a new dish {creamy chicken broccoli noodle bake}

Last week I made a new thing for dinner...I should try to come up with a more succinct name for it but that's the best I can do these days. It's nothing super creative but we thought it turned out pretty good...warm & comforting too on these darker, colder fall nights. The leftovers were great too. Lately I've been really into egg noodles for some reason. I've always used them when I make chicken noodle soup but that was about it until recently.

This dish has 4 main ingredients*: egg noodles, chicken, broccoli, and a creamy, cheesy bechamel (white) sauce. It worked well for me to prepare it in chunks as time allowed since I don't have a whole lot of time to spend in the kitchen lately.
Here's how I did it: Par cook the broccoli (about 2 cups or so) for about 4-5 minutes. Poach 1 large or 2 regular sized chicken breasts (about 2 cups or so of pulled chicken...I always like to pull mine apart by hand after poaching). Cook the egg noodles (about half pound or so) just shy of the full cooking time by a minute or two. (I don't like mushy, overcooked noodles.)

Make the bechamel sauce: Saute a little diced onion & garlic in about 2 Tbsp butter. After a few minutes or so, add 1/4 cup flour. Cook for about a minute, stirring lots! Add 1 cup of chicken broth/stock/bouillon. Stir out any lumps. Then add 3/4 cup milk/cream. Stir over medium heat until it begins to thicken. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Then, the real secret, special ingredient of this dish is added: cheese! But not just any cheese...Sartori's Bellavitano Gold**. I think I added a cup or so of shredded cheese.

Then in a casserole/baking dish, combine the noodles, chicken, broccoli, and sauce. Mix together well. Top with breadcrumbs for an extra special treat. (I just happened to have some breadcrumbs ready in the freezer that had some herbs and parmesan cheese in them as well which made this dish even easier.) Bake covered at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes. Then remove the cover and bake for another 5-10 minutes until the breadcrumbs get toasty brown. Yum!

*It should be noted that I didn't measure much of anything except for when making the bechamel sauce...perhaps you can tell by all the "or so's..."! I just don't measure things when I'm cooking, unless I'm following someone else's recipe...so all of these directions are (hopefully) pretty close estimates! But I don't think you can really mess this up anyway!

**Hub recently came across this Bellavitano Gold cheese at the grocery store. It was right next to the regular chunks of parm we usually buy and he was persuaded to buy some when he saw the shiny gold award sticker on it's label. We tried it, loved it, and I use it often in my cooking! It melts wonderfully and has a really good, unique taste. :)

ornament time!

I get a little happy excited when I think about tiny boxes filled with sparkly, glittery things...and its getting closer now! I recently finished up an order for these wintry white mushroom ornaments. And this minty, sparkly sweet deer ornament was something I started last winter but didn't finish until well after Christmas and didn't photograph until just the other day...but it's now in my shop too.
See all the ornaments right here!

little weekend projects...

The weekend was good and laid back...the first one that's felt like this in a long while. I made some chocolate covered strawberries for a friend's wife's birthday.

I hadn't made them in a looong time... I forgot how good these are!

Also, I finished my project for little baby's room. Remember these old frames? I decided to pretty much leave them as is except for a bit of sanding (originally I had planned to paint them but decided I liked the natural/rustic wood look best...it complements the brown accents and juxtaposes nicely with all the crisp white in his nursery). As you can see, I have a little bit of a "deer" theme going. I searched for vintage children's books containing deer illustrations to find a good picture for the bottom left frame...and luckily I came across a great book at my local thrift shop that had a neat cover illustration. The book must have been in a library at one time as there was plastic over the paper jacket cover. So when I took off the plastic it was still in great condition! The other two frames contain some patterned paper topped off with handcut things...a deer silhouette and the letter "A" in a light green paper...It's a little hard to see in this photo...but I'm so happy with how it all turned out!

baking and other thoughts...

For some reason, I've been doing a lot of baking lately...more than usual, especially with the new baby. Recently I made Chocolate Chip cookies, Ciabatta bread, Apple Pie, Pecan Mandelbrot, and Cinnamon Rolls from scratch. Perhaps its the weather which has been downright chilly, almost wintry at times. Last week we spotted our first snowflakes gathering slightly on the deck. The deer are starting to show their faces again in our woods. And last weekend we caught a glimpse of the long white feet of a snowshoe hare. (Their furry coats turn from brown to all white in the winter.) I did some baking too partly because my mom was up for a visit last week. She came bearing a big bag of freshly picked Haralson apples. We did some tag-team baking which is best when there is a little baby around. I made the crust and streusel topping, she made the apple filling. And perhaps I've been baking more because I'd been reading the latest Amish novel by Beverly Lewis. She is always writing about delicious sounding things they are baking up and I think it soaks into my fiber a little as well. The characters are often sharing these baked goodies with their neighbors and extended family too...which makes me want to do this more often with my neighbors. So banana bread is up next on the baking agenda. (The aging bananas on my counter are dictating this one.)Lately I've been thinking how much I love being a mom too. I think I love it even more than I thought I would. I remember the day I felt thoroughly like I was a real true "mom". It was the Saturday morning that Hub and I took little Bub to get his 3 month photos taken at JCPenney because we had a coupon and then afterwards ran some errands. I picked up some bags of frozen vegetables...something I never used to buy (except for frozen peas because they're best that way) but now I thought they'd be nice to have on hand in a pinch. I don't know...photos at JCPenney and frozen vegetables sounded and felt very "mommy-ish" to me at the time.

Although my baking may have increased lately, my cooking quality sure has fallen a bit...hence the frozen veggies. It's a give and take I guess...where one thing exceeds, something else must give a little!

All for now ~ there's a baby crying!