What’s For Dinner? The Best ‘White Chicken Chili’~ Honestly 👩🏻‍🍳

Hello my lovely friends 😍

If you’re scratching your head, wondering what to make for dinner – look no further!   

No worries, I’m not gonna tell you how my great-grandma broke her toe in 1929, and all she could eat was chicken, and…😉

So, without further ado – here’s what you need for the best ‘White Chicken Chili’ I ever ate!

Ingredients:

1 lb. Chicken meat (Rotisserie Chicken or boneless, skinless chicken breast)
2 Tbsp. Butter or Coconut Oil
1 yellow onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
24 oz. chicken broth
1 15 oz. can Great Northern Beans
1  4 oz. can diced green chilies
1 15 oz. can whole kernel corn
Salt, optional
1/2 – 1 tsp. black Pepper
1/4 tsp. Cayenne Pepper
Red Pepper Flakes (according to taste)
1-1/2 tsp. dried Marjoram
1 – 2 Tbsp. Cilantro Paste (it’s quite strong, so you might want to start with 1 Tsp. and add more later)
1/4 cup Onion-and-Chives cream cheese

Instructions:

Melt the butter or Coconut Oil in a large pot. Add the chicken. Stir to coat.
(If you use raw chicken, cook for about 10 minutes before you continue! I rather cook my chicken too long, than not long enough 😁)

Add the diced Onion and minced Garlic. Stir to combine. Add the spices, Beans, Chilies, Corn, broth and cilantro. Stir. Bring to a brief boil on medium heat. Reduce to low heat and simmer for 30 – 40 minutes until the chicken is cooked through.

Add the cream cheese, stir well, and let simmer for a few more minutes.

Serve and enjoy!

The inspiration for this new menu staple came from The Chunky Chef .
There you can find the original recipe (I did change it up some, because it had a few spices I’m not crazy about 🥴),  the crockpot instructions, suggested toppings, and many more delicious recipes.*

Here’s a picture (taken from the website, ’cause here dinner’s not ready yet 😄)

Let me know if/how much you liked it! 🤓

I hope to see you you again here soon! Be well! Stay healthy & safe! 💕

 

 

 

 

Your Advent ~ Calendar – Day 23

Hello my lovely friends 😍

Behind today’s door I have a delicious surprise waiting for you!

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies 😋 I think Santa will be very happy tonight!

You can find the recipe for these yummy treats here .

A few tips:

– If you use a Standmixer, use the dough hook for the last step (mixing the wet and dry ingredients). Just trust me on this 😉

– The dough gets very sticky after a few minutes out of the fridge. So you have to work fast or hire a few helpers. I didn’t do neither, so I had to scrape dough from my hands with a knife 😅

– I bakes the cookies for about 13 minutes. The texture is more on the crunchy side…but not quite. I hope that makes sense 🙃

– I rolled them in granulated sugar, since I didn’t have powdered sugar…and didn’t want to join the crowds at the grocery store today 😏 But the author mentions that her Mom rolls them in granulated sugar. And what’s good enough for Mom, is good enough for me. 😊

Thank you for stopping by and I hope that you’ll be back for the opening of the last door! 🎄

Your Advent~Calendar – Day 9 🎅🏼

Hello my lovely friends 😍

No, we didn’t travel back in time 🙃 I’m just super-late in opening the doors on our calendar. I was a bit under the weather the last few days. Nothing serious, just some food-related stomach issues 🤢

But now I’m all better, and ready to peek behind Door #9 😊

Oh, look…a delicious and easy dessert idea* 👩🏻‍🍳

That’s definitely something that will go into my recipe book 😊

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you come back for the opening of the remaining doors 🥰

*I have no affiliation with Entenmann’s

Your Advent~Calendar – Day 3 🎅🏼

Hello my lovely friends 😍

Happy Door #3 Day! Now let’s go and open it…

What’s this? A (cheeky 😉 ) Recipe for a Christmas Cake!

✨Once again this year, I’ve had requests for my Vodka Christmas Cake recipe – so here it goes

Gather:
1 cup Sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1 cup water
1 tsp. Salt
1 cup brown sugar
Lemon Juice
4 large Eggs
Nuts
1 bottle Vodka
2 cups dried fruit

Now let’s bake!

Sample a cup of Vodka to check quality!
Take a large bowl, check the Vodka again to be sure it is of the highest quality, repeat.
Turn on the electric mixer.
Beat one cup of butter in a large fluffy bowl. Add 1 tsp. of sugar. Beat again.
At this point it is best to make sure the Vodka is still ok. Try another cup, just in case.
Turn off the mixerer thingy.
Break 2 eegs and add to the bowl and chuck in a cup of dried fruit.
Pick the fruit up off the floor, wash it and put in in the bowl a piece at a time, trying to count it!
Mix on the turner. If the fried druit getas stuck in the beaterers, just pry it loose with a drewscriver.
Sample the Vodka to test for tonsisticity.
Next, sift 2 cups of salt, or something.
Check the Vodka.
Now shit shift the lemon juice and strain the nuts. Add one table.
Add a spoon of sugar, of somefing. Whatever you can find.
Greash the oven.
Turn the cake tin 360 degrees and try not to fall over.
Don’t forget to beat off the turner.
Finally, throw the bowl through the window.
Finish the Vodka and wipe the counter with the cat.

✨If you were looking for a new recipe…I’m sorry! But I hope you got a good laugh out of this, and that’s something, right?! 🤓

I made my Vodka Christmas Cake this morning, so now I need a nap! 🙃

I hope you stop by again tomorrow! 🤗

Vintage Cookbooks ~ Delicious (?) Morsels From Long Ago

Hello my lovely friends 💕

Today I’d like to show you a few treasures from my vintage cookbook collection…and the (sometimes) oddball recipes inside. 🤓

Here are some of the beautiful books from days gone, and now not forgotten! 🥰

This gem here is the oldest one in the collection. It was printed in 1922. It’s hard to believe that it’s almost 100 years old. 🤩

This is where I found one of the weirder recipes.
The mayo and powdered sugar combination is not something I’d ever wanna try. 🥴

This lovely book was printed in 1938, and holds more deliciousness 😅

I don’t know who thought that this is ‘Perfection’…but I draw the line at veggies & Lemon Jello! Won’t you?😋

What’s with the eggs? 🤷🏻‍♀️

I love everything about these books that allow us a glimpse into the life of people that came before us.
Like the random items used as bookmarks and notepads…

Old advertising…

And of course the wonderful signs of recipes well used…

Beautiful illustrations…

Handwritten Recipe improvements… 😃

Do you have old cookbooks? Maybe even hand-me-downs? Oh how I wish I still had one or two of my Mom’s cookbooks. 😊

Did you ever find a recipe that was popular way back when, but today we wouldn’t dare to serve today? 🙃

I’m looking forward to your input! Thanks for stopping by! 💕

The Recipe Folder: No-Knead Bread

Hello my lovely friends 💕

I love European bread! 😍The crunchy outside – not the slightly darker, ‘same-taste-as-the-bread’ outside, that the sandwich bread makers like to call “crust” 😅 No, the real crust, where bits of it fly everywhere when you cut into it. And the soft, non sticky(!!!) crumb! With some airholes, and a taste that makes you swoon! 😊

And now, after all these years here in the States, I found a recipe that not only promises all that, but also delivers. 😃

And all you need is 4 simple ingredients. We all have them at home…and they’re actually pronounceable 😉

Just gather ✨Flour ✨Yeast ✨Water ✨Salt…that really is it!

For the recipe please visit Olga in the Kitchen 👩🏻‍🍳

A little tip from me – for the last 20 minutes (after you take the lid off), place an oven safe dish with ice cubes on a lower rack. The steam will make the crust extra crunchy.

And this is what you can look forward to…

Please let me know how much you enjoyed making and eating this wonderful bread. 😊

Happy baking! 💕

Your Advent Calendar 🎄 Day 13

Hello my lovely friends 💕

Today’s Door #13….

…holds a delicious secret! 🤩

A recipe from my Cookie ~ Kitchen

Gingerbread Cutouts 

In the spirit of creating new traditions, hubby and I teamed up in the kitchen to bake some Gingerbread cookies. 😊

If you wanna bake along, here’s what you need, and need to do…

1/2 c Sugar
1/2 c Molasses
2 tsp. ground Ginger
1-1/2 tsp. ground Cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground Cloves
1/2 tsp. ground Nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ground Pepper
2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 c (1 stick) Butter, cut into pieces
1 large Egg, beaten
3-1/2 c all-purpose Flour
Frosting

1. In 3-quart saucepan, heat sugar, molasses, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and pepper to boiling over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Remove saucepan from heat; stir in baking soda (mixture will foam in the pan). Stir in butter until melted. With fork, stir in egg, the flour.

2.  On lightly floured surface, knead dough until thoroughly mixed. Divide dough in half; wrap half of dough and set aside.

3. Preheat oven to 325°F. With floured rolling pin, roll half of dough slightly thinner than 1/4″.

Hubby hard at work 😅

 

4. With floured 3 to 4 inch cookie cuters, cut dough into as many cookies as possible; reserve trimmings.

The fun continues 😉

 

5. Place cookies, 1/2″ apart, on ungreased large cookie sheet. Bake cookies until edges begin to brown, about 12 minutes. Transfer cookies to wire racks to cool. Repeat with remaining dough and reserved trimmings.

6. When cookies are cool, decorate cookies as desired (we used vanilla frosting, colored with food dye).
Allow frosting to dry completely, about 1 hour. Store in tightly covered container up to 2 weeks.
Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

While ours don’t look very professional 🙈 they are definitely very colorful, and delicious 😁

 

Now go, and strap on that apron. Let me know how it went! 🤩

I wish you a wonderful, fabulous, sparkly Holiday season 💕🎄🎅🏼

 

A Booktalk ~ Using Vintage Books in Junk Journals

Hello my lovely friends 💕

Welcome to today’s Booktalk 📚 No, I’m not reviewing anything. I will just tell you about, and take the fear out of, using vintage books in making Junk Journals.

I admit, it sounds cringeworthy. 🙈 But it doesn’t have to be. As I mentioned yesterday, buying the books with the intention of cutting them up makes the whole endeavor easier (at least in my experience). And if they’re a bit – or very – tattered they would probably end up in the landfill. That would be a real tragedy. So try to look at it as giving those old, time-worn beauties a new life. Where the bits and pieces will be admired, and loved again.

Old books have wonderful illustrations you can use to spruce up a blank page or incorporate in collages.

  Of course, it’s not just the pictures that are useful. A poem can give a page meaning, scraps of pages that are written ‘old-fashioned’ style make a nice addition to a collage,  old dictionary pages make a nice background for some photos or stickers, whole pages of children books give your journal a little whimsy.

You see – a new life! 😍

 Once in a while though, I come across an antique book that ends up on my bookshelf.
I managed to make a little room for the newly acquired treasures. 😊

  Like this one…

 

It’s an illustrated Mark Twain book (Life on the Mississippi), printed in 1902. 🤗
It’s amazing. Really beautiful in all it’s shabbiness, and simply stunning!
I love to hold it, leaf through it, and imagine the people who held and enjoyed it before me. 😍

As you can see…it is quite tattered.
But I’m thinking, when I’m 117 years old, my spine will be brittle also, and my backside nothing to write home about. 😅

 Then there is this one…

 

A handwritten recipe-collection that found it’s way here from good, old Germany,
written in 1924  🤩 It’s written in the historical form of German handwriting, called Suetterlin. I can make out a few words here and there, but not enough to start cooking. I’d love to cook my way through this book.  👩🏻‍🍳 Now I wish my Mom had taught me this style of handwriting. 🤓

And last but not least – this beauty

 

  I love the raised lettering on the cover. I bought it to be used as a Halloween Journal, because it comes with it’s own awesome-spooky illustrations. 👻

 

But I don’t have the heart to cut it up. So it will sit on the bookshelf with it’s other gorgeous friends, and brought out once in a while to be admired (and dusted😆)

 That’s it for today’s Booktalk. 😊I hope you had fun, and that I was able to ease your anxiety about cutting in to books, because journal-making should be enjoyable! 🤓

Until next time  💕 Take good care of yourself!

 

 

 

 

Fantastic Bake – Along: Scones

Hello my lovely friends 💕

Laaaast weekend was the ‘Fantastic Bake Along’ – and I missed it. 😕

It’s so terribly hot and humid here that the stove/oven is merely decoration right now.

We’re eating take out or sandwiches, the Birthday cake was store bought, and the delicious Maple Scones have to wait till later.

But…just because I didn’t bake them shouldn’t mean that you can’t! 😁

Don’t they look mouth-watering?

All you have to do is hop over to Tracy’s amazing blog It’s A T-Sweets Day

There you find more scrumptious pictures, the link to the recipe, and a list of bakers that didn’t let the heat bother them and made these fabulous treats nonetheless. 😊

I hope you enjoy this deliciousness! I’m looking forward to hearing about your results!

Happy Baking! 💕

The Fantastic ~ Bake ~ Along

Hello my lovely friends 💕

Last week/weekend it was time for our monthly fun and delicious Bake-Along. 😃

So here’s the post that falls in the category ‘She also ran baked’ 🏆

I have been reading a lot of the wonderful baking posts…so, yes, I do believe I’m the last one!

The lovely Tracy, quilter, baker, author of It’s a T-Sweets Day hosted another Bake-Along.

This month’s star-baker was Tami over at Tanglewood Knots 😊Tami baked her devine looking ‘Chocolate covered Peppermint Patties’, and asked everyone for their favorite Chocolate recipe.

Well…Hello….Say ‘Chocolate’ and I’m there! 😜
Since most of you have already seen/baked my favorite chocolate recipe (Chili/Chocolate Bread ) I decided to follow Tracy’s Brownie delight!

Now, honestly, I had sworn to never make Brownies from scratch again. I was convinced that the only good Brownie is the one out of a box. But Tracy was very convincing, so I gave this one more try.
What can I say? By golly she is right! 😎Never again will I bake brownies using a mix!
These devilish things are sooooooo good! I can’t even begin to describe it!

Don’t believe me? Here’s the recipe…go ahead! Try it!

Ingredients:

• • 1c salted butter –not margarine

• • 5 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

• • 2c sugar

• • 3 eggs

• • 2 tsp vanilla

• • 1 1/2c flour

• • *optional 1c chopped nuts

Combine butter, sugar, cocoa, and eggs.  Mix until smooth. Add flour, vanilla, and nuts.  The batter will be thick and light brown.   Spoon into a greased 8×8 pan . They will be thick. Cook on the middle rack of  a 350* oven for 40-45 min.  Start checking at 35 min.  They are done when a knife comes out clean but just barely clean.  Do not over cook.
I baked them for 42 minutes (convection oven).

They’re ready for the oven….

After 20 minutes the house filled with a wonderful chocolate-y fragrance. I could hardly wait to pull them out of the oven. After checking a few times, the knife finally came out (almost) clean.

Hubby and I nibbled on them all evening…until we agreed that we have to move them out of sight. Good thing we did or there wouldn’t have been enough left for a nice picture! 😁

If you’re looking for more chocolate goodness, please check out what all the other bakers posted for ya

Lucia @ Crochet, Knit, and more

AJ @ A Petite Slice of Life

Marcia @ Una Regiaen Bicicleta

Rebecca @ Twinklehook

Abbey @ Three Cats and a Girl

Susan @ Granny Smith’s Quilting

Kathy @ Sewing etc.

Brenna @ Crochet539

Emma @ Emma’s Crafts Design

Kate @ Life, Tea, and everything

I hope I can add your name to this list next month! Happy baking!

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you will do so often!

Until then