Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas...

I love trying different enchilada recipes and I was excited when I saw Kelli share this recently. They are really good!! I'm thinking that it's the cilantro (my FAVORITE herb in the world!!!!) that made it sooo delicous!!!

Thank you, Kelli!!!


Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas

3 cups cooked and shredded chicken
1 1/2 cups sour cream
1 (10 ounce) can enchilada sauce
1/2 cup salsa
1 (7 ounce) can chopped green chiles
1/2 cup cilantro
2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
12 (6 inch) flour tortillas

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

1. Mix sour cream, enchilada sauce, salsa, green chiles, and cilantro together in bowl. Set aside.

2. In separate bowl, mix shredded chicken, 1 cup of the sour cream mixture, and 1 cup of the shredded cheese. I also seasoned with salt, pepper, chili powder, and a little cumin.

3. Heat tortillas in microwave oven until soft. Pour enough of the sour cream mixture into a 9x13 inch baking dish to coat bottom.

3. Place 2 heaping tablespoonfuls of the chicken mixture in each tortilla, roll up and place seam side down in the baking dish. Pour remaining sour cream mixture on top and sprinkle with remaining shredded cheese.

4. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for about 30 minutes, or until heated through and bubbling.

Sour Cream Sugar Cookies...

These are crispy cookies with a very slight chew in the middle. Yum. My normal sugar cookie recipe is very soft and almost cakelike in the middle. This is a nice change.

Mr. U, who normally doesn't like sugar cookies, said these were quite tasty and that they reminded him of pound cake!! WOW! I think it must be the sour cream in the recipe. They don't make me think of pound cake, but they are good!!!

Sour Cream Sugar Cookies
-adapted from a Martha Stewart recipe

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar, plus more for sprinkling
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup sour cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees line cookie sheets with parchment paper (my FAVORITE thing in the kitchen these days!!!). In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda; set aside.

Using an electric mixer on medium-high, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 2 to 4 minutes. Add egg and vanilla; beat well to combine.

With mixer on low, add half the flour mixture, followed by sour cream, then remaining flour mixture; mix just until smooth. (Dough will be stiff; you may need to finish mixing it by hand with a wooden spoon.)

Scoop 1 1/2 T of dough into your hand and roll into a ball and then roll in sugar. Place on cookie sheets about 2 inches apart. Bake until edges of cookies are just firm and tops are barely beginning to brown, 13-17 minutes. Transfer cookies to a rack to cool.

Makes about 30 cookies.

Our Forever day...

My dearest, loveliest Elizabeth. Three years ago today you were placed in our arms. That was the happiest day of my life!! I am so glad that the Lord chose us to be your forever family.

Waiting....

So, what's up with our adoption? Well, our homestudy update was completed in November and we're officially in "waiting" mode. This could take weeks, months or, gasp, years. Yep, I recently found out about a family that waited FOUR YEARS for their child. Oh my. Am I prepared for that?? Heaven help me!!!!

The wait for China was much easier. I knew how their system worked and I knew that we were kind of standing in line for it to be our turn to be matched with our child. But now? Oh my. There is no line. There is no system to figure out. It's just one big waiting game. Sigh.

So... what does a girl do while waiting? Well, you go shopping, of course!!!!




I didn't buy anything major. These are just some burp cloths, tiny socks and tiny onesies. I realized the other day that we have NOTHING in this house for a newborn, so when "the call" finally does come, we'll be going crazy trying to get things together!! So I figured I'd buy a few things here and there to prepare.

I don't know whether to buy girl or boy things. We requested a little girl because we already have tons of girl things and also because our house is small and the baby will be sharing a room with Elizabeth. If the agency calls us with news of a little boy, I am KNOW we will be more than thrilled and, well, we'll just figure out what to do about the bedrooms. :)

So that's where we stand with our adoption. Waiting. Just waiting. And one day "the call" will come and I'll be a nervous wreck. I CAN'T WAIT!!!

Cheeseburger Soup....

Once again, a post with NO PHOTOS!!!! I am sad, but what could I do? We had company today for lunch and she would've thought I was NUTS for taking pictures of the food! HAHA!!! I do promise, though, that we all LOOOOVED this!!! I most definitely will be making this again!!!


Cheeseburger Soup

1 pound ground beef
1 onion, chopped
2 carrots, grated
2 stalks of celery, finely diced
1 1/4 t dried basil
1 t dried parsley flakes
4 T butter, divided
4 cups chicken stock, divided
5 cups diced peeled potatoes
3 T all-purpose flour
8 ounces process American cheese*
1-1/2 cups milk
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup sour cream

In small sauté pan, melt 3 T butter. Add flour and whisk 1-2 minutes until mixture turns light brown. Gradually stir in 1 cup chicken stock, whisking as you add more stock to make a smooth and thick mixture.

In a dutch oven, melt 1 T butter and then brown beef; remove any grease and then stir in onions, carrots, celery, basil and parsley. Add 3 cups chicken stock and potatoes and bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer 15 minutes or until potatoes are tender.

Add butter/flour/stock mixture to dutch oven. Bring to a boil. Cook and stir 2 minutes. Reduce heat to low. Add cheese, milk, salt and pepper to taste; cook and stir until cheese melts. Remove from heat and stir in sour cream.

8 servings

*I used 8 oz of American cheese sandwich slices!! Yep, I unwrapped each one. Seriously!! It was SO perfectly wonderful!! I'll do it again, too!! YUM!!

Lasagna Soup...

While the snow started coming down last Friday, I was MORE than happy to make this delicious soup for my family. Boy is this GOOD!!! Thank you, Jesse, for the recipe!!!


Lasagna Soup

2 tsp olive oil
1 pound Italian sausage (bulk or with casings removed)
2 onions, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
2 T tomato paste
1 (28 oz) can diced tomatoes
6 cups chicken stock
2 bay leaves
8 oz fusilli (or other) pasta
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh basil
8 oz ricotta cheese
1/2 cup grated parmesan
1/4 tsp salt
pinch of pepper
2 cups shredded mozzarella

In a large pot, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add sausage and saute 5-7 minutes. Drain excess fat from pot. Add onions and saute until soft, about 6 minutes. Add garlic, oregano and red pepper flakes and saute for 1 minute. Add tomato paste and saute until the paste turns a rusty brown color (about 5 minutes). Add tomatoes with their juices, stock, and bay leaves and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes.


Add pasta and increase heat to medium high. Boil soup until pasta is cooked. Discard bay leaves and sitr in basil and salt and pepper to taste.

In a small bowl, combine ricotta, parmesan 1/4 tsp salt and pinch of pepper and mix well. To serve, place 1 1/2 T of this mixture in each bowl. Sprinkle with mozzarella and ladle soup on top.

Makes 13 cups


And, I am sorry to say, I do not have a photo of this dish. Next time I make this (and the whole family insists I WILL be making this again!! YUM!!!!), I will take a photo to share.


So, y'all, make sure you have all the ingredients and make this SOON for your family!!!!

Farmhouse Crackers....

I got a sample issue of Mary Jane's Farm a week or two ago in the mail. Included was a recipe for Farmhouse Crackers. Yum. Homemade crackers. Crackers that don't have tons of weird ingredients listed in them like this...




What IS all that stuff, anyway?

Ahem...

Not only are these SUPER easy, but they are VERY tasty, too! Mr. U said "Stop buying those flavored Cheez-its for me and make these from now on!!!" I'll be more than happy to do that!!!

This is how my recipe ended up (remember, I have a VERY hard time sticking exactly to any recipe!! HA!)...

Parmesan and Cracked Black Pepper Farmhouse Crackers

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 t cream of tartar
3/4 t salt
3/4 t baking soda
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1 t freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup oil (I used extra virgin olive oil)
1/2 cup water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Tear off three sheets of parchment paper (2 will be for cookie sheets and 1 will be used to roll out the dough).

In a bowl, combine dry ingredients and then stir in oil and water. Take 1/4 of the dough and put it in the middle of a piece of parchment paper. Place another piece of parchment on top and smoosh it down a bit (LOOOVE my technical terms!! HA!!). Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out as thinly as possible (I go for 1/8th inch thick). Carefully peel the top piece of parchment off and then score the rolled out dough into the shape and size of crackers you want (a pizza cutter or pastry wheel will make quick work of this) . Then, just bake them in the oven about 14 minutes until the crackers are crispy brown. Mmmm.

Take them out of the oven and remove the whole piece of parchment paper and set it on a cooling rack. Wait about 5 minutes and then carefully break the crackers apart and let them cool about 10 minutes longer before moving them off the cooling rack.

Repeat this same process for the rest of the cracker dough.

I have NO idea how long these will keep. They've never made it more than 3 days here before we eat them all up. Yum!!!

UPDATE: I forgot to add in this post that the last time I made these crackers, I added 1 tsp of garlic powder and WOW they were good, too!! I also made a batch where I left out the parmesan and the black pepper and added 1 T fresh, finely minced rosemary and 3 cloves of finely minced garlic. These were very good, too!!!

And y'all, if you make your own variation and they are great, PLEASE let me know!!!!