Join Me in the Kitchen

I thought I would invite you into my kitchen tonight since I decided I'd try some new things :-)

#1: Poppy seed chicken. I found the recipe browsing online, and it sounded delicious.

#2: Mashed Potatoes. I have seriously never made them. The first meal my mom ever made my dad was mashed potatoes and gravy, and she said the gravy was like mashed potatoes (thick) and the potatoes were like gravy (runny). I've been scared to try to make these because of my mom's horror story.

I threw the chicken in a pot to boil, and went about cutting up the red skin potatoes (my best friend/domestic goddess next door told me they make the best mashed potatoes) I realized....DUH! I need GRAVY for my mashed potatoes. Oops...things like this are why I've gotten a reputation as a ditz! Oh well, I decided to make some parsley red skin potatoes instead, since I don't really know how to make gravy either :-P

Moving on. So here is the process I followed to make the poppy seed chicken. I told you I was inviting you into the kitchen :-) (It was delicious, you should try this recipe!)

I Boiled 4 chicken breasts
I mixed a 16 ounce container of sour cream, 1 can cream of chicken soup, and one can of cream of celery soup together.

I'm a little grossed out that it calls for a whole 16 ounce container of sour cream. Are we going to have heart attacks later tonight??
Looks kinda gross so far
While I waited for the chicken and potatoes to be done, I turned these crackers:
Into this
this recipe is one that you should make when you've had a bad day so you can take out your aggression on the defenseless crackers :-)

I had a chair sitting beside the counter so I could reach all my ingredients in the cupboards...Gabby decided she wanted to watch me cook. She so desperately wants some "people food." We're not sure why. She's never had any before, so we don't know why she begs like a dog for it. Oh well, she's cute anyway.

Anyway, when the chicken was done and cooled I tore it into bite-sized pieces. Or slightly bigger than bite-sized, because it was getting late and I was in a hurry! I got a late start because my sister called me and talked for about an hour (she is in the middle of a crisis with her roommate I guess). Grey's is on at 9, and I want to finish reading "The Constant Princess" so I can return it to the library tomorrow. I needed to hurry!

Next I put the chicken in the bottom of a casserole dish, spread the sour cream mixture on top, sprinkled on the crackers (1 stack, crushed) and poppyseeds (2 tsp). Then I realized the recipe called for THIS MUCH butter...we really are going to have heart attacks later:

It calls for 1/2 cup melted, in case you're wondering.

I drizzled the butter on top of everything else. Here's what it looked like before going into the oven. Is anyone else thinking it looks gross right now? I was a little nervous at this point
Right before I went to put it in the oven, I realized...oops! I had forgotten to preheat the oven to 350 degrees...that didn't help the fact that I was in a hurry! Anyway, it needs to bake for 20 - 25 minutes.
I made my potatoes while the chicken cooked. And of course poured two tall glasses of freshly made sweet (VERY sweet) iced tea...it's pretty much all we drink. We're not healthy people :-P Although I'm working on it!

And here you have it...the finished product. (Still working on making the food look pretty on the plate. Apparently I haven't learned that skill yet. Ha!)

Ready to be eaten at 7:30. We never eat that late! We were both starving. Anyway, it was a hit! Luke is very picky...he liked it and told me to make it again sometime! It was pretty easy, and it made a lot. I'm thinking it will be perfect for family reunions this summer :-)

That's all for tonight...another kitchen disaster avoided (those are my thoughts everytime I cook something that I don't horribly mess up somehow!)