Chicken Pot Pie.

Is there anything more country (and delicious)  than chicken pot pie?

I was craving some goodness and decided to make this recipe. Of course, I added my own twist. Neither Tom nor I like mushrooms, so I substituted frozen corn and it was DELICIOUS!

Cut four carrots.

 Instead of rotisserie chicken, I used three perfect chicken breasts.

 About 2 cups each of frozen peas and frozen corn.

 Five tablespoons of butter

 and about 1/4 cup of flour

 Stir together in a pan with 4 cups of chicken broth (not shown).

 Dump everything together and mix in a 9x13 baking dish along with some salt and pepper.

 Roll two piecrusts together (for the extra goodness).

 Cut two slits and you're ready to go.

Bake at 450 for 20 minutes, then turn down to 350 for another 30-40 or so. 

I'm getting hungry just looking at it. It is delicious. Yum yum yum!

Farmer's Market.

Last weekend, we went to the local farmer's market. It was a fun day. It's a huge farmer's market; several loading docks long. It had all sorts of different produce and people, and Tom and I had a great time negotiating, tasting, and buying fruits and nuts.

The pineapple was probably my favorite purchase. I love all sorts of fruits, but pineapple is that perfect balance between sweet and sour. Yummy.

We also bought a huuuuuge watermelon. It probably weighed forty pounds. As Tom is the only one who loves watermelon in our house, we decided to take it to our church group and share the love. It was completely eaten by the end of the night.

I also attempted to cook some plantains. They turned out...interesting. Tom ended up eating all of them with a good spoonful of Nutella.

The last thing we bought that we were excited about were pecans. While I love eating pecans just on their own, they're even better cooked with cinnamon and sugar. I made them with this recipe here.

All in all, it was a super fun weekend.


P.S. While messing about with the settings on my new camera, I forgot to take off the timestamp option. So you can see the lovely orange timestamp. :) Oops!

Why So Serious?

One day, Polly and I decided to lighten the mood.  Instead of going to dinner or a movie, we chose one of our all-time favorites:  offering to babysit Gus and Lula.  I know, I know, babysitting isn't most couples' idea of a relaxing date.  After a vigorous Google search, I'm shocked to find that it doesn't make the top 10 of awesome date ideas.  It doesn't even rank on the best 100 ways to woo your wife.  Still, Polly and I love it, and I think these photos will showcase why.  As an added bonus, I'm not in any of them.

So, we called up my sister, and offered our services.  As they left for their date, our entertainment began with some good old fashioned play-dough.  And by "good old fashioned," I mean Polly made it herself.  As the blobs of colored hilarity dropped onto the table, a mischievous glint . . . glinted in Polly's eyes.

Unfortunately, not everyone was ecstatic.  Although she had played with the play-dough before, Lula seemed concerned.  She didn't get upset.  She just spent most of the time contemplating how to get the stuff off her fingers.  Just like when you put tape on a cat's paws . . . not that I've ever done that.

On Polly's other side, Gus was having a smashing time.  Literally.

Have you ever smiled so hard, you thought your face would pop off?!  Gus has.

As his uncle, I was very proud as he took all of the beautifully colored play-dough Polly had made and . . . DEMOLISHED THEM!  Turning the girly cuteness of burgeoning hues into the manly mountain of muck.  Here, I can only imagine his inner dialogue as:

"How much fun did you have making that monstrous mound of mush?"

"I had this much fun!"

But let's not forget the dark side of this play-dough excitement (see Lula's pic above).  Thank goodness, she brightened up when she saw pictures of herself.  Gus and Lula have not always been able to identify themselves in pictures.  They would point mama and dada.  Gus would excitedly shout out "sissy" (or his best attempt:  "sissh") for photos of Lula, and she would proudly exclaim "Gus" for his.  However, they both used to be confused at their own likenesses.  So, I was surprised and Lula recognized her own face and "Girly Girl" rolled off her tongue followed by sheer cuteness.

Her happiness was soon interrupted by the roving sniffer of the family dog.  Regularly commissioned to clean up dropped peas and carrots, George eagerly jumped at the chance to eat some food-colored confetti.  If you look closely, the pink blot is George's tongue hard at work.  More obviously, it looks as if George is about to get the palm of Lula's hand across her ravenous snout.

After Gus's pile was sufficiently smashed into submission and Lula's hands were prodigiously scrubbed clean, we took the party outside . . . much to Lula's delight!

As the tables turned, others were not so exhilarated.

"Let's put a smile on that face!"