Judy's Chicken & Rice

This recipe came from Judy at Patchwork Times quite a few years ago. I've tried to link to the original post, but her blog is no longer available. I didn't want to post the recipe without her permission and wasn't sure how to contact her, but I had an old email address and thankfully, it worked! I really enjoyed getting back in touch with her.

She was very gracious and gave me permission to share her recipe. 

I'm so glad I wrote this down when I did, because I would hate to lose it. I just made it the other day and thought of her. This is another family favorite.

Judy's Chicken & Rice - One Pot!

10 boneless, skinless chicken thighs

Oil for browning

2 Tbsp butter

1 diced onion

1 diced jalapeno

Mushrooms (I probably use about 7 or 8 diced up)

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 1/2 C rice

3 C chicken broth ( homemade or low sodium)

1 can peas, drained

*Season chicken (I use salt, pepper, granulated garlic, and paprika). Brown thighs in oil and butter in large saute pan. Remove from pan. Add a tad more butter if need be and add onion, jalapeno, mushrooms. Sautee for 5 or 6 minutes. Stir in garlic the last few minutes. Add rice and combine with sauteed vegetables, stirring together until rice browns a bit as it absorbs all that flavor. Stir in chicken broth, peas, and add chicken thighs back on top. Cover and simmer until broth has been absorbed, rice is tender, and chicken is cooked through.

I wish she still had her blog. She is an avid gardener and I could certainly use her wisdom as I begin my gardening journey here.

Edited to add that she shared the link to her new blog here Diary of Judy L

Thank you, Judy!

Progress Inside and Out

 Good progress is being made on the orchard

DH and I got the fence up on Wednesday

My shoulders and hands were toast on Thursday

but our son was out again so they got it stretched and hung the gate DH made.

I helped some more - mostly as a fence-holder-upper and puller. Then I trotted back to the house (just 1/2 a mile) and put together a Taco Pizza for dinner. (an old picture from when I first shared the recipe)

Special K Cookies for dessert

And then I treated myself to some time in my sewing room. I am making progress on the pink quilt for little E. She did a good job picking pinks from my stash.

I sewed and pressed and trimmed 100 flying geese (started them on Tuesday and worked on them some Wednesday, finishing them on Thursday). Then I cut everything for the 4-patches and started piecing those on Thursday.

E and  Skeet and I drove down to supervise the boys on Friday.

And to inspect their work. E exclaimed it to be excellent!

And more sticks were added to the mountain of trees DH cleared

Then, back at the house, I was hoping to get all the blocks together, but looking at the pattern, it emphasizes that this design is not block based. Instead, it is constructed in rows. Oye. E is excited to help so I saved some of the 4-patches for her and let her pair them up and run them through the machine as she sat on my lap.

Then she wanted some paper to write her own 'structions' for her next quilt so there's hope. 😉

Heard in the sewing room:

Gram: Oh, I've lost track of time! We'd better get crackin!

E: Oh, I wanna help crackin!

😂

Healthy Granola

 We're not big cereal eaters here, but once in a while we like a change from steel cut oats or the 6 different ways I'll fix eggs. When we DO get a hankering for cereal, I like Special K with craisins or Honey Bunches of Oats with a sliced banana and DH likes granola. I ran across this recipe a while back and and finally got around to making it last week.

                                                                     Healthy Granola

We both really liked it and will probably even just grab a handful every now and then for a quick snack. It didn't clump up as much as we would like, but I'll keep trying because it was delicious.

I've collected a good variety of recipes through the years that have become family favorites, but I still love finding and trying new ones and adding them to my permanent recipe book. This one earned a spot right away. I was laughing when I took this shot. Who takes a glamour shot of granola? 

Maybe I need to get out more, but the granola looked so pretty when the sun came through the windows.

Under the Needle: January

I know most folks don't love the month of January, but I'm in the minority. It may have something to do with where we live. We have sunshine over 300 days out of the year. Brilliant, clear blue skies are the norm here in our corner of the world, year-round. It was 12 degrees when I took this shot.

So even though we get below zero temps, snow, and have bitter cold winters some years, I don't have the excuse that the gloomy weather drives me into the sewing room. If I waited for inclement weather to sew, I'd never be in there. If anything, I would want to escape the heat of the summer, but since we moved to the mountains, even that hasn't been an issue.

I kicked off January by finishing up this Book Nook Quilt that now lives in Oklahoma.

I focused on my Balsam Gnome Quilt this month and made all the blocks. And then, since I figured I'd need 2 of these, I went ahead and cut and pieced all the blocks for the 2nd one and stitched them both into tops.

Our granddaughter helped pull fabrics for a pink quilt she requested a few months ago and I started cutting pieces. Next time she's here, I'll let her lay them out, but I thought it'd be easier if I went ahead and made all the flying geese first. I'm just getting started.

I'm using this Carrie Nelson pattern, but plan on making it a tad larger.

And then I went off the rails and started a completely new project. (Shaking head). After a conversation with my DIL that led to her asking if I had any flannel quilts up for adoption, I had to start one. I pulled a FQB from my stash and started cutting.

 I was able to make 80 blocks from the 20 fat quarters.

I also bound this Into the Woods Quilt so that's my 2nd finish for the year

 Just yesterday, I just started stitching the binding on this quilt in the evenings 

So the first month of the year allowed me to soak up the sun, spend some time working in the snow with DH, AND make some progress on projects. January was a good month. Wishing ya'll sunshine-y skies!