Catching Up!

Well, my goodness, it has been a while! To be fair, I've had a crazy spring and summer. To summarize my life since my last post...

January - started my new job as a Relay For Life Specialist with the American Cancer Society, announced to our friends and employers we were expecting a baby! :) It was a very cold, very snowy winter!!

 

Our FB announcement about expecting!

February - Work really ramped up as Relay season started, so mostly I just worked my butt off trying to learn as much as possible, get to know my committees and plan my events! Mark and I had a Valentine's Day dinner at home (deep dish Chicago style pizza!) and he bought me a new charm for my Pandora

March - Found out we were expecting a baby BOY! Celebrated my 27th birthday in Holland with my family and watched my Uncle Chris run a 5k

FB gender reveal

April - Went to a family Tigers game ("our" Opening Day!), attended my cousin Katie's bridal shower at Boatwerks restaurant in Holland, saw the play "Love is Strange" at the Magenta Giraffe theater company in Detroit with my best friend Lauren

May - Attended my bridal shower with Mark's side of the family and friends at my in-laws' home in West Bloomfield, got to visit my puddin' pie Elena and her baby sister Alex for an afternoon, spent a day in Holland visiting my cousin Maddy and husband's best friend Jake who was up from Minnesota, attended a car show in Milford with my husband, and ran all 3 of my Relay For Life events!

Milford F Body car show

June - Was a bridesmaid to my cousin Katie and her new husband Kenny in Holland, had a "girls weekend" with two of my best friends Lauren and Stephanie in Holland and attended my bridal shower with my side of the family and friends *and* a second shower with my mom's team of women she works and worships with, celebrated our 1 year wedding anniversary, and Mark & I saw Eddie Izzard in his Force Majeure tour at the Opera House in Detroit with my best friend Lauren and her boyfriend Kevin!

That's me on the far right - not bad height for 8 months pregnant!

Orchids from Mark for our anniversary :)

Wedding day and our joy almost 1 year later!

July - Welcomed our son Killian Markus Karlichek on July 12th, his daddy's birthday!

Brand new family!

Leaving the hospital :)

Welp, that brings us up to speed! I'll of course post separately about Killian's birth :)

Emily

Kitchen Chemist - Crock Pot Cream Cheese Chicken

More snowy days = more Crock Pot cooking! Yesterday I made Crock Pot Cream Cheese Chicken and of course, *tweaked it according to what I had on hand...

Here is the original recipe with my changes in *red:

Ingredients:

3 lbs chicken pieces
1 (2/3 ounce) package Italian salad dressing mix *I used a mixture of Italian seasonings including basil, rosemary, oregano & thyme, plus fresh cracked black pepper & sea salt, and garlic salt
4 tablespoons melted butter (divided)
1 small onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, chopped
1 (10 1/2 ounce) can cream of chicken soup *To replace this and the chicken broth, I mixed sour scream, water and mushrooms (5 large white mushrooms, diced, which I sauteed with the onions & garlic as in the recipe), and it was a great creamy mixture with great flavor!
1/2 cup chicken broth *See above
8 ounces cream cheese *I used chive flavored cream cheese

Directions:
1. Place chicken pieces in crock pot and sprinkle Italian seasoning over chicken. *I also sprinkled grated parmesan cheese on the chicken. Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons melted butter.
2. Cook on low for 4-6 hours.
3. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a sauce pan and saute *mushrooms, onion and garlic. Add Cream of Chicken Soup, cream cheese, and chicken broth *or mixture of sour cream & water instead of soup & broth. Stir until smooth.
4. Add this mixture to crock pot and cook on low for an additional hour.

The chicken became so tender it could be shredded easily with a fork. I served it over brown instant rice with steamed greens beans (tossed in lemon juice & butter) on the side.

I also whipped up some Snow Ice Cream for dessert out of curiosity, and mixed some mixed berry compote in it for extra flavor (I'm told you can mix in jam and other things to flavor it as well). I tried a couple bites and it was very good, but my husband told me not to eat anymore because he didn't trust it.  Thank goodness we had ice cream in the freezer! :)

Happy Cooking!

Emily