Country Club Chicken: A Little Bite of Heaven

The finished product, ready to serve!

One recipe I found on Pinterest has become a quick favorite in our home, Country Club Chicken. The first time I made it was when my parents were visiting. They fell in love with it. They asked me to email the recipe to them, and reminded me when they were on the road home back to Florida.

Last night, I made it for a second time. Making it was more of a challenge this time around. After all, last time I had 3 additional adults to help keep my children distracted as I made dinner. This time I just had my DH who was holding our napping baby, who is seriously resistant to napping anywhere except our arms. My lovely and energetic toddler took advantage of this situation by staying as close to me as possible, getting seriously underfoot. So, as I prepped, I felt my blood pressure rise. Not the ideal situation for cooking much of anything. However, I did what I could.

This recipe does require a bit of prep work. Unfortunately, instead of paying attention to the cooking description given by Kayote Kitchen (see the link above), I just printed out the printable version and went from there. If I had gone over her actual instructions, I wouldn't have gotten the wrong type of mushrooms. Instead, I looked at the ingredient list and and when I saw 7 oz of mushrooms, I assumed she meant canned. She did not. I had forgotten this from the first time I made it. Seeing as I didn't have any fresh mushrooms on hand, I ended up using canned instead. Lesson learned: read all of the recipe before shopping for ingredients.

The sauteed onions, canned mushrooms (but fresh is best),
apples, and bacon with the soup being added.

Anyhow, to get started you need to mince 1 large onion and 1 apple (Golden Delicious works well), as well as clean and slice your mushrooms. The first time I did the recipe, I used pre-sliced mushrooms from the grocery store, 8 oz instead of the 7 oz she has in her recipe. Not a huge change in the least. Besides, more mushrooms is not a bad thing. While you are prepping these ingredients, you will need to fry 4-5 slices of bacon, then cut it into smaller pieces. Now, the first time I did this, my bacon was bad so I used real bacon bits/pieces. It actually worked nicely in the recipe, although fresh is usually best.

Once the bacon is done, put a couple of tablespoons of unsalted butter in the pan to melt. Then, brown the about 4 seasoned (salt & pepper) chicken breast. Basically, you want it to look brown on the outside, but not be cooked on the inside. After that is done, you put the chicken in a casserole, and add the onion to the pan. I won't go into a lot of detail here, because you can get it more in depth on her page. When the onion, mushrooms, and apple is done cooking you will be adding cream of mushroom soup as well as white wine and the bacon. Kayote Kitchen mentions using Unox soup. I've never heard of that brand nor is there any chance that my small town grocery store (nor our nearby small city one) would carry it. I used her suggested substitute (2 cans of Campbell's), and it worked great. The last thing you add is sharp cheddar. Her pictures show her adding white cheddar. I used yellow sharp cheddar. Stir the ingredients well then pour the sauce on top of the chicken.

Ready to go in the oven!

You will then put the casserole in a 350 oven. Of course, I had to remove my toddler who had crawled between my legs and blocked my oven access. I removed her to a laundry basket she had dragged into the kitchen. Once that was done, I let the chicken cook for 30 minutes.

My toddler in the laundry basket after having to
remove her from blocking the oven.

This recipe goes great with pasta (spaghetti was suggested, but we use penne because that works best for toddler fingers). I would also think it would work with rice.

Another successful pin from Pinterest, and one I highly recommend! :)

Spring Has Sprung

Ginny with her ball! 

Spring is FINALLY here! I was beginning to wonder if it would arrive, especially after that snow storm at the end of March.

I love Spring! It is my second favorite season, right after Autumn. The temps are perfect and comfortable. After the cold of winter, you find yourself opening your windows and wearing shorts once the temps hit the mid-60s. Now, I know people in Florida don't do that, but they never really have winter. Some areas have an extended Fall, but that is it. I digress!

There are so many wonderful qualities to spring. The grass gets green and soft again. The birds are singing and flowers begin to bud. Most importantly, though, you can get outside and play without being bundled up head to toe. The temperatures are mild enough to really enjoy time outside.

Going for our walk around the block!

My family is quick to take advantage of these temperatures, especially after the last two, very warm summers. We do not take a pretty Spring day for granted. This past Friday morning, we all went for a walk, my DH, two daughters in the double stroller, our little dog, and myself. We walked around the block enjoying the beautiful weather. I had planned on going for a walk yesterday, but it didn't happen. The temps and conditions were ideal but I was exhausted after being up over half the night with our five-month-old. Instead, after my toddler Ginny's nap, we went outside and played. Ginny ran around in the yard with her pink ball tossing it and picking it up again. Our dog, Daisy, in a hyper state ran circles around Ginny as she played her game. Grace, our baby, sat in her rocker in the shade as her daddy grilled pork steaks for dinner.

Grace in her rocker in the shade. 

Due to rain, we won't be going outside today, but will just enjoy the windows being open. Maybe tomorrow will be a better day for getting outside again.

Spring has finally arrived, and I couldn't be more thrilled.

The Beginning of a Pinterest Adventure

Pinterest is one of my favorite websites. One of the things I pin the most is food. Lots and lots of recipes are on my boards.  Unlike some people on Pinterest, I actually try out many of the recipes. Getting to them all will take a while. I have 552 recipes and have tried only 45+. A few of the recipes, I cook regularly in my home. I even use Pinterest, and my boards to help me menu plan with a board I have titled "This Weeks Menu."

With all this time spent on Pinterest, mainly with the food boards, I decided that I should start blogging about the foods I try on there, and perhaps even the crafts (although I am less likely to try a craft than food).  I will blog about my successes as well as my failures with recipes. Sometimes a recipe isn't a complete failure but needs some tweaking.

One board I have on Pinterest is called "Eat Your Veggies." I am not a fan of many veggies. I never have been. I try and try again, but no success. There are some veggies that I'm convinced I will never love, namely asparagus (gag) and green beans. However, I am willing to find and try creative vegetable recipes so that I eat more. Besides, I need to be a good role model in this department for my daughters.

Tonight, I decided to try a new recipe with a vegetable. The recipe is called Cheesy Zucchini Rice, and comes from the blog, "Buns In My Oven." It looked simple, a key requirement for me on most recipes, and potentially delicious.

The first thing I had to do was toast 1 cup of rice a little bit then cook it with 2 cups of chicken broth.

The rice is busy cooking with the chicken broth, and the
Shake 'n Bake pork chops ready to go into the oven.

Once the rice was done cooking, all I needed to do was add grated zucchini,

Grating the zucchini

1 cup of shredded sharp cheddar, and a couple of tablespoons of butter plus salt and pepper.

Our dinner: Pork Chops & Cheesy Zucchini Rice

It turned out really yummy and delicious. I had no issues with the zucchini, non-veggie lover that I am, and I do plan on making this again. In fact, I imagine it will become a regular side dish in our home. The only thing I would do differently would be to add a lot more salt. It wasn't salty enough. We use low sodium chicken broth so that could have been the issue. Now I know to adjust for it.

Anyhow, I highly recommend this recipe. It was totally worth the pin!