try-it Tuesdays Chicken Pot Pie

I love homemade pot pie. It is such a comfort food. I tweaked the recipe to slim down the calories and it still tastes great. Sometimes I don't even use a two crust pie to eliminate more calories. But this recipes is a keeper. Try it -I know you'll like it. I usually double this recipe to make 2 pies but I don't double the butter. This recipe is very forgiving and can be tweaked many ways.
Prepare your favorite Pie crust recipe for 2-crust pie using a 9" pie pan.
Filling:
1/3 cup butter
1/3 cup chopped onion
1/3 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
2/3 cup fat free 1/2&1/2 or milk
2 1/2 cups shredded cooked chicken or turkey
2 cups frozen mixed vegetables, thawed

Heat oven to 425°F. Make pie crusts as directed. In 2-quart saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Add onion; cook 2 minutes, stirring frequently, until tender. Stir in flour, salt and pepper until well blended. Gradually stir in broth and 1/2&1/2, cooking and stirring until bubbly and thickened. Stir in chicken and mixed vegetables. Remove from heat. Spoon chicken mixture into crust-lined pan. Top with second crust; seal edge and flute. Cut slits in several places in top crust. Bake 30 to 40 minutes or until crust is golden brown. During last 15 to 20 minutes of baking, cover crust edge with strips of foil to prevent excessive browning. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

monday Gratitudes

Grateful that this has been a nice summer. It's been delightful to not be stuck with the normal humidity. We were also lucky to sneak in swimming lessons these past 3 weeks. Our Bishop's daughter had the summer off from BYU and gave private lessons in their pool. The kids have made great strides in improving their stamina and confidence. Noah was the only one that would let me take a picture with Laura.
Grateful that Isaak is learning great things in scouting.
Grateful for peace and quiet music yesterday morning. Sunday morning was so nice and albeit too quiet. It scared me a little because my kids are usually heard throughout the house. Well, something had to be happening and that usually means nothing good. I quickly investigated and was sweetly surprised to find all the kids upstairs playing with Legos. Ah! Peaceful mornings! You have to love em.

Self Reliance 72 hr kit Giveaway!

Shelf Reliance is excited to offer you a chance to win the Providence Essential 72-Hour Kit. This kit includes supplies for two people.
Shelf Reliance is giving away a 2-person 72 hour kit. For description and details, click here. Hurry offer ends Friday!

Try-it Tuesdays Strawberry-Lemon Trifle

To fulfill a scouting requirement, Issak had to make dessert for his upcoming Court of Honor. Trifle is an easy dessert that will feed a lot. We decided to double the ingredients and use a punch bowl instead of our regular trifle bowl.

Trifle:
Pound Cake (home made or store bought) (can also use a sponge or butter cake or ladyfingers)
1 1/2 cups Strawberry Sauce (Puree strawberries with 1/4c. sugar)
1/2 pound fresh strawberries, sliced
1 1/2 cups Lemon Curd (home made or store bought)
1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream

To make the whipping cream: beat cream and 3 tbls. sugar, until stiff peaks form.

To assemble: In the bottom of your trifle bowl place slices (about 1/3 inch thick) of the pound cake. Fill in any gaps with pieces of the cake. Pour half of the strawberry sauce over the pound cake. Top the strawberry sauce with half of the sliced strawberries. Then pour half of the lemon curd over the strawberries. Top with half of the whipped cream. Repeat the layers. Cover and refrigerate for 8 and up to 24 hours to allow the flavors to mingle. Then enjoy!

Monday Gratitudes

What's your favorite fruit?
. What would summer be like if there were no fresh fruits? BORING!
This is one of my favorite times of year
I'm grateful that fresh fruit is in abundance and tastes so yummy. I love watermelon, grapes, peaches, plums, strawberries, etc. Oh the list could go on,
but my absolute favorite fruit has to be bing cherries. My parents had 2 huge bing cherry trees in our back yard and when the cherries were ripe that is where you could always find us, not to mention the neighbor kids as well.
Such fond memories of spitting out the seeds and seeing who could spit the farthest or flick them the farthest.
Give me a big juicy, crunchy, sweet bing cherry any time of day! I don't even mind the pit; If it wasn't for the pit - to slow me down - I'd definitely eat them even faster. Love Cherries!

Monday Gratitudes

We had so much fun in Nauvoo this weekend. The kids were able to take a horse drawn wagon ride, pull handcarts, see the Nauvoo Temple, and participate in a number of pioneer games. The high light was getting to see the Nauvoo Pageant.
I didn't know this before but Nauvoo was once home to thousands of settlers and rivaled its neighbor Chicago in size. It's a pretty amazing place to visit.
I'm grateful to be close to so many wonderful places.

Summer with Isaak

Isaak has a lot of outdoor pets. His favorites are his toads. They even have names. The other morning he found one of his toads smashed on our driveway. It was so sad. He had to give him a proper burial. He placed twigs around it, so that we wouldn't accidently step on him.
The next photo is Isaak with his cub scout troop. They were putting on a funny skit. He loves scouts. It's fun to watch him grow and see his interests change.

Try-it Tuesdays Ebelskivers

These light, fluffy pancakes are delicious! Tastes great with lingonberry or raspberry jam. You can even fill them with berries of any kind or my kids favorite nutella! You can buy an ebelskiver pan at Williams sonoma
3 eggs, separated
2 C buttermilk (if you don't have buttermilk on hand you can make some by mixing 2 Tbs lemon juice with enough milk to make 2 cups and letting it sit for 5 minutes )
2 C flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 Tbs sugar
Zest of 1/2 lemon or 1/2 tsp almond extract
2 Tbs oil
Confectioners’ sugar for dusting

In a bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, granulated sugar, salt and lemon zest. Set aside.

In another bowl, lightly whisk the egg yolks. Whisk in the buttermilk and oil. Whisk the yolk mixture into the flour mixture until well combined; the mixture will be lumpy. Set aside.

In another bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff but not dry peaks form. Gently fold the whites into the batter in two additions.

Put 1/2 tsp. butter in each well of a filled-pancake pan. Place over medium heat and heat until the butter begins to bubble. Pour 2 Tbs. batter into each well, Cook until the bottoms are golden brown and crispy, 3 to 5 minutes. Using 2 wooden skewers turn the pancakes over and cook until golden brown and crispy, about 3 minutes more. Transfer to a plate.
Dust the pancakes with confectioner’s sugar and serve warm. Makes about 30.

Monday Gratitudes

Wow, truly so many things to be grateful for!
First off my family!
Friends!
And grateful that we had such a nice and safe 4th of July weekend!

I am truly thankful to live in this beautiful country!
The United States is truly an amazing country!
We have almost every climate type.
We have people from all nations and walks of life.
We are blessed to be leaders in scientific research and have some wonderful technological advances. I personally love having a washing machine and dryer!
We also have the worlds oldest surviving constitution!
Another thing that makes our country unique is out Patriotism.
God Bless America!

Happy 4th of July!

Why do we celebrate the 4th of July?
Drafted by Thomas Jefferson between June 11 and June 28, 1776, the Declaration of Independence is one of the most important documents in the history of the United States. It signifies the colonies’ break from England and the rule of George III. On July 2, 1776 Congress voted to declare independence from England. After two days of debate and some changes to the document, on July 4th, Congress voted to accept the Declaration of Independence. This is why we celebrate July 4th as Independence Day. It's the birthday of our great country. I am thankful for those that came before me to pave the way of freedom