Christmas Soups - 2010

I used three recipes for my Soup Extravaganza this Christmas:

Cream of Broccoli Soup (Jen Smith)

6 c. chicken broth
1 c. chopped onion
2 tsp. salt
1 large head broccoli, chopped
1 1/2 c. flour
1 1/2 c. butter (yes, that's three cubes)
2 qt. half and half (or use a mixture of half and half and milk)
1 (8oz.) jar of Cheese Whiz

Combine broth, onions, salt, and broccoli. Cook until broccoli is tender. In separate pot make sauce - melt butter, add flour and blend into a paste. Add milk all at once, stir constantly until thick (when it bubbles). Stir in Cheese Whiz. Add to undrained broccoli.



Kristi's Sweet Chili

1 lb. ground beef
1 green pepper, chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, chopped
1 tsp. pepper
1 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1 T. olive oil
1 can (28 oz.) petite diced tomatoes - undrained
1 can (4 oz.) diced green chiles
2 cans kidney beans - rinsed and drained
1 can (8 oz.) tomato sauce
1 cup water
1 c. brown sugar

Preheat large pot and brown beef, bell peppers, onion, and spices together in oil. When beef is browned and veggies are tender, add remaining ingredients. Simmer 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Garnish with sour cream, cheese, onions, etc. Serves 8-10


Creamy Chicken Soup (Nicole Kunze)

1 small onion, chopped
1 T. butter
3 c. chicken broth (I use 3 cans)
4 medium carrots, chopped (I use a bag of mini carrots)
3 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
2 c. cooked and cubed chicken (I use rotisserie chicken from Costco)
2 T. fresh parsley
salt and pepper to taste
1 c. milk
1/4 - 1/2 c. flour
1 (8 oz.) package of cream cheese - room temperature, cut into small cubes

Saute onion in butter; add broth and veggies. Bring to a boil; reduce heat, cover and simmer until veggies are tender. Add chicken, parsley, salt, and pepper.

Combine flour and milk until smooth. Add to pot of veggies. Bring to a boil, cook and stir for two minutes or until thick. Reduce heat; add cream cheese until melted.  This soup is very thick. Add milk or water if needed.

Christmas Table Runner

I just finished this table runner for our Etsy shop, and I was so pleased with how it tuned out, I had to post it here, too.

I did the quilting. The first time I dared use my free-motion foot to do any quilting. Yes, you can see some flaws, but overall I'm very pleased with how it turned out!

Showing the underneath side of the runner and the binding. So fun!

The worst picture ever. Lighting and angle are horrid, but I wanted to show the full monty.

This is my favorite view. Draped over my kitchen chair. (Please ignore my dirty grout. It needs to be cleaned again.)

See that plate? My sweet mother-in-law gave me a set of those snowflake plates. So perfect for the winter season!

Table Runner - French General in Red

I saw this fabric and had to buy yards and yards of it. OK, maybe not that much, but I bought enough of it to do a table runner for my sweet mother-in-law (to match her new awesome red wall in her kitchen) and one to sell in our shop. Here are the pictures for you all to drool over. I know, right? Who knew I could actually do this? I used Quiltsmart interfacing to do the pumpkin seeds, and appliquéd circles on to make it look like centers to flowers. I added a sashing/border, and folded the back up over the front to finish it. I even did my own machine quilting. Hooray! I love projects that end up so beautifully.

 I'm also going to be in Bountiful, Utah tomorrow (Saturday, July 31) at an  Artisan Fair trying to sell things from our shop, so if you're in the Bountiful area, come see me (and all of our cool stuff) in person.

Place Mats - Take One

My kids bug me. Really, they do. Okay, so maybe "bugs me" isn't the right term to use here, but allow me to explain. Our pre-dinnertime routine consists of the kids biting at my ankles, total chaos, prayers said in the middle of my dinnertime preparations, and then pulling chairs up to the counter and letting the kids eat at the counter. S-T-R-E-S-S. Big time. I hate it.

Well, we finally bought a table last week that actually fits our family. One that I'd like to use as a segue into a more calm and respectable dinnertime routine. One where the kids help set and clean up the table. One where we pray as a family sitting around the table, not standing in the living room amidst the chaos we call our life. One where Ed ( at 21 months) can help with something. Anything. And then it hit me. Place mats. He can put place mats on the table!

Here's what I did (in a nutshell):

* Starting with a yard each of two coordinating fabrics, cut into tops and bottoms of place mats, each measuring 18" x 13."

* Cut batting the same measurements, and place in between the top and bottom pieces of fabric.

* Pin to hold together, then sew vertical stripes 1.5" apart all the way across the place mat.

* Follow this tutorial on how to do a binding, and struggle until the last place mat to actually get it right (all except taking the time to do a blind stitch. Nah. No time for me for that one. I'm using my machine).

* Look at the finished product and smile. Big.

Now comes the hard part - teaching Ed to help when he's hungry and all he wants to do is scream at me and have me hold him. Nice. 

Photography for Sneak A' Roos

I did some trade work with a lady who lives here in Lehi. She owns Sneak A' Roos, a darling kids' boutique, mostly featuring shoes. I took new stock photos of her shoes and some creative shots for her to use on her web site and to print banners for her boutiques and shows she goes to. I thought they turned out pretty darn good for someone who barely knows how to use a camera, no? I will have more photos of fun shots coming, so stay tuned!

The above photo is her current stock photo from her web site. 

The one below is what I did with the same pair of shoes. (I know, right?)

Another stock photo of some of her soft-sole shoes.

And now presenting, my delicious children in the darling shoes she has for sale.

 I did my best to not show their faces, because, really, nobody cares how cute the kids are. It's the shoes she's selling, not my children.

This last one is  by far my favorite shot of the day. SO precious! I hope she uses this one. 

My First "Real" Quilt

Every Christmas my step-grandparents (Patty's parents) send us lovely and wonderful gifts for us and the kids. The kind that make me cry because of their generosity. Every year. I wanted to do something extra special for them this year, and I decided to make them a quilt. And I actually did! And it turned out beautifully! AAAH! Can you tell how excited I am?!

The journey was long and tedious. It started in the summer when I found a jelly roll of fabric I had to have (a jelly roll is a bunch of 2.5 inch strips of coordinating fabric rolled together to look like a jelly roll). Of course it was Moda. Why even ask?

I decided to cut each of the 44-inch strips into four equal smaller strips and sew five of them together to make a block of fabric. I then appliquéd them onto some soft jean-type fabric and had it quilted professionally. The next two pictures are from my phone and horrid. I'm sorry.

The professional quilting makes a huge difference!

When I got it back, there was the binding to do. Usually I just take the extra backing and roll it up and over onto the top and sew it down and call it a day. But the back of this quilt is a divine and super-soft red paisley minky. That wouldn't work for multiple reasons. First, minky slides everywhere when you try to sew it (learned that one the hard way). Second, it's too thick for a binding on such a nice quilt (ugly much). I had a decision to make, and I decided to try my first real binding. (Take notice that I'm using the word "real" a lot because I don't know the official terminology for quilting yet. I'm learning.) It took a lot of work and a few mistakes to get it just right, but by the time I was finishing the last piece of the binding I had it down to a science and it looked great!

Apparently when doing a "real" binding, you have to match up the edge of the back with the edge of the front EXACTLY or it'll look really bad. I thought with clear thread I could get away with not having it match perfectly. Not so much.

Aaah, that's better. I love perfection.

The final product all ready for packaging and mailing to the very cold Michigan

(until Clara got to it, that is).

(I guess we can tell Grandma and Grandpa Martin that Clara had to give it a "hug" before sending it.)

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Martin for always being so generous and kind. We love you so! Merry Christmas!!

And before anyone in our families gets too bitter that they're getting something store-bought in stead of with love, my goal is to make one really nice project for one person each year for Christmas.

Cream Cheese Chicken in a Pot

If you don't already have this as part of your working recipe repertoire, make it one. It's absolutely divine, so easy, and so bad for you.

Cream Cheese Chicken in a Pot:

4 chicken breasts (I use frozen tenders, about 10)

1 cube margarine (I hate margarine, but it must be done for this recipe)

1 envelope dry Italian seasoning mix

1 (8 oz.) block of cream cheese, room temperature

1 can cream of chicken soup

milk to consistency

Place chicken in bottom of a crock pot.

In small bowl, melt margarine in microwave. Add Italian seasoning mix and whisk together. Pour over chicken in crock pot.

Cook on low for 6 hours, or high for 2-3 hours.

Shred chicken with a couple of forks (sometimes I drain out some of the margarine before I shred the chicken to make myself feel a little better about this recipe).

In a medium mixing bowl, blend cream cheese, soup, and milk to a creamy mixture (almost runny). Add to chicken in crock pot. Mix. Turn to low, and continue cooking/warming for about a half hour.

Serve over rice.

I serve this with steamed broccoli. It's truly divine.

Oh, and I'm going to start taking pictures. I promise.