Chicken Salad Sandwiches - Sister 2

The weather at my house today is pretty wild. I guess you just have to expect that since it is March. When I woke up this morning it was cloudy and dark, but there was no wind. Then around 8am, the wind started howling. Around 9am the howling wind blew in a snow/rain storm. It really couldn't make up it's mind whether it wanted to rain or snow. The snorain came down for a few hours, and then it stopped. But, now it is raining again. Pretty soon the sun will probably be shining. Because that is how the weather is this time of year in the state of Utah. Am I Right??
I hope the sun does come out and shine, because I am making chicken salad sandwiches for dinner and they are really more of a sun shiny food. Don't you think?
Anyway..... enough rambling. Here is the recipe for the Chicken Salad

Chicken Salad

4 chicken breasts, cooked and chopped into small pieces
1/2 cup light mayo
1 tsp spicy brown mustard
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp celery salt
1/8 cup onion chopped in very small pieces
1/3 cup sweet pickle relish
a bunch of red seedles grapes

Mix all ingredients but the grapes together. Cut grapes in half and add to the mix. If it is dry, add a bit more mayo. Mix at least three hours ahead so the flavors have time to mix and sink in to the chicken.

I like to eat this on a crossaint roll, but any bread will work.

You Cannot Defeat Me - Sis 3

I was at one of a myriad of appointments last week, when I came across a quote that's stuck with me. It was printed on a plain piece of white paper and taped to the side of planter box. The presentation was very unpretentious, but the thought itself was anything but meek.

Over the next few days, I thought about the quote several times. I didn't remember the exact words, but I tried. Finally, I resorted to Google. I hadn't been able to make out the name of the author printed at the bottom of the quote, so I was really shooting in the dark. I typed in as much of the quote as I could remember, trying to get the phrasing right. It took a few tries, but Google came through.

I discovered that the quote was by Ann Landers, a pen name created in 1943 by Chicago Sun-Times advice columnist Ruth Crowley and later taken over by Eppie Lederer. Which of those two women actually wrote the quote, I'm not sure, but their advice reached me all these years later.

I'll pass on a little of their wisdom.

"Expect trouble as an inevitable part of life and when it comes, hold your head high, look it squarely in the eye and say, 'I will be bigger than you. You cannot defeat me.'" ~Ann Landers

Beautiful Spring Day - Sister 2

What a beautiful spring day it was yesterday. As soon as we got home from picking up my oldest daughter from school my kids were begging to go outside and play. I couldn't blame them, it was sunny and warm. But, I being the mother, made sure they ate lunch and did some chores before they could go out. My little boy usually takes a nap after lunch, but he knew the girls were going to go out to play and he would not go to sleep. So we ALL went out to play. The kids had so much fun running up and down the hill, going down the slide, riding scooters and playing in the dirt. I cleaned all the grass out of a flower bed and out of the strawberry bed. I'm hoping we will get a bunch of strawberries this year, but I'm not sure. We moved into this house in November, so I don't know how well the strawberries,or any other plant, will do. I also walked around the yard looking at all the buds on the trees and the leaves popping out of the ground. I will have tulips and irises in a month or two. I wonder what colors they will be?
I love spring. It is so fun to see the new life. The green buds on the trees and the little purple flowers popping up. AND, it is so GREAT to get outside in the nice SUNSHINE.

Leprechaun Tracks - Sis 1

Shhhhh! I carve a boot print into soft mozzarella cheese--WAY easier than a potato--then dip it in food coloring and walk it around. You only need to make one if you point the toe inward from the right then the left in an alternating pattern, as if the leprechaun were slightly pigeon toed.

If you've made traps, set them off and remove the bait.

Important! Only make tracks on disposable items or non-porous surfaces like sealed tile. Otherwise, your tracks will be permanent.

Don't tell my kids. Even my 9-year-old still believes. And she already figured out Santa.

Irish Stew - Sis 1

I LOVE colcanon, as do the rest of my family, and that's what I traditionally make on St. Patrick's day for our dinner. (Breakfast is usually silly stuff like green eggs or green biscuits or green pancakes. You get the idea.) But this year, I will be taking dinner to a neighbor and I have my doubts as to how well mashed potatoes mixed with cabbage, onions and nutmeg will be received by any of her family.

So, I decided that the menu will be:

Irish Stew
Green Dinner Rolls
and
Donegal Oatmeal Cream

You should always make stew a day ahead if possible, because it tastes SO much better that way. (You can also remove excess fat much more easily, once it's cold and sitting on the top of the stew.) So, it's sitting in my fridge right now, aging. This was a BIG batch, so you might want to cut it in half. Here's how to make it:

Irish Stew

2 lbs bacon, cut in small pieces
4 lbs cubed meat (traditionally lamb, but I used beef)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon crushed rosemary
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 liter apple juice
1 1/2 lbs carrots, peeled and chopped
2-3 lbs potatoes, scrubbed and cubed
3 bay leaves
1 1/2 cups chopped cabbage

Fry bacon in large skillet. Place the bacon in your big crockpot, leaving the grease in the skillet. Mix flour, salt, pepper and rosemary in large bowl. Add cubed meat and toss until coated. Brown meat in bacon grease. Place cubed meat in crockpot. Drain and discard bacon grease. Carmelize onions and garlic in same skillet that you just drained grease from. Place onions and garlic in crockpot. Pour about a cup of the apple juice in the skillet and deglaze. Pour contents of skillet and remaining apple juice into crockpot. Add carrots, potatoes and bay leaves and stir. Set crockpot to low, cover, and let cook several hours (4-8 depending on whether you're home or not.) Stir in chopped cabbage and refrigerate overnight. Reheat and remove bay leaves when ready to serve.

Leprechaun Traps - Sis 1

Each year my kids and I make traps for catching leprechauns. So far, we have been unsuccessful, but we're still holding out hope. A pot full of gold would certainly come in handy. Last year, there were a good deal of tiny green leprechaun boot tracks all around our traps and the "gold" candy coins we used for bait were gone. Tricksters!

I just get out all sorts of craft materials and let the kids go. I dyed the popsicle sticks green with food coloring. I did end up helping D3 and pretty much making Bear's for him, but I just let them figure out how to trap their own leprechauns.

Here we have my youngest daughter's trap. The leprechaun (hopefully) will climb the ladder and step out onto the tissue-covered cup to get the "gold". His weight will be too much for the tissue and he will fall into the cup.

Daughter number one's trap is based on the same design, but she made her ladder with rope and added a swing and a bridge to entice the leprechaun to her trap.

Bear's trap is really just a gussied-up rabbit trap. The unsuspecting leprechaun will walk under the rainbow to get a "gold" coin and a popsicle-stick crate will fall down on top of him.

My second daughter, and I might add the most enterprising one, made not one, not two, but three traps. (And she's currently in the kitchen, probably making more of them.) Two of them are made from old frog and cricket habitats. The leprechaun will have to climb to the top using the ladders, enter through the trap door and slide down the yarn that will pull the door shut on it to get to the "gold".

This is the one I'm most impressed with. Again, daughter two made it. To get the gold the leprechaun will have to pull down on it, which will snap the lid closed over it. If I were a betting person, which I'm not, I'd say the leprechaun will get caught in this one if at all.

Crepes - Sister 2

I was first introduced to crepes by my good friend Julie. I remember sleeping over at her house many times while I was young and in the morning we would make either crepes or crumb cake muffins for breakfast. I remember we would always put just plain powdered sugar on the crepes, roll them up tight, and eat up. They were good that way, back then. But now days I like to do it a little differently. Crepes are still a breakfast food for me, but now when I make crepes I use fresh strawberries, blueberries and bananas with yogurt for the filling. They are so yummy, and they make a light but satisfying breakfast. I hope you love them as much as my family and I do.

Crepes

2 eggs
1 cup and 2 tbsps milk
1 cup flour
2 tbsps sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp butter, melted

Put all ingredients into a blender and blend for a couple of minutes, scraping the sides to make sure all the flour is off the sides. Heat a non-stick frying pan on medium low heat. When the pan is hot spray with cooking spray and pour a small amount of batter into the pan. You want to cover the bottom of the pan with a thin layer. Let it cook until it looks set on the top, which should be just a minute or two, then flip and let it cook a minute or two longer on the other side. Remove and repeat until all the batter has been cooked. You can serve these crepes with lots of different fillings, but like I said I like to cut fresh strawberries and bananas and use fresh blueberries with some strawberry yogurt. Enjoy!
* For my family of 5 we usually double the recipe and it is usually enough.