Ruler of the Elves

Today, we finally drug out our Christmas tree and started to get our home more holiday ready. I had been wanting to get everything up the weekend of Thanksgiving, but time is my enemy, so today had to do. We are still trying to get the finishing details wrangled together, so this small preview will have to do for now. We will be back tomorrow for the reveal. Aren’t you excited?

Tonight we had the most delicious dinner, which was super easy to whip up in a time pinch. Lucky for me, it was a hit with the hubs and Pinky too.

Several weeks ago I found a yummy sounding chicken recipe and like I always do, I saved the link to my favorites/bookmarks. You should see the amount of links I have in there. It is quite ridiculous. I may be a link-a-holic, but I don’t go to meetings. The good news is that it is organized into categories, so now it only takes me 20 minutes to find something that I’m looking for. Just kidding.

Tonight I had a craving for domesticated fowl, so I dove into my long list and found the Balsamic Chicken Thighs recipe, which sounded perfect. One problem though. I didn’t have any chicken thighs on hand. We usually only have chicken breasts, so I figured I could substitute without any dire consequences.

Here is the breakdown of the recipe my way:

Balsamic Chicken

Ingredients
2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts
salt and pepper, to taste
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

Spray large frying pan with cooking spray and preheat.
Rinse and pat dry chicken.
Season with salt and pepper.
Brown well on all sides.
Cover, reduce heat to medium and cook for approximately 25 minutes, or until chicken is done depending on size.
Add onions, cook for 2-3 minutes, until they soften.
Stir in balsamic vinegar, cook for 1 more minute, turn chicken to coat thoroughly.
Spoon sauce over and serve.

I served this recipe with a simple salad tossed with a Vidalia Onion dressing. Filling and delicious! I really can’t relay how tasty this chicken is, however, when trying to please a picky 5 year old, having something they will gobble up is a dream come true. Let me know if you try it!

Recipe: Balsamic Chicken Thighs
Photo: Wiltshire Chicken

Imagine the patience it takes to teach a 5 year old to play chess.

Today, Pinky and I worked on some little barnyard fowl to share on Thanksgiving Day. (Shhh… if you get one, please act surprised!) I got the idea from this photo on flickr and kind of just ran with it. After I bought the supplies though, I had a bit of remorse over my un-earth friendly choices. Styrofoam???? But I decided to just deal with it. At least Pinky had fun and that’s what matters. Next time we will use apples. *wink*

These are so easy to make and fun for kids to do because they can pretty much do it all by themselves. I contemplated writing out some directions, but it’s pretty self explanatory. Here are some photos to help you along though…

It seems as of late, life is spinning in a million different directions and I haven’t had much time to stop and smell the roses. That may explain why I’ve come down with a ridiculous cold and the desire to hibernate this winter just for the sleep. There have been multiple dinners and visits on top of our normally scheduled days and a couple of projects that I have been trying to finish as well.

I’m now pretty much done with most of the design stuff, which included a moving announcement, save the date card, baby shower card, and thank you notes from Pinky’s birthday party (I must be breaking every etiquette rule when it comes to mailing those.) I’m still working on proofing some photos for my sis…

and I’m gradually moving onto some painting. I found a few great deals on some big mirrors that I plan on giving a bit of a makeover and definitely will arrange to share before and after photos when they are done. We are also working on some new nightstands for the master bedroom to give it a more cohesive feel.

I’ll be back tomorrow with some fun Turkey Day projects that Pinky and I will be whipping up…