taking care of business...

everyday! remember that song? this is one of those days. scooter is at the groomer, i have an eye appointment at 12:40, an orthodontist appointment at 11, a phone conference at 2:00, my cleaning help gets here at 10:00, photography help gets here at 11:00 and jared will be here this afternoon to help at the loft. but business is getting taken care of! feeling really good about things.

today, my list of favorites is actually on my playlist. my top 16 favorite Christmas songs. i found most of my favorite versions and artists too. the only exception is the song "o holy night"; my actual favorite versions are by my gram, on the organ and my aunt mary singing, and our friend becca sutton (red becca, although i'm pretty sure blonde becca could belt it out really well too!) singing. i don't have recorded versions of either of those, so i had to settle for perry como...whose version i love as well, and it actually reminds me of my grandparents. i can't get through the holidays without lots of memories of these 2 dear, dear people. what an impact they had on me. i only pray that my impact on my grandchildren will be half as good. they were such solid people with wonderful values...living by the golden rule. and it didn't hurt that when i (or any of the grandchildren) walked in a room, their eyes lit up like crazy! i could go on and on. i guess because music was such an important part of their lives, and since we spent so much time with them, especially around the holidays, it's natural that i write about them when i list my favorite Christmas music.

so with the crazy-ness of late, i have been determined not to eat too many meals out. it can become a nasty habit for us, when we're busy. and with no children in our home, it's sort of an easy cop-out. my determined effort has paid off in some pretty good and super quick and easy new recipes. i've found most of them, by googling whatever ingredients i happen to have on hand. 2 nights ago, we had rotissorie chicken from hyvee, along with thai noodles and frozen mixed vegies (we ate the whole bag!);  and we had some of the chicken leftover, so i googled chicken and pasta. i came up with this KILLER recipe for chicken tetrazzini.

chicken tetrazzini

1 8 ounce pkg of spaghetti, broken into pieces

1/4 c butter

1/4 c flour

salt

pepper

1 cup chicken broth

1 cup heavy cream ( i used milk)

2 T sherry (i used white wine)

1 can sliced mushrooms

2 cups cooked chicken

1/2 cup parmesan cheese

1 preheat oven to 350. lightly grease 9x13 pan.

2 cook spaghetti. don't overcook. drain.

3 while spaghetti is cooking, melt butter in large saucepan. stir in flour, salt and pepper. cook, stirring until smooth. remove from heat, and gradually stir in chicken broth and cream/milk.

4 return to heat and bring to a low boil for 1 minute stirring constantly. add sherry/wine, then stir in cooked spaghetti, mushrooms and chicken. pour mixture into prepared pan and top with cheese.

5 bake 30 minutes in preheated oven.

so good! can't wait to eat the leftovers for lunch!

i do have more photos to share. i think this is the last senior photo shoot for this year : ( i SO enjoy doing seniors! i had a great time with allie, her sister and mom!

 

    

   

 

 

      i hope you like them ladies!

okay, gotta run! have a great day and God bless!

Comments

[Meg]

I love the "don't park here" background but your photos are amazing. Keep up the great work! :)

PS: I work part time for Hy-Vee in Lincoln and you can go to their website to receive weekly recipes. Here's the link:
http://www.hy-vee.com/recipes/recipes.asp

[Tina]

We made turkey tetrazzini on Sunday. I was amazed that all of the boys ate it GONE! Nice to have another easy, yummy recipe. :)

[Suzy]

I think about my grandpa's eyes lighting up when any of us grandkids walked into the room too. All my grandparents, really. There never has been a doubt how special we all were to them.