Photo-a-day 5: Today's Temperature

Photo-a-day 4: Joyous

Photo-a-day 3: Red

25 Days of Christmas: Christmas Service

Every year, our funeral home (a.k.a my place of employment) has a Non-Denominational Christmas Service to honour those who have passed during the year. We invite families to bring an ornament representing their loved ones to place in the "Tree of Memories", which we keep at the funeral home throughout the holiday season. 

We have been hosting this service for 20 years now and the turn out is always amazing, despite the always, without a fail, bad weather (this year was ice and rain). Year after year, we have the same feedback: "What a beautiful evening", "I feel comforted in the fact that I am not alone" and "Thank you!"

Even though I've been off on my maternity leave for the last year, I feel that it is still important to be there in support of the families I have served in the past.

Technically, this wasn't a Christmas project, however it is an important part of my Christmas.


This is post 3 in a 25 post series. To view the full series, click here.

Recipe Recap: Stuffing topped chicken pot pie

Here is a super duper easy recipe. I usually make this with a can of cream of something soup, however this time I made it from scratch, and oh my, it makes this dish so much better!

Ingredients for the cream of something soup:
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 small onion, minced
1/2 cup of main ingredient (mushroom, chicken, broccoli, celery...)
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup flour
1 cup milk
3/4 cup broth 
Salt and pepper

Here is what I did:
Sauté garlic, onion and main ingredient with butter in a saucepan, until almost cooked through. Stir in flour and cook for 2-3 minutes more. Mix in milk and broth, bring to a boil. Continue to simmer for 10-15 minutes, stirring often, until it reaches desired consistency.  Season with salt and pepper to taste. It can be kept in the fridge for up to 4 days or frozen, check out the original recipe for more info.


For the pot pie:
1 can (or above recipe) of cream of something soup
1-2 cups of cooked chicken (or turkey), chopped
1-2 cups of veggies (frozen or fresh, whatever you have on hand)
1 box of stuffing

Mix the first 3 ingredients. Dump into a 9x9 dish. Top with prepared stuffing. Bake in 350F oven for 45 minutes, until sauce is bubbling and stuffing has browned. Top with cheese, because you know, cheese just makes everything even better.

Enjoy!

Side note: When I made this recipe with the homemade cream soup, I upped the temp to 375F and cooked for about 20 minutes, since the mixture was already hot. I then turned the broiler on to make the stuffing crispy.