Chicken Artichoke Casserole Recipe

Okay Mom, I'm going to take my own advice and do what Mom says. Just kidding but you did ask for this recipe so here it is.

Chicken Artichoke Casserole

1/2 pound sliced fresh mushrooms
6 Tablespoons butter, divided
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 (14-once) can chicken broth [I used 1 3/4 cup water and a mexican bullion cube]
1 (7.5 once) can artichoke hearts, drained
Dash salt
1/4 cup flour
3/4 cup light cream [I used 1 Tbsp of butter and enough milk to make 3/4 cup]
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese [I never buy fresh I use the bulk powder from WinCo]
1/2 tsp dried rosemary

Saute mushrooms in 2 tablespoons of butter for about 2 minuts; set aside. [I did this at the end of baking the casserole as I don't like cold mushrooms.] Cook chicken breasts in simmering chicken broth over low heat for about 30 minutes or until cooked through. [I cubed the chicken before cooking it to cut down the cook time.] Drain broth, reserving 3/4 cup. Cut chicken into cubes. Place cubed chicken and artichoke hearts in a greased 8x8-inch pan. Lightly salt; set aside. In a saucepan, melt 4 tablespoons butter. Stir in flour until well blended. Add cream and reserved 3/4 cup chicken broth and stir constantly over medium heat until thickened. Stir in the 1/4 teaspon salt, pepper, Parmesan cheese, and rosemary. Pour over chicken and bake at 325 degrees F. for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and garnish with sauteed mushrooms. Makes 4 servings.

[I used only 3 chicken breasts and I think you could safely omit the artichoke without affecting the flavor much. We served it with steamed brocolli and califlour which went really well in the sauce. I loved this sauce and have served it over elbow macoroni.]

Just My Size

We're all about things that are kid friendly which means being the right size and I'm always surprised at the places they are finding to sit. The small one has been sitting on this baseboard heater for a while now he once sat on the bathroom one naked and jumped up and said, "Hot." When something is just the perfect height for sitting it's hard to resist.

The boys love to be outside and as we've been getting our garden spot ready they've been busy using shovels that are just their size.

Hey there buddy, can you tell me what size is just right...Oh, I see.

I originally bought this rug for in front of the front door but we soon found it was just the right size for little boys who need a little "time out."

When there's work to be done this pint size worker is there with the tools in his size.

Crab Souffle Recipe

My husband is adventuresome when it comes to food. One day he found a recipe and asked if I could pick up some crab meat. (He's always asking me to pick up random items, some of which never get used as we can't remember where the recipe was we wanted it for.) So one day we decided to try this one.

This really looked good with the orange (imitation) crab meat and green onions.

You think this looks good now, it looked even better after it was baked. Although, if I did it again I would set it in a bread pan as it wasn't round when it came out of the oven, but it tasted good.

I have always enjoyed cooking with my husband and hope he will continue to find new recipes for us to try so we can do some cook "king" together. :)

A New Pet

"Mommy, can we keep it, Pleeeease."

Daddy was out mowing the lawn while brother and I were watching him out the dining room window. As he came by he stuck something up on the screen of the window. It was this little guy. He sat there for a while before brother and I came outside and Daddy asked if I wanted to hold it. I love frogs and was glad to make a new friend. I walked around with it for a bit and he just sat on my hand. I even tipped my hand and waved it around and he didn't fall off. After a bit I became a little worried that this little frog was stuck to me and asked Daddy to get him off.

Cherry Blossoms

One of the perks of living here is that the cherry blossoms come on for a week or two in early spring. This is usually when everyone has terrible cabin fever from the winter and it really is a pick me up to see the beautiful blossoms everywhere.

My goal is to take a picture of my family with the blossoms every year and someday we'll have a timeline of the kids growing with a snapshot each year with the blossoms.

Hi Hat Cupcake Recipe

So, I really like to bake, probably because I really enjoy eating baked goods. In October of last year a friend brought me a cupcake. I had never seen such a thing before. It was a double chocolate cupcake with a marshmallow frosting with a hard chocolate coating. I shared it with my husband and was glad I did as it was very rich and delicious. Ever since then I've been contemplating trying it myself so for our Easter dessert I did. Here's a picture of the finished product to wet your appetite.

I used a boxed cake mix (in the future it would be better to do a homemade recipe that makes a heartier cupcake as I smashed some of these while dipping them). The recipe for the frosting and coating came from Martha Stewart.com . I had to read a couple of blogs of people who had done it (I liked bakerella best) successfully before I got brave enough to try it.

In my first attempt at the frosting I accidentally omitted the 1/4 cup water and it turned into a ball of gritty goo. I got frustrated and made a few phone calls before I realized what I had done. When the frosting was supposed to be "done" I wasn't sure I had gotten it hot enough and was worried it wasn't stiff enough to stand on its own. This is what they looked like after I piped the frosting onto the cupcakes.

They went into the fridge for about 1/2 hour before I attempted dipping them and was worried that the frosting would fall when I tried to dip them. Regardless, I looked cute (Thanks for the apron Alyse, it's my favorite!)

The dipping process was a bit messy and I was still skeptical it was going to work out.

I don't know if I've ever been happier to see a recipe turn out well. These are delicious. They were fairly time consuming (especially since I had to make the frosting twice) but well worth the effort.

I found out that my friend uses the too much chocolate cake recipe from allrecipes.com for this cupcake which makes a delicious cupcake that is sturdy enough to hold onto when you are dipping the cupcakes.

Time Out For Women

What an amazing weekend! I was blessed to attend this Women's weekend with Lindy and Koral and bump into several friends I didn't know were going. It was like being on spiritual steroids for two days and by Sunday evening I was starting to go into withdrawl. :) So I've comitted to try an experiment and see if I can keep on that spiritual high for a while. I'm working out the details but I've already seen some improvement the first of which being that I'm spending more time with my children.

The theme for this year was "Become." The challenge for the conference was to tap into our potential and work at developing a talent. Each guest shared something they are going to do as part of their challenging themselves. I was impressed with how creative they were and how much they relied on inspiration (and gave credit as such) to come up with these idea. It's always amazing to me when we have a desire to do how willing Heavenly Father is to give us some work to do.

The musical guest was the group Mercy River which I got to know through my Hillary Weeks station on Pandora. (Wow that was three endorsements in one sentence.) I was really impressed at the stories behind the music. They showed that the Spirit teaches through music and on Friday night Micheal McLean expressed the same sentiment that the Lord uses music to teach him. This really resinates with me as I am more teachable through music than any other means and my testimony of the Savior has been greatly strengthened through music.
To sum up the experience, I laughed, cried and left feeling very uplifted. One of the speakers challenged us to look for the the things in our lives that uplift and enlighten us and learn to fill our lives with more of those things. Something that also stuck out to me was learning of an experiment that Benjamin Franklin did with the 13 essential virtues. He worked one for a week and moved on to the next, he discovered that as he focussed on one thing that problems he'd had with one he'd worked on in past weeks would pop back into his life. The speaker compared it to spiritual wack-a-mole. He commented that it is really the Savior who helps us change. I'm workign to become more aware of my need for the Savior as I do desire to make steady improvement in my life.

Super Heros

This is donut eating man. I know, it's an amazing super power.

Next we have bucket sitting man, he can sit on buckets of all sizes.

This is helmet man, he can turn any household item into protective gear.

And last, but not least, we have blankie boys

who sometimes need their binkis.

Good Timber Poem

This poem was from a Sunday School 12-13 manual. I really like it and wanted to share.

The tree that never had to fight
For sun and sky and air and light,
But stood out in the open plain
And always got its share of rain,
Never became a forest king
But lived and died a scrubby thing.

The man who never had to toil
To gain and farm his patch of soil,
Who never had to win his share
Of sun and sky and light and air,
Never became a manly man
But lived and died as he began.

Good timber does not grow with ease,
The stronger wind, the stronger trees,
The further sky, the greater length,
The more the storm the more the strength.
By sun and cold, by rain and snow,
In trees and men good timbers grow.

Where thickest lies the forest growth
We find the patriarchs of both.
And they hold counsel with the stars
Whose broken branches show the scars
Of many winds and much of strife.
This is the common law of life.
By Douglas Malloch

A Little Bruised

So, I was inspired by reading other blogs (this is really Jodi's fault) when they shared stories and I felt like I really got to know them and have comitted to do that a little more often myself. I also need to be printing my blog as it turns into a pretty cool journal with pictures.

I have two little boys that are always finding new and interesting ways to injure themselves. They usually require someone to come pick them up, brush them off and tell them that everything is going to be allright. They come out of the experience a little bruised and hopefully a little wiser (this is unlikely).

Being what I deem a Full-Time Mom (like there's anyother way to be a mom) has its share of learning experiences, some of which are very painful. Two days ago I had one of those days. I had the worst day ever with my toddler. I spent the day arguing with him and tryign to get him to listen to anything I say. The situation only got worse as I lost my patience, raised my voice and fell apart as my frustration took over.

By the time my husband got home from work I was at a real low. He came in and did the equivilant of picking me up, brushing me off and told me everything was going to be all right. The next day I was feeling a little bruised and hopefully a little wiser.

Being a mom is a game of extremities. You have days where nothing seems to go right and you have days when you are grateful you haven't missed those wonderful childhood moments. As I watch my children grow I feel the weight of the responsibility I carry to teach them what they need to do to find happiness and after several seeming failures there's a moment when a child will do something so right that you are assured you're doing somethign right. Let us hold onto those moments and press forward knowing that all the work is worth it.

Gardening Indoors

We decided to start our plants at the beginning of April this year. We bought a kit (which the plants quickly out grew) and went to work. It was fun especially since the peas sprouted within three days and we've continued to watch them grow.

This is what they looked like after being thinned and left in the sun as much as possilbe. The date is April 22 and they are ready for a new home. We're working on our garden spot and hopefully will get them out there today.

On April 23 I planted the peas and beans into the garden spot, that night it froze but they were covered so we'll see if they survive. The garden spot sure looked good with all those plants!