Chips Casserole

Yes, a chips casserole! Yes there is actually chips in it.  It may not be the healthiest meal, but I can guaranty you that you will love it!  It's always a hit when I bring it to a potluck diner. This casserole is even better the day after. 



Ingredients:
2 celery stalks, minced

 

2 hard boiled eggs (cut in pieces)

2 cup of cooked rice (I use Minute Rice-- 2 cup of water for 2 cup of rice, then use all of it)

2 cup of Mayonnaise

2 cans of cream of chicken

2 chicken breasts, cooked and diced

 

2 bags of plain chips: 1 for the mixture and one for the top (that you will crush in pieces)
1 small onion (optional)

Cook each ingredients separately.   Chop, minced and dice the ingredients. In a large bowl, mix the celery, eggs, rice, Mayonnaise, chicken, cream of chicken, onion and ONE bag of chips.   Once all the ingredients are mix well, pour it in a in a large rectangle Pyrex pan or 2 square one.  Cook at 350C for about 25-30 minutes, until it's the top of the casserole is golden. Once it's golden, pour the second bag of crush chips on the top.

For the chips on the top, I usually prefer to keep the bag by the casserole, so everyone can choose to put it on or not. Also if there is left overs, that way the chips won't get all stale. I forgot to take a picture of the final product (oups!). But here how it looks without the chips

 

Hope you will enjoy! If you try it, let me know what you think :D

 

 

 

Funny Friday

We were at the hospital to visit my bran new niece J Ellie arrived on August 20^th. She is one tiny baby at 6 pounds and 5 ounces. She measure 18 ¾ inches.  My girls went to get something to eat with my dad. When they were on their way back, Valérie had an interesting discussion with a nurse.

Nurse: “Hi, are you here to see a baby sister, brother, or a baby cousin?”

Valérie: “A little cousin. She’s a girl.  She has 2 big brothers that are almost the same age (4) but they are from 2 different moms.”
Nurse: “ How did that happen?”
Valérie: “What you don’t know the secret to how babies are made? I do.”

And Valérie left it like that and walk to the room.  My dad and the nurses were laughing.  Dad told me the discussion that went on.

Valérie look at me and said: “Yes mom, It’s true I know the secret to how babies are made”.

Me: “You do? “(I’m sure I was white lol as she never asked me any question about this subject)
Valérie: “Ben oui (well yes). My uncle loved someone so he had a son.  Then he loves matante (aunt) and that is how he got two babies with her.  When two person love each other they make babies!”

Let just say that I felt like laughing but stayed calm. Lol I was kind of relieve that she didn’t know ALL the details just yet ;)

 

 

Camping with my extended family

This year marked our 20e long weekend family get together on my dad side. Every year, for the past 20 years, a big bunch of us meet up for the long week end at one of my uncle and aunt house. We camp, play games, laughs and eat too much.  When we started 20 years ago, everyone was in a tent except for one of my aunt and uncle. We were maybe 20.  Since then, almost everyone has updated to RV of every size.  There are only 3 tens left and we are one of them. This year, we were 45.  Usually we’re over 50, but two of the little children had chicken pox and their whole family couldn’t be there.

Here’s the view from my uncle back yard

 

To celebrate the 20e year of our family reunion, we decided to pay a caterer.  We ordered “fricot” (is like a chicken soup/stew).  That way all my uncles and aunts didn’t have to cook.  They still don’t let us do it and we are all over 30 years old.  We will remember the “fricot” for the rest of our life. The caterer had forgotten to put the chicken bag in when she took it off to get the bones out.  So our “fricot” had potatoes, turnip and carrots. Let just say that this was put down in our memory book. Ha ha!

We have activities/games on Saturday evening. Here’s Valerie try to take a bit at her apple.

 

Being with my extended family for the weekend is so relaxing. We are a really close bunch. I love that we stayed close even if my pépère (grandfather) passed away in 1987. There’s no stress. No one wears a watch and we are always wondering what time it is.  A man that was there for the first time commented that we look like a family that doesn’t have any problems and stress, and that enjoy life to the max!

 

 

It was a great weekend (as always). We did get a few showers, but it didn’t last more the 5 minutes at the time. One of my cousin even gave Valérie a ride on his seadoo. She was so excited.

 

I’m already looking to next year and so are the girls.

 

 

Close to your extended family? 

Gardening 2013

I love gardening!  I'm far from being an expert, but I do learn something every year.  I have 3 raised bed of 4" x 8". I was so excited when my husband built the extra bed this year.  I think I was worst then a kid in a candy shop!  Every year, my daughter Valérie and I choose at least one new vegetable to grown. This year, we tried 10 more. Sometime it's a hit, sometime it's a miss. 

Our garden consist of :

Yellow wax beans
Green beans
Purple beans
Cherry tomatoes
Beefsteak tomatoes
Another kind of tomatoes
Radish
Peas
Snow peas
Cucumber
Carrots

These are my go to vegetables, as they grow very well.

New this year:
Purple peppers
Zucchini
Cauliflower (looks like it's going to be a miss)
Betts (looks like it's going to be a miss)
3 kinds of lettuce
Kale
Parsley
Spinach

It's growing slowly but surely.  The weather was not ideal in June, so some crops are blooming later then usual.  This week, we have finally started to collect vegetables from the garden. I am even able to froze some bean and snow peas.  Here is what we collected this morning (don`t mind my daughter that was still in her PJ and she looks so tired in this pic!)

Do you have a garden?  What do you grow in it?

Nephews and Nieces

I’ve been babysitting my little nephew, Sébastien, for the past week.  My brother had to work last minute and his girlfriend new shift is 8 to 5. Oh how I love this little one.  Well, he’s not that little anymore. He is 3.8 years old. We are having a blast! The kids get along so well. I love that my brother lives close and we can see each other when we want to.

I am from, what you would call, a “broken home” or a “blended family”.   I have a total of 10 nephews and nieces, with two more in the making.  I honestly think that they are all precious. I love them all to pieces. They bring a lot of life in family reunions. It does bring me back to when we were young and running around with my cousins. As of now, the nephews outnumber the nieces.

Francis (my sister’s Husband son)-17yo

Chase (my brother’s)-4yo
Sebastien (my brother’s)-3.8yo
Brandon (Husband sister’s)-2.3 yo
Abygail (Husband sister’s)-9 months
Samuel (Husband brother’s)-1.3yo
Hugo (stepsister’s)-2.5 yo
Maelle (stepbrother’s daughter)-3yo
Noah (stepbrother’s)-11 months
Amely (my BFF’s daughter)-18 months

My brother’s girlfriend is expecting a little girl, Ellie (said in French) for the end of this month.  My husband brother’s wife is expecting a baby for December.  We will have to wait for the birth to know the sex of this one.  They want to keep it a surprise.

 

How many nephews and nieces do you have? Are you close to them? One more than the other?

 

 

Ham and Potato Soup

I personally love soups and could eat it all the time. After looking at different recipes, I’ve came up with my own.  Sadly, I’m the only one that liked this soup. My husband and kids are not fan of soup in general.

 

My version (measurements are an estimate as I did it more by eyes):

3 Large potatoes, diced

¼ to ½ cup of kernel corn (I used frozen corn)
¼ cup of celery, finely chopped
2-3 ounce of ham, diced (use frozen leftover ham)

1 ½ - 2 cups of chicken broth

½ a can of evaporated milk
1-2 tablespoon of margarine
2-3 tablespoon of flour
Salt and pepper (season to your liking)

 

In a sauce pan, put the potatoes, celery and corn. Add water just enough to cover the potatoes. Boiled until the potatoes are cook.  In the meantime, in a frying pan, melt the margarine.  Once it’s melted, add the flour, one tbsp at a time.  Mix well.  It will give you a paste. Then add the chicken broth.  It will become almost like gravy.  Once everything is blended, add the evaporate milk. Shimmer until the potatoes are cook. Add the diced ham. Take both pans of the heat.  Pour the frying pan mix in the sauce pan.  Stir well.

 

Hope you like it!

 

 

Do you like soup? What is your favorite?  How about the rest of the family?

 

 

It's All About Cakes

One of the things that I like to do is cooking and baking.  I love when I can figure out the recipe to dishes that I love to eat in restaurants.  I also love doing cakes for my girls’ birthdays.  I have learned, with the help of mr. google, how to make and use fondant. I personally don’t like to eat the fondant, but man does it ever look great ;)

I thought I would share with you the cakes and cupcakes I have made in the past 4 years.

 

Here's Audrey's Cakes:

 

Her Baptism Cake. This was my first ever cake covered in fondant.

 

 

For Audrey's second birthday, my brother and I decided to celebrate my nephew and Audrey at the same time. They were born only 6 days apart. I went with a bug team. :) Valérie helped me with some bugs. Can't you see which one?  She was almost 5 at the time.

 

 

 

My little pumkin LOVES  Lalaloopsy, so for her 3th birthday, it was to be assume that the cake would be just that ;)

 

 

 

 And to her demand, she wanted an Hello Kitty cake for her 4th birthday, which was last week:

Now on to Valérie's cakes:

She was so in Mickey Mouse Club House at 4yr.  Here's my version of the cake:

 

Which girls doesn't like the princesses? Valérie at 5yo.

 

Then last year, it was all about BRAVE (6yo)

 

Who knows what she will be asking me this year lol

 

Here's 2 more cakes that I did for my babysitter children this year:

 

 

And finally, but not the least, cupcakes that I did. I was very proud of how these turned out! They were a really hit.

 

These were for Valérie's teacher babyshower.  She is also one of my collegue.

 

 

And these are the one I did for Valérie's classmates at the end of the school year, this year.

 

Wow, what a long post this is lol

 

So do you make your kids birthday cakes or to you buy them?  Do you let them choose the theme that they want?