My Therapist

I've been visiting my therapist a bit lately. She's an excellent listener. And when panic attacks started to overwhelm me recently, I rushed to bring her out of storage because I didn't have time to be debilitated by them. Good thing my spinning wheel is available anytime, day or night for ten minutes here, twenty there, no appointment needed for she has gotten a work out at all times of the day and last night. Last night it was until 1 a.m. as sleepy eyed, I waited for the last batch of salsa to come out of the water bath. Pedaling away, the soft fibers sliding through my fingers, the stresses of the day flowed away and I was ready to lay down my head and sleep, no list of To Do's running through my head. 

And though this takes time away from tasks needing done, I don't feel guilty, I'm being productive, producing yarn for warm woolen, socks, and scarves and hats for winter and I wouldn't get much done anyway with the stressed state of my mind.

Many of you, like me, are rush, rush, rushing to bring in the harvest for winter for your family and your livestock. This year, more than any in the past, we are scrambling to bring in as much hay, bedding, and grains as we can store and afford before snow flies, along with preserving food for ourselves.

Harvest's being way down across over 60 percent of the USA and prices climbing way up because of the shortage, we don't want to be without this winter. So though it will leave our savings account drained, I believe in the old adage of "A bird in hand is worth two in the bush." Or in other words, " Don't count your chickens before they hatch." Or don't count on things being there just because they were there before.   

And now that I've spread loom and gloom, I'll tell you what I learned this week. The pepperocini peppers I have loved because they are so.... mild, are hotter than .... at our daughter's house. She took a couple plants home to Colorado and put them in pots on her porch. Was mine a flook or her's. I'll have to try them again to see what happens.

Our daughters have turned me on to a few recipes on Pinterest lately and though neither batch of cookies, the lemon, nor the carmel, apple cider ones I tried will make it into my recipe file, this crock pot cordon bleu will definitely be a repeat.

Now those of you who know me, know that I did not follow the recipe given, after all it called for box stuffing and cream of chicken soup from a can and that just isn't going to happen around here. But I did like the basic concept and tweaked things a bit. Okay, quite a bit.

In the original, you put cream of chicken soup on the bottom of the crock pot, then chicken breasts, then sliced ham, then Swiss cheese slices, then box stuffing and a drizzle of butter over the top.

Me well, I decided to use some frozen home-made Alfredo sauce I had. One was my simple version and the other had home canned sun dried tomatoes in olive oil in it. A little more milk in with the Alfredo as it was a bit thick and then I was ready to butterfly cut the chicken breast to make them thinner and cook more quickly. On top the sauce they went. Some sliced ham went over the chicken breasts, then I let it cook for a while since we had to leave right away to go have some health tests run that my husband's employment runs for free. "After all one doesn't kick a gift horse in the mouth"

Home again with a package of Parmesan bread croutons, because I didn't have any dried bread, and an addition of few slices of home-made bread broken into pieces and I was ready to make the stuffing. A couple eggs, a little milk with some chicken bullion, along with fresh sage leaves, and marjoram and I had my stuffing ready to put on top the ham. There is nothing like fresh spices to make stuffing extra yummy.

No Swiss cheese was needed because of all that cheese in the Alfredo sauce. I'm pretty heavy handed with cheese in the sauce anyway. To add more flavor, I scooped some of the sauce in the bottom of the crock pot on top the stuffing and turned up the temp to hurry the baking time for supper time was fast approaching. 

The whole thing is to be cooked on low for 4 to 6 hours and that was about right for time. With success spurring me on, I can't wait to try another new recipe. This time it will be tamale pie and I'm trying it in the crock pot. I've decided I'm much, much too tired at night to cook. Especially since my hubby gets home so late at night to eat.

 

 

I'll let you know how it turnes out.