Halloween Crafts with Nana

I must be getting old.....cause for some strange reason this year I am actually looking forward to Halloween. I even decided to do Halloween crafts with the grandkids. Just so happened that Saturday Greta was not feeling well so I had the kids with me most of the day. To keep them entertained we made ghosts.


See!
Carson wanted hers to have eyelashes.....I guess those are the Girly Girl Ghosts.



And I don't know what Hunter's were.... He just wanted to mark on my place mats.

And this little gobblin, well he just wanted to eat the lollipops. What a sticky mess!!!

With the remaining lollipops we were able to make these.....

Halloween Ghosts

These are super easy to make.

Blow Pop lollipops ( or the big Tootsie Roll Pops)

1 box of tissues (2 for each ghost)

Black, orange and white curling ribbon

A black marker

Take 2 tissues and cover the lollipop, tie the curling ribbon around the neck part of the ghost. Draw a face on the ghost. I purchased some witches pots at Factory Card Outlet and put some green floral foam in the bottom. Then I placed the stick of the ghost into it and filled around the ghosts with some shiney package stuff from the dollar store.

Chicken and Spinach Enchiladas

I was rushing out of the house this morning and I decided to grab a stack of recipes I had laying on the desk. In that stack was this.... and I think it will make it to my "can't wait to try" list for this weekend.

12 chicken breast halves, skinned
1 teaspoon salt
2 (10 oz) packages frozen chopped spinach
1 cup diced onion
1 Tablespoon butter, melted
1 (10 3/4 oz) can cream of chicken soup, undiluted
3/4 cup milk
3 (4 oz) cans diced green chilies, drained
3 (8 oz) cartons sour cream
3 cups (12 oz) shredded Monterey Jack cheese
16 flour tortillas

Place chicken in a Dutch oven; add salt and water to cover. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat and simmer 40 minutes or until tender. Remove chicken and let it cool slightly, Bone chicken; dice and set aside.

Cook spinach according to directions; drain well, and reserve 1 cup spinach broth. Set aside.

Saute onion in butter in Dutch oven until tender. Stir in spinach and chicken, set aside.

Combine soup, reserved spinach broth, milk, green chilies, sour cream and half of the cheese in a bowl; mix well. Stir half of the sauce mixture into chicken mixture. Reserve remaining sauce.

Spoon chicken mixture evenly down center of each tortilla; roll up tortillas and place seam side down into 2 lightly greased 13x9x2 inch baking dishes. Spoon remaining sauce over tortillas. Bake uncovered at 350 for 25 minutes. Sprinkle with remaining cheese, bake an additional 5 minutes.

The Finished Kitchen

Whew.... it's finally done. Well as done as it's gonna get for now. I still have to paint the ceiling. I know, I should've painted that first but I sort of have a reputation for doing things a little backwards. Just ask Billy Head. I'm sure he would be glad to fill you in on my defects.

Moving right along, this is the view which shows the new open wall plus the new position of the refrigerator. We pushed it back about 18 inches and moved the wall into the living room that much too.
This is the new living room. Almost complete. Still need to get some art work for the walls. And I need to take a picture of the new ceiling fan that Billy Head and his friend finally installed.

This is the view of the eating area. We installed new windows, floors, light fixtures, granite counters, new cabinet hardware and painted the walls and cabinets.

Oh, I forgot to mention we did a new backsplash...but maybe that's a good thing. Long story but I'll say this..... I'm NOT a Happy Camper!!! Maybe one day when my boat comes in, I'll get it redone. But for now it will have to do. I try not to look at it when I'm cooking, that way the rest of the remodel makes me smile.


All ready for dinner.... anybody want to join me? And please bring take out.... I don't want to mess up this clean kitchen.

Meatballs

I must admit, I admire people who take their blogs seriously and post something everyday. I wish I had that in me... but it seems I have commitment issues. Did I just say that.... that sounds more like something Billy Head should say. I won't go there today....instead I'll stick to the subject at hand...MEATBALLS and a new recipe. I can't remember the last time I made or ate meatballs. In fact, I don't recall ever making meatballs so I guess that's why I'm excited to post this recipe.

A co-worker loaned me a cookbook a few weeks back and this is one that jumped out at me.

Oven Porcupines

1 lb. ground beef
1/2 cup uncooked regular rice
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup A-1 steak sauce
1/3 cup chopped onion
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. celery salt
1/8 tsp. garlic powder
1/8 tsp. pepper
1 (15 oz) can tomato sauce
1/3 cup water
2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Mix meat, rice and water, A-1 sauce, onion, salts, garlic powder and pepper. Shape mixture by rounded tablespoons into balls. Place meatballs in an ungreased baking dish 8x8x2 inches. Stir together remaining ingredients, pour over meatballs. Cover with foil, bake 45 minutes. Uncover, bake 15 minutes longer.

You could also add some grated cheddar cheese to the meat mixture if you wish. These are good served with mashed potatoes.

P.S. Billy Head declared this a keeper.