattern to anyone, even a beginning seamstress. They would make great gifts for teenage girls or women. They're full of little pockets where you can stash all kinds of things. The actual pattern calls for a velcro closing, but I personally use a little snap, they work great too. I'm just not a big fan of velcro, never have been.

When I got home from work yesterday evening, there on my kitchen counter were 4 little Easter Lillies in a glass. I stopped to look at them and Hubby started chuckling and told me the story of the Lillies. Our Grandmonster Jaylan had come with her Mom to visit and she brought them. Hubby was at the pond fishing so Jaylan went down there with him. He said she hung onto these flowers for dear life because they were for Mimi. After they fished a bit, they came to the house and put the flowers in the glass. Well, this morning I called our daughter's house and talked to Jaylan. I told her how Papaw said that some little girl had brought me these beautiful flowers for a surprise. She started giggling and said, "It was not a little girl, Mimi, it was me, Jaylan Kodi!". Bless her heart, she was so proud of herself for bringing the flowers to me. Aren't Grandmonsters Wonderful!!??



Day before yesterday part of my little chicken flock disappeared. No explanation, just vanished. I went from 5 chickens to 2 chickens, and the 2 left were these big red roosters. Today we got up and there was 1 big red rooster. Hubby went hunting again for any remains. This time he found some feathers and beside the feathers were these huge claw marks on the ground. He has no idea what they were, I'm guessing they belong to one of the neighbor's Great Pyrenees dogs. So I have a feeling that in the morning we will be completely chickenless. We'll just have to wait and see.

Here I Am....

Here I am, it's 1:08 in the morning and I'm starting a new project. I've been wanting to start blogging for quite some time, but didn't really know how to even start. I read how simple it is to do and decided to try it. We'll see what happens from here.

I'll give you a few little tidbits about me and my crazy life so you'll have a bit of background information on me.

1. My name is Carmen

2. I live in a small town in Missouri (Hillbilly Heaven, as I call it)

3. I work part time at our local school as a janitor

4. I've been married to Hubby for 17 years, we've actually been together for 26 years on and off

5. I have a 24 year old married daughter and 3 Grandmonsters

6. I have a furbaby named Barkley, a Yorkie

7. I absolutely love to bake and make candy

8. Hubby loves to eat my baked goodies and handmade candies

9. I'm a Craft/Sewing/Fabric Addict

10. I'm a First Responder, an Emergency Counseling Evaluator, a member of our Local Volunteer Fire Department, and the founder of our Fire Dept. Auxillary

Ok... enuff of that stuff!

I'd like to try and share recipes, patterns, pics of projects I've finished.... just sort of a hodge podge of goodies on my blog. And I'm a typical Mimi (what my Grandmonsters call me), so I'm sure I'll be sharing stories about my Grandmonsters too. Hang on to your hats.... here we go!

Today I'm gonna share a recipe that my daughter loved when she was little, and now I make it for my Grandmonsters.

Puppy Chow

4 cups chex rice cereal
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup margarine
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
Put cereal into large bowl, set aside. In microwave safe bowl, combine chocolate chips, peanut butter and margarine. Microwave on high for 1 minute. Stir for 1 minute. Continue doing this until all chips are melted. Add vanilla. Pour chocolate mixture over cereal. Stir until all pieces are evenly coated. Pour cereal into a large ziploc bag with powdered sugar. Seal and shake until all pieces are coated. Spread onto wax paper until cool. Keep in sealed container.