Chicken Broccoli Casserole

What kind of Mormon would I be if a casserole didn't make the Rotisserie Chicken Week?! ;) I know a few of you mock the casserole (I'm not gonna name names... you know who you are ), but c'mon... if it gets my kids to eat broccoli, then I say Mock-A-Way!


1. choppin' broccoli
2. washin' broccoli
3. steamin' broccoli
4. layerin' broccoli
5. stir it up (...little darlin', stir it up)
6. saucin' the broccoli



I wish I could say that I follow this recipe exactly, but I don't. Since it's not baking and it doesn't have to be exact, I do my own thing. I love lots of broccoli, lemon juice and curry powder and less chicken. So I mix things up a bit.

The Recipe:

Chicken Broccoli Casserole
(makes 8x8 pan size)
1 Can Cream of Chicken Soup
1/2 Cup Mayo
1/2 Cup Milk (I add extra to make it more thinned out)
1 TBL. Lemon Juice
2 tsp. Curry Powder
2 Chicken Breasts - cooked & shredded (or chicken from a Rotisserie Chicken)
10oz. or more Broccoli (steamed)

Bake @ 350 for 20-30 minutes

Serve over rice - technically Arborio Rice is for risotto, but it's the best.

German Pancakes with Buttermilk Syrup

Over the weekend I made German Pancakes with the yummiest (I mean THE yummiest) buttermilk syrup. I think I'll make it again for our little family on Christmas morning. The buttermilk syrup lasts in your fridge for a week, so I best be using it up. That is unless I eat it all with a spoon first (someone help me!).

You can find the recipes for both HERE.



I'd love to know what you have for breakfast with your family Christmas Morning. I'd love to find a great recipe for one of those sausage souffles (aka breakfast casserole). Do you have a good one?

Myzithra Cheese

Have you ever ordered Myzithra Cheese spaghetti at the Old Spaghetti Factory? If you haven't, you should, it's one of our favorites. It's the kind of meal where you will never have to say "two more bites". Next time you are there, you should try the Manager's Favorite and try combining Myzithra with one of your favorite sauces, it's so good.


Did you know that this sauce is also really easy to make at home?

Once you have grated the cheese, browned the butter, and cooked the spaghetti,


All you have to do is garnish with a little flat leaf italian parsley (which is optional by the way, and really used just because it grows like a weed in my backyard... and to make look pretty for the blog. :),


and Serve! This would be a great thing to serve on Halloween night, when your kids need to carbo load before the big night.

French Dip Sandwiches

Mmmm...I always love a good french dip sandwich. They probably make our meal rotation about once a month. So easy and so good. How can you go wrong with sauteed mushrooms, swiss cheese, au jus and roast beef.

I'd love to know what always makes the meal rotation at your house?

Cowboy Caviar!

YEE-HAW! Howdy Lil' Ladies! Today's fixin's is one of my fave-or-ites. It's as fine as cream gravy. No sense holdin' your horses, let's Giddy Up!

Cowboy Caviar

5 Medium Tomatoes - chopped
2 Green Onions - sliced thin
1 Big Bunch of Cilantro
1 Avocado - chopped
1 Can of Corn - drained & rinsed
1 Can of Blackeyed Peas - drained & rinsed
1 Package Good Seasonings Italian Dressing - Add in Dry as is

Mix all together.


Served with chips, it's the whole kit and caboodle.

P.S. It sure beats chewin' the cud.

Quick Tip: Serve Lime With Watermelon

A little squeeze of lime on watermelon is so good. It's also great on cantaloupe and honeydew.

You should try it.

The Chocolate...Bakery

The Chocolate catered all the desserts last Friday for the Summer Social Retreat. Everything that I tried was excellent. I loved their mint brownies. The owner Ange Christiansen, was so sweet...pun intended.

If you are ever in the area, you must give them a try ...so good.

Bear Lake 2009 - listed

• hangin' Lake side for a few days is ideal...Ideal Beach, Bear Lake
• our accommodations for the trip were not ideal, I think mediocre could name it better
• Kae and Tag were missed
• I didn't take nearly as many pictures as I had hoped to on this trip
• I think it's because I get lazy a bit when I'm with "my people" as my sister Becky calls us

• Avery could not get enough of her cousins or Mike and Ty
  
• I love my sibs...all 3
• I love my sisters
• It makes me sad sometimes to think Avery might not have a sister

• it's fun to see my mom with "her people"
• it's more fun to have them pose for a picture and then give them a surprise splash
  

• it's not so fun to have a sick baby boy and have to come home a day early
• poor little guy, look at those eyes
  

• the drive to Bear Lake beats the drive to White Fish Lake
• although Bear Lake is not White Fish Lake, MT
  
• Bear lake raspberries are definitely worth the drive up...Mmm

Utah's Locavore 100

I loved seeing what made the list for the 100 Must Try Utah Culinary Creations which is also the current cover of Salt Lake Magazine. I would love to plan a little road trip around Utah sampling it all. It would be like a big kid treasure hunt.

I was happy to see all of these make the list:
Tollhouse Pie at the Dodo (#41)
Training Table Cheese Fries with Dipping Sauce (#45)
Lion House Rolls (#57)
Cafe Rio Salad (#94)
Nielsen's Frozen Custard (#100)
and of course Hires Big H

It cracked me up to see all of these on the list (sooo Utah):
funeral potatoes (#61)
Postum (#60)
Squeaky Cheese (#31)
lunch from a cooler at lagoon (#65)
Some Dude's Fry Sauce (#24)
Food Storage Meal (#93)
and of course Jello at #1

I do really want to try Tiger's Blood Rainbow (#6) and the Pink Pizza (#21).

If you had to make a list of must try's in your area, what would be at the top?

When I was 16...

all I wanted for my birthday was a new car Juicer. I think I had seen this infomercial one too many times, and I was sold. So on the morning of my 16th birthday, hoping for my dreams to come true, I awoke to my room decorated with every kind of store bought bottled juice. After a big bawl baby waa-waa fit sigh, I realized that this was just another character building moment for me.☺

Now that I'm all grown up (sort of...yeah, not really) I am finally able to make all my juicing dreams come true. This was my gift to myself last year when I turned 30, and I have loved it!



It's really all about the creation process. So in cleaning out the fridge, it looked like apple/carrot was the flavor for the day.


On a side note: Have you ever noticed the taste difference between the two of these carrots? It's astounding!

Question: What's more important to you: convenience or flavor? Let's discuss!


The 50 year old version of myself (looking through my blurb book) made me add these nomakeupjustwokeup pictures in to document that I was there. Dang her!

Here's hoping you all have a great weekend, with lots of juicy details.☺

Day One

It's that time of year again. I love the count down this time of year. It's such a fun way to get in the spirit. So many great ideas out there too...see Here, Here, Here and Here. I am keeping it really simple this year, and I still don't have it all planned out yet, I will probably do a lot of the same things we did last year. Can you believe we had snow this time last year? I'm ready for it...are you?



This year I took old Christmas cards from last year and I used my Cuttlebug to cut them into small squares to add something festive to look at inside of each box.



Today for Day One of our advent calendar, Avery and I made these Santa Claus Crackers, for an after school snack.
They were real easy (and yummy too). All you need is:
Ritz Crackers
Cottage Cheese
Pepperoni
Celery (sliced thin)
Capers


After making a couple of those, I got lazy (and hungry), so I just started eating them like this.


I left out the celery, cuz who really likes celery?! After eating about 11 of them like this (C'mon...it's the holiday season, you can go wild...hog wild!) ;) I realized that they kind of look like...well kinda like reindeer droppings on snow, on a cracker. My first thought was, "Yay, they are still festive!" and then I was like, "Wait a minute...Did I just eat those?"...Yep I did, and they were good. :)

Tonight For Dinner

Yep, We had corned beef and cabbage. Oh yeah and mashed potatoes too (Avery's favorite).
It was goo-ood! Afterwards, we knocked back a couple cold ones. Not that kind, silly, this kind.

I almost forgot, thank you Tib for the fun giveaway! She is doing another giveaway celebrating her 500th post and this is a big one. So click here to enter to win.

It's that Time of Year Again

Caprese... it is Italian for delish. This is the time of year when I get to put all my tomatoes and basil to good use. Add a little balsamic and Voila! Thanks Food Network, now I can chiffonade with the best of them. Speaking of Food Network, I love Giada on Everyday Italian, until recently when my sister-in-law Nicole pointed out how she throws her accent in when she says any Italian word. She will be talking normal and then she will say something like "spaghetti" or "linguine" and all of a sudden she has an accent. Now whenever I see it I have to laugh. It is too funny. Try it yourself, next time you say an italian word, throw in a little Italian accent, it's great fun. Moving on...my new favorite cooking show is America's Test Kitchen. If you can handle the bow tie, it is a great show testing the best cooking tools, food products and recipes.


Over the holiday weekend we had a little cookout up the canyon. This is a pic of Sam and Thatch ("The Tudballs"), Avery's favorite cousins to boss around.


This is little Charlie my sister Shauna's youngest A.K.A "Mr. Furley" (you know from Three's Company).


Here is my Bro T.R. trying out his parenting skills on little Charlie. He just needs a little more practice. Where's Tally?


My Grandma Tyler showin us how it's done.


Avery and Annie down by the river.