Chicken Pot Pie

My aunt gave me a recipe for chicken pot pie that she adapted from 2 recipes, and I changed it up a bit too. It turned out pretty good. 

What You Need:
3 large chicken breasts, cooked and chopped/shredded
1 (24 ounce) bag of frozen vegetables
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2.5 cups swanson chicken broth
2 9-inch pie shells (Mrs. Smiths is the best)
2 9-inch pie crusts for the top
Salt and Pepper to taste
Butter


What You Do:
(Pull out the shell to sit while you prepare) Cook and shred the chicken. Pour chicken broth in a pan and heat on medium. Slowly add the flour and whisk together. Add salt and pepper.

Cook vegetables according to package (usually just boiling them for a few minutes). Combine shredded chicken and vegetables in a bowl. Pour broth mixture over and stir. 

Pour mixture in to pie shells. Slice thin pats of butter and disperse on top of chicken and vegetable mixture before putting on the crust top. Cover with pie crust. Pinch edges to seal. 

Bake at 375 for 45 minutes, on top of a cookie sheet.

Friendsgiving 2013

We started our Friendsgiving tradition a few years back and this year we hosted it at our house! So I got the Christmas decorations out a bit early to give the house the holiday feel. 

We enjoyed lots of yummy food. Mariah and I did skewers of chicken, shrimp and veggies that Trey grilled. Allison brought apps and I helped her make this turkey veggie platter! And we had amazing desserts I had to stop myself from eating too much of. 

We found a few cute crafts on pinterest that we decided to make. Mariah created this tree for everyone to write something that they are thankful on and hopefully we can add to it next year. 

I designed this little tree for everyone to do their thumbprint on. Brenna's thumb slipped so she is the massive yellow blob ;) I took a canvas and modge podged the tree picture to it, just like I did with my gallery wall so that I can use it for decoration next fall. 

After stuffing ourselves full we played cards against humanity for a while, it was hilarious!

Thanksgiving Break

Thanksgiving break was packed full of family, food and fun. We headed to the mountains to Uncle Tom's Cabin for a couple of days to enjoy Thanksgiving with my dad's side of the family. The traffic leaving town Wednesday afternoon was TERRIBLE but we finally made it to the snow covered mountains :) We spent most of Thursday lounging around and enjoying each other's company.

 Lounging around in 2013... smart phones and gadgets in everyone's hands

 We headed to a tree lot up the road to buy Christmas trees straight from the ground! They were an awesome deal and it was really fun to go around and pick out our own tree from exactly where they grew.

 The also had wreaths for $1/inch

 Strapped on tight to make it back to Raleigh the next day.

 This huge tree was only $40! 

 Then we started preparing the feast... our marshmallows have failed us over the last few years, we were excited they didn't disappear this time!

 Such a fun couple of days. These 2 had a blast running around in the snow... they slept the whole way home.

Friday afternoon Trey and I put up our tree and prepared for Friendgiving that was being held at our house that night. Come back tomorrow for that post :)

Saturday was the last NCSU football game of the season. It has been a rough season but tailgating and enjoying time with our friends is always fun!

 Tyson was really excited about them throwing the frisbee to play kanjam

 We just decided to enjoy the game from the heat of the RV 

 

After the football game was a basketball game so we headed in to the PNC arena for that! Long day of cheering on the pack!

Sunday was full of laundry, beer brewing and Christmas shopping and before we knew it we were back to work.

Mini Pumpkin Pies

My job for Thanksgiving and Christmas is to make Nana's Pumpkin Pie. I doubled the recipe this year and made 2 regular pies and also had leftover filling so I decided to make some mini pies. I got the idea from pinterest but changed it up a bit. 

I used a package of the refrigerated pie crusts. The original poster told you to cut the pie pieces with a cookie cutter shaped like a pumpkin, well since I didn't have one I got creative and it worked just as good. I used my 1/4 cup measuring cup and cut as many little circles out of my pie crusts as I could.

I sprayed my mini muffin tin and put each little pie crust in there. Push it down to fit the muffin tin, then add filling. 

Bake them according to the pie crust package! Easy as can be. 

A Husband-less Weekend

Trey went to Ocean Isle for the weekend on a bachelor weekend and left me and the dogs all alone :( This is a rarity, he never leaves us! We were bummed but decided to stay busy and entertain ourselves. 

Not only did he leave us but he sent me gorgeous pictures of his view while I was working. Jealous.

What's the best option of entertainment when your husband is gone? Dinner and a sleepover with your bestie! So I packed up the dogs and my stuff and we headed to Durham to hang out with Christy and Jonthan. Vegas made herself right at home. 

From their apartment we walked to dinner at Geer Street Garden... it was so good. If you ever get a chance to go there you have to get the jalapeno, cheddar hush puppies. YUM. 

After dinner we all curled up on the couch to watch a movie. Vegas made herself right at home on the bed, since I didn't bring her clam bed she burrowed herself right in to the pillows. 

Saturday morning we went to breakfast at Scratch, it was delicious. I got a biscuit (made from scratch) with sausage, egg and pimento cheese. Then we just had to go to monuts for donuts. They have cake donuts (like Dunkin) and yeast donuts (like Krispy Kreme). And to work off all of that food we walked around the Farmers Market. 

The dogs and I headed back to Raleigh, regrouped and went to grandma and grandpas (my parents) house! Tyson got his birthday presents that I posted about yesterday and then we went to the NCSU bball game. Then we had a sleepover at grandma and grandpas :) Guess where the dogs slept? Not with me... snuggled up with their grandparents of course. 

When Trey finally came home on Sunday we went back to Durham for the Food Truck Rodeo. There were so many choices we didn't even know where to begin. We ended up getting pizza from Pie Pushers and a grilled cheese from the Great American Meltdown I had heard a lot about and had to try. Both were really good. Then we stopped by the Federal for their Michigan tap take over. 

When we got home the dogs got to eat the treats that we got for them at the food truck rodeo :) They loved them.