Merry Christmas!

Is it too early for a New Years resolution?

Because mine is to remember to spray all the things before baking.

Still tastes like brownie :P

Another New Years Resolution: to update this blog regularly/ever. I have internet now so uploading pictures won't be such a pain in the rear. See you on the other side!

Merry Christmas!

-Michelle

Food Coloring Experiment

                                                                     
                                                                     
  




Source: learncreatelove.com via Michelle on Pinterest

This experiment using water, paper towels, and food coloring did not turn out exactly like I thought it would! Also, that cute kid up there is not mine. ;)

Because my kids are so young, I added a few pre-learning steps:

1. Before we left cups of food dye around the house for the one year old to lust after, I thought I'd check to see that older brother knew his secondary colors and could understand patterns, like the color wheel, or ROYGBIV.

Or as the ring stackers call it, ROYGBP.

 C really enjoyed handing them to me one at a time so that I could spin them like tops on the stool. After each one had fallen to a dramatic death on the floor, C and P "helped" me put them back on the stacker in order.


 2. Time to make a color wheel! C helped me trace a circle using a big plate and sketch pad. We traced the lines using scotch tape as a guide, splitting our wheel into six wonky pieces.

Any activity that involves pens is a C-approved activity.

As I labled each color, I talked about the colors with C to help keep him interested. Something must have been sinking in, because he told me that green came after yellow! Woohoo!

 3. Once we had a color wheel, I helped C park his cars on the matching colors.

We don't have any purple cars? Weird.

It was time for a break. C drove cars all over the house until little brother went to bed, and then...

4. Water! Food Coloring! Glass glasses! (What was I thinking?) We placed a cup on each of the pie sections and filled them with water, making sure that the primary colors had more water than the cups that would be the secondary colors. C helped me drop dye into each of the primary color cups.

His hands are still a bit yellow.

You don't need to put water in the secondary color cups, by the way. I was a bit confuddled.

5. Next we put in the paper towels and... waited. We kept going off to do other things and coming back. C was very interested in watching the colors creep up the paper towels, but eventually we had to go to bed.

6. The next morning: the finale! So take a look at this picture and see if you can tell what is amiss:

We have red, yellow, yellow, green, blue, blue. Um...

Before C could notice, I added a drop of red to the glasses that were supposed to be orange and purple. To be quite honest, he was not as thrilled with the end result as I had hoped. Maybe he is just cranky pants in the morning.

But Mom is sure perplexed. What gives, red 40?

7. I froze the dyed water in ice cube trays because, sure, why not.

Except for red 40. It's just creepy.

Maybe we'll melt the primary colors into secondary colors like in this pin. I don't think we'll drink them though because the cups sat out all night and gathered paper towel bits and dust.

So...
Does any body out there know why the red didn't work? I have seen photos where this experiment appeared to work correctly for them. Is it because I put a little water in the receiving cups? Do they sell red food coloring that is not red 40?

Chicken Dumpling Casserole

When I saw this pin I thought to myself  "Man, this would be so much easier than making chicken and dumplings in the crock pot or the stove top!"

The recipe was simple enough and I had all the ingredients on hand, so I decided to give it a whirl. Here are the directions:

Ingredients

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, boiled and shredded*
2 cups chicken stock (from boiling the breasts above) 
1 stick of butter (1/2 cup) 
2 cups Bisquick or self-rising flour
2 cups 2% milk (whatever you prefer)
1 can cream of chicken soup (the herbed cream of chicken soup adds lots more flavor)
3 t. Wylers chicken granules or 3 bouillon cubes
1/2 t. dried sage 
1 t. black pepper & salt, as desired 

 (*you can use any chicken you choose this is simply what we use most often)

Ingredients assembled!

Directions:  Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place boneless, skinless chicken breasts in sauce pan with enough water to cover the chicken. Bring to a boil, then turn off the heat; place a lid on your pot and allow to sit for 10-15 minutes to finish cooking.

Boiling the chicken breasts with bouillon

Remove chicken from stock (reserve the stock) and allow to cool, then shred the chicken. 
When building the layered casserole, do not mix the layers. 

Layer 1 - In 9x13 casserole dish, melt 1 stick of butter.  Spread shredded chicken over butter.   Sprinkle black pepper and dried sage over this layer.  Note: If you want to serve this as a pot pie, add a layer of vegetables now. 

Melted butter. Healthy!

Who has sage? I just used black pepper. 

Layer 2 - In small bowl, mix milk and Bisquick. Slowly pour over chicken.

Soup mixtures and Bisquick mixture. That's a lot of Bisquick...

Layer 3 - In medium bowl, whisk together 2 cups of the chicken stock (strained, if needed), chicken granules and soup. Once blended, slowly pour over the Bisquick layer. (Tip - Add some of the hot stock to the soup can to help melt the soup and get it all out of the can).

I am wary of making the Bisquick the second layer...

Bake casserole for 25-30 minutes, or until the top is golden brown.

25-30 minutes at 350? Yeah right. Try over an hour at 375-400. 

__________________________

I will say, it smelled delicious! And it looked good. 

But chicken and dumplings? It was not. The Bisquick was simultaneously too goopy and too overdone. I think it would have worked better as the top layer. It had the consistency of a Banquet Homestyle Bake. My husband had seconds but after one bowl I was sort of sick to my stomach. 

I would say this one was more of a miss than a hit. 

Chocolate Chip and Marshmallow Crescent Rolls

I saw this pin going around and thought I would give it a try!

There's no ingredients or directions on the pin, but I don't really think they're necessary. The ingredients I used are:

1 package of crescent rolls

mini chocolate chips (though regular size would be fine)

mini marshmallows (5-8 per roll)

Preheat the oven to 350 and line a cookie sheet with foil and spray with some nonstick cooking spray. Unroll the crescent rolls onto the cookie sheet. 

Add mini marshmallows and mini chocolate chips and roll up like you normally would. 

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.

Serve by itself or with some chocolate syrup for dipping!

These were delicious and a huge hit for young and old! The marshmallows pretty much dissolve into the crescent roll and the melty chocolate chips are super tasty. 

Pizza Place Chocolate Chip Pizza

Click to see the original pin

An irresistible finale to eating at your local pizza place. Too bad you have to spend so much money eating out when all you secretly want is the chocolate chip pizza at the end. Or...

You can make it at home using magic.

I know, I know. It doesn't look much like fairy dust.

 Ingredients:

• 1 box of Jiffy Golden Yellow Cake Mix
• 1 stick of butter
• 1 pre-made thin pizza shell
• 6 oz (1/2 a 12 oz bag) of mini semi-sweet chocolate chips 
• 1 small round pizza pan

Now:

1. Place thin crust on pizza pan and preheat oven to 400*F
2. In a bowl, melt 1 stick of butter.
3. Mix in the cake mix.
4. Spread on pizza shell.

   

   We used a spoon.

5. Sprinkle chocolate chips.



The best part! Hey, what happened to the left over chocolate chips...?

6. Place in the oven and bake for 11-15 minutes until golden brown.

   

   Shabam!

This made the perfect desert for our pizza party, once topped with ice cream and chocolate syrup.

Ice cream makes every thing more awesome.

The only thing we might change next time would be a thinner crust. The original pin called for 1 can of Pillsbury Thin Pizza Crust Dough, which might have worked better. But the ice cream idea? All ours. Nom nom nom!