List Making and a Quick Dinner Recipe

I am starting to cross off several things on my list of things to do. It feels good to know that I am on track. I also am thrilled to know that things are getting accomplished slowly but surely. I am not killing myself on any one day, but making nice progress each and every day. I should practice this lifestyle other than just for holidays!

When things are busy, we all need a quick dinner meal that is still good. Here is one that I would like to share with you. Hope you enjoy!

Chicken Casserole

cooked shredded chicken enough to fill up a 9x13 pan (I use about 3 to 4 cooked breasts)
1 can of chicken broth
1 can of creme of chicken soup
Sauteed celery and onions (I use about a half of cup of each...my mom uses more...you decide)

Mix all ingredients together. Pour in a 9x13 casserole dish. Crumble a sleeve of Ritz crackers on top. Melt a stick of butter and pour it over the crackers. Bake for about 30 minutes or until bubbly in a 350 degree oven.

I usually serve this with sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, and green beans. If I really want to make everybody happy, I will also make a batch of yeast rolls!

grace and peace,
julie

Farm Updates

I haven't had much to say about the farm lately because it just seems kind of small to me. However, I have been enjoying having all 5 cows back home on our property. Lizzy is needing to be bred again. Since we don't have a bull, we will have to have her A.I. We will wait until we know for sure what we are doing about moving before we go to the trouble of that.

This is the next cow that will be in the freezer. She is the granddaughter to the cow in the above picture. She is half angus and half scottish highland. She is the product of a bad fence, a naughty cow, and a neighbor's bull. It works for us. We were able to get two calves without owning a bull!

Our chickens are growing nicely. We have still had some predator issues which is extremely frustrating to me. We lock the chickens up in the coop every night. It is the naughty chickens that won't go into the coop at night that is having issues. If we can keep them all safe, we should be enjoying some eggs in early spring. I can't wait. Our family eats at least a dozen eggs a day. On some days, we eat more!

I had a wonderful report concerning our horses recently. They are doing well and the girls have been riding them. I still miss them, but I know that they are happy and healthy. I am sure that until we know for sure if we are moving or staying that we will not be adding any new animals to the farm. It is a quiet season here, but one that I am enjoying.

grace and peace,

julie

Baking Accomplishments for Thanksgiving

2 pie crusts have been made, wrapped, and placed in the freezer. On Thanksgiving morning, I will take them out of the freezer and let them thaw. Then I will be ready to add homemade pumpkin pie filling and homemade pecan pie filling to them. How easy is that?

6 loaves of chocolate bread cooling on the racks. I quickly wrapped 5 of these delicious goodies and labeled them and placed them in the freezer. I let the little people enjoy one loaf yesterday after school.

4 loaves of Amish Friendship Cinnamon bread. I placed all 4 of these gems in the freezer for later use.

3 dozen pumpkin muffins... These are my kids' favorite muffins! I promptly cooled and froze 2 dozen of them. I will let the little people enjoy the other dozen for today.

2 loaves of banana nut bread still baking in the oven. After making a orange glaze, these too will also join the rest of the bread tucked away in the freezer.

Now all I have to do is to keep this person and 4 others just like him out of my freezer stash. I am hoping that by giving them a little treat here and there that they will be satisfied until our company arrives! If not, I may be in trouble!!!

grace and peace,

julie

Putting Plans into Action

Today you can find me in the kitchen making some chocolate bread, banana nut bread, and some yeast rolls. The yeast rolls will be for dinner tonight, but the other things will be tucked away in the freezer for our Thanksgiving week. I am looking forward to my time baking this morning. It always makes me feel productive. Michael has still been busy remodeling the kitchen. He has built and installed the new upper cabinets. I have to put the finish on them, but I just haven't gotten around to that. I do want to accomplish that before he installs the base cabinets. It will just make my job easier if I don't have to work around the lower cabinets. If we had known of the work situation changes that have taken place, we would never have started this kitchen remodel. It is slowly becoming my dream kitchen so I am thinking that if we have to move then the next person should enjoy it immensely. I also think the upgrades will boost the value of our home if we have to sell it. We should know more definite plans by the end of December. Until then, I am going to enjoy every minute of the new layout of my kitchen.

grace and peace,

julie

More Thanksgiving Planning Thoughts

I was glad to see that from the comments from yesterday's post that most of y'all are planners. I really liked the idea of cooking the extra turkey the day before, and having it ready to serve the next day. I may just do that very thing this year. That was a great idea! Another decision I made during my planning session was I decided to stream line my desserts a bit this year. Since I am making a large dinner Wednesday evening, I will have several desserts offered for that. The desserts that I am making Wednesday are all make ahead desserts. I knew that some of those desserts would still be available for our Thanksgiving meal. I also have to have a birthday cake for our son's 16th birthday that is on Thanksgiving. I decided that this year I will skip some of the usual pies that I serve for Thanksgiving dinner. I will just make pecan pie and pumpkin pie. I am certain that we will have more than enough dessert so it should all work out fine.

Thanksgiving breakfast can be a bit of a challenge for me. I know that everybody will still want breakfast so I have made a plan for that as well. I have decided that we will eat finger foods for breakfast. I will have pumpkin muffins, chocolate bread, and banana bread tucked in my freezer. All I will have to do for Thanksgiving morning is have those items thawed out and tucked into some pretty baskets just waiting for everybody to have breakfast. I will cook up some sausage pinwheels for those who don't like sweets for breakfast. Just add coffee and tea and I will be ready to go. Since we eat our main meal in the early afternoon, I think everybody will have enough to hold them over until then.


I would love to have the space to set up my Thanksgiving table before hand. I have visions of beautiful tablescapes, but that isn't the world where I live. We have one large table and I will have the folding tables set up to sit the extra people. I REALLY wanted to have all the food placed on the tables instead of doing it buffet style. However, that is considerable more work so I will continue with the buffet line for this year. It works out well so I won't complain.

grace and peace,
julie

Cooking Plan Ideas

I can't believe it is Friday already! Where has this week gone? Since the days seem to be turning faster than I can count, I decided that I better get busy planning our Thanksgiving week. This morning I got up early and sat down with a cup of coffee, notebook, and a pen. About a month ago, I had a brainstorm session concerning the meals for the Thanksgiving week. We always host my out of town family for Thanksgiving. They will be staying at cabins in our area, but our house is the gathering place. We all eat together here and it is always fun.
I needed to tweak my menu for the week. Since I had already thought out meals, all I had to do was to settle on the final plan. After making my final menu, I then took some time to look at all the items that could be made in advance. I made a "To Do" for each day from now until Thanksgiving. This way I know exactly what needs to be done each day in order to have my ducks in a row. I also made my cooking plan for Thanksgiving day. It helps if I think through my cooking day before it gets here. I know that I will get up at 4:00 a.m. and bake the pies. I could bake the pies the day before, but I really like them better if they are baked on the day that we are going to eat them. Just my preference, and I don't mind to make that extra effort. Around 5:00 a.m., the first turkey will go in the oven. I will then do prep work for the vegetables. I have everything written out so it is pretty much a "no brainer" for the big event.

I always do a cooking plan whenever I am hosting a big meal. I have always done one for every Thanksgiving that I have ever cooked. I started this when I was 19. The thought of cooking such a large meal overwhelmed me, but I wanted our first Thanksgiving to be special. I started writing out my plan and I felt a lot better about the whole thing. How about you? Are you a planner or a fly by the seat of your pants kind of cook?

grace and peace,

julie

Happy Veteran's Day

To all of you who have served our great country to protect us and preserve the freedom that we cherish so much, I want to say thank you. While those two words cannot possibly capture the gratitude that I truly feel, they are a beginning.





grace and peace,


julie



Here is a link to last year's veteran's day post. You see, my husband is a veteran. He spent almost 12 years of his life serving our country. Military personal and veterans hold a near and dear place in my heart.