What's For Dinner?

If you're anything like me, you have too many days when it's nearly 5 PM and the question has to be asked...What's for dinner? Lots of times it ends up being take-out and that sure can get expensive. The only way to avoid this situation is to know what's for dinner ahead of time and to have all the ingredients in the house. I always enjoy my day much more if dinner is planned.

So, once in a while I'd like to share any good recipes I have that might help you answer that 5 PM question. Today's recipe is for Chicken and Rice Casserole. I usually have everything to make this already in the house. I love putting it together in the morning, then whatever happens during the day, I know dinner just has to be popped into the oven. I found the original recipe here. In my opinion, the picture shown doesn't look like the finished casserole. Of course, we ate all of ours because it is YUMMY and I didn't take a picture. I halved the recipe because we have a small family and made a few notes. Here's how I made this dish.

CHICKEN AND RICE CASSEROLE

 

1/2 - 3/4 cup Chopped Onion

1 TBSP Butter

2 cups Cooked Chicken, cut into bite-size pieces

1 1/2 cups Chicken Broth, I made mine with "Better than Bouillon"

1/2 cup Sour Cream

1 cup Minute Rice, uncooked

1 can Campbell's Cream of Chicken with Herbs soup

1 tube of Ritz Crackers

1/4 cup Butter

 

Preheat the oven to 350-degrees. (Unless you're making this ahead of time.) Saute onion in TBSP of butter until transluscent and starting to brown. Mix cooked onion, chicken, chicken broth, sour cream, rice and soup together. Transfer to greased, 9x9-inch, oven-proof dish. Bake for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile crush the Ritz crackers into crumbs. Melt the 1/4 cup butter and mix with the cracker crumbs. Sprinkle over the partially baked casserole and return to oven for another 15 minutes until cracker topping starts to brown.

Serves 3-4

 

 

Let me know if you give this recipe a try or if you have any questions.

Do you have a favorite easy dinner recipe? I'd love to hear about it.

Having Picture Problems

I've tried for two days now and when I choose the 'add a picture' icon, it doesn't give me the browse button to search the pictures in my computer. Did they change something and I'm just too clueless to see what I'm doing wrong?  Blogging's no fun without pictures.  :-(

Next day...As I'm reading through some blogs, I see that I'm not the only one having this problem.  When I got to Debbie at Cozy Blanket's post, I'm trying what she did. Click on the HTML button and choose the picture icon. That screen lets you browse you photos. After uploading the picture, I click back on COMPOSE. So let's give it a try.

 

Yeah! It worked. Not the easiest way, switching back and forth between the two, but I'll take what I can get.

New Year's Wishes

 

Finally finding a minute to post. I get so busy at the end of the year, I end up putting blogging on hold. But I couldn't wait any longer to wish all of my friends A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Once my schedule is back to normal, I hope to have time to catch up with all of you.

 

Thanks to Sandy for the adorable New Years graphic.

Halloween Swap

I couldn't resist joining Viv's Halloween Swap. Each swapper made a decorated witch's hat and filled it with Halloween goodies to send to our swap partner. As it turned out, my swap partner, Val, is a lovely lady I 'met' years ago on swap-bot.  Our love of aprons brought us together back then and it was such a nice surprise to meet up again for this swap.  

 

This is the witch hat I made for Val. I started with a paper mache hat and made a cover from black velvet. I covered the inside brim in black / orange dot fabric and trimmed it out with ribbons, feathers, a fabric yoyo, buttons and a glittery spider.

 

Here's a picture with all the goodies that I sent to Val. In the bag marked Witch's Brew is some home-made mulling spices to add to cider, juice or wine. The Sugary Spell is a maple sugar jack-o-lantern. There's a Halloween dish towel and some chocolate treats. I  made the little owl witch decoration after deciding that I didn't want to add the owl onto the hat. And it's all sitting on a quilted table runner that I made from my collection of Halloween fabric.

 

 Here's the fabulous witch hat that Val made for me. Can you believe we both used black velvet, feathers, a spider and some bling. Val and I are definitely crafting sisters.

 

And here is the whole WOW!!! package that I received from Val. She made so many great goodies for me. The Frankenstein pin cushion and the skully pin are just too cute. I have had my coffe wrapped in the cup cozy ever since I took this picture. The 'EEK' wand and the 'SPOOKY' banner are now decorating my living room. There were yummy goodies too. Hot choclate and apple cider K-cups, soup mix and Tootsie Rolls. And, yes there's more, a cute little snow globe, a Moon Magic book and some Halloween napkins. I just kept unwrapping and unwrapping... What a fun swap this was. 

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Yes, Autumn is my most wonderful time of the year. We still have warm days here in Massachusetts but the nights are starting to get chilly and a few of the trees are showing some lovely color. I love it all, the cooler weather, the smells, the brilliant colors, pumpkins, apple picking, leaves crunching under my feet.

Of course Autumn also means back to school for my son. He's always been a night owl, so it's not easy to get him moving in the morning. There's much grumbling and 'just 5 more minutes' but he gets up and gets to school. Now he really knows how lucky he was to be homeschooled for 7 years. 

One good thing about having to be on a school schedule is that I seem to get more done around the house. I am jumping back on the Fly Lady wagon and getting my house cleaned and uncluttered, 15 minutes at a time. I love her 'Cruising Through the Holidays' because it means I'm cleaned and organized and ready to party by the end of November.

 

And my favorite holiday is coming up. Halloween is all about having fun. I will try to wait until October 1st before I put out the decorations. For now, I have surrounded my family with bright leaves, pumpkins and scarecrows.

 

It was a very busy Summer with weekend trips to Rhode Island and New Hampshire as well as my family's annual day trip to Rockport, MA. We also spent a lot of time getting estimates and insurance inspections as we realized we have roof damage from the hail we had with the 2011 tornado.

I have been out of the blogging loop for quite a few weeks. I will try to take time to pop over for a visit with you. I have missed all of you but I know how time flies by when I start blog hopping. I will just have to do as Fly Lady says and set my timer for 15 minutes. 

 

P.S.  One more thing I love about Autumn is Pumpkin Coffee at Dunkin' Donuts is back. YUM! 

More Childhood Pastimes

It was so nice to see that many of you  have happy memories of times spent with coloring books and crayons. Thanks so much for all of your lovely comments.
  
Another favorite childhood pastime of mine, also involved paper. And a little pair of  silver safety scissors.

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Image from papergoodies.com

Yes, I loved playing with my paper dolls! All kept together in a shoe box, to be taken out on a rainy day, quietly playing in my room. Stop for a visit at Paper Goodies for a look at tons of beautifully restored vintage paper dolls.

May 1958

I always looked forward to getting the Betsy McCall page from my mom's magazine. This wonderful site has 10 years of Betsy's pages.  The page above is from the month I was born. 

Betsy had a little cousin named Linda!

On special occasions, I might have been lucky enough to receive a whole book of paper dolls. Nice, new, glossy, chipboard dolls, whose necks always seemed to end up getting bent. Pages of gorgeous, colorful clothes to spend hours cutting.  Remember how hard it was to cut out the middle of a hood or hat (like the wedding gown below) for the face? I remember having one book with a bridesmaid and wedding gown. They were so beautiful.

Image from papergoodies.com

As I browse through paper dolls online, I see that it was very popular for movie stars to have their own paper dolls. Here are a few of my favorites:

Image from papergoodies.com

Image from papergoddies.com

And here's one I know many of you will like...

Image from papergoodies.com

When I saw this Pat Boone set, I remember I had one or two books with pockets like this. I was always digging the small accessories out of the bottom of those storage pockets.

Image from papergoodies.com

I also found this site with paper dolls from Mary Engelbreit's Home Companion magazines. I've never seen ME's magazine, so I loved looking through these sweet images.

I didn't keep any of my paper dolls from childhood and for now, I won't be starting a collection, except for on my Pinterest board.

So did you play with paper dolls as a girl? What were your favorites? Perhaps you still have your paper dolls.
It's no wonder that we still love to play with paper and scissors.   ♥

Childhood Pastimes

My favorite childhood pastimes certainly were a sign that I would grow up to love crafting. What is it about a new box of Crayolas that I find so hard to resist? I love the rows of colorful points.

I still describe colors by their Crayola name. I loved those descriptive names. Most of my favorites were pastels: sky blue, sea green, lavender, carnation pink, periwinkle. And how many shades of brown were in that box of 64 crayons?

Of course to go with crayons, you must have coloring books. I think there must have been a coloring book for every show on TV. Most of the books I remember having were more basic and of course the holiday books.

           

 I remember a summer day when I took my coloring books and my coffee can of crayons to the picnic table in the front yard. After coloring for a while, I left my crayons and books on the table and went off to play. I forgot about picking up my things until late in the day. When I went to get them, I found a coffee can half full of melted, colorful wax! I was so sad. I truly treasured my crayons. 

Would you like to color with me?  ♥

Hello Linda



From 1941 to 1963, according to this site, Linda was one of the top 5 girls names. The year I was born, Linda was #3. That's a lot of Lindas! From 1st grade on, I was never the only Linda in the room.  Now this has its good points and bad points. The bad side is that it causes a lot of confusion. Can you imagine living in George Foreman's house, with his 5 sons all named George?  Having a popular name can sometimes make you feel less unique as a person. Pick a Linda, any Linda will do.
On the good side, you hear your name used in the popular culture. I was thrilled to watch Make Room For Daddy with Angela Cartwright's character named Linda.

And I remember my dad singing this song to me when I was young.

If you're wondering, as I was, about the Linda in the video, you can read The Story Behind The Song. While you're there, check out the other songs written by Jack Lawrence. Some of my favorites are Beyond the Sea, Tenderly and If I Didn't Care. Linda has been recorded by 19 different artist including Perry Como and Jan and Dean (didn't care for their version.)

Now if you've read my blog for a bit, you might know that I have always been a fan of The Monkees. But until my son became a Monkees fan a few years ago, I didn't know that they had recorded a 'Linda' song.

The slow version was the one originally released but I like this upbeat version even better.

Does it matter that the Linda in this song isn't especially nice? Not when it's being sung by Davy Jones. Davy had a sister named Linda and it was also his first wife's name. 

Barry Manilow recorded (and wrote?) A Linda Song.

Gordon Lightfoot recorded Oh, Linda.

I have a good friend, Mavis who has the opposite situation. Her name was #954 the year we were born. I don't know of any Mavis songs but I always remind her that when Bert dances with the penguins in Mary Poppins, the first name he sings is Mavis. It's just too much fun not to add it here.

Was your name in there?

Do you know a song with your name?  ♥

Goodbye Andy

I couldn't let the day go without a farewell post for Andy Griffith.

1926 - 2012

The Andy Griffith Show has been my favorite TV series from the very first time I watched. Perhaps the reason I loved the show was that I grew up in an environment that was similar to Mayberry. As a child, I knew everyone in my neighborhood and they knew me. We lived on a small private lake that was surrounded with summer cottages, many, including ours, had been adapted for year round living. Moms were at home raising children and keeping house, wearing house dresses and aprons. Nice weather would find me playing outdoors, riding my bike in the street or out for a walk around the lake with my mom, brothers and neighbors. On these frequent walks, Moms would gossip, kids would run ahead and chase each other back and babies slept as they were rolled along. The occasional car would have to wait as baby carriages and kids were safely pulled over to line the side of the road.  Everyone waved to the driver as the car crept past, fearing a loose kid would run out into the street. This was my life at the time the Andy Griffith Show was originally made.

 

By the time I was a teenager and we had cable TV, I was happy to find I could watch these shows again. It was then that I developed a true affection for the characters and environment of the show. The underlying theme in every episode was to do what was right. And the one person who tried the hardest to treat everyone with compassion and fairness was Andy. 

The show had such a wonderful cast and many big name guest stars throughout its 8 years.

My favorite episodes are when Andy finds out that he's wrong. It was always a great twist when Andy ends up eating crow. And it was always a treat when Andy played and sang.  

I also enjoy watching Matlock but it never had the fun, charm and warm feeling that was found in Mayberry. The Andy Griffith Show has entertained and influenced me my whole life. It is my yearning for this way of life that keeps me crafting, collecting and loving everything vintage. 

Today I am thankful for those 249 episodes of fun that were made from 1960 to 1968. Let's all whistle along to that famous theme song!

  

Friendship Swap

My blog buddy, Elizabeth over at Creative Breathing has come up with another fun idea for a swap. She has asked her friends to create a papercrafted triangle, decorated to represent their blog in a one-on-one swap. I was honored to be on E's list of friends.
Following Elizabeth's lead, I have asked a few buddies to swap triangles with me so that I may create a friendship garland for my craft room. So far, I am swapping with:
Elizabeth...Creative Breathing
Sandy........521 Lake Street
Shirley......Zetta's Aprons
Tammy.....Tammy's In Love
Lynn.......Life on the Wienee Ranch  

I have made a few triangle banners before and given them away in swaps.

This JINGLE banner and...

This SUMMER banner and...

This SPOOKY banner. (Sorry about picture quality. I'm not good at photographing these.)

As I am planning my triangles I know there will be gingham, rick-rack, buttons and of course aprons. Now to get it all onto a 8"x9" triangle.
If you love this idea, I hope you will swap friendship triangles with your blog buddies and link up on Creative Breathing's post. It will be great fun to see all of these creations.  And if you would like to swap with me, please just ask. I would love to swap with you. (I will have a limit as to how many I will make but I'm not sure what that is yet.)