Smoked Chicken Salad

My husband has a fascination with his smoker and loves to use it to cook different cuts of pork and beef for barbeque. Man is it good!! Last week I got him to put some chicken in there and it was beyond delicious. The smoker is a great way to add a lot of flavor to your food.

That night we ate some of the smoked chicken for dinner, and I saved the rest to make some chicken salad. Make it a day ahead if you can resist it that long -- it really does taste better that way. :O) Here's my recipe:


Smoked Chicken Salad

1 1/2 cups smoked chicken (cubed or shredded)
1/4 cup grapes, halved
1/4 cup celery, chopped
1/4 cup pecans, chopped
3/4 cup mayonnaise
1 Tbsp. honey
salt and pepper to taste

Mix honey and mayonnaise together. Add remaining ingredients and toss to coat. Chill 3-4 hours before serving; overnight is best.

{What I Love Wednesday} Daddy-Daughter Time

I'm going to try to write this without crying -- I'll let you know how it turns out at the end -- but I really love watching my daughter play with her daddy. I know they are creating some very special memories!! The weather was nice a few days ago and one evening they both got on their bicycles and rode up and down our street. It was so precious to watch our 4-year-old riding behind her daddy. She had so much fun following him around on her little princess bicycle. One of my favorite things will always be watching these two together. :O) OK, I made it to the end. No tears "fell." LOL.

Easy DIY Canvas Photos

I absolutely love the look of these photos mounted on canvas. Simple, clean lines really allow your photo to pop and not be distracted by a traditional photo frame. If you have some photos to show off, definitely give this easy, inexpensive technique a try. It's so easy my 4-year-old made one all by herself!!

I first saw a tutorial for DIY canvas photos at one of my favorite craft blogs, Gingersnaps.com. Ginger's tutorial was the easiest I've found, and I love how she simply painted the edges of the canvas black. I've seen others who Mod-Podged scrapbook paper to the sides, but the painting is much more simple and (I feel) doesn't distract from the photo you're wanting to show off in the first place.

To make your own canvas-mounted photo you'll need:
8x10 Canvas
8x10 Photo Print
Black Paint
Mod Podge (matte)
2 foam brushes

I found canvases to be cheapest at the local Hobby Lobby ($4 for a 2-pack). Sometimes you can catch them half-off, but if not, just use the handy 40% off coupon they normally have on their website (or access it from your smart phone and show it at the cash register). The photos I used were inexpensive reprints. We purchased a CD of photos with reprinting rights, so I don't feel bad permanently affixing a 50-cent picture to canvas. :O)

First you will paint the outer edges of your canvas black with one of the foam brushes.
After that has dried, use the other foam brush to apply a coat of Mod Podge to the top of the canvas.
Then carefully lay your picture on top and smooth it out with a soft cloth to make sure there are no bubbles.
Once the picture is glued in place, go over it with another layer of Mod Podge to give it a brush-stroked look.
Let it dry and then you're ready to showcase your creation!!

My favorite way to hang pictures is with Command Picture Hanging Strips. The strips have adhesive on both sides, so all you have to do is place it on the frame and then stick it on the wall. Skipping the hammer and nails is definitely a plus in my book. :O)



Here's a look at my little canvas photo collection:



Oh, and my 4-year-old seriously may have done a better job on the canvas she made than the ones I did. She wasn't as focused on getting even, straight brush strokes like I was. And although you can't tell from far away, up close you can see the nuances in brush strokes and it gives a great look to the finished photo. She's getting crafty, that one. I wonder where it comes from? :O)

Linked up at:

Shred Chicken with a Stand Mixer!

I found yet another reason to love my stand mixer -- shredding chicken!! Yes, it seems silly, but the process couldn't be easier. No more chicken-in-a-can for this house. :O)

All you have to do is:
1) Cook your boneless, skinless chicken breast, and
2) Put it in your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and let the mixer do its magic.

When I tried this last week I used the shredded chicken to make Chicken Sour Cream Enchiladas. The chicken was perfect and tasted much better than the canned kind. Mostly I only use canned chicken for these enchiladas and chicken salad. But with this simple way to shred chicken, now I can make it on demand or freeze it in small batches.

To cook the chicken, I boiled it in water with some chicken base for extra flavor (bouillon cubes, broth, or stock would do the same).

What is your favorite way to use shredded chicken?

Pocket Wall Organizer

I desperately needed a better system for putting important mail, checks, gift cards, coupons, etc. so I would remember them going out the door. Piling everything into a basket just wasn't working (shocker, lol). There was always a mad rush to sift through the basket before going shopping to find a certain store coupon, but where was it? Where was that birthday party invitation with the address?Where was the check I needed to deposit?

Then one day I saw the pocket board tutorial in my Better Homes & Gardens magazine and knew I had the answer. I even had the perfect place in mind for the board where I could have all these items nearby on my way out the door!!

The instructions in the magazine called for a big piece of plywood, but I came up with a lighter, simpler solution: a cork board on clearance after the back-to-school sales. The rest of the materials I already had on hand.

I followed the instructions per the BHG tutorial with a few minor exceptions. Since I used cork board, I didn't feel the need to put foam on top. I also chose to create different sized pockets to suit my particular needs -- I left the first row as one large pocket, the second row as two pockets, the third row as three pockets, and the fourth row as four pockets.

I have used the pocket board for several months now and it works great!! I have room for my gift cards and coupons (I put them there right away after they come in the mail), outgoing mail (to take outside to the mailbox), invitations (parties, weddings, baby showers), and more. Now I feel more organized and less scatter-brained about finding things when I need them. I'm so glad I took the time to make this for myself. It was really simple to make (about 1 hour), and cheap considering I only had to buy the $4 cork board. :O)

This is a very versatile board and could easily be used to organize other items. Get creative and utilize your wall space to organize your stuff!!

Make Your Own Fresh Teriyaki Sauce

This Teriyaki Sauce is so easy and delicious, you won't want to buy it from a bottle ever again. Thanks to a recipe I found at Weelicious (a super blog for finding kid-friendly recipes), making it fresh will not only taste great, but also save you from some unfriendly preservatives and other ingredients sneaking their way into your food. Heck, it might even be cheaper than buying a bottle of pre-made sauce.

Confession -- on the night I made this I also tried new recipes for eggrolls, stir-fry rice, and egg drop soup, making it quite possibly not my brightest idea. The food was tasty -- it just took about two hours to get everything done. I sure had a hungry family by then!! The egg rolls were the major hold-up -- lots of chopping, filling, and wrapping to do. Next time I will make them ahead and freeze for when I am ready. Live and learn!!

This recipe calls for five simple ingredients. If you've never used fresh ginger before, here's a great chance to give it a try. You can find it in the produce area of the grocery store. Just use a vegetable peeler to remove the outer skin and use a fine grater or Microplane to make quick work of the grating part.

TERIYAKI SAUCE
1 (8 oz.) can Crushed Pineapple in Juice
1/2 cup Soy Sauce
3 Tbsp. Honey
1 Tsp. Fresh Ginger, peeled and grated
1 Small Clove Garlic, minced

1. Place all ingredients in a bowl and whisk to combine. Can be used for a marinade at this stage.
2. To make sauce, combine 1/2 cup sauce mixture with 1 tsp. of cornstarch in a saucepan and cook over medium heat for 1 minute or until thickened.

This, of course, is perfect for chicken. To make a juicy Teriyaki Chicken, simply marinate 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts in 1 cup of the Teriyaki marinade for about an hour (overnight if you can). Then place chicken on a baking sheet and put in an oven set to broil, on the middle rack of your oven. Cook for 8-10 minutes on each side, or until chicken is done. Remove chicken from the oven and allow to cool for several minutes. Slice the chicken however you like, cover with sauce, and enjoy!! Remember to discard the leftover marinade (it has raw chicken ickies in it, so don't even think about using it to make anything else).

 Our two-hour dinner plate, LOL.

Enjoy your yummy new sauce -- and remember not to make too many new things at once!!

Disappearing Nine Patch Baby Quilt

 Today I'm happy to share with you the bright quilt I made for my newest nephew. Now at the time I picked out fabric I didn't know if I was getting a niece or nephew, and my sister-in-law just asked for bright colors. This wasn't what I intended on getting when I left for the fabric store, but if you know me it's not a big surprise I came home with something completely different, LOL. I picked out some bright colors with a pop of animal print to coordinate with the zoo animals on the backing fabric.

I used the Disappearing Nine Patch pattern for the top. It's an easy pattern I found a while back on one of my favorite sewing blogs, Cluck Cluck Sew. The gist of the pattern is to make a basic nine patch out of 5-inch squares, then cut the nine patch into fourths, and piece the resulting blocks together to make the quilt top.



For this quilt I made five nine patches. Then I cut into fourths for the "disappearing" effect and stitched together four across and five down. I also added a solid border with orange circles fabric around the finished nine patches and then a border of rectangles outside that. Next up was to make a nice "quilt sandwich" with the top, batting, and bottom in preparation to quilt everything together. It's hard to tell in the pictures, but I used orange thread to quilt inside and outside the border of each nine patch and the border pieces.

Then I grabbed my bias tape maker to make my own bias out of the orange circles fabric to give a nice coordinating finished look for the binding. If you've never made your own bias, all it takes is a bias tape maker (about $5), your fabric, and an iron. I also like to use a starch spray (Mary Ellen's Best Press is my favorite) for a better result after ironing. Then you have a bias tape that perfectly matches your quilt -- yay!!




My nephew is four months old now and already has gotten lots of use out of his blanket. I hear he loves it for tummy time and playing, and also loves looking at the bright colors!!