Chicken mushroom creamy pasta sauce (kid friendly)

My kids love pasta that's why I am always looking for new variations of pasta sauces. One of our family favorite is pasta meat sauce that I blogged about earlier. Very recently I came across this simple recipe of chicken penne and decided to put my own spin on it. This is sooo good, sooo easy to make and sooo easy to adjust, you can be making it every day! I strongly recommend using rotisserie chicken, as it will save you a ton of time and sanity!

Here is my implementation with our favorite ingredients:

4 tablespoons butter
1 garlic clove, crushed
1/3 cup onion, sliced
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons flour
1 (15 oz.) can or 2 cups chicken broth (or boiling water)
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup of goat cheese, optional
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
2 roasted chicken breasts, cut into bite size pieces
frozen spinach, optional
mushrooms, sliced, optional

Preparation (about 20-25 min):
Melt butter in a medium deep sauce pan. Cook garlic and onions with 1/4 teaspoon salt, over medium heat, until onions have softened and become translucent. Add flour and cook 1 to 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Stir in liquid, stirring frequently until sauce comes to simmer. Stick blend ingredients into a fine mixture then add mushrooms and chicken, cook for 10 minutes, add spinach and cook for another 5 minutes. At the end add sour cream and goat cheese, stir while they melt and serve over your favorite pasta.


My husband could care less about uninspiring rotisserie chicken, but he loves this recipe!

Hope your family will enjoy it! And please do share your variations of ingredients with us!

Till next time,
Liana.

Weekend at the studio

It was a busy weekend at MH studio. After a short school week, my work week turned out to be "not so productive week" with a bonus: more time with the kiddos, which sent me to the studio this weekend. I had to catch up on orders and replenish my stock. What I got is two busy days at the studio and lots of fresh products! Body scrubs, soap, and finally clean tools and dishes.



While making products I got to enjoy this peaceful view from my window...



Productive weekend made up for not so productive week!...and kids finally got to play in fresh, fluffy snow! Success!

I hope you had a great weekend, enjoyed doing what you love and now ready to jump into a new adventure!

Till next time,
Liana.

Serenity now! - or how I discovered new use for Noise Cancelling Headphones.

After another successful, yet long night by myself with the kiddos, I decided that my little trick on staying calm during second half of the day, while multitasking house duties and listening to non-stop rumblings of my kids, cannot go down in history undocumented. I really hope that I am helping somebody out there and not just making a fool of myself by admitting that I am the last parent on planet Earth to find out about this unconventional use of noise cancelling headphones (NCH).
Somewhere between making family dinner, feeding my super picky eaters, and then listening to their never ending stories or blaring TVs in different rooms, very often I feel like I am ready to put myself on timeout. Don’t forget, mommy always gets to eat last, so she is usually pretty irritated or ready to collapse by the time she gets to finally sit down and eat. By about 7pm I just can’t take all the noise and new set of dirty dishes anymore. End of the day can be especially draining, when every minute feels like an hour. You just can’t wait for all the noises to subside.

Recently my husband has been traveling many time zones back and forth, and sometimes in a matter of one week, which made it very hard for him to recover from jet lag. During one of those trips, another experienced traveler recommended NCH to help with background noise fatigue (who would have thought, right?) and help with jet lag. Guess what my hubby has found under the tree this year? I have never tried NCH before, but the minute I put them on, I loved the feeling.

One lucky night they ended up laying around the kitchen and I decided to put them on. It felt nice! Not to say that I don’t enjoy energetic voices of my kids, but after a long day it is hard for my brain to not be on pins and needles from any louder than usual noise (beauty of getting old, I assume). That’s where the headphones go on my head and stay there until kids go to bed. They work like a charm! If you are interested you can read more about the technology here. Basically, the headphones do not make you deaf, but they tremendously cut down on the unnecessary background and white-noises. You hear what you need to hear and everything sounds further away. It makes you more relaxed because your brain doesn’t need to process every sound. It also cuts down on the need to elevate your voice when talking to your kids: you do not need to compete with TVs, running water, pump on your fish tank, dog and other things. Result - I feel rested and calm all night, and can even get some work done after kids go to bed. I am seriously addicted to NCH now. No wonder they are even recommended for autistic kids who are often very sound sensitive.

Now, please tell me that I am not the last parent on the planet Earth who discovered this!? And if you decide to try this technique, let me know how you like it and if it worked for you!

Till next time,
Liana.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all! I hope you all had great holidays and a happy New Year celebration. I enjoyed meeting many interesting people over the holidays and going to new places. Last two weeks of the year we spent with kids, looking into their eyes, absorbing their voices, and making fun projects.
Marmalade Hills had another successful year and it is now ready for a bigger growth. I am very humbled and thankful for all the love and interest that we have received. Slowly but surely the routine is getting back on track: filling new orders, working on new leads and organizing my life to be more efficient, more productive and more happy. So this year I decided to concentrate my attention on things that are important and not always urgent. Which led me to my first official resolution list, that so far, I’m proud to say, I am following pretty good. So here is what I have lined up for myself to conquer this year (I will try to blog about every individual resolution and my progress on it):
1. Sleep at least 7 hours a day
2. Physical exercise at least 30 min every day
3. Have salad every day
4. Double our vacation time
5. Have timely physicals and other routine checks for ALL members of our family (including the dog...and sometimes our fish....sigh...)
6. Spend less time on Social Networking and research
7. Develop and launch new products
8. Update and improve MH studio and equipment
9. More frequent blogging
10. Learn 5 new things; do 5 new activities or projects
11. Be more understanding, talk less and listen more
12. Be humble and happy with what I have and who I am


This is my dirty dozen that needs to be polished and perfected this year. I really hope that some of these routines will become an integral part of my live.
Do you have a resolutions list? What would you like to improve in your life? Share some tricks and tips on how to stick to the resolutions list throughout the year.

Looking forward to what you guys have to say!

Till next time,
Liana.

Cyber Monday!

As holiday season approaching its culmination, many of us are still not through with our shopping lists. All this running around and still missing something? No worries, I’ve been saving our sweetest deal for cyber-Monday. Are you ready!? The best deal on the Internet for a very limited time: not only do you save 15% on any order above $50 but we will also pay for your shipping …and I may even throw in a little surprise to make your holidays extra merry!

Few IMPORTANT details: this offer is good only on Monday 11-28 from 7am to 3pm EST. 15% discount will be refunded to you after the transaction is complete (we are not set up to automatically subtract discounts at check out at this time, so I will have to manually issue a refund). After an extremely busy holiday season all products are in super limited quantities.

Happy shopping!
Liana.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Is everyone ready to eat lots of yummy food this Thursday? ...and for the rest of the year, for that matter :) Well, I am! My DH just got back form a three week trip, Marmalade Hills is on its last stretch of holiday events and kids are off school, so we are very eager to enjoy this time as a family!
This time of the year, just like everyone else, I think about what I am thankful for the most.... and my list is getting longer yet more profound and condensed. Contradiction? Maybe, but not when you LOVE what you do for a living. So here is my humble list of things that I am forever grateful for:
1. Family - because other things may change us, but we start and end with family. We are one team, forever. Supporting, teaching and helping each other.
2. My relatively new friends, because if you think about it, I’ve only been here for short twelve years and I’ve met some amazing people... you know, those who after getting to know them, you think: “I want to be like her or him”.
3. Marmalade Hills - my third baby, that allowed me to see the world in different light; to have my creative outlet; to set my priorities straight; to do one, and sometimes, many tough and scary/unknown things every day; to make me feel accomplished and happy. It took me to so many new places, introduced me to so many different and interesting people who I would have never met at a “9 to 5” job... I know, I know it sounds old and cliche-ish, but it is very true and I get it now.
4. Great people (again and again) - MH two right hands (Christine and Nadiya), MH followers, neighbors, fellow vendors, wholesale customers, honest, curious, enthusiastic, eager, daring, creative, hard working, exciting and inspiring!
5. And last but not least, people who rolled their eyes every time I would go on-and-on about my new course in life that MH was taking me on. They played a very special part as well, by giving me more fuel for resilience, focus and desire to succeed no matter what! ...and I am not slowing down any time soon :)

Cheers, dear readers! Wishing you and your loved ones peace and happiness this Thanksgiving! THANK YOU all for being a part of MH life!

Time to eat my pumpkin pie, so until next time,
Liana.

Pumpkins

This weekend as I was searching the net for unique decorating ideas for Marmalade Hills' upcoming private event, I came across some gorgeous pictures of metallic pumpkins.
And today, there I was: driving to my nearest Michael's to buy art supplies for my project!
It is amazing what a can of a spray paint can do! So I decided to spray some extra rocks and a pine cone that I found in my yard... Kids LOVE their new treasures - "real" gold and silver nuggets. I think tomorrow, I will add a few gold nuggets to their collection :)

I can't wait to put the final arrangement all together!

Till next time,
Liana.