Chicken with Lemon Cream Sauce

Chicken with Lemon Cream Sauce

2 bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil
½ cup white wine
1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
¼ cup finely minced onion
3 tablespoons heavy cream
1 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
4 tablespoons butter, diced

Preheat oven to 350F convection.

Pat chicken breasts dry with paper towel, sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Heat oil over medium-high heat in a heavy bottom skillet that is also oven safe (cast iron works best if you have it).
When the oil is hot and begins to smoke, place chicken skin side down in the skillet and cook for 5 minutes without moving until brown.
Using tongs turn chicken breast side up and place skillet into the oven.  Cook until chicken is done, approximately 40 minutes. 
Once your chicken is about half done, start your sauce; in a small saucepan combine the white wine, lemon juice and onion and cook over medium-high heat for about 10 minutes, until the onion has cooked through.  If it reduces too much add a splash more wine.  Add the cream, 1 teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper, bring to a full boil (the cream will react with the lemon juice, but as you boil it will come together), once it has come together, remove from heat and add the diced butter.
Serve over chicken and enjoy.

Source: Adapted from my sister Amy’s blog where, she adapted it from Barefoot Contessa.

Making Food Fun | Eating with Chopsticks

A little while ago I purchased some kids chopsticks, or learning chopsticks. 

The kids have such a good time eating with them and the other day we had popcorn for a snack and they both ate it entirely with chopsticks.

I was surpised when I first got them how well not only Little Girl did, but also how well Little Boy (only 3) did with them. 

I purchased these at a cooking store in Canmore, but I have subsequently seen them at my local dollar store.

Birthday Party Planning

Little Girl is turning 5 in a few weeks, so I have been planning her birthday party in my mind for a while now, and as we get closer all the details are starting to come together.

In the past we have invited a bunch of different kids all of varying ages, but now that she is getting older, I decided to do a party that was more for her and her age group.

We are keeping it small since I am hosting at our house, and we are keeping the kids to the same age as her since the activities are geared towards that age.

We are having a pizza party where the kids will get to make their own pizzas. And I decided because I love to be in the kitchen and so does Little Girl, we are also going to have the kids decorate their own cupcakes.

Of course this makes for an event where I think they will all need aprons.

I have spent quite a bit of time looking for kids aprons in the city, and yes I can find them, but I am not willing to pay that much money for them.

Until I found an ad on Kijiji the other day.  Man I love Kijiji!

A woman was selling off some supplies from a business she used to run, and look at what I got!



I got enough aprons for all the kids at the party, tons of chef's hats, a whole bunch of measuring spoons and measuring cups and some other miscellaneous stuff, all for $25.

I am so excited.  Little Girl and I headed to Michael's to get fabric paint - I will be writing the kids names on the aprons as soon as I know who is coming, and the gift bags will now include measuring spoons and cups for each kid.

How fun is that?

Little Girl is beyond thrilled and so looking forward to her birthday party in the kitchen.

Elbow Falls Picnic

Recently we took the kids to Elbow Falls for a picnic, for the whole post, come join me at  Family Fun Calgary.

On My Nightstand - One Day

One Day By David Nicholls

On the Back Cover:
It’s 1988 and Dexter Mayhew and Emma Morley have only just met.  But after only one day together, they cannot stop thinking about one another.  Over twenty years, snapshots of that relationship are revealed on the same day – July 15^th – of each year.  Dex and Em face squabbles and fights, hopes and missed opportunities, laughter and tears.  And as they true meaning of this one crucial day is revealed, they m7ust come to grips with the nature of love and life itself.

My thoughts:

I LOVED this book!  First I loved the concept, I read quite a bit so when someone comes up with a great book and a new concept, it feels so fresh and new.  I loved how because you only saw one day at a time, sometimes you did not know exactly what was going on but had to read until the next chapter (or year) to find out.

I don’t want to say much more about this book, I would hate to ruin it for anyone interested in reading it, but let’s just say it is a wonderful book that I had a hard time putting down.

 My Rating: 5 out of 5.

The Amazing Spiderman!

Little Boy loves Spiderman!  I am not sure why, or how it really happened, but he loves him.

We PVR and watch the old Spiderman shows - you know the classic ones?  The ones that are super annoying with that super annoying song?

Well, not only does he love to watch the show, he sings the song almost all the time when he is not watching the show.

But we love him, and I love it when I can snap these great pictures of him being Spiderman!

All pictures were taken with my iPhone - again - sorry about the poor quality.

We're In!

Since I have been talking quite a bit about what we are doing for our schooling next year, I thought I would update you all and let you know that I got a call on Friday afternoon, letting me know that Little Girl has been accepted into Kindergarten at Foundations for the Future Charter Academy.

If you live in Calgary and have heard about the school, you know that they have a fantastic reputation and it is pretty hard to get in.

I put Little Girl on their waiting list when she was approximately 4 months old (and by the way we were number 62 on the list).

Although this school is not for everyone, I am fairly confident it is for us (or at least for Little Girl).

We had requested to do their full day Kindergarten - meaning 2 1/2 days a week and that is what we got. But now the challenging part comes: what are we going to do for child care.

She has aged out of the day home we currently have both kids at, and besides there is no way for our day home lady to get her to and from school, but if / when we move her, do we move Little Boy as well? I know he will miss her dearly (and her him) especially on those full days that she is not in school.

I am looking for a fantastic before and after school program or home, hopefully either very close to our house and they can drive her to school, or very close to her school and they can walk her.

No one said having kids was going to be easy, but it is sometimes super hard to make decisions in February to determine what you are doing in September.

What about you? Are you a working Mom also struggling with kids going to school next year?

Or did you already go through that and what was your solution?

Funny

I thought I would share a very funny picture.

This weekend hubby was in the washroom, as he might have spent just a little bit too much tine in there.

The kids decided they needed to lock him in the washroom, I was in the kitchen not really paying attention to what they were doing, but when he tried to get out, I got the call - "Jenny, can you please help me?"

Of course what kind of wife would I be if I did not snap a picture to show him and later blog about it.

Picture taken with my iPhone - sorry about the poor quality.

They piled everything they could find - movies, Little Girl's Leapster is in there.

The only thing that would have made this better was if I was not home at the time (he literally could not push the door open based on how they positioned the blue chair against the wall.

God, I love those kids!

Blog Watch - Bent on Better Lunches

I love to share with my readers great blogs I come across.

I stumbled onto this one a few weeks ago and LOVE it!  Bent on Better Lunches.

Cristi is a mother of 4 – and she blogs about the lunches she makes for her kids.  I love her creativity and her drive to have her children eat healthy meals, but also to eat a lot of variety.

Next year we might have Little Girl in full day Kindergarten and that means I will be entering into the wonderful world of school lunches.  As we have gone through the decision to do full of half days, I even asked hubby – “What am I going to send for lunch every day?”

I have a feeling this blog might be my school lunch bible for a while.

Take a look at one of the lunches she sent to school:

Here is a lunch she provided for a child at home:

Okay, I want those lunches!  And I am a big believer in 'food tastes better when it is fun'.

I have already used a few ideas of hers, and now I am keeping my eyes open for silicone cupcake liners on sale.

Ribs

I love fall off the bone delicious ribs but as many times as I have made them, they never seem to turn out the way I want them too.

I have tried steaming them, I have tried baking them, I have barbecued them long and slow, and yet I can't seem to achieve that fall off the bone effect I am looking for, until now.

This recipe is from a friend of a friend, I made it this past weekend, and if you are looking for wow the sock off them ribs - here it is!

Fall off the Bone Ribs with Sticky Sauce

Sauce:

Olive oil

3 sprigs fresh thyme

1 large onion, finely diced

4 garlic cloves, minced

2 cups ketchup

1 cup apricot jam

2 tablespoons dijon mustard

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1/4 cup molasses

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon paprika

Place enough olive oil in a medium saucepan to cover the bottom, heat oil on medium heat.  Add onions, garlic and thyme sprigs.

Cook slowly until onion is soft, but not turning colour.

Remove thyme sprigs, and add the remaining ingedients.

Continue cooking over medium heat for 30 minutes, stirring often to prevent burning.

Remove from heat.

Ribs:

Racks of ribs (the above sauce recipe will be good for about 3 racks, but it also freezes well so just make what you need and save the remaining sauce)

Salt & pepper

Beer (number of cans depends on the number of racks you are making and the size of your pan)

Preheat oven to 300F.

Remove the back skin from your ribs, cut into 2 rib portions.  Salt and pepper both sides.

Place ribs meaty side up into a 9 x 13 dish, pour beer into bottom of pan, there should be about a 1/2 inch on the bottom of pan (you might need more than 1 beer).  Cover the pan tightly with aluminium foil.

Place in oven and cook for 3 hours.

Once the ribs are done, remove from the oven and using tongs, dip into the sauce.

Place sauce covered ribs onto parchment lined baking sheet and return back to 300F oven for 15-20 minutes.

Enjoy with lots of napkins!