Category: Recipes & Crafts

Chicken & Broccoli Casserole

I love making casseroles, because it usually means I only have to dirty 1 or 2 dishes, which makes for an easy clean up.  One of our favorite restaurants here in Hendersonville is Cheddars, which serves American food.  It can be compared with Chili’s or something like that.  Anyway, the have the most amazing broccoli cheese casserole side dish!  It is like heaven in your mouth!  So I attempted to recreate it, and in the process added some chicken so that we could eat it as a main dish.

Here’s what you’ll need:

  • boneless, skinless chicken breasts
  • 1 bag (8 oz) frozen broccoli florets, thawed
  • 1 can of Campbell’s Condensed Broccoli Cheese Soup (I didn’t have any, so I used cream of chicken soup)
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (or more if you like)
  • 1 cup instant rice, uncooked (can also use 1 cup of regular cooked rice)
  • 1/3 cup crushed Ritz crackers (about 1 sleeve)
  • 2 tsp melted butter
  • salt & pepper

Start by dicing up some chicken and tossing it in a skillet over medium-high heat.  Season with salt and pepper. (You can also use shredded or rotisserie chicken)

Thaw your broccoli in the microwave (per package instructions) and place in a large bowl.

Add broccoli cheese soup, or in my case, cream of chicken.

Pour the milk into the bowl.

Next comes my favorite ingredient — freshly grated cheddar cheese.  Yum!  I can never grate this cheese without eating a handful.

Mix it all together, and then add the instant rice.  The rice shouldn’t be cooked at this point, because it will cook with everything else in the oven (unless you’re using regular rice, in which case it should be cooked first).

Stir until everything is thoroughly combined.

Next, add your cooked chicken and stir to combine.  It’s ok if the chicken isn’t completely cooked through since it will continue baking in the oven.

Place the mixture into a baking dish.  You can always double or triple the recipe depending on how many people you are feeding (wow, that is really stating the obvious, isn’t it?).

Next, take some Ritz crackers (I used whole wheat cuz I’m super healthy like that) and place them in a Ziploc bag.  You’ll want enough to cover the top of the casserole.

You can use a mallet to crush the crackers, but I found that using my fingers was just as easy.

Melt your butter and pour it into the bag with the crumbs.  Close the bag and mix the crumbs around with the butter so that all the crumbs are covered in butter.  This will help the top get nice and crispy and brown.

Scatter the crumbs on top of your casserole.

Bake at 350° for 30 minutes or until the top is hot and bubbly.

Serve and enjoy!  Don’t those crunchy, crumbly bits look delish!?

Patio Curtains

For my 2nd sewing machine project, I decided to make curtains to match the pillows I made a few days ago.  Don’t worry, I didn’t use the same patterned fabric.  That would have been WAY to much pattern.  Instead, I used white linen fabric for the curtains and the double roller blinds, and then to make everything coordinate together, I used the fabric from the pillows to make cute buttoned ties to go around the middle of the curtains.  Thank goodness for Coupon Commotion at Joann Fabrics.  Otherwise this little project would have turned into a very expensive project!

If you’d like to make some curtains of your own, here’s my interpretation of how to do it.  Granted, I just kinda made it up as I went along and did what I thought seemed right, so if there are any experienced sewers out there feel free to tell me how I could have done this better.  I’m still working on sewing in a straight line with the machine!

I started by cutting my fabric to the length and width I needed.  When I told the lady at Joann’s that I needed 8 yards of fabric she gave me a very surprised look, until I explained that I was making curtains.  Then a couple days later I decided that I wanted to cover every opening on the patio with curtains instead of every other, so I had to go back and get 8 more yards!  That is where my 40% off coupons came in very handy.

I then ironed the fabric so it was nice and smooth.

I barely had enough room to stretch my fabric out on the floor, but I managed.

Next, I folded the fabric 3/4 inch all the way around and pinned it.  This is probably too thick of a seam, but I didn’t want to go too thin since I’m still practicing sewing in a straight line.

I then pressed the fold so that it made a nice sharp seam.  I will neither confirm or deny that I stepped on a pin sticking straight up during this process.  You can’t make me admit to it!  This pain in my heel must be from something else.

Now I was ready to sew the seam!  That light on the sewing machine is so helpful!

When I finished sewing the seam around the entire curtain, I then folded and pinned a 2 inch section across the top of the fabric.  This is where the curtain rod will go.

Then I was ready to make the patterned button ties.

I started by cutting 2 identical 4×15 inch pieces of fabric.

Then I laid the fabric so that the right sides were facing each other, and pinned.

I sewed 3 sides together, leaving one short side open.

I trimmed the excess fabric from the edges so it wouldn’t be too bulky or fold in a weird way once I turned the fabric right side out.

After the fabric was facing the right way, I pressed it.  This was a little tricky since the seams didn’t want to expand fully.  I ended up inserting my ruler into the little sleeve that was created when I left the one end open and was able to force the fabric out so that the seam was nice and tight.

Then I folded the open end in about 1/4 inch and slip stitched it closed.

You’re supposed to barely be able to see the slip stitch if it’s done right.  I need a little more practice, but I think I did okay.

I actually figured out how to sew a button hole and button onto the fabric using the sewing machine!  Granted, I studied the directions for several minutes before I started, and then I still ended up messing up……twice.  But at least I’ll know what NOT to do when I make the next 5 curtain ties.

And here is the finished product!!!!  There are 6 openings where the curtains will be.  I know I probably should have taken this picture when it was light outside, but I finished sewing the curtain tie around 12:00am and I couldn’t wait!  Hopefully once we have the loveseat and chairs accessorized with the pillows I made out there it will all tie together and look nice.

At first I was just going to have the curtains left loose at every other opening, but it just looked too plain.  So that’s when I decided to add the ties.  I think it looks alot better.  What do you think?  Any suggestions?

Here’s an updated picture from this morning.  Looks so much prettier during the day. 🙂  Gotta love that natural light.

My First Sewing Machine Experience

Well, I figured since Steve so thoughtfully gave me a sewing/embroidery machine for Christmas this past year I might as well put it to some use.  So last night I taught myself how to use it.  I had never used a sewing machine before, and the only time I had ever seen one used was on TV or in pictures.  So I had alot to learn.  For my first project, I decided to make some pillows for the furniture we are getting for our screened in porch (a love seat and 2 chairs).  Here is how I began.

I cut out 2 pieces of fabric 13×13.  2 of the pillows I was going to use for this project are 12×12 and I wanted to leave a little room for the seam.

Next, I hand stitched the 2 pieces of fabric together at one end so that the correct sides of the fabric were facing each other.  The wide loose stitch is called “basting” and it’s used for when you just want to hold fabric together temporarily.  Once you’ve machine stitched, you can remove the basting stitches.

This is what the fabric looks like when I opened it up.

Then I pressed the seam open.  This is where the zipper is going to be.

For the record…the fabric is cream and blue, not green.  My camera just decided that it wanted to pick out the slight green hue in the fabric and make that color the dominant one.

Next I basted a zipper onto the open seam.

Then I used the machine to sew the zipper firmly in place.

Now I’m not sure why I stopped taking pictures at this point.  Maybe I was distracted by Lazarus’s arm clawing at me from under the door, or maybe I was just so focused on my work that I just simply forgot.  Either way, this is how I finished.  Once the zipper was securely in place, I pinned the rest of the fabric edges together and machine stitched all the way around the pillow case.  Then I turned the fabric right side out and inserted my pillow.

Tada!!!!!  The first thing I ever made with a sewing machine.  I was really proud of myself!

I repeated that process 3 more times, with 2 of the pillows being 12×12, and the other two 14×14.  Now I’ll have some nice home-made pillows to accessorize our covered patio!  Next I’ll be making some white linen curtains for the same space.  Stay tuned!!!!