Keep it ; Classy Chicken | Recipe

This is my famous (used to be my mothers but I’ve officially claimed this fame for myself lol) chicken caserole recipe. It is so delicious you will have to serve it at least once per week, or at least I have to! Enjoy!

Ingredients:

4 chicken breasts (cubed and seasoned with salt and pepper)

3 cloves garlic finely chopped

2 cups chopped(in half) baby carrots 

2 cups broccoli pieces (bite sized)

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 can cream of broccoli & cheddar soup 

1 cup mayonnaise (not the miracle whip stuff, it’s too sweet)

1.5 tbsp (not teaspoon… I messed this up before, it’s not the same) curry powder

2-3 cups Medium cheddar cheese, shredded (depends on how cheesy you want your dish)

Cooked rice – jasmine, or basmati ( amount determined by how many you will be serving)

Instructions:

Preheat oven for 400.

Steam carrots and broccoli until slightly soft. Do not over cook as they will be soggy in your casserole… and no one likes a soggy casserole.
Begin your rice cooking process. (Instructions are located in the bag 🙂

Brown chicken cubes in frying pan with oil and garlic while your broccoli is steaming 

Mix cans of soup, mayo, and curry powder in a dish.

Layer ingredients in glass baking dish (chicken, veggies and then soup mixture- distributing this evenly over chicken and veggies) 

Sprinkle cheese evenly over dish. 

Bake for 15-20 min (until cheese is melted and the soup mixture is bubbling)

Serve over rice. 

For the love of stew.

As much as I try to lean towards making the new recipes posted on Pinterest and all over Facebook, I can’t help but always fall back on old classics. My mother used to make the best home cooked hearty meals, so I believe I will start sharing with all of you! Aren’t you lucky!

 

Hearty Stew with Mashed potatoes

 

Ingredients:

1 package of cut up stewing beef (or a beef roast cut up into bite size chunks what ever is on sale…. What!? Inflation has made shit expensive!)

1.5 cups of flour

3-4 table spoons of olive oil ( or anything greasy works… veggie oil, margarine or butter)

4-5 sticks of celery cut into bite size pieces (smaller for little mouths of course!)

4-5 peeled and cut carrots (or mini carrots cut in half)

1.5 cups of peas

1 onion – Chopped all chunky like

3 cloves of garlic – or if cooking for Kayle make that 5.

1 ‘jug’ of campbell’s beef broth ( if jug were a measurement it would be 900 mls)

3 cups of water

3 shakes of worchessshisitershire sauce ( yeah… still can’t pronounce it)

2 tablespoons of powdered mustard (photographed is Colman’s; so far my favorite and the tin is fashionable)

1/2 cup or three squeezes of the no spill bottle of ketchup

and if you want it extra beefy tasting:

1 packet of beef oxo

 

Start by tossing the beef in the flour while heating up the oil in large stewing pot. If you are using a crock pot use a frying pan. More dishes to wash but hey, if you’re wanting to leave it stewing while you’re out, crock pot is the way to go!

Sauté those badboys until browned, this will help to make your dish extra tasty.

Throw in the onion and sauté until clear. Next is the carrots and celery, sauté for about 5 min and then toss in the garlic for about a min to bring out its flavour.

Place all of this into your crock pot if that is what you are so inclined to do. If using a large pot start adding all of your other ingredients (except for the peas, no one likes soggy peas) Yep it’s that easy!

Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer on low for 2-3 hours.

In a crock pot, on low for 6 or on high for 4.

Add salt and pepper to taste!

When you are all ready, the veggies are cooked to a soft perfection you are ready to make your mashed potatoes! I don’t think I need to make instructions for these make em how you like em! My trick for extra creamy potatoes is to add a cup or so of milk and mix with a hand mixer after releasing some aggression with a masher!

And there you have it, the best stew you will ever have!
Any questions please comment below!

Enjoy!
Sorry there’s no finished photo. We ate it all before I could get my camera out, it’s that good!

 

Double exposure.

Lately I have realized how much I love the challenge of trying new artistic endeavors. It takes you away from the crazy day to day; work, kids, bills, traffic, humans, news, frustrations etc.

For a moment, you escape. This is why I fell in love with photography. Technology grasped firmly between my hands, the sound of the shutter closing with a snap as it captures what you lined up perfectly. The ability to artistically modify your image in editing software, or enjoy what you have created as an original image. I have been doing photography since grade 8, when we got to use an old Pentax film camera [which is still my favorite, one day hopefully I will have a dark room of my own]. My spare blocks were spent hiding out in the high school dark room, occasionally I would skip math to do the same thing [sorry mom!]. Needless to say, its always been my escape.

There’s something about having full control over your creations but at the same time, no control at all. Your mind processing what’s in front of you, and your hands changing the angle, settings, and focus to produce what you are hoping for.  Which brings me to my title; Double Exposure.

Now to use this as a metaphor in my life. On one end, I am a mother. My life is dedicated to raising, taking care of, and loving two other human beings. In this, I must be completely selfless. There’s not much room for the things I want to do, although I try to make time. And to be honest, I have embraced this. I did, at one time feel resentful of this fact, and at times it made me feel boring and unattractive (not in the physical sense of the word).

I did not have any thrilling stories to tell about the time I climbed to Machu Picchu to watch the sunrise, or of all the friends I had made on my adventures abroad. And that’s okay! With some self reflection and growing I learned that being a mother, or parent, is successful only by investing everything into your children. Now….. So many of you are going to say… You can’t take care of others unless you take care of yourself first. And I do believe in this. But I also believe that our minds have so much more control over our emotions and physical well beings than we give credit for. We have a choice to do things for our selves that will not interfere with being a parent and raising our children. I am a woman, a human after all. I need things for myself. I forget this all the time. I feel deep guilt for wanting a day to do nothing. Just one day where I sit on my computer, fiddle with my camera and write blogs or read. The dishes taunt me, and so does the laundry. A double exposure. A balance. If one is under exposed the other will overtake the image. If one is over exposed it will no longer be visible.

I hope you enjoy two of the images I created when I stumbled upon this option in my Nikon D300s settings. It took me a few tries, and they are slightly Photoshopped. One is of my son and a canvas of New York city we have hanging on our wall this one was Photoshopped just to turn black and white, the other of my daughter and some flowers I have in a vase, this one was Photoshopped just to enhance the color.

For those of you who are not versed in the art of photography: Double exposure is what some photographers would do when using film. They would take one photo, rewind the film back to that frame and take another photo creating a layered effect. Now we can do this on our digital cameras, by using the setting and taking one photo after the other, and the camera the work for us (its not as easy as it looks though).

Cabin Porn. Future Goals

So very excited about my new purchase!

As you all may know, I love books. I have a bookshelf full that have yet to be read, and some that have been read over and over again, pages wrinkled and worn. Today my 2 best friends and I took a trip down to Wendel’s cafe & bookstore to pick up our lunch [You must try their chicken and avocado wrap; its incredible!].

On display, just out of the corner of my eye, I spotted it; Cabin Porn. A book that calls to me. Kayle and I have been talking lately about how we would like to eventually live a simple, quiet life away from the insanity that is living in a busy city. Needless to say, when I saw this book I had to have it. One step closer to our future plans.

Filled with tips on how to live simply, examples of cabins, and some great personal stories from people who live out in the wilderness. Not to mention some amazing photography, its up there on my list of best purchases.

I highly recommend buying this book! And support your local business by buying it at Wendel’s… plus just down the street there is the best bakery ever (http://www.blacksmithbakery.ca/ ).. Not that I would know of course….