This & That

Cards

First off, happy birthday to my baby sis. Love you!

The last week I've been working through the March 2013 Simon Says Stamp card kit.

The Girl writing thank you notes has severely depleted my stash.

I got 22 cards from the kit by adding a few sheets of my own card stock and most of the designs either came from the project sheet in the kit or blogs from the blog hop the website did. 

How to Deal with Empties

For the uninitiated, "empties" are the empty shells that have been shot from a gun. When you live in semi-rural Idaho and live with a bunch of hunting fools, you become well acquainted with them, and you tend to find them all over the place.

On our last cabin foray, we spent a couple of hours one afternoon shooting targets, and lest you think my dainty daughter gets the vapors at the sight of a firearm, I can assure you that does a pretty good job of handling one.

This is a recent interest, mostly I think because she doesn't want to be shown up by her brothers. The empty mik jugs were used as targets for pistol shooting. If you look carefully, you'll see some holes in it.

So there was a little skeet shooting where DH threw the clays and she got first shot, backed up by her brothers. In actuality, none of the gals (my DD and the DIL's) who shot did too shabby. 

Even my 78 year old mother got into the act...hat and all.

I always like seeing my boys together.

Back up for the girls on the skeet shooting. And to answer the question about what to do with the empties?

They make excellent finger ornaments.

 

Random Cabin

Another several days at the cabin with the grandgirls. Just a few random shots...

Under a big log chair is a good place to play.

If you keep your eyes open, you can see interesting things on a walk...like deer tracks. Oh, you've seen those, so they aren't that cool?

Well, if you really keep your eyes open, you might see what made the tracks up close and personal, but then your dog will probably scare it off.

And cute faces can change in the blink of an eye,

when little girls get scrapes on their knees.

In Between Times

We had a couple of down-time days between long cabin trips. AP Boy rigged up a sprinkler in the back for the girls to run in one evening.

He had to demonstrate actual running for them.

They weren't that fond of really cold water spraying all over them, so he turned it way down and it was a little less intimidating that way.

And easier to get a drink.

Even Ollie thought so.

I think he's smiling.

Easy Chicken Cordon Bleu

We had this for dinner this week. It's a sort of deconstructed Chicken Cordon Bleu and if you like the conventional dish, you'll like this....and it's easy and really good. There's no pounding, rolling, dipping in stuff. Just throw it in the pan and bake it. The original recipe traces back to the Mel's Kitchen Cafe blog and her pictures are better than mine. This was all that was left in the pan to photograph after dinner. Should have done it before.

Easy Chicken Cordon Bleu

• 3 large chicken boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut in half length-wise (to form two thinner chicken breast cutlets)
• 12 slices deli ham
• 1 cup bread crumbs (preferably fresh, it makes a difference. I grind the heels of my bread in the food processor to make these)
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1/3 to 1/2 pound thinly sliced swiss cheese
• For the Parmesan-Dijon Cream Sauce:
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon chicken bouillon granules (or 1 bouillon cube, crushed)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese

DIRECTIONS

1. Lightly grease a 9X13-inch baking dish with cooking spray and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl, combine the bread crumbs and melted butter. Set aside.
2. Lay the cut chicken breasts in a single layer in the 9X13-inch dish. Layer each chicken breast with two slices of ham and top with 2 slices of swiss cheese, shingling across the chicken breast to make sure the entire chicken breast is covered with ham and cheese. Sprinkle the bread crumbs over the top of the chicken.
3. Bake the chicken for 30-35 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through completely, the cheese is bubbling and the bread crumbs are golden.
4. While the chicken bakes, in a medium saucepan, melt the 2 tablespoons butter. Stir in the flour, whisking constantly, while cooking the flour/butter mixture for 1-2 minutes. Slowly pour in the milk while whisking quickly. Stir in the chicken bouillon granules and salt. Whisk constantly over medium heat until the mixture begins to simmer and thicken, about 3-5 minutes. ( I do this all in the microwave and it goes very quickly.) Once the sauce has bubbled and thickened, remove from heat and stir in the mustard, Worcestershire sauce and Parmesan cheese. Stir until the cheese is melted. Keep the sauce warm until the chicken is finished baking.
5. Serve each chicken cordon bleu portion with warm sauce.

Make Ahead Instructions: Assemble the chicken, ham and cheese according to the recipe. Store the prepared bread crumb/butter mixture in a resealable plastic bag or other container. Cover the casserole with plastic wrap and store it and the bread crumb mixture in the refrigerator for 8-12 hours. When ready to bake, sprinkle the bread crumbs over the top and bake according to the recipe, adding anywhere from 5-15 extra minutes since it was refrigerated prior to baking. Make the sauce while the casserole bakes or make it ahead of time, let it cool, and store it covered in the refrigerator for 1-2 days, reheating over low heat and whisking to recombine before serving.

 

Project Life

I got caught up with three weeks of Project Life that got neglected because of...well...life. 

Week 22 documents The Girl's senior trip, LBoy's trip to Washington, the fountain, graduation and the wedding.

Week 23 was our solid week at the cabin with family.

Week 24 documents SD Boy's birthday celebration, sprinkler time with Ollie and more cabin adventures. I'm so grateful that even if I didn't scrapbook conventional layouts about any of these things, they are recorded in some fashion.

Hap-pay Birthday

It's not often that I have a birthday boy in residence for his day and I didn't this year, but we were only a couple of days off, so we took advantage of it.

Anyone familiar with this tag line?

Family Portraits

I wanted to get a new picture of SD Boy and his wife to update their spot on my table full of family photos. The one I had in there was from their wedding and much as I liked it, it was time for a new one, so we did a short session one afternoon at the cabin. It was fun and I can always use the practice.

And my personal favorite:

Let's Have S'more!

To end the dinosaur day, each of the kids was presented with a dino hat that SD Boy and his wife found. They marched around singing a dinosaur song that ended with a big ROAR. :D

And no exciting cabin week is complete without a campfire and s'mores.

 

Indian Summer Casserole

Yes, I know it's not Indian Summer yet, but I tried this recently and it got good reviews from the family, so I made it again when the whole family was here and it held up then as well. My family isn't big on casseroles, but like I said, this one is a keeper. I got the recipe from the now-defunct "Best of Hometown Cooking" magazine.

Indian Summer Casserole

• 1 8 oz. pkg. extra wide egg noodles
• 1 pound ground beef or turkey (I used Italian sausage)
• 1 medium red pepper, coarsely chopped
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 can condensed golden mushroom soup
• 1 (10 oz.) pkg. frozen whole kernel corn
• 1 cup chopped fresh mushrooms (I left these out because I refuse to eat fungus)
• 1/2 of an 8 oz. pkg. cream cheese, cut up
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 (2 oz.) jar diced pimiento, drained
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram, crushed
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Cook noodles according to package directions, drain well. While the noodles cook, brown the meat with the pepper and onion, drain. Combine with all remaining ingredients and warm through until cream cheese melts in. Spread mixture in a 2-qt. baking dish. Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.