Good For The Soul Chicken Soup

 I pinned this soup a while ago and thought it was a great idea. So when the whole family was fighting a cold this week I thought I'd break out the slow cooker for this yummy looking soup to help give this cold a final farewell. I didn't have all the same ingredients this recipe called for but I knew I could make a great tasting soup with what I had on hand. Here's the original pin,  but this is what I did for my recipe:

I got out all my ingredients. I had a frozen chicken but I figured it would cook just fine if I turned my cooker on high, plus I love the flavor (not to mention nutrients) from using bones.

I put my chicken in the slow cooker and chopped my celery, carrots and red onion into small pieces.

I had some lemongrass left over from another recipe and wanted to use it up and thought it would add some great flavor. (To use lemon grass you just sort of bash it with the back of your knife, I also added a few slits in it and threw it in the pot).

I tossed all my nicely chopped veggies on top of my chicken in the slow cooker and poured an entire container of chicken broth on top. I then added about 2 cloves of garlic and some spices, the recipe called to add Rosemary by I'm not a huge fan so I added about 1 teaspoon poultry seasoning , 1 teaspoon thyme and some salt and pepper. 

Cover and cook on high (if you have a fresh chicken you can put it on low) 6-7 hrs. After the 7 hours I pulled my chicken out and the meat just fell of the bones, I gave it a rough chop and tossed it back in. About 30 mins before we wanted to eat I added a little bit of macaroni pasta. After I spooned it into my bowls I topped it with a little freshly chopped parsley.

Doesn't it look delicious! My secret ingredient is to add a few (about 3-4) drops of hot sauce per bowl, this doesn't make the soup super spicy just gives it a pleasant heat. My husband and I had two bowls each and he said that it was the best soup he ever had.

Here is a printable recipe for my version here.

Elmer's Glue on Canvas

I had seen this Pin for Elmer's Glue on canvas a million times and thought to myself "hey this looks like a super easy fun project." So I thought I would give it a go!

I had my canvas, I had my glue.
I decided to do it free hand and it didn't take me long to get into a groove.  I love projects where you can let your artistic inner self out!  I thought it looked great, so I left it to dry overnight and hoped for the best!

The next morning, I come downstairs for my morning coffee and take a peek at my beautiful piece of art only to find that it was beautiful no more!

 The glue dried flat on my canvas! What a fail!  Right away I clicked on the link for the pin to see what I had done wrong only to find that this was not Elmer's Glue on canvas at all.  It was actually Puffy Paint on wax paper, then glued onto Canvas!  Definitely not the easy project it first seemed.
I decided not to give up on this project and decided to paint over it anyway with some grey pearlescent paint just to see what kind of result I would get.  Here is what it looked like.

Not a total fail, but not at all the result I was hoping for.  That's why I would suggest you take a pass on this Pin.

Clementine Candle

The other day a reader sent us a special request to test out a pin.  A pin that's been floating around Pinterest for years and re-pinned A LOT! The Clementine candle Pin.  I remembered trying this pin when I first started a Pinterest account and it was a total fail.  It was actually in my Pinterest fails board when I checked. So I clicked the link and watched the tutorial to find out that when I had done it the first time I hadn't watched the tutorial.  In fact I don't think I even clicked the link. So I was ready to try again in hopes of a success story.

I cut around the clementine (not all the way through just through the skin), then I carefully put my finger in and pulled the skin away from the flesh. I thought this would be the hard part, it wasn't.

 The hard part was getting what would end up being your wick out. It's that long piece of white pith that runs up the middle of the orange.  I kept getting both "bowls" off but no wick. This time I gently rolled the orange  and squeezed it and the wick came out  (I don't know if this helped or if my orange was just more ripe).

You then put olive oil in your bowl end with the wick, I made sure to drip a few drops of oil on my wick. Let it sit a few minutes so the wick soaks up the oil.

 In the meantime cut a design or just a hole in the top end of your clementine. Then lite, place lid on and enjoy.

 SO it worked! I was pretty surprised, I was thinking this was going to be a fail again. But it worked and was really pretty.

Only one catch, it doesn't smell pretty.  I know what you're thinking, nice warm orange smell, what's not to love.  It smells burnt, nothing like you think it will.  Mine burned for 30 minutes with the lid on, then I couldn't take the smell anymore.  I let it burn a bit more with the lid off for a total of 1 hour. I would say you need to try this at least once.  Be prepared to eat a lot of oranges and to not enjoy the smell.

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Oven Baked BBQ Chicken Drumsticks

Chicken Drumsticks went on sale this week so I picked up a couple of packs. I went onto Pinterest to find a recipe.  I was in the mood for finger lickin' sticky drumsticks for supper.  I picked a recipe that had a few hundred repins hoping for a good one.  When I clicked through to the recipe, there honestly wasn't much of a recipe there. The ingredients were: 3 - 3 1/2 lbs. chicken, 2 cups barbecue sauce and an unspecified amount of garlic powder, seasoned salt, salt and pepper.  At first I thought "no way, I'm looking up another recipe" but I ended up giving it a try for better or for worse.  I found the method curious also, I felt she cooked them for a long, long time.  I usual cook my chicken for a shorter amount of time but at a higher heat.  But I followed all the directions (well almost all of the directions) and here is how it went.

Here's what you need.  

This is the part where I didn't follow the directions.  They said to put a rack on a baking sheet and put tin foil over top of the chicken and cover it tightly.  I have never cooked bone-in chicken covered with foil.  Perhaps she did this to keep it from overcooking and drying out, she didn't say.  But this honestly is an awful idea.  If you want to achieve that crispy outside on the chicken you need to cook it uncovered. Your chicken won't be dry, unless you cook it too long.

Now I experimented with the measurements for the seasoning a bit and here's what I came up with.  2 teaspoons garlic powder (if you only have garlic salt, just omit the regular salt), 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Notice I omitted the seasoned salt. To tell you the truth I had missed this ingredient when I read the recipe. It probably would have been to salty if I had added it though.  Mix these three ingredients well and either sprinkle all over the chicken or mix in a bowl with the chicken.  Just make sure you get an even coating, this really helps getting the chicken crispy.  Come to think of it, this would be a great alternative to Shake and Bake! 

I highly recommend spraying your rack with non-stick spray.  It will save some frustration!

Place your drumsticks on the rack and get this into the lower half of the oven at 350°F.  Bake for 45 minutes, flipping halfway through.

Pull the chicken out and brush it on all sides with barbecue sauce.

I ended up mixing 2 barbecue sauces together here.  I love the flavor of the Diana Rib and Chicken sauce and the President's Choice Tequila Habanero, it's sweet and spicy.  But most importantly, it's sticky which is so good for this recipe.

Return chicken to the oven and bake for another 30 minutes.  Then crank the heat up to 450°F and baste the chicken again with the barbecue sauce.  I basted one side, baked for 2-3 minutes and then basted the other side and baked for another 2-3 minutes.  You should keep an eye on it at this stage because the sugars in the barbecue sauce can start to burn pretty easily.

Don't they look good! I could have eaten the whole batch on my own. They were perfectly cooked!  Not dry at all.

Love that sticky crispy skin!  I served mine with oven fries and steamed asparagus.

Click here for a printable recipe.

Tote Bags

Every second week I host an art/music class for kids 4 and under (yes I'm slightly crazy).  It's a "mommy and me" class as I like to call it.  All my crafts are Pinterest projects and I usually test them out on my almost three year old before we do them with others.  We've had some great projects. This weeks project was a huge hit, every single kid loved this one.  I know I sound surprised but I have a large age range (1-4) and so sometimes it's hard to find something that everyone can do and will love to do.  This project was a great success!  This is the original Pin.

Now unless you have a very meticulous child your bag will look nothing like this, but it's really not about the end result it's about the process and how much your child enjoyed it! 

All you need is a blank canvas bag, acrylic paint, and some fruits and veggies. We used apples and limes cut in half and we cut the root (bottom) off of a bunch of celery and lettuce to make our stamps.

I really think the key to this project was using fruits and vegetables as stamps. Everyone was excited to see what kind of shape an apple, lime and celery would make.

 PS. Don't skip using the bottom of a cut celery as a stamp it made the coolest most flower-like print.

We found our blank canvas tote bags at the Dollarama. 

DIY Wall Art

This week I attempted to create some art for my home.  Here's what I was going for.

According to the tutorial the idea here is to pick up some thrift store art, a painting, canvas, whatever inspires.  I really love the red one in the middle that looks like it has sheet music in the background.  So I decided to play by my own rules. 

I found the 'keep calm and carry on' decal at the new Dollar Tree that opened up in my city.  My idea was to glue some pages from a Sherlock Holmes novel I had lying around to a canvas.  Very British! 

First I pulled out the pages I wanted to use, and placed them on the canvas.  Once I had them organized how I liked I started gluing them down.  Note that you really don't need too much glue.  If you use too much you could cause the pages to bubble.  You'll see in the picture of my finished product that this is what happened to me.  

Next place your letters on the canvas, making sure you have enough room.  Don't start sticking them on until you have it just right.  You don't want to run out of room.  These decals were very delicate and might break if you have to take them off and restick them. 

All that's left to do is paint the entire canvas in one solid color.  It's up to you whether you paint a thick layer so you can't see any of the background showing through or a thin layer.  I personally liked to see a little bit of the pages showing through.  

Here's my finished product.  Sorry it's not the greatest picture.  The flash added a bit too much shine.  Notice the ripples on the left side of the canvas.  If I do this project again I'll use less glue.  

I was very happy with the result when I pulled off the letters.  The paint didn't bleed at all.  Not to bad for a decal that cost me $1.25.  This pin isn't fool proof, and would definitely be easier using an art piece from the thrift store as in the tutorial.  But its fun, and I'm excited to hang it under my book shelf.

Superbowl Wings

I'm not much of a football fan, mostly because I don't understand the game.  But most of my friends are and we usually end up hosting a Super Bowl party.  I don't mind since I love good food, wine and friendly company, this year was no different.  We all decided to do a few appetizer type foods since we usually end up with way too much food left over and we hate wasting (a lesson I'm trying to teach my little one.  No you cannot have one of each kind of granola bar but only eat half of each).  What was I to contribute?...Pinterest to the rescue.  I found two recipes that looked delicious and quick and since my almost 3 year old was being demanding the last few days I had to find something I could put together with minimal monitoring.  I found this recipe (fairly healthy I might add) and everyone including a 1 year old and my almost 3 year old gobbled them up.  A few days later my husband requested the baked wings again.  I guess he wasn't quick on the draw with the Super Bowl ones, they went quick. So I documented the cooking experience for you this time.

 Step #1 Add together 2 tablespoons of melted butter (I used salted butter and didn't add the extra salt) 1 tablespoon vegetable oil, pepper to taste and 1 teaspoon of garlic powder, stir around.

Step #2 Place chicken wings on a wire rack on an aluminium foil lined baking sheet (original link doesn't mention this, but with added butter if you just place on a baking sheet the wings won't get as crispy since they will be sitting in the liquid butter) bake at 400°C.

Step #3 Make glaze, add 5 tablespoons of butter to saucepan, melt and then whisk in 1 tablespoon of flour.  Let cook for a minute or 2 to get slightly brown. 

Step #4 Add the rest of glaze ingredients, 1/4 cup of honey, 1/4 cup (or less if you don't like it that spicy, although I think this is the perfect amount) Sriracha sauce, 1 tablespoon soy sauce and the juice of 1 lime.  Stir and bring to a boil for 1 min until thickened slightly. 

Note: I would recommend starting to cook your wings first then make your glaze during the last 10 mins of cooking time (I made mine first and then baked the wings, the longer my glaze sat the thicker it got which made it difficult to brush on the wings after).

Feel free to substitute store bought or your own homemade BBQ sauce here.  We've tried this recipe with both and they always turn out amazing! 

Mid-cooking my husband came upstairs and said "your missing the most important ingredient, always cook with a glass of wine." Why thank you kind sir, I don't mind if I do...

Back to the wings. When chicken wings are cooked, brush them with your glaze and broil for 3 minutes then flip, glaze other side and broil for another 3 minutes.

Finally step #5 You could totally omit this step but I think it made all the difference. Sprinkle cooked and glazed wings with finely chopped cilantro (if your not a cilantro fan try very finely chopped green onion) and sesame seeds.

The result was a crispy, sweet, with the right amount of heat delicious game day or any day chicken wing (the same satisfaction with a 1/2 of the mess of a fried wing = win win).

Here's the original recipe. Give it a try on your next game night!