drawing exercise and yummy chicken pot pie recipe

What was that old ad lingo?  Two, two, two mints in one!  How old is that?  Don't answer or we'll all know how old I really am.  Anyway, this is 2 blogs in one, I guess.

Here's the recipe for the great chicken pot pie you see above:

Creamed Chicken

Melt:  4 T butter

Combine on low heat with: 1/2 cup flour

Add:  2 cups chicken broth

         1 1/2 cups whole milk (1 used 1%)

Bring to simmer while scraping sides - cook 1 minute

Mix in:  3 chicken breasts (I used 2 big ones), cooked and cubed

            2 T sherry (I used cooking sherry)

            1/2 t nutmeg

Season to taste with:  lemon juice (I used about 2 t)

                                 white pepper

                                 salt

In a frying pan:

Melt:  2 T butter

Saute:  1 medium onion, chopped (I used a very sweet, mild kind)

           1 1/2 cup carrots, chopped

           1/4 cup celery

Mix in:  3/4 cup peas

            3 T parsley, minced (I used fresh)

            The chicken mixture from above

Pour into 9 x 13 pan

Lay on top:  2 cups crust dough

Bake on 400 degree F for 25 minutes

I departed from the recipe and used a regular pie crust and put it in a pie dish.  I baked if for about 15 minutes at a lower temp., 325 degrees, on the lowest rack in the oven.  Then moved it on the top rack and changed the temp to 400 degree.  Then baked about 10 or 15 minutes longer.  I covered the top with foil when it was browned.

Moving right along to this really helpful exercise.  Remember a while back I talked about looking at your painting upside down to find out what's right and what's wrong (see previous post for that)?  Well, this is an excellent exercise that will give you a good feel for it.  As you can see I have drawn upside down my oldest son Cliff.  Now before you pass judgment on why I'm terrible at drawing skills take into consideration that I did the whole thing while looking at the reference photo upside down.  This is really a goodie, you guys.  You'll learn a lot and it will force you to see things as shapes and not as what they are like scary noses and scary mouths (to draw, I mean, not scary to look at ).  Okay, now go for it!

Back to studying.  I had my midterm but now I have a huge pile of reading to do.  Right now we're learning about prestige, religion (like shamans, witchdoctors) and the supernatural (witches).  It is so interesting and the best part is finding out why these things all came to be.  I was reading about the history of the witch burnings in the middle ages and blown away at all the convoluted reasoning behind it all.  I just love to learn!

 I know.  I know!  I just had to go outside and take this picture!  It's been snowing all day and the sun finally came out.  Somebody needs to take my camera away and spank my hands so I'll go study.  I'm going.  I'm going............