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Nothing like a homemade chicken soup (Crockpot leftovers!)

30 Dec 2009 by Just Precious

Its bitter outside. But its homey and warm inside. Because a few nights ago I crockpotted a whole chicken, then turned the left overs into a warm chicken soup. So easy you’re going to hate me because you never did this before. So good you’ll love me because you’ll start making it all the time.

Ingredients

  • 1 whole chicken (about 5 lbs)
  • chicken broth (about a cup)
  • salt
  • pepper
  • paprika
  • peeled orange
  • yellow cooking onion, cut into crescent moons
  • carrots
  • favorite chicken spices (tarragon, thyme, whatever you like. Optional)

Get Cookin’

  1. thoroughly wash chicken (remove the giblets!), stuff orange segments inside and place in crockpot
  2. around chicken, place a pound of baby carrots, or regular carrots cut into bite-size pieces, and onion pieces
  3. sprinkle paprika, salt and pepper (and any optional spices and herbs) on top (to taste)
  4. pour 1/2 cup to 1 cup chicken broth around chicken
  5. set crock pot to “slow cook” 8-10 hours.

Check to ensure the internal temp is ideal for chicken, then serve your dinner. Chicken will be very soft and fall off the bone.

Because you’re sure to have leftovers, here’s dinner number two:

Ingredients

  • leftovers (above)
  • 2-4 stalks celery, cut into moons
  • more onions and/or carrots, if necessary
  • more chicken broth, if necessary (this depends on how brothy you like it. I don’t usually add any).

Get Cookin’

  1. STRIP your chicken. Dispose of all bones and skin. You can store the leftovers in the fridge overnight before preparing soup if you would like.
  2. Combine ingredients in a pot and simmer.
  3. That’s it. No. Really.

Star Power Rating: Is there anything better than homemade chicken soup on a bitter day? I don’t think so. 5 out of 5.

Notes for Next Time: The huz added a lot more salt and pepper than I did. The directions are “to taste.” I suppose he has better taste. Use your judgement and don’t be shy with your spieces.

Category: Just Precious is Cookin'  Tags: , , , ,  2 Comments

He doesn’t know his princesses, either

29 Dec 2009 by Just Precious

In October, I realized that my boys didn’t know their princesses. And, so, for the past 2 and a half months I have schooled them. Trained them. At times practically sat on them to make sure they watched every single princess movie they didn’t know at Disney on Ice: 100 Years of Magic. And short of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (which, mind you, I did “borrow” from the library, but it was VHS and I couldn’t tame the tracking because the tape was in such bad shape) they were able to completely follow the Princess sequence last night at Disney on Ice: Let’s Celebrate.  So well, in fact, that Middle proclaimed the Princesses were his favorite part. (More specifically, when Mickey became Minnie’s prince was his “actual favorite part.”)

So, I’m feeling pretty proud that the boys are now prepped to charm with their Princess knowledge. But, of course, there’s always something, right? And tonight that something happened to be that it was my husband’s first ever Disney on Ice.  And he didn’t know his princesses. In fact, about half-way through the sequence (a bit before Tiana danced on the ice) he leaned over and commented, “are all of these people supposed to be Disney stories?”

Which made me realize that I now have less than 2 months to school my husband on the princesses. Because there is no way I’m going to retell each and every story to him as we run up to each princess asking for an autograph or picture while at Disney World.

Disney on Ice: Let’s Celebrate celebrates some of children’s favorite holidays through the characters of favorite stories. It begins celebrating Unbirthdays (of course with the Mad Hatter, Alice and the White Rabbit, as well as Pinocchio, Gepetto, and the Fairy), and continues celebrating Halloween (with a collection of evil villians like Captain Hook and Cruella DeVille), Valentine’s Day (that’s the Princess segment, of course), summer vacation and, of course, Christmas.

Now, this is where I have to bring up the fact that such a big deal was made over celebrating Christmas. In fact, most of the holidays mentioned were commercialized religious holidays. And it really wouldn’t bother me, had there been even one tiny mention, or even one little song that mentioned so many of the other holidays left out. Holidays like 4th of July, Cinco de Mayo, Thanksgiving and, of course, Chanukah. Those are all holidays of celebration. And while I understand that most preschoolers don’t recognize the celebration in those holidays, wouldn’t it be great to help to introduce others to these celebrations?  Even with one song sung by a few characters that recognizes that there are hundreds of things to celebrate?

Okay, I’m  now down off my soapbox. Because the show was absolutely fantastic. The kids were mesmerized. The huz was concerned because he didn’t see movement from Middle for nearly the entire show. But that non-movement translated to complete focus and fascination of such a sensational spectacle. The music, the fireworks, the sets, the costumes, the characters. Everything was so real to the kids.

By-the-way, Big’s favorite part was the Christmas celebration. When I asked him it only confirmed what I already knew. When Jessie, Buzz and Woody skated out with the toys he jumped out of his seat with excitement.

Oooooh. WDW here we come! I’m just so excited to see my kids there.

Disney on Ice: Let’s Celebrate is at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia through January 3. You can get discount tickets with coupon MOM at comcasttix.com. Follow this link for more information.

I’m a Feld Family Activator (through Mom Central). As an FFA, I received tickets for my family to attend Disney on Ice last night. Many thanks to FELD Entertainment and Mom Central!

Category: parenting  Tags: , , ,  One Comment

Whatever happened to… Precious Personalities?!

23 Dec 2009 by Just Precious

This week, while checking out Just-Precious’ stats, I noticed a large number of searches related to Precious Personalities. And it reminded me that I haven’t blogged about good ol’ PP in a while. Because. Its not there. Go ahead. Click on it.

Owning and managing a boutique was a dream for years. And when Big was about a year old I decided to make it happen. It was wonderful. I loved shopping for others. I loved finding new products that weren’t at the Big Box stores. I loved making people’s shopping experiences pleasurable. And I still do. And will always love to do that.  

So why? Where did it go? Well… When you purchase a domain (that’s a URL), you purchase it through a site host. Which I did. Over 5 years ago. Sadly, my computer crashed about 2 years later with all of my records for Precious Personalities.  And when it was time to renew the domain every password in my book wouldn’t get me in to my site host. Strangely, they didn’t offer a feature to send or reset my password. Infact, when I called and spoke to several people I was informed that while they still did host the domain, they had some sort of a problem on their end and couldn’t access my account. So whether or not my password was missing suddenly didn’t matter. There was absolutely no flipping way they could access it. And neither could I. Rather irresponsible, right?

What’s more, because they had ownership of the domain, even though they couldn’t access my account, they could still send me e-mails stating that I needed to renew and could “park” my domain.

Now, parking my domain is very kind of them. Really. No one can just grab it because it belongs to them. Even though the name has been copywritten by me, the domain belongs to the site host. And if anyone (ie me) wants to own PreciousPersonalities.com you have to go through the site host that I went with 5+ years ago. 5+ years ago, this site host was consistently rated in the top 10 hosts. Ironically, now its difficult to find them on a site hosting listing. Hmmm… wonder why?

So, here’s the deal with Precious Personalities. I’m holding out. I’m waiting for the site host to unpark my copywritten title so that I can scoop it up through a (currently) more reputable host. Like JustHost.com (who hosts Just-Precious.com). Because I am simply not crazy enough to purchase my domain hosting through a company so disorganized that they can’t seem to access my account and do anything.

And then. And then I’ll have to rebuild Precious Personalities. From. Scratch. Which isn’t a job that takes a few minutes. No. Hours.

So, please. Bare with me. I have one outstanding order and the orderer knows that it won’t be delivered until February. Per his request. Otherwise, I’m not taking orders. I’m not filling orders. I don’t have a store or an e-mail address. And I’m sorry. Because I do love shopping for my customers and finding amazing new products to stock my shelves. Products you won’t find anywhere in the Big Box stores.

I do plan for Precious Personalities to be back. Eventually.

Category: Diaper Bags, Organization, Personalized Gifts, Shower Gifts, jewelry  Tags:  One Comment

Blogging it forward: Great gifts for 6 month olds

22 Dec 2009 by Just Precious

snuggle pod

I’m very, very grateful. This weekend we received a very generous check from my Grandmother, specifically requesting that we spend $xx on each child in gifts this holiday. With her permission, I’m saving about half of that so that they can select gifts on our upcoming trip to Disney. But because I want to make sure that they open something under the tree, I went back to their amazon lists and selected a gift for Big and a gift for Middle that hadn’t yet been purchased. (Incase you’re just so curious, Big will receive a wooden chess board and Middle is getting Battat’s Dalmation Vet Kit.) But Little doesn’t need much, much less want anything. Still, wanting for her to open something under the tree, I ran a google search for 6 month old present.

Rather than reinventing the wheel, here’s an awesome list of gifts for 6 month t0 1 year olds. In the end, I decided on gifting Manhattan Toy’s Snuggle Pod, though the decision was tough. It came down to the Snuggle Pod, Infantino Penguin Bowling, and the Melissa & Doug Bug Jug. Finally decided on the Snuggle Pod because I could use my Amazon Prime. It does make a difference.

Disclosure: Nothing was given to me for this post. Other than a generous gift from my grandmother. Thanks Nani!

Category: Baby Gifts, blogging it forward  Tags: ,  One Comment

Sometimes the best Saturdays are spontaneous time with friends, no matter how messy the house is

21 Dec 2009 by Just Precious

So, if I tell you I live in the Philly suburbs, you’ll probably figure that this post has got to be about snow, right? Because we were bombarded by a blizzard and blah blah blah we were snowed in all weekend.

And, because I know you’ve been reading my blog, you also realize were were snowed in sans-oven.

Finally, because you know me so well, you realize that I do my grocery shopping on Mondays. Not Fridays. No matter what kind of storm is coming. And, one more, that the house is cleaned every-other-Wednesday, period.

So, when 18 inches was dumped on us on Saturday, Whitney e-mailed asking about a snow playdate. Which, naturally, was at my house because we have the bigger and steeper hill and the playset with a slide which, we recently learned, creates a kick-butt sledding experinece.

They walked over in probably record time and Big and Middle joined them in the snow. The huz was stuck on a work call, the house was a mess, Little was asleep. So my few minutes of free time were not spent devoted to cleaning. Or attempting to fix an oven.

Instead I grabbed 2 boxes of Mac n Cheese and cooked them on our working stove. And when the kids came in, starving they ate and ran to the basement to play. Which left me to entertain Whitney and Hubby while Huz was still on the phone.

I opened the fridge. Empty. The pantry. Empty. The basement fridge. Beer. (Now, that was a good thing.) And in the freezer were about 4 boxes of frozen Texican finger foods, all needing the oven. Luckily, while I don’t do the grocery store on Fridays, I had run to Bed Bath and Beyond for Hot Chocolate K-cups and grabbed a convection/toaster oven at the same time. So in my tiny oven I heated mini chicken tacos, TJ’s chicken quesadillas, Taquitos and fish sticks. All afternoon.

The huz finally got off the phone, for a bit, and the adults enjoyed about an hour of buttery-nipple shots, beer, and toasted foods. In a messy house. With kids playing in the basement. And back out to the snow again. And back in again. And a messier house (not again. Still.)

And while our plans for a Christmas weekend with my mother-in-law and an 80th birthday party for my grandmother were scrapped, our unplanned events created one of our most relaxing (except for the work calls) and naturally fun Saturdays in months.

So what did I learn this week? That often the best Saturdays are spontaneous. No matter the mess. No matter the quality of the food. No matter the gifts and plans. Sometimes its better to just let life happen.

This post is in response to Jo-Lynne’s What I’ve Learned this Week Carnival. Thanks for inspiring me to write tonight, Jo-Lynne!

Category: blogging it forward, parenting  5 Comments

Oh no he didn’t!

21 Dec 2009 by Just Precious

This is not a conversation, but some recent one liners:

Huz:  wow, if my dad gave me a bowl of carrots for snack, I’d throw them at him. What’s wrong with our kids?

Big: In Kindergarten, we don’t have a caboose. We have more substantial jobs. (like what?) Leader.

Middle: Mommy, is Santa really watching at Shabbat?

Nana: Well, the next time you talk to the doctor, you tell him Nana suggests cereal. (Mom, you swore you’d never…)

Friend who recently became a Grandmother: I read him a story. He paid attention. He’s going to Harvard.

Me: Guilt. What guilt? Sorry, I don’t have any guilt. Oh….

Category: blogging it forward, parenting  One Comment

5 Things… I know won’t be done by Christmas

21 Dec 2009 by Just Precious
  1. cookies won’t be freshly made for santa (due to that minor problem of the broken oven). Hey! I hear he likes Rice Krispie Treats, too!
  2. Big still won’t have newbedding because I haven’t found one I like for the price I like. Poor kid. His blankets are seriously falling apart.
  3. I won’t have finished holiday shopping. Its true. Even by Christmas. I know we won’t have a gift for the huz and I’ll need to quickly come up with a picture of something to wrap and say “its coming.”
  4. putting together the SD card for MIL’s gift (a digital frame.) But this one isn’t my fault. This is because SILs and BILs haven’t feakin’ replied to the request for pics.
  5. Decorating my tree. But I have a good reason. Our super-big strand of lights is broken. And I don’t want to buy a new strand until the after Christmas sales have started. (Yes, you can throw tomatoes at that one.)
Category: 5 Things...  One Comment

Whip it up Meat Sauce over big tubey noodles

17 Dec 2009 by Just Precious

Yes, really. This is what we called Monday night’s dinner. When our dinner plans fail us, the huz and I challenge each other to “whip something up.” And so, being failed by a “faulty” (ha!) oven, I was challenged to “whip something up.”

Ingredients

  • 1 pound ground beef
  • EVOO
  • 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
  • 1/2 yellow onion, diced
  • salt &pepper
  • oregano
  • basil
  • big tube noodles (I’m so sure any noodles would work with this one!)
  • grated parmesean

Get Cookin’

  • Ina large pan, brown ground beef and saute onions (together) in about 1 Tablespoon EVOO
  • Drain beef/onions
  • over medium heat put beef/onions back in pan and add tomatoes and seasonings (determine amount by taste). Cook through about 5-10 minutes.
  • Meanwhile cook the noodles in a pot, according to package directions
  • Serve meat sauce over noodles, topped with parmesean

Star Power Rating: Noodles. Noodles. Noodles. Any time I serve noodles the kids will give it 2 thumbs up. 2 big thumbs up. So, from them, this would be a 5-star meal. And Big really liked the sauce. But the huz and I agreed something was missing. It lacked in the seasonings department. I could so easily have added more basil or oregano. Or cinnamom. Or veggies. So, this really only gets a 2.5 out of 5. Because it was bland. Though easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy to make.  And despite the rating, I can totally make it again, and will.

Notes for next time: Perhaps I’ll make it a goal for 2010 to perfect my home made meat sauce. Some ideas: use fresh basil. add more seasoning. include a little garlic (though not much, I don’t like garlic). toss in some capers. or a bay leaf. saute in other diced veggies like peppers or ’shrooms or zukes. Just make it tastier. This is a good start…

Category: Just Precious is Cookin'  Tags:  One Comment

Send a Warm Fuzzy and help 1-800-FLOWERS donate $5,000 to Toys for Tots

16 Dec 2009 by Just Precious

 

The Chester County Moms Holiday Extravaganza was so inspiring that I now find myself drawn to Toys for Tots promotions, collection boxes, even signs with their logo. I just never realized before how important this organization is.

Hearing about the 9,000 children who are signed up to recieve toys this year just in Chester and Western Montgomery Counties (PA) alone was a huge eye-opener. If there are 9,000 children here in my immediate area, how many are there throughout the US? The number, sadly, is larger than I can begin to imagine.

So I’m really excited to be a part of 1-800-FLOWERS promotion that will help 1-800-FLOWERS donate $5000 to the Toys for Tots national program this holiday season. Here’s the deal:

  • click here to access the Warm Fuzzy page on Facebook
  • Then send an absolutely free Warm Fuzzy via e-mail to anyone (don’t reveal your name though, the warm fuzzy is a Secret Santa and your name will be revealed at the end of the promotion on December 21.)
  • After sending the Warm Fuzzy, you’ll receive a 15% discount coupon to use on your next 1-800-FLOWERS order

 

  • 1800flowerssecretsanta

If 10,000 Warm Fuzzies are sent before the deadline (which I believe is December 21), 1-800-FLOWERS will donate $5,000 dollars to Toys for Tots.

I tested it out and sent a Warm Fuzzy to me. (Hey, I needed a little WF, so why not give myself some love?) I clicked through to the 1-800-FLOWERS Facebook Fan page (and, yes, now all my friends know I’m a fan, but, hey, its for a good cause). Then I clicked on the Warm Fuzzy and added my “friend’s” e-mail address. That “friend” (yes, I sent it to me, so I’m now my own friend) recieved the e-mail less than a minute later. The e-mail included an image of a wrapped gift and requested the recipient click through to receive a Warm Fuzzy. At which point the recipient is linked back to the Facebook page and sees the WF. And then is told that she’ll find out who her Secret Santa is when she returns on December 21. She’ll also get another discount code at that time.

Simple. Harmless. And its for an amazing cause. So send one to yourself. Then send one to your sister, mama, best friend and Auntie Clementine in Reno. Every warm fuzzy counts as they work to send 10,000. In fact, each Warm Fuzzy you send basically equals $.50 in the collection for Toys for Tots.

And that should make you feel warm and fuzzy all over.

I received nothing but goodness in my heart to post this blog for 1-800-FLOWERS. However, in the full interest of disclosure, they may offer me a bouquet for posting it. And if they do, that’s very kind. And if they don’t, that’s fine because my heart is a little warmer and fuzzier this holiday season.

Category: blogging it forward  3 Comments

Dinners when living life without an oven

16 Dec 2009 by Just Precious

Hopefully my lack of recipes has now been explained in the post below. You see, I’m without an oven this week. And while I often don’t use an oven, not having one at all has thrown me. In fact, I when I prepared my menu and shopping list for the week, I planned on meals that didn’t require an oven. But did require Halibut. And when I arrived at Wegmans to find there was no Halibut, I quickly changed my mind to a prepared salmon dish, forgetting there was no oven. Oh. How quickly I forget.

So…

Sunday night we rewarded our patience with the huz and the oven and headed to Iron Hill Brewery where the kids enjoyed chicken fingers and grilled cheese (get 2 and share), DH had a cheeseburger and I loved their chicken fajita salad.

Monday night, when I had mistakenly planned on the Halibut-fish soup but subbed it for a prepared baked salmon, I improvised and created noodles with homemade meat sauce. Not bad for using what was around the kitchen.

Tuesday morning I borrowed a neighbor’s oven (yes, I was desperate) and baked the salmon. Then heated it in the microwave with canned (I know, gross) green beans.

Wednesday night. Heated frozen Taquitos in the microwave. Served with salsa, mandarin oranges and peaches.

Sigh. I want to cook. I do. But I’m not feeling it without my oven.

(for the record, as I type this, the huz thinks he knows what the issue is with the oven, but “can’t deal with it now.”)

Category: Just Precious is Cookin'  One Comment
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