Clam Chowder=Yum!

I wanted to make this Thursday but didn't get to it until tonight. It was very yummy. Too bad only the girls eat it.

The recipe I used is suppose to be Disneyland's recipe. It's close but I'm not convinced it's the same. Maybe it tastes different because we aren't in the park enjoying the atmosphere. The recipe below is one that I had made some changes to. I cut it in half from the original. I can't find the original online anymore so I'm just posting "my" version. 

New Orleans Square Clam Chowder

Yield: 4-6 servings.

 

Ingredients

1/8 lb. butter
3/4 cups chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped celery
¼+1/8  cup all purpose flour (it was ¾ and I halved the recipe)
2 C. half and half
1 can of chopped clams, reserving juice
1/8 cup chopped green bell pepper ( didn't have this so I left it out)
1/8 cup chopped red bell pepper
½ teaspoon instant chicken broth
salt
pepper
1/8 tsp. thyme
4 small diced potatoes

Directions

In a medium saucepan, melt butter; add onions, celery, red and green peppers and thyme. Sautee until tender. Add flour and chicken broth cube; cook over low heat for 5-10 minutes. Add half and half and reserved clam juice. Add clams, potatoes, salt and pepper. Simmer until thick and tender. Mine got way too thick. I should have added some more milk but I didn't. It was still fine, just super thick.

Frightmares at Lagoon

The kids got to go this weekend with my mom while Paul and I went to the BYU football game. Thanks mom for taking these pictures with your phone. I'm glad to have them. 

I need to go and take a picture like this so I can say "The diet's finally working!" Ha! 

The Evolution of my Hair

Yes I really was this bored tonight. The kids are all done with home work, Paul  is gone and yes my kitchen is a DISASTER but I couldn't bring myself to go up and clean. I killed time and amused myself by seeing how my hair has changed over the years. 

I tend to be very impatient with my hair. When it's long I want to cut it because it's too thick and heavy to blow-dry. (seriously, it takes forever to dry my hair) Or it's too flat and weird wavy if I don't blow dry it. Even when I do blow-dry and straighten my hair it deflates in no time and the curl in the front comes back making it look weird.

Whatever the problem may be from one day to the next my solution is almost always a pony-tail. It's not a great look but it's just so quick and easy.

When I do cut it, I almost always immediately regret it and plan to grow it back. Since it's naturally so dark I don't dare mess with the color either. I do have a raspberry creme non-permanent color sitting in my bathroom taunting me but I'm scared to have burgundy hair, even if it is just temporary.

Cutting it is my only option when I want a change. I got a bug up my butt this week and got a haircut. It was really spur of the moment and to be honest, some parts of me regret it. The other parts of me sort of like that it's different for once. I don't think I have ever had my hair this layered before. I think as it fills in a bit I will like it even more. Paul says he doesn't think it's that different and maybe it doesn't look like it is but from a styling standpoint it is very different. I am still not sure how I prefer it.

Here is the before. When I see this I regret the cut but the reality is this straight hair took 30-45 minutes to do. It hardly ever looked like this on a day to day basis.

After: This is just blown dry using the "wave" I have naturally. It felt a little too messy, like a Glam Rocker from the 80's. But it was super easy! (I'm thinking of going back in a couple of weeks and having the last inch or two chopped off to get rid of some of the wispy ends. I think it would make it look a little fuller/better.)

So I went back in a straightened it. It felt really thin when I did this. If the top was higher I would have looked just like Joan Jett. I think I must have all the hair from my back over my shoulder in this shot because I know it didn't look this full in real life. 

I went at it with the curling iron (had to dust that baby off) before parent/teacher conference. It gave it a little more something. Bounce? Body? Definition to the layers? I don't know but I did use the curling iron again today. 

All I know it is is going to take a long time to get my hair back to the "before" (If that's what I want to do) so I better learn how to style it and love it. The great thing is it doesn't take nearly as long to dry! 

Two New Recipes for October

Months ago Andrew said he wanted to try Chicken Pot Pie. The thought of all the boiling and sautéing  over a hot stove, turning on the oven to bake the pie and eating something that warm in the heat of summer was not appealing. It has finally cooled off so I put it on the menu.

Many years ago I used to make a pot pie that Paul loved. In our many many moves the recipe was lost. I asked around and my friend Erin gave me her recipe.  This "recipe" (she cooks like me; a dash here, substitute this for that, etc etc) seemed the closest to what I remember making back when we were newly married.

I knew Emma would be turned off by all the veggies so I recruited her help and let her taste things along the way. By the time we were done she was totally excited to eat the meal.

Here is the recipe as Erin wrote it.

Ingredients list for ONE PIE is:

2 chicken breasts
about 3/4 Cup chopped carrot
1 onion, chopped
1/2 Cup frozen peas (or more)
1/2 Cup frozen corn (or more)
2 TBS. butter
1/4 Cup flour
salt/pepper to taste (don't scrimp on the salt)
1/4 tsp. thyme (more to taste, i add a lot more)
1 Cup chicken stock/liquid
1 Cup whole milk
one pie crust


here it goes:

take two chicken breasts and salt and pepper them (bone-in, no bone, whatever).

brown them on both sides in a dutch oven with some olive oil (i do it in my le creuset, and i swear it was worth the price just for this recipe).

pour in 1/2 to 1 Cup of liquid--you can use all chicken stock, part white wine(maybe 1/4 cup), or water only if you have no other option. i do the chicken stock/white wine combo. delish. cover and simmer until cooked through. you can add a bay leaf and some peppercorns if you like. remove the whole spices after the simmer.

while chicken is cooking, dice some carrots (about 3/4 Cup), and one onion. Dice quite small. i use my vidalia onion chopper, b/c i like the dice to be small and uniform. i really do think it makes a difference in taste.

remove chicken and allow to cool. pour cooking liquid into a glass measuring cup and top off until you have 1 Cup of liquid. set aside.

chop chicken into small bites. that is my personal preference. i don't like a big bite of chicken.

in the same pan, drop a pat of butter and add onions and carrots. saute for a few minutes until they begin to soften (use medium heat). you can remove them now, but, i don't, i just make the roux 'around' them.

add 2 TBS of butter, and sprinkle 1/4 Cup of flour to create your roux. cook and stir for a few minutes, then add your 1 Cup of chicken cooking liquid, and 1 Cup of whole milk. yes, you can use 2% milk, but, why? the whole milk tastes better. whisk until smooth.

now, add some thyme (start with a 1/4 tsp. and add to taste), more salt and pepper. you will need quite a bit of salt depending on the broth you used.

add chicken, simmer this on low, until the veggies are tender. they will not tenderize that much more when it cooks in the oven, so make sure they are *almost* the tenderness you are looking for in the end product.

at the end of the simmer, add 1/2 Cup each (or more, i add more) of frozen peas and frozen corn. add them at the end so that they will retain their color. you just want them warmed, b/c they are already fully cooked. you can use canned corn, but frozen tastes worlds better, and for heaven's sake, don't ever use canned peas...EVER!

as far as crust goes, you can use your favorite recipe, but, i have been very lazy lately and have been buying the pillsbury roll-out crust, and it is actually an acceptable substitute in a pinch.

i do the double crust, (one on top and one on the bottom) and then i cut some vents into the top.

425 oven. cover LOOSELY with foil, bake on a cookie sheet for 20 minutes, then unfoil, and next comes the little extra that makes it look purty. i brush some whipping cream over the crust and sprinkle with kosher salt. fleur de sel (sp?) would be even better, but, i never have that hanging around, so i use kosher salt. you could also use an egg wash, but, i truly think the cream tastes and looks better. bake for another 15-20 until done. let it sit for a little bit to set before you dig in. 


***I used only one breast, all chicken broth for cooking the chicken, subbed corn for potatoes that I had boiled in broth and didn't have cream so I didn't do the pretty wash.***


It was time consuming but very easy and Emma made a great helper. We all liked it a lot and it tastes like how I remember the old recipe tasting. 

The next recipe, if you want to call it that, is for a roast. I found it on a blog and wanted to try it. You take a gravy packet, an onion soup packet, an Italian dressing packet and a ranch packet and dump them all on the roast. Add a little water and then crock-pot that sucker for hours and hours.

I was hoping that this would taste different than my roast, you know,  so we could have some variety. To me it didn't taste that different. At least not different enough to justify the additional cost and sodium. I can't even imagine how much sodium we ingested last night. I think I will stick to my one packet of onion soup on the roast from now on. It was still good though. 

Still Enjoying our View

Emma gets up an hour earlier than she did last year. While she eats breakfast I sit in the living room looking out west as the sun comes up over the mountains behind us. It's pretty awesome watching the valley lighten and come to life each morning. How can you not love this? The golden glow of the sun was so pretty this morning. 

An hour or so later the sky looked like this. 

It wasn't too much longer before the clouds rolled in and it started to storm. You can't even see the mountains of the lake anymore. (They say if you don't like the weather in Utah wait 10 minutes. It's so true.)

My wonderfully clean window got wet. 

Thankfully it dried pretty spot free and the clouds started to clear out. Notice the dusting of snow on the top of that mountain? It's up on Timp too. I'm not ready for snow. 

I will appreciate getting blinds put back up (we feel like we live in a fish bowl) but at the same time I am astonished at how much I have been missing. I'm realizing how important it is to take time to appreciate the beauty that surrounds us. 

Emma is an official Beehive

In our church, when the girls turn 12 they join the Young Women's Organization. The first two years they are part of the program they are called Beehives. Emma's leader and a couple of the other beehive girls came over with her Personal Progress book, a gift, a Young Woman necklace and some other things. She was so excited the have them come and introduce her to the program. She can't wait to start working on her goals and projects. She has been wearing her necklace proudly. (This picture was taken right after she had gotten her hair cut. Notice the layers around her face?) I can't believe how fast she is growing up.

Slowly but Surely...It's Getting Better

As I mentioned before we are doing a few necessary things to help our house. In 2011 it will be 20 years old. It's old enough that things are wearing out but not old enough to make it charming.

(We have the most amazing view of the whole valley but we weren't even able to enjoy it due to the broken bay window.)

This past Thursday we got our first set of new windows installed. We are hoping to get enough back from our tax return in the spring to do the rest.

Choosing windows proved to be a long a somewhat painful process. We had four companies send their salesmen to our home to give us estimates. We were so beyond sick and tired of hearing about glass, argon gas, and how great their product was. Some of the guys would go on and on for over an hour when all we wanted was a number.

They all quoted a lot more than we had to spend and bashed everyone else that sold windows. It was as if they wanted to make us feel like idiots for even considering "the other guys." I HATE that sales tactic. Just sell your product, don't talk crap about other people. In the meantime our refrigerator's water line broke ruining our kitchen floor. Great. That is when we decided we could only do half the job.

We were really struggling with what company to choose. There were two that we liked and one that we didn't love that came in with a better quote than the other two.  One guy was just a total jerk and not even an option. We were so frustrated because none of them felt right.

(It was totally fun being in a house with no widows. Paul and I both had an urge to jump out. I guess because we could? Too bad we're up too high. It wouldn't have been wise.)

One night I was talking to our neighbors and they mentioned that they had just gotten a big bay window replaced. They were really pleased with the window, the salesman, the company, the install, the price, etc. etc. Basically they had zero complaints. The window was a "brand" that all of the other salesmen managed to bash so at first I was leery. I asked if we could come over and look at their window. You know what? It looked basically identical to all of the other windows we saw during the presentations.

It was shiny and white, very clean, opened smoothly, wasn't cracked and the screen didn't have any holes. I didn't care what brand it was, it was a million times better than what we had! We called Daron at Therma Glass and he was totally nice. I emailed some measurements and he got right back to me. His quote was close to our budget. We were able to negotiate a little and the deal was done!

He and his two boys did the install. It's a family owned business that is backed by the Better Business Bureau and they have been in business for over 30 years. I love that. They were all really nice. When I asked if I could peek in on the progress one of the boys said "You can pull up a chair and watch!" I loved that they didn't mind me following them around with my camera.

(Holy Crap look how clean they are!!!)

We are all so in love with our new widows. The kids keep asking if they can open them because they open so easily. They literally could not open our old windows because they stuck so bad. We still need to buy blinds but even with it being in the high 80's and nothing blocking the sun our house is way cooler. We now have screens with no holes and a screen in our dinning room so we now actually use that window. Awesomeness!

We are still waiting for our new doors to come in but I can only imagine how exciting it will be to get those. Our back french door is almost non-functional right now. It will be so nice to have them both replaced. We will either buy new "shutters" or paint the old ones when we paint the door. For now we will be shutterless. Paul picked the tackiest blanket (A Pirate's of the Caribbean skull and cross bones blanket) to hang in Andrew's window. Good grief. Why? Why that one? Needless to say blinds are a priority at this point.  Our poor neighbors are staring at a pirate skull 24/7.

(Look a window track that isn't black!) 

After we get doors, shutters and blinds I will post a picture of the front of our house. Right now I am too embarrassed to even consider it.