What's for dinner?!

How about White Chicken Chili! Recently I served this at my parents 50th wedding anniversary and it was a huge hit... Not to mention its easy easy!
                                                                                                                                                                        

 Recipe

1 rotisserie chicken (Costco is where I usually get mine because they are bigger and cheaper)
1 medium onion
1 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 (15 /12oz cans) Great Northern Beans (drained and rinsed)
2 cans of green chilies (if you like a little spice you can alternate one can for diced jalapenos)
1 (14 1/2oz) can of chicken broth
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 cup whipping cream
1 cup sour cream

1. In large saucepan, sauté chicken, onion and garlic poweder in oil til onions are cooked.
2. Add beans, chilies and seasonings and chicken broth.
3. Bring to a boil.
4. Reduce heat and simmer (uncovered) for 30 minutes.
5. Remove from heat, stir in sour cream and whipping cream.
6. Serve immediately.

                                                                                                                                                                                           

 

Coffee Table Lover!

White washed coffee table (this resides in my house to this day I LOVE it)

 

White with a natural dark stained wood (another favorite)

Black and White can't go wrong with those!

All white and distressed, I loved the lines and the design of this table.

Simple clean lines done in a beautiful shade of blue

Simple and clean lines done in a shade of green...

Here are a few coffee tables that we have done in the past... Coffee Tables are the center of most of our family rooms/living rooms... Coffee Tables can really bring a room together and make it feel more cozy!

So are you a coffee table lover as well?

Farmhouse Hutch

So I was lucky enough to purchase this beautiful piece of furniture...

 It was that dark, dark brown and it looked very dated... I chose not to sand any of the brown off. I lightly went over all of it with a coarse piece of sandpaper, and wiped it clean but that is it... I really wanted to keep that dark brown under so I could pull it through when I got ready to distress the piece... Of course I took it white (my kids claim that its my favorite color but my favorite is red) but I love decorating with white. There is something so clean and classic that I just love about white furniture... So after coat and coat of white paint (it literally took weeks not going to lie)...  I eventually got it all painted white, then came the fun part, the distressing... This also took time and caused blisters and I was worried I was over doing it blah blah blah... But I wanted this piece to look like it had been sitting outside for days and days I mean years and years! So I just kept going... Its funny how after painting it things I didn't notice before, like the paneling back, and the cute details on the drawers really popped once it was white... They popped even more when I started distressing it... After I was done with all of that I used miniwax wax and evenly went over all of it, sealing it! I am still debating weather I want to put the original hardware back on it or find new... Like I said after weeks and weeks, this baby now has a permanent place in my kitchen and in my heart! Lots of blood, sweat, and tears went into it, ha not really ;) but a lot of time did and I couldn't be happier with it!

BEFORE

AFTER STILL NEEDS HARDWARE

Do you see the cute paneling on the back?

Work in progress

Birthday Party for a 1 year old

I honestly can't believe my baby is 1... Wow how time flies...A few months ago I went looking for a cute little "I'm One" shirt and I came across this one from LilChickandLilDuck. Isn't it cute?! From there mustaches were on my mind... So we did a simple black and white Mustache 1 year old Party for my cutie... I wanted everything black and white, including the food... So we served Oreos, Fudge Striped Cookies, Homemade chocolate cupcakes with a white butter cream frosting, marshmallows, tootsie rolls and vanilla gold fish... All with a dollop of cookies 'n' cream ice cream... All the paper products were from Target (which I was there today and they still have them).

Here is a few pictures taken by my incredibly talented niece over at "Best Day Ever Photography"

ENJOY!

When life hands you "Lemons" make Lemonade

Awhile back I was in charge of our church "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints" Relief Society's Enrichment committee... This was a group of people that planned a monthly party/activity for all the sisters in our ward... I did some research and found a beautiful lemon themed party done by another fellow blogger (whom I can't find the blog anymore) and I just loved it, so I took some ideas from there and ran with it. We as a committee had lots and lots of fun with this one... It was bright and very cheerful.

We served a picnic in gable boxes (Which were darling)

Dinner included:
Chicken Salad Sandwich (Which served 65+)
Original Lays chips (individual bags)
Fruit Salad

Then we served Water and of course Lemonade. From our own homemade Lemonade Stand (which a husband of one of the ladies on my committee whipped up out of reclaimed wood).

We then ordered a vanilla cupcake with a light lemon frosting and they were wrapped to look like tulips. it was so cute!

We talked about the History of Lemons, Lemon info, and then of course how our ancestors made Lemonade out of the Lemons they were dealt...

We had a musical number which was a beautiful song "You are my Sunshine" sung by sisters in our ward.

It was all things bright and cheerful!

For the décor, we made pendant banners, grew some wheat grass in little dollar store buckets, used blue and white checkered sandwich paper as placemats, yellow tulips in different containers, used burlap, and of course no birthday party would be complete without balloons...

I have a PDF file of the invite, the lemon history and facts if you ever want it just leave a comment with your email and I can send them to you... :)

Fruit Salad 55+ servings

FRUIT SALAD for 55 servings…

Ingredients

• 1 (106 1/3 ounce) cans peach slices, undrained
• 1 (73 1/3 ounce) cans pineapple chunks, undrained
• 1 (11 1/2 ounce) boxes dry vanilla instant pudding mix
• 3 2/3 lbs strawberries, stemmed and quartered
• 3 2/3 bananas, sliced
• 1 7/8 pints blueberries
• 3 2/3 bunches grapes ( I use the red ones)
• 3 2/3-7 1/3 tablespoons sugar (optional)

Directions

1. In a large bowl, combine peaches, pineapples, and vanilla pudding mix.
2. This includes the juices from the cans.
3. Mix well until pudding is dissolved.
4. Stir in strawberries, banana, blueberries, grapes, and sugar if desired.
5. Chill

Chicken Salad Sandwiches serves 65+

Ingredients

1.   9 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts, trimmed

2.   12 peeled apples ( Gala or Fuji)

3.   2 medium red onions

4.   3 bunches celery

5.   3 cups walnuts

6.   3 cups light mayonnaise

7.   1 1/2 cups gourmet garlic mustard

8.   3 bunches Italian parsley

9.   3 to taste salt and pepper

Directions

1.   Cook chicken.

2.   Chop coarsely.

3.   Wash all fruits and vegetables.

4.   Chop them all coarsely.

5.   Put all ingredients in a large Pyrex bowl.

Toss ingredients with mustard and mayonnaise

Holiday Porches just got a little more exciting! :)

Me and my sisters decided we wanted to get crafty this last weekend... So we decided we would make wood signs for our front porches... We all got wood from home depot and we were going to use them to make fun front porch signs... I am originally from a small town in Utah and this is where we were going to get together to craft! Well after telling my sister how I wanted to make my board look old, she said she knew where we could get some awesome old wood (SCORE)! So in a big old abandoned field at 11pm by moonlight we dug through piles and piles of wood. We found exactly what we all wanted that rustic, chippy white, old boards... So needless to say we did not use the wood we got from home depot. We didn't have to even paint the one side, other then the word.
They turned out so cute.

So here they are... We ended up using both sides one for Christmas and the other for the Winter season!

All you need is old wood, seriously the older, more beat up the better! ;) If you can't find any old wood, we just got the wood from home depot for shelving about 4 feet...

craft paint

foam brushes

We didn't stencil, some of us used a ruler so we could make sure we fit all the words on the board, but as far as the letters we all just freehanded them...

It was a fun day filled with laughter, crafts, being creative ,and most of all SISTERS! :)

Why the blog

So we decided we wanted to start this blog mainly to document our ideas, interests, thoughts, concerns, and to get some fun feed back from all of you beautiful people!