Chicken Pot Pie in a Dough Wreath

Pillsbury has it _goin'_ON!

I'm not kidding, this was bombdiggity in the quick & yummy dinner department. I just wish Pillsbury would figure out a way to make their crescent rolls without hydrogenated oil. I will try the next one with the Trader Joe's crescent rolls, but honestly, I know it won't have the same flavor as tonight's version.

The Pillsbury original recipe is here from my pinterest board "bon", for you Pillsbury purists. Otherwise, here goes with my changes...

Oven on bake at 375* {that didn't change}

2 cans crescent rolls (I'm not going to discriminate here) and arrange them like Pillsbury suggested

{pic cred: Pillsbury, duh}

2 cups(ish) cooked shredded chicken***
1/3 cup cooked up (from frozen) green beans (okay, I am going to discriminate here, Trader Joe's all the way)
1/3 cup cooked up (from frozen) corn
1/3 cup cooked up (from frozen) peas
1/2 cup crispy onions (the kind you put in old skool green bean casserole)
1 carton cream of mushroom soup (discriminating _again_, but this time, Whole Foods gets the nod)
1 decent splash of 1/2&1/2 to taste


***by cooked chicken, I mean, toss those jokers in a pot of 1/2 water, 1/2 chicken broth, some poultry seasoning and boil. boom.

So, mix up all the cooked stuff with all the not cooked stuff. Scoop it out around the dough, pull the dough over from outside to in, pinching in down a bit. The end product will look like a dough wreath and everybody needs a dough wreath in their life. Trust me.

Bake for 25ish minutes, goldy golden brown.
Voila!

MyMister gave it two thumbs up. It really is just as easy as it is delicious. Enjoy & thanks Pillsbury!

Freezer faux pas...

If you are anything like me, you don't meal plan. It is so LIMITING. I mean, really...

• What if by Wednesday I don't want pork chops?
• What if nothing on the plan sounds good?
• What if you had a crap day and you don't want to cook anything and everyone is left to fend for themselves? {Please tell me you have "Fend for Yourself" nights?!}

Here you've thawed and now you have all this stuff you are committed to cooking and if you don't, it all goes bad! Ugh. That's so not cool. Waste of time, money and resources.

So, I buy stuff as I think of it. Most of the time an item or two will go in the fridge and I will at least commit that *a* day that week will see those items cooked, maybe even served. The rest goes in the freezer and of course we have the inside freezer and the chest freezer, because, you know, Armageddon and all {not really}.

Let's leave the busting at the seams pantry for another post. That actually hits on other topics like "No, you can't eat that can of pineapple chunks! I bought it for the pinterest recipe for... for... whatever, eat the pineapple. I can't remember."

This week we hit the hamburger lotto! We buy a particular brand of ground up cow that I don't have nightmares over. It is really yummy and always looks like meat should. {If you have anything bad to say about the beef industry, please don't share. I have enough phobias at this point. I think MyMister would snuff out my tiki torch and kick me off the island if I develop another.} So, each pack was marked $2.25 off! SCORE! So we bought six! And into the chest freezer they went.

You would *think* we'd be having hamburger this week. Nope. Chicken. It was a chicken kind of night Friday. No, I don't know why - it just was. And it was my favorite brand. {Tiki torch disclaimer here over the poultry industry, too, please.} Sadly, the brand is no longer available at Winco, so I am having to scour for a replacement product - so far, Trader Joes seems to have the front runner. Here we were, Friday night and I'm using the last of my favorite chicken. DENIED. Turns out, it was a pack that had gotten buried in the bottom, carbon dating probably around Neanderthal ago. As it thawed it was screamingly evident that it was severely ruined by freezer burn. We ended up being vegetarians Friday.

So while I pushed my mushroom and asparagus risotto around on my plate without a hunk of chicken to mop up the sauce, I realized I needed to come up with some sort of a system where all that wonderful hamburger doesn't go missing in our arctic tundra in the garage. Honestly, there really could be a Wooly Snuffleupagus suspended in time in the frozen walls of our freezer. I knew we had shelves in there, but those have usually just been catchalls for anything smaller that I didn't want falling through the cracks into the abyss. Turns out, they can ALSO be used in OR-GA-NI-ZING. Yep! I know, I was shocked, too!

The packs I had already in the freezer are in the front {truth: I asked MyMister to dig through all the randomly collected frozen foods and gather any and all hamburger}! Oh my word, IT'S ORGANIZATION STEP 1! AND with a double whammy of "Shelf is full, so I don't need to buy more yet" built-in indicator!

Clearly, by the view to the right of the shelf o' beef meat {another truth, I rarely buy any other beef type meat - I have no clue how to make it edible}, I need to continue with my organizing. There's three other shelves and the entire bottom of the freezer. All willy nilly thrown in. For those of you that know me, that isn't a surprise at all, is it?

Throwback Thursday post... A year back... Okay, fine, or five...

Almost 5 years back...

There it was.  The gate.  The gate that never was... 

Okay, it WAS a gate and it DID have an original location - out at the front arbor... but MyMister lovingly built it too short to be functional.  So off it came and promptly stored to his chagrin.  His chagrin was not the "off it came" part, but the "promptly stored" part.  He dislikes clutter.  I seem to have a penchant for it.  Ahhh God is a funny, funny Dude with His romantic pairings, isn't He?

Here we are, Spring 2013 (sooo, this was a draft I found, collecting dust...) and today (in Fall 2017), I present...

THE GATE OF INSPIRATION IN ALL ITS GLORY!

Yep. A lot has taken place since this post was originally drafted. Not only is the back yard fully bricked, so is the front! AND with raised flower beds! Yeah. There's gonna be a whole lotta updatin' going on 'round this here blog this fall. 

I'm feeling a bit writery lately. A bit, wordy and pictury. Pretty things, nice words, feel good stuff as I sift through the not so feel good, nice or pretty parts of life. It's not that those things don't happen in our WeWyntWorld life. I just don't want to rehash what was already sucky when we experienced it, you know? I mean, really - would you rather I *not* crop the above pic on the left so that the little pile of dog poo was clearly visible? Exactly. You, too, have the analogical little piles of dog poo in your life that you have no issue cropping out of your analogical pretty garden pics.

Until next blog (much sooner than 4ish years, I swear)... ~me

Yoga v. God

There comes a time in a mom's life when she realizes she isn't just a woman on a mission, isn't just a Donna Quixote, isn't just flat crazy.  That moment of realization is a moment that I experienced in slow-motion, as if watching from a distance, and dare I say, as if I had experienced an out-of-body-not-my-mind moment... So many thoughts, so many emotions... I actually am a real person-not-just-a-crazed-mom; I am truly in this life-long commitment of parenthood for just this very fleeting moment of joy. I can see beyond the chore-dodging, schedule-stalling, fib-fashioning, homework-fussing... and see the flicker of the woman my daughter is to be in God's plan.   

We were at yoga.  All three of us.  Dad up in front, my girl at my side.  I was ready for the drama that usually ensues when she is faced with activity she doesn't want to partake in:  The eyeball rolling.  The full body drop because she is SOOOOO TIRED.  The look of pure irritation.  And yet, none of that happened.  

Instead... nothing prepared me for that one moment when I looked over and her feet were firmly planted on the yoga mat, arms open wide.  Her upper body was turned with confident posture.  Her head poised "just so" and her features were calm but determined.  Doesn't that all sound just like what her future in God's plan will be if she learns to be silent, obedient and stops to listen to Him?  

Feet firmly planted, open, confident posture, calm but determined...

I can't describe it other than to say, you CAN have a surreal yoga versus God moment.  

God wins.

Blessings in New Friendships

You know, nothing brings your home to life more than new friends coming over and exploring your place for the first time.

Last night Cap'n Jack and I cooked a regular, any time meal for some new friends from church.  The idea was healthy and easy.  Some whole wheat penne, big beautiful (ON SALE - really cheap, already shelled and deveined) shrimp from Alaska WHOOP WHOOP, roasted asparagus and sundried tomatoes.  Add a quick little side salad and it is done in 30-40 minutes!  It is honestly one of the easiest meals to toss together.  Now I have heard some people may argue that if pasta is involved it can't be healthy... I say, everything IN MODERATION.

I am a caregiver for my MamaMia who is a diabetic.  Without *some* carbs, obviously the more complex the better to slow the metabolizing of the carb so as not to spike her blood glucose, she would not be able to function.  Whole wheat pasta, paired with a healthy fat like olive oil,  some fiber and some protein and you have a perfect diabetic meal... IN MODERATION.  I do not pile on a heap of pasta, just an appropriately calculated carbohydrate serving.

However (and I always have a HOWEVER to throw in), I absolutely say that YOU DO WHAT WORKS BEST FOR YOU.  If your choices are producing a healthy body, soul and mind... THEN GO FOR IT, BABY!  That's between you and Your Maker.  :)

UPDATE: Here's the recipe from last night... 

SHRIMP PENNE TOSS

3/4c. dry whole wheat penne per person

5 large shrimp per person

1/4lb asparagus per person

3tbsp sundried tomatoes per person

granulated garlic, olive oil, butter, fresh parm, sea salt, cracked pepper

Cut up asparagus into 1"-1.5" pieces, shake on healthy dose of granulated garlic, 

sea salt & cracked pepper, coat with olive oil and toss.  Roast at 425* roughly 30 minutes.

Boil up penne to al dente in pot of water with sea salt & some olive oil.

Cook up cleaned/deveined shrimp with sundried tomatoes, olive oil (&bit of butter if needed).

Toss all together in giant bowl, add a bit more olive oil if needed, top with fresh parm!

... Oy vey, that was a lot o' preachin' goin' on from atop my own little soap box!  I had to step away from the laptop and take a garden break!  I deadheaded some snapdragons, pulled out some withering leaves from the OkieDokies (aka artichokes), rinse and fill up several waterin' holes for my feathery friends and eat my first blackberry of the season!

 There is a bumper crop shortly behind this little guy!

I find it so sweet that God "emailed" me this verse today,
in light of all things I consider blessings...  I count my garden and my friends... Twice...

James 3:17-18

But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. 

Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.

So, the short and (unintended) long of my recap of last night... THE LADIES WERE SIMPLY AMAZING.  They were a breath of fresh air in WeWeyantsCottage, bringing to life all the little details of our Unser Ewiges Heim (Our Forever Home).  And they are all welcome here any time.  I so appreciate their kindness and new-found friendships.

Blessings to you all on this wonderful morning (oops, 33 minutes into the afternoon already!).  I will close with my facebook status from this morning "coffee, birds, HGTV and bloggin'... great way to kick off my Saturday! oh, and let's just throw in a little light reading while I'm at it... "What we need is nothing short of a kingdom revolution." ~John Burke, Soul Revolution"

I kid, I KID!

Welp, after searching the www, I found that Homemaker's Hideaway is WAY OVER DONE. So, back to the drawing board I went... and what did I come up with?  Nothing all that exciting or original.  WeWeyantsCottage.  It'll certainly do, though, because my whole life is a smattering of We, of Weyants and of our beach Cottage calm life... So there ya go, WeWeyantsCottage it is!  

What's been happening here at the Cottage?  ARTICHOKES!  They are so cool!  I bet I get to eat one this weekend as a matter of fact!  

Also at the Cottage it has been a matter of reduce, reuse, recycle... AND GLASS!  Lots and LOTS of glass!  Mason jars, apothecary jars, canisters...  I just love me some beautiful clear glass these days!  Let's see, AH YES!  STAINLESS STEEL!  OH!  And lest I forget... CAST IRON!  It has been so nice just trimming back on things, finding treasures from flea markets and such, passing on items I no longer use, making room for less but better...

And after all that going on, we headed out for the weekend with some really amazing friends to celebrate their marriage!  This was our VIEW (thanks to sniqueaway.com)...  

Isn't it amazing?  Water's Edge Inn in the sweet town of Tiburon.  Ahhhh what a wonderful weekend it was, complete with a guitarist and here's his pic...  

(I kid, I KID!)

...impromptu appetizers on the deck with lots and LOTS of laughter.  THANK YOU FRIENDS for sharing your celebration with us!

The Mother's Day weekend ahead should prove special here at the Cottage.  I pray our Heavenly Father blesses you with family and friends to celebrate with no matter your title: grandma, mom, aunt, other mother, friend... They are all blessings and honors.  I pray you all appreciate your own role where God has cast  you.

And the winner is...

Homemaker's Hideaway!

After careful deliberation and funny snorts and giggles from my fam... Hideaway won!  Here is the 2nd draft list, in no particular order, that might give you a grin...

Homemaker's Hammock
Hollering Homemaker
Homemaker's Hideaway
However Homemaker
Hooligan Homemaker
Homemaker SchmoMaker
Homemaker Hallows
Homemaker's Handbag
Havering Homemaker
Hobknocker Homemaker

I was rather fond of both However and Hollering... okay, AND SchmoMaker... But the fam really did reel me in on those. 

Next up, a new profile pic and a, a, oh a doomaflocky... what is that thing called?  Well, a little pic that replaces the orange B... Gotta find one of those, too. 

But that's for another day when I'm not so tired.  Ever have one of those nights where you wake up and check the clock to make sure you don't oversleep... EVERY. 15. MINUTES?!?!  Yeah, both Cap'n Jack and I had one of those nights last night.  So, now I am off to say my prayers - one of which will be that the antihistamine knocks me out!