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?

Frozen Whipped Cream Minis

Back to another handy tip from the Heloise's Housekeeping Hints (1962) book I scored at our church rummage sale a few months ago!! If you're like me and love fresh whipped cream instead of Cool Whip or aerosol whipped cream, here's a great way to store leftovers and have it on hand and ready to go any time.

How to make Frozen Whipped Cream Minis:
Simply take your whipped cream and drop in mounds on a wax paper lined cookie sheet and freeze until solid. Then put in a plastic freezer bag and store in the freezer until you need whipped cream. A cute little individual portion will be ready to go!! Allow it to sit for about 15 minutes to thaw -- or you can start eating it frozen right away like me. :O) I piped mine with a pretty decorating tip, but you also could pipe from the snipped corner of a plastic bag, or simply drop by spoonfuls onto the wax paper.

 

If you've never made fresh whipped topping, it's super easy and eliminates a lot of mystery ingredients versus buying the aforementioned creams.

How to make your own whipped cream:
Simply pour cold heavy cream into a bowl (I like to use a metal bowl, and chilled is better but not required) and go to town with your electric mixer. Mine happens to have a handy whisk attachment that makes the process faster, but regular beaters work just fine, too. After it's all whipped up, feel free to add a sweetener or flavoring. I only add a little powdered sugar to mine, but Heloise mentioned she uses sugar and vanilla in hers. I'm sure you also could experiment with other flavors depending on what it will be used for (think almond extract, chocolate flavoring, orange extract, etc.).

This batch was made from whipped cream leftovers after making smoothies, and the next night I used my little frozen portions on strawberries and angel food cake. They were perfect!! It really was nice to grab ready whipped cream out of the freezer and not have to make such a small amount for one dessert. Such a great way to save leftover whipped cream!!






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Cutting Kid's Bangs with Tape

I recently found a copy of Heloise’s Housekeeping Hints (1962, her first book!!) at a rummage sale and I am in love with it. One of the first things I saw in there was a handy trick on cutting a child's bangs by using clear tape. What?! I had never heard of this before, but obviously this trick has been around a while. I found this vintage Scotch Tape advertisement that actually features the bang-cutting technique:

My 4-year-old's bangs must have had some Miracle Grow dropped on them at some point, because they sure do grow fast. I'm no professional hair stylist for sure, but sometimes a mom's gotta do what a mom's gotta do. And while she sits fairly still for a child, things can get a little tense cutting bangs. So to make things easier, I decided to try the tape. It worked great!! The tape provided a straight line to cut above, and held onto the trimmings. No mess and no little pieces of hair falling in her eyes!!

It basically works like this: dampen the bangs and comb them straight, place tape across bangs where you want to cut, then cut just above the top of the tape.

Here are our results from the first trim with tape:

Not bad, eh?