September, October, and Chicken Pot Pie

 So, I was on a roll with all my soups, and I realized that in September and October, I tend to make the same soup recipes fairly often. Then, there were three birthdays to celebrate. I am officially one year older. Yay me! For my birthday I took a break from soup and my family took me and one of my daughters (who is my birthday buddy) out to Japanese hibachi, my favorite. One of my favorite dining experiences is when I get to watch the chefs cook my food right in front of me. I find it fascinating to see how they prepare and present each dish with such precision and artistry. I am always amazed by their skills, particularly when they perform fire tricks that add a touch of excitement to the meal. After birthday fun, there were doctor appointments, work, and decorating. Halloween decorating in my house is a whole month process as my house and yard turn into cobwebs and skeletons. There are black holes from rips in the fabric of time and space with monsters peering through on my ceilings. There are ghastly ghouls hanging out in my Dogwood tree. My entire front yard is littered with graves, some freshly dug and others with residents attempting to escape. You know, the typical Halloween scare stuff.

  There is one more thing I have done in the past couple of weeks. I have officially put my picture book out there into the world by sending my first query letter to an agent. Talk about nerve-wracking. Eventually, I just took a deep breath, reread it to make sure I wasn't too embarrassing, and hit send. I know that this is my first attempt, and probably not that great, but I did my research. I researched "querying an agent" quite a bit in the last 6 months as I waited for the illustrations to be finished. I know that this is a process- both in writing and rewriting a query letter until it is excellent and in finding the agent that's looking for my story. I have a limit of 100 queries. If I write 100 queries and do not get accepted by an agent, then I will either bury the picture book in the back of my closet or I will rewrite the book. Of course, a lot of that will depend on what any agents may say about the book. I don't expect a high critique rate as much as I expect a "this isn't what I am looking for at this time" kind of answer. I have read that sometimes an agent or two will bother with constructive criticism. And that's where I'm at with my writing. I have a couple more agents in mind right away and will continue to grow my list and write personalized letters for each.

  After all that great excitement, I have a new recipe to share today. It's a chicken pot pie. I don't remember liking the chicken pot pie very much that was made at home. And when it wasn't made from home, it was one of those single-serving pot pies from Banquet, I think. I would be so happy to eat one. It was like a treat when I was little. Now, the look of it makes me sick. With the weather cooling down, I wanted a nice comforting dinner that takes very few ingredients that most people have lying around the house. With today's recipe, it's very easy to simply use any leftovers you have lying around the house. We bake a lot of pies around here this time of year, so pie crust is normally on hand. If not in your house, you will find that it is very, very easy to make from scratch. Just give Google a little search and you will find a million recipes that are relatively the same.

Chicken Pot Pie

6 Tbsp Butter

3 carrots - cut into circles

1 onion- diced

4-5 garlic cloves- minced

5-6 portabella mushrooms- chopped

1 c. chopped broccoli florets

1/3 c. flour

2 c. chicken broth

1/2 c. heavy cream

1 Tbsp. Oregano

1 tsp. Kosher salt

1 tsp. black pepper

1c. frozen peas

2 chicken breasts-cooked & cubed. I oven-bake mine at 375°F for 25 minutes after bathing them in Season All.

2 pie crust circles - 1 ~12 inches in diameter, 1 in ~10 inches diameter

1 beaten egg

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 425°F. Leave the pie crusts in the fridge for now.

2. Melt the butter in a large pot.

3. Add the onions and carrots. Saute for 6-8 minutes. This is when I roll out the 12-inch pie crust.

4. Add the mushrooms and broccoli. Saute for 5 minutes. Lay the 12-inch pie crust in your 9-inch pie pan. I prefer a glass pan.

5. Add the flour. Stir continuously for 2 minutes.

6. Add chicken broth, heavy cream, and seasonings.

   Continue to stir for 2-3 minutes until the liquid thickens up like a gravy.

7. When it begins to boil, add the chicken and peas.

8. If the sauce isn't very thick, add 1 Tbsp. cornstarch.

9. Spoon the mixture from the pot into the prepared pie dish until full. I only leave about a half inch, maybe, to the top.

10. Remove the second pie crust from the fridge and roll it out about 10 inches. Lay that pie crust on top. Pinch the edges together. Brush the beaten egg over the entire exposed pie crust. Cut 5 slits in the top for steam to escape.

11. Put the pie in the oven for 30-35 minutes. The crust should be golden brown but not burnt.

12. Once out of the oven, wait 15 minutes before cutting the pie to allow it to cool. Enjoy!

If you have any leftover meat and vegetables in the fridge, you can easily adapt this recipe based on what you have available. Simple. 

I can't wait to see what kind of exciting things will be happening in the next couple of weeks. See you later! 

Soup Done ...... Okay?

So yesterday's recipe was an experiment with lentils. It was both

a success and a failure. My family enjoyed the flavors, but I slightly

overcooked the lentils and sweet potatoes, leading to a mushier

texture than I wanted. I take cooking for my family seriously.

Overcooking or undercooking can take all the joy out of a family

meal as the recipients try to swallow what their throats are rejecting

and search for kind words. And though last night's dinner

was not repulsive, it still hurts the cook when the grumbles start

or additives hit the table.

I'm excited to share with you the recipe from last night and my plans

to make it even better next time.

Keep reading to find out what's cooking!

Red Lentil & Kale Soup

Ingredients:

1 Onion-chopped

2 Carrots cut into 1/4 in. circles

1 tbsp. Olive Oil

1 tbsp Cumin

1 tbsp Turmeric

4 Sweet Potatoes peeled and cut into 1 in cubes

1 bag of Red Lentils (~2 1/2 c.)

8-10 c. Vegetable Broth (I prefer Better Than Bouillon & water)

5-6 c. Kale

1/2 c. Fresh Dill

4 tbsp. Lemon Juice

Red Pepper Flakes

Instructions:

1. Heat a large soup pot on medium on the stove. Add oil.

2. When the oil is heated, sauté onion and carrots for about 3 minutes.

3. Stir in cumin and turmeric.

4. Add sweet potatoes, lentils, and vegetable broth.

5. Bring to a boil, cover, and turn down to low.

6. Stir occasionally. Here, I cooked it for 25 minutes. Instead, cook for 18-20 minutes.

7. Checking the sweet potatoes and lentils until they are barely underdone.

8. Add kale, mix it into the soup, and cook for 4 more minutes.

9. Turn off stove. Stir well. Add dill and lemon juice. And mix again.

10. Ladle into soup bowls and shake a little red pepper flakes for an extra pop.

The green vegetable- Kale, can be easily swapped out for your favorite

leafy green such as spinach, collard greens, chard, etc. In addition,

if you're not a fan of sweet potatoes switch them out with other potatoes

or winter squash. I enjoy sweet

potatoes for their natural sweetness and the creaminess they add to soups.

The red lentils can be switched

out with green ones, too. They just aren't my favorite.

I thought about adding heavy cream or coconut milk as well, but the soup

ended up creamy enough with the overcooking.

I also served this with sandwich bread. My daughter was busy baking this weekend, so the man guy didn't get a chance to bake bread. :( Sad momma. But this would pair very well with a good sourdough. 

The New Schedule & Butternut Squash, Kale, & Sausage Soup

Hello! Long time, no read! With the busyness of life, a new schedule was needed. But, of course, each time I made a new schedule, something new would happen to throw it into chaos.  Shuffling four kids in varying grades and interests is no joke. Now, finally, things are starting to become more regular. With a new schedule comes some new writing. As autumn is the ultimate best season ever, I am going to drop a million soup, stew, and chili recipes here for everyone to enjoy. New stories are still in the works, some scary horror stories. I hope you'll come back to read them! 

Today, I made this butternut squash, kale, and sausage soup. This is my own recipe after many years of trying several other recipes and not being 100% satisfied. With my picky eater, slow eater, eater of everything, and eater of all things plain, this soup scored a 6/6. All bowls were empty at the end of the meal. For the children, they ate it with a thick slice of English muffin bread and were full. The man guy with his bottomless void, had two pieces of bread and 3 bowls of soup--in his defense, we had an early brunch. 

Ready in 30 minutes

Serves 8 

Calories 371

Ingredients

• 1 lg. Butternut Squash

• 1 lg. Red Onion

• 4 Garlic Cloves

• 1 Red Bell Pepper

• 1 lb. Ground Sausage

• 1 tsp. Kosher salt

• 1 tsp black pepper

• 4 c. chicken broth

• ½ c. pumpkin puree

• ½ tbsp. Oregano

• 1 tbsp. Italian seasoning

• 1 tsp. Red pepper flakes

• 1 c. heavy whipping cream

• 4-5 c. kale

• Parmesan  

Preparation

1. Peel, deseed, and cut squash into 1-inch cubes. Dice red onions. Cut red pepper into small chunks. Mince the garlic.

2. Cook the sausage in a big soup pot on medium. Toss in garlic when the sausage is mostly cooked. After 30 secs., toss in red onions for about 3 mins. Then add red peppers. Stir for about 3 minutes.

3. Add squash and give a good stir, before adding chicken broth, seasonings, and pumpkin. Bring to a boil, cover, and turn down to low. Let simmer for 15 minutes or until squash can be easily poked with a fork. 

4. Once the squash is tender, add whipping cream and stir. 

5. Then add kale and stir into soup. Turn off the stove. Serve topped with parmesan and an optional slice of good bread.

Tips

I prefer to use my own homemade chicken broth to keep the salt low and taste high. 

I also highly recommend a heavy bread to serve with this meal though you could add rice if you needed to bulk it up. I eat it with an English muffin bread. 

The ground sausage can be any you have hanging around. I like a spicy pork sausage or a breakfast sausage. 

Nutrition Facts
Servings: 8
Amount per serving
Calories	371
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 24.5g	31%
Saturated Fat 9.8g	49%
Cholesterol 73mg	24%
Sodium 1208mg	53%
Total Carbohydrate 21.2g	8%
Dietary Fiber 1.6g	6%
Total Sugars 2.2g
Protein 18.8g
Vitamin D 8mcg	39%
Calcium 169mg	13%
Iron 3mg	16%
Potassium 689mg	15%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calorie a day is used for general nutrition advice.
Recipe analyzed by

When It Rains, It Pours

 

     A couple of you might be wondering what I have been up to lately. My blog posts have been absent. First, let me reassure those of you that may have wondered a little bit that I am fine. Life is fine. It's fine. And while no one is hurt or dying or going through a big life change, here in my little world, things keep crashing down. Picked apart the problems are only minor annoyances really. But it is that season of my life in which the problems keep increasing continuously.

    The kids' bathtub faucet has been leaking. The handles need to be replaced. It also needed shut-off valves. I had to hunt down the fittings I wanted to use and order the bathtub set I wanted. I managed to install the shut-off valves on my own. The cut-out for the bathtub access area isn't large enough to be able to change out the piece for the handles. So that project still hangs in the balance. The kids have to shower in my bathroom until it is fixed, which defeats the purpose of them having their own bathroom. At least their toilet is still working.

    The dining room needed the chair rails replaced and set higher. My home was built in the 1950s and according to my house, the people were much shorter. Well, that's not necessarily fair. I breed giants and my man guy and I aren't exactly short either. But anyways, the rails need to be replaced and placed higher. Also, I completely abhorred the color I originally painted Japanese Koi orange. Between the library (aka living room) and dining room, my house looked like a UF frat house. Not the feel I was going for. So now we will paint the top half a cranberry red and have white below the trim. For those interested, my library is a navy blue color. So now, it is painted in a gray primer.

    A couple of weekends ago I had to dig up four red maples that were growing right next to my house. Man guy wants to try his hand at Bonsai-ing. Is that a word? We have some Chinese Wisteria randomly growing in the middle of my yard where one day I will put in a firepit. I also put some cardboard and mulch down to replant a couple of other red maples that have grown much bigger but are a few feet from the house. Not to mention mowing 1/2 an acre once a week with a push mower. Can you believe that the riding lawnmower we bought for $1500 before we moved 4 years ago is now for sale for $4500? That's simply insane. I could not justify that expense at all in such a short time after such a big move. Also, my garden of the Three Sisters needed tending. I enjoyed a nice little harvest of butternut squash and corn! The butternut squash volunteered itself all over my garden, or rather, randomly popped up. I had planned for pumpkins and did manage to find a few locations to plant my Hokkaido pumpkins for the Fall.

    The children started school a couple of weeks back as well. We homeschool and like to start early. The earlier they are done, the earlier they get to focus on the things they are most interested in. They are doing well, but having four children in four separate grades means that I am always being asked a question. Thankfully, I combine Science, History, Geography, Art, and Music scaffolding to their individual levels as needed. The younger ones enjoy listening to the more advanced material of the older ones, and the older ones enjoy helping the younger ones with their many projects. So it works out, most of the time. It is all just very time-consuming and I am not able to write during most of the downtime since I am being interrupted regularly.

    A few of the cracks in the brick-and-mortar on the outside of the home had insects flying in and out of them. So of course, I had to seal those up and plug those holes. I am not fond of insects in my home. I am already fighting a fierce battle with the ants. Lately, I have noticed less of the little sugar ants and a couple of fire ants here and there. So yeah. There seems to be another fight on the horizon. Yay...

And the list goes on and on and on and on. And every day there is something new. Last night I noticed the dishwasher leaking after it was done running its cycle. Put that on the mile-long list.

Over the last few days, I have realized that I will need to rethink my daily and weekly schedule since life is throwing some extra EXTRA my way. And I want, I need writing to be a part of that life. Over the past few weeks, I've been able to journal which has helped me maintain my sanity amidst the busyness of life. And soon I will need to slow down or burn out. When that happens, my mind will turn to writing to ignore or put aside all the problems.

    So yes, I am alive and well. My world is just raining problems- and when it rains, it pours. 

Places I Write

 Hello, Avid Readers!

    I hope you had a fun Independence Day celebration. Fireworks are one of my favorite things. The loud bangs and sparkles that follow are so mesmerizing and pretty.

    Today I want to talk about the places I write. I think it's important to know that whether you are a reader and/or a writer, where a story is written has such a huge influence on the story itself. How a writer writes and receives inspiration is as different as the writer themselves. And a lot of that inspiration can be found in the places a writer writes.

    I was lucky enough in my latest move to procure for myself a writing room. This room is where I often like to finally get my words out and onto paper or into my laptop. I do research here on my double screens and type out very, very rough drafts. Then I print those drafts out and scribble at my white L-shaped desk all over the pristine paper. My walls are painted a soft lilac purple with white lace curtains around two adjacent windows and littered with children's drawings and friends' postcards. My desk is butted into the corner between these two windows with my back to the door. A man-guy-made shelf of Jatoba wood is anchored high above the desk and holds precious stuffed Ghibli characters, a Lego bonsai tree, and a Chinese fan. The door blissfully blocks out the thunderous sounds of a busy house. A futon sits opposite the desk, next to the door. This futon has an overstuffed mattress covered in purple sheets and a gray thin quilt. It is my place to relax and another place to sit when my back can't stand the chair any longer. I am conveniently close enough to respond to emergencies within the household, while also being secluded enough to fully focus on my writing.

    

    Sometimes though, I can't retreat to my writing room, so I keep a notebook nearby, often in the depths of the momster purse bag that holds mostly snacks and receipts along with a series of colored pens and mechanical pencils. If the words aren't coming out right, I like to change the color of my pen and try again.

    I have found that if I am writing a tension-driven scene, I tend to write it better in busier public places. I am not a fan of busy. I hate going places on the weekends. I hate traveling during holidays. The whole COVID-pandemic-funtime made that anxiety worse. So far, it is not a crippling fear. I take those feelings and find a corner in the chaos-often at a café or coffee shop or bench- and write the scene that needs that tension. For me, it works almost like therapy. I know this is how I feel in this situation and those feelings are the ones I want portrayed in this scene, so I force myself through it. The words flow easier from my head to my pen this way.

    For story ideas, I like to take my children to the park, pool, or some public place with a lot of people. Then I creepily people-watch. Sometimes I am reminded of stories I have read. Sometimes I make up my own stories about what the people are doing and why. With it being summer and all things hot, I have been going to the pool a lot lately. The new Little Mermaid movie was also recently released. But I tend to like darker, sinister stories, so I recall the tales of mermaids from Asian and African countries. See how the ideas start flowing in? So I tucked that little idea away into my ideas box.

    Writers are all different. Some have one location designated for all their writing. Some have no designated place at all. And there are all types of in-betweens. But this is how I like to write. Many of my ideas come from people-watching. Writing tense scenes is often done in public. The majority of my writing is done in my purple gaming chair at my large desk in my purple writing room. Guess what? Purple is my favorite color, just in case you didn't pick up on that. 

    

Where do you like to write, or create, or think? Do you think of your best ideas in the shower? Do they come from your dreams? Are they influenced by the news or current events? Let me know in the comments below!