Happy Spring to the beautiful blogging world! Things have been very busy in the Putter household. School is of course keeping me busy as usual, and Mr. P is tied up with several projects at work too. But we have had a little bit of time to play this spring.
Before I get into my usual ramblings on life, I want to send well wishes to all the people affected by recent tornadoes. We were spared here in Kentucky, but many other southern states were hit hard, especially North Carolina. I hope that all my friends in the blog world are okay.
The week before last was Spring Break for me and I enjoyed every minute of it! The first weekend of spring break, I went to Nashville and spent some time with my family. My sister in law and I had a great time together. We went out to lunch with my mom here, and then did some serious shopping. First we stopped here and browsed a little. I still hadn’t gotten my dress for the wedding, and she hadn’t gotten hers either, so that was our main focus. I finally found my dress...and I found it at Stein-Mart for a great price. I’m so excited about this dress-it’s different from my usual style, but I loved it from the minute I tried it on. Now I’m trying to work out shoes, accessories, etc. to go with it, along with the rest of my outfits for the weekend. I love out of town weddings, especially with my family, but the packing and outfit planning is a big job! I'll post about the dress and some other shopping finds later on this week.
The second weekend of spring break, we took our travel trailer out for the first time and camped with two other families. We were right outside of Mammoth Cave National Park, so it was a beautiful area. The weather was also beautiful and we had a great weekend.
Back in March, I had the opportunity to attend the Women of Joy conference with some other women from our small group. What an awesome experience it was! It was an absolutely uplifting weekend that I desperately needed. In addition to the great speakers, we also heard some wonderful and uplifting music by Charles Billingsley and we got to see Casting Crowns in concert too! If this conference comes to your area, I highly recommend attending-preferably with some good friends!
It's Sunday, so let's get on with the Sunday Supper recipes! It’s not what we are having for dinner tonight (tonight is steak, baked potatoes, and squash casserole) but here is a yummy chicken poppy seed casserole recipe that I got from my cousin’s wife, along with a poppy seed bread recipe.
Poppy Seed Chicken Casserole
2 Herb Roasted Chickens (already cooked) from your local grocery/deli
1 16 ounce container of sour cream (can use low-fat if you want)
2 cans of cream of chicken soup (can also use low-fat)
1 box of Ritz Crackers
12 tbsp. butter (1 ½ sticks), melted
2-3 tbsp. Poppy Seeds
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Remove the meat from the chickens, tearing into 1-2 inch pieces. Add sour cream, soup, and 2 tbsp of poppy seed to the chicken and stir well. In a separate bowl, crush up one tube of Ritz crackers. Add crushed crackers to the chicken mixture and stir in well.
Crush up the remaining three tubes of crackers. Take 1-2 cups of crackers and add 2-3 tbsp of the melted butter and stir until well moistened. Pour the buttered cracker crumbs into an 8 x 13 casserole dish and spread out well in the bottom of the dish. Take the chicken mixture and pour half of it into the casserole dish over the layer of crackers. Take another 1-2 cups of crackers with 2-3 tbsp. of butter, mix well, and spread out over the chicken mixture. Pour the rest of the chicken mixture over the over the crackers and top with one more layer of buttered cracker crumbs. Sprinkle poppy seeds across the top.
Bake for 25-30 minutes or until casserole begins to bubble. Serves 8-10
Poppy Seed Bread
3 cups flour
2 ½ cups granulated sugar
1 ½ tsp. baking powder
1 ½ tsp. salt
3 eggs
1 ½ cups milk
1 ½ cups vegetable oil
1 ½ tbsp. poppy seeds
1 ½ tsp. vanilla flavoring
1 ½ tsp. almond flavoring
1 ½ tsp. butter flavoring
Glaze:
¾ cup granulated sugar
¼ cup orange juice
½ tsp. vanilla
½ tsp. almond flavoring
½ tsp. butter flavoring
Combine all of the main ingredients and beat for 2 minutes with a medium speed mixer. Bake in two large, greased loaf pans for 1 hour.
Glaze: Combine all of the glaze ingredients and mix well with a wire whisk. Pour over hot, just-out-of-the-oven bread.
Enjoy! Just don’t eat too much of either if you have an upcoming drug test-hee hee! Does anyone else remember that episode of Seinfeld?
Hope that everyone has a great week!
