Not much this week for Monogram Monday except for some baseball/softball bags, including one for Bodie.  Yay!  I never monogram anything for my sweet boy.  He isn’t really into it.  Not sure how he’s my child.  A few more baseball bags appeared on my porch this morning.  I love personalizing these.

I’m beginning to think my house/yard should be featured on Animal Planet.  In addition to Gipper and the cats, we also have a fish tank in Bodie’s room and Emery has Rosie, her tarantula.  We also have a pond in the backyard that was here when we moved in eight years ago.  The pond is home to tons of goldfish, a koi, and LOTS of frogs.  Every spring the frogs (actually, they’re American Toads) get frisky and then hundreds of tadpoles appear.  Thanks to our unusually warm February, they’re already in the swing of things.  It’s fun for the kids, but the croaking every night is getting a little out of control!  Poor Emery has a bedroom window directly above the pond.  I don’t know how she sleeps.

Hiding in the reeds…..

Chilling on the back porch….

Doing it in the driveway!!!!

The fruits of their labor….all of those black dots are tadpoles.  Eeek!!!!

Speaking of the animal situation, Emery and I cleaned out Rosie’s terrarium the other day.  We’ve had her over six months now and hadn’t given her cage a proper cleaning yet.  The shavings were starting to get a little gross, so we bit the bullet and replaced everything.  It was actually much easier than I anticipated.  Rosie is a very obedient spider.  She crawled right into her box and stayed there while I took her tank outside and dumped it.  Emery enjoyed interacting with Rosie.  And I enjoy the lack of odor.

Enough about our zoo….I’ll leave you with a comforting recipe to get you through the week.  This chicken pot pie is liked by everyone in my house and is the perfect meal for a dreary Monday.  Recipe from Pilsbury below the pictures.

Ingredients:

1 box Pilsbury refrigerated pie crusts, softened as directed on box

1/3 cup butter

1/3 cup chopped onion

1/3 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 3/4 cups chicken stock

1/2 cup milk

2 1/2 cups shredded cooked chicken

2 cups frozen mixed vegetables, thawed

Directions:

Heat oven to 425 degrees.  Line pie dish (9 inch) with one of the pie crusts.

In a two quart pan, melt butter over medium heat.  Add onion and cook for two minutes, stirring frequently.  Stir in flour, salt and pepper until blended.  Gradually add broth and milk, stirring until bubbly and thickened.

Stir in chicken and vegetables.  Remove from heat and pour into prepared pie dish.  Top with second crust and seal edges.  Cut slits on top and sprinkle with salt.

Bake 30-40 minutes or until crust is golden.  Cover edges during last 15-20 minutes.  Let stand five minutes before serving.

Enjoy!