Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Heavy Heart

Hey Y’all,

If you follow me on facebook, twitter or instagram, you know by now that last week my precious Granddaddy Abe passed away on Monday.

JKP Granddaddy

scan0005

scan0006

This past week has been very surreal. I took last week off from school and went back to work yesterday. I am having good days and bad days, but mostly I am still in a fog getting used to this change in my little world.

Today, believe it or not, we have a snow day! We have an impending winter weather event that is about to hit the SC coast very hard. I think Granddaddy knew that I needed a few days to stay in my pj’s, drink coffee, and snuggle with the Pitty Padster. I haven’t been able to pick up my knitting needles since I lost Granddaddy. I am hoping that over the next few days of being home, I can get my crafty rhythm back again. My heart is just kind of heavy right now.

I am currently trying to charge every electronic device I own just in case the power goes out. We are expecting almost an inch of ice and snow on top of that. I have my heat running on 75 just to get the house really warm in case we lose power once everything starts this afternoon. I have my ipod, ipad, kindle, laptop and phone full of books, knitting podcasts and music to keep us entertained. I also plan on catching up on some much needed sleep!

Every time I let Pitty Pat out this morning he keeps sniffing the air and pawing the ground. Yup. A winter event is coming!

Hopefully I will hop back on here with a weather update soon.

Tootles!

JKP

Monday, January 13, 2014

Crockpot Cream Cheese Chicken Chili and Thank You Baby Jesus… The Prednisone is WORKING!

Hey Y’all!

I am back today with one of the yummy crockpot recipes that I cooked up yesterday during my two crockpot Sunday! This Chicken Chili is one of the best things I have made this year… Hee, hee… well. It is ONLY January 13! No but really… this is so yummy. I plan on making it a staple in my freezer!

When I checked in yesterday with the ol’ blog I was still having some major issues with swallowing and ulcers in my esophagus. I am happy to report after being on prednisone since Saturday, I am feeling LOADS better. I am still having some pain, but I am able to eat most soft mushy things right now. I am hoping by tomorrow I will be be back to myself. I still can’t have carbonated beverages right now, so I am sticking to tea and water. But I am feeling so much better than I have been. Now if I can just get this sleep thing going… I was up at 3:45 a.m. this morning. Oh well. I will take eating over sleeping right now!

Now on to the recipe! I found this on Pinterest.. so you can go there and look too. I didn’t take my usual photos of me cooking.. sorry y’all. I just wasn’t up to it!

To make Crockpot Cream Cheese Chicken Chili you will need:

1 can black beans
1 can corn, undrained *You can use yellow corn or a mixture of sweet and yellow. I did the mixture!
1 can Rotel, undrained … if you don’t like Rotel you can substitute diced tomatoes without the green chiles. I had to do that this time. Rotel and esophagus ulcers REALLY don’t mix.
1 package ranch dressing mix
1 tsp cumin *I did not add this…. cumin and I DO NOT GET ALONG
1 Tbsp chili powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 8 oz package light cream cheese
2 chicken breasts *I added 3 this time. I was trying to get some more protein in since I haven’t been eating.

Drain and rinse black beans. Place your chicken at bottom of your crockpot, then pour out whole can of corn (undrained), Rotel, and black beans. Top with the seasonings and ranch mix. Stir all ingredients together. Place the cream cheese on top of the chicken. Cover with lid and cook on low for 6-8 hours. As it cooks, after about 3 hours, you may want to go ahead and blend your cream cheese into your mixture. After about 6 or so hours use tongs to remove the chicken breasts. Then  use 2 forks to shred chicken. At this point your chicken is really falling apart, so it won’t require a lot of effort to shred. Add the shredded chicken back into the crockpot and cook for 20 or so more minutes. Then serve!

It is really yummy! On piece of advice I would give is to double the recipe if you are cooking for more than 3. For me I got 6 Julia servings, which was about a cup and a half each. If you want to cook this and have leftovers, then I would absolutely double the recipe. When I added the third chicken breast it made it less liquidy, which is what I was wanting. If you want it more soup like and you are only cooking for a small group, then just add the two chicken breasts. But go ahead and print this one out y’all… It’s a GOODIE!

Here’s a my plate with a taste…. tomorrow I will be back with the Crockpot Chicken Fettuccini Alfredo… which is now tied with this recipe for recipe of the year!

chicken chili

 

Tootles!

JKP

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Easing My Way into 2014!

Hey Y’all!
I hope so far 2014  is finding you well! 2014 so far has been a bit bumpy for me! After being on a strong antibiotic for the sinus thing I could not shake, then another antibiotic and then another steroid…I have found myself in the midst of a Crohn’s flare from the antibiotics. At least it is not my tummy… just my esophagus. Sometimes when I have to take an antibiotic or two, my esophagus will rebel a little and decide to throw a hissy fit. Boo. So I have ulcers that have decided to line the lining of my esophagus. So. NOT. Fun. And a wee bit painful. So I am back on prednisone as of yesterday. But as of today, it has helped tremendously and I hope to be back to myself in the next few days. It just has thrown a wrench in the whole swallowing and eating thing! Today has been much better and I have been able to eat mushy food and drink some tea. I actually had to take Wednesday off from school because I was feeling so yucky. I should have known this was coming! Anyhoo… Life with Crohn’s. You never know what you’re going to get!

This past week I was able to get our New Year’s Cards in the mail! They were delayed shipping slightly by the big winter storm last week, so the day they arrived, back in the mail they went! Here is this year’s card… I think it is one of my favorites! Of course I had to add a turtle too!


New Years 2014


For the past few years I have used Snapfish. I have been very pleased with my cards and with coupons they are much less expensive than Walgreens. Also, the choice of card templates that you have are just fantastic! I really like the letter cut outs of “happy” this year.


Since I have been feeling under the weather, I have been hanging out at home with Mr. Paddington. This weekend between rounds of medicine, antispasmodics and trying to eat and drink, we hooked ourselves up with a 30 day free trial of Amazon Prime. I love it because I can stream shows like Downton Abby through my roku. Since I fell behind Downton Abby in season 1.. we are working our way through the seasons. It has been so nice to catch up. And you know anything English, I just love! We also had a free preview of Cinemax and HBO this weekend, so I have been restocking my DVR. I had to turn my old one in back in December and I was just crushed. But considering it overheated, I guess I was more than willing to give up all of the episodes of Castle, The Blacklist and my hoarded collection of Knitty Gritty. Not to mention all of the Christmas movies I had recorded from Hallmark. Also, I have been able to catch up on all of my network shows because of On Demand. So, it has all ended well.


I have done some sporadic knitting over the past week. I am back in a dishcloth phase right now. Dishcloths are the perfect knitting project because they are portable and you can finish one in just a few hours! And an added bonus is that dishcloth yarn/cotton yarn is cheap. And it comes in many, many, many colors. I have knitted dishcloths forever, but I felt like branching out a bit. So, here is the Lacy Round Dishcloth. She is just adorable! This cloth took a little under an hour to make.

Petal Dishcloth

I think my love of dishcloth knitting has come around again because often times the prednisone keeps me up and/or will wake me up at 3 a.m. During one of those nights I stumbled upon a great website with some great patterns. I am slowly making my way through all of the patterns on this blog. Check it out! I am currently working on the Into the Wind dishcloth.


Today I had to run a quick errand to Dollar General. I mean, come on… it wouldn’t be a day without a visit! I discovered that they had all of their Christmas ornaments on 70% off clearance. I had my eye on a few before Christmas. And even though they were originally just a $1.. I never made a purchase. I just love cardinal ornaments.. and low and behold.. they had a bunch of cardinals left. I stocked up and for $2.40 I have some new ornaments.

God bless dollar General

That is about all that is going on here! I am very sleepy, so I think I am going to head off to bed and sleep as long as I can. This week is a short one for us.. the kiddies have a half day on Thursday and we have a workday on Friday. Then school is closed next Monday. Ahh.. a three day weekend! I’ll be back soon… I did some crockpot cooking today… it was a two crockpot day at Casa de Pitty Pat! I have some yummy new recipes to share on the blog! I had the need for some mushy but yummy and fulfilling meals this week, so I can’t wait to share.

Have a great Monday everyone! Tootles!

JKP

Thursday, January 2, 2014

New Year Round Up!

Hey Y'all!

Happy 2014! I found myself on New Year's Eve in my regular doc's office in more pain! It turns out I never really got over the sinus/ear stuff that hit me right Christmas. I left his office with a big antibiotic and another round of steroids. Pitty Pat and I rang in the new year in bed, trying to feel better! I am still not feeling great, but much better than I was. The insomnia from the steroids has hit me pretty hard this go round. In fact, I was wide awake last night with sinus pressure and insomnia. So I did what any normal person would do, I crocheted a scarf!  Here's this year's first finished object! Of course it is a ruffle scarf! The colors are so happy.


I used Bernat's Twist and Twirl yarn on this project. This was a quick an inexpensive project because the yarn is on sale for $1.99 this week at AC Moore. Plus my teacher discount, this came out to a great project! This yarn is mesh like and it was easier to use the "no crochet" method on this one. Do you want to make one of your own? Check out the video below!



That is not all I have been up to! Yesterday to get out of the house a bit, because you know if I don't Paddington will have a really hard time when I go back to school, I went and walked around Market Common. I actually went to see if Barnes and Noble had the Knitting Pattern a Day calendar, which they didn't. I can't imagine why, there shouldn't be a run on a knitting calendar! Anyhoo, many of the stores were open and it was nice to walk through. I stumbled into one of my favorite stores, Bijuju and they were having a SALE. One of the things that I have gotten really bad about lately is not wearing my jewelry. I love to wear bracelets and I have just gotten out of the habit. I bought myself some pretty arm candy yesteday... for all of $4. I love these bracelets! They also had a deal with their clearance stuff... buy one get one free and I loaded up on bangles too. I am so glad I did, I have missed my bracelets! 





Today has been COLD and rainy, so Pitty Pat and I have stayed in. I have tried to catnap through the day since I didn't sleep any last night. Also, our heat it out downstairs again.. so we will be sleeping upstairs tonight. My HVAC guy can't make it until tomorrow. So here's hoping for a full night's sleep and some rest for us. At least we will be warm upstairs! 

Tootles!
:) JKP