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Holiday

a slice of life

easy chicken and dumplings recipe

Today was another snow day for the boys and they’ve already canceled school through Wednesday due to the cold.   (The high on Wednesday will be -20 degrees F!)  So, it’ll be a bit of a tough work week for me!  I need an empty house to really focus and reach my maximum level of productivity. But, while we’re socked in with the snow and cold, I decided to make chicken & dumplings.  I made them last week to use up a rotisserie chicken that was on its last day and many people asked for the recipe, so I thought I would share.  I also wanted to show how easy it is.  I think chicken and dumplings has the reputation for being complicated to make, but it’s pretty easy!  At least, this version is. When I made it last week, I started with a rotisserie chicken, so that sped things up

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a slice of life

easy chicken & dumplings recipe

Today was another snow day for the boys and they’ve already canceled school through Wednesday due to the cold.   (The high on Wednesday will be -20 degrees F!)  So, it’ll be a bit of a tough work week for me!  I need an empty house to really focus and reach my maximum level of productivity. But, while we’re socked in with the snow and cold, I decided to make chicken & dumplings.  I made them last week to use up a rotisserie chicken that was on its last day and many people asked for the recipe, so I thought I would share.  I also wanted to show how easy it is.  I think chicken & dumpings has the reputation for being complicated to make, but it’s pretty easy!  At least, this version is. When I made it last week, I started with a rotisserie chicken, so that sped things up

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a slice of life

creamy potato soup | simple weeknight meal

Both Jeff and I are big soup fans. I discovered my love of soups when our family went on winter retreats to Beatenberg, Switzerland and they would serve the most delicious pureed soups with dinner every night. (This sounds fancy, but I grew up in Germany when my dad was stationed there in the military.) Now that we’re in the thick of winter and I’m working on eating healthier, soup makes a great dinner as well as leftovers for lunches and busy evenings. We’ve been pairing it with a salad, skipping the crackers and bread. Here’s how I make grab & go salad jars for easy weeknights. One of our favorites (and Marshall loves it, too) is this creamy potato soup.  I found the basic recipe in the Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook (the red checkered one), but we all found it to be a bit bland, so I added

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a slice of life

nuts & bolts

I was putting together my list for Christmas brunch (flank steak, cheese for the cheese grits, fruit and gelatin for Rosa’s Fruit Salad, etc.) and I realized that I hadn’t even thought about making nuts and bolts this year!  It’s one of my favorite Christmas-time snacks and the season almost passed without me making a batch! Nuts and bolts started in our family with my Oma (also named Marian).  I have memories of her sitting in front of the stove, stirring the snack mix in a large roasting pan.  The smell of butter, season-all, and Worcestershire sauce would waft out of the oven and creep through the house before the door was closed again.  I could hardly wait for it to be finished and cool enough to eat.  I often wouldn’t wait and would snag a few pieces from the roasting pan while the mix was being stirred. She would

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All Things Home

Christmas Porch 2018

After a 3:00 am wake-up call and 9 hours of hopping onto three different planes, I arrived safely home from my excursion to Montana.  It was a great trip and I’ll be sharing all about it and the HGTV Dream Home soon. But today, I’m going to share the Christmas decorations I added to my porch this year.  It’s very similar to last year since I loved how it looked so much. I added a live garland and some white lights around the door.  You can find a tutorial on how I attached it HERE. On either side of the door, I filled the concrete urns with some fresh greens, twigs, lights, and sugar pine cones.  Last year I bought small evergreen trees, but I ended up neglecting them and pitching them in early spring, so that seemed like a waste of money.  This was more economical and the greens will still last

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All Things Home

Christmas Butler’s Pantry

I gave the butler’s pantry a makeover this summer, so this is the first time I get to decorate it for Christmas!  It’s a small thing, but I was excited about it none-the-less.  With that rich, green color, it’s just begging to be decorated for Christmas. And, I kept the Christmas decor very simple.  I just added some cinnamon sticks, nuts, pinecones, candles, and some faux greenery. The swag is hung from a 3m hook, so it can be removed after the holidays without leaving a mark. Now that the beadboard is contracting a bit from the change in humidity and temperature, I need to get in there and do a little touch up with the paint.  I’ll do that once the Christmas decorations come down. Well, tomorrow I am waking up at the crack of dawn to fly to Montana to tour the 2019 HGTV Dream Home!  I don’t

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All Things Home

Christmas Dining Room 2018

I shared my dining room tree early last week, but it was before I really had the chance to dig into decorating for Christmas.  Last week, I took a lot of time to slowly work on our main living spaces and, in the process, I decided I wanted to rework some things in the dining room, including the tree. I decided that I just couldn’t handle the LED lights.  The glow coming off the LEDs was better when I added some vintage-style incandescent lights, but it was still there and I found myself not wanting to even turn on the tree.  So, I removed the lights from the top part of the tree (it was pretty laborious, so I didn’t do the bottom sections) and I decided to redo the entire thing while I was picking it apart.  As I sorted through my Christmas decorations, I found some vintage-style reflectors that had

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All Things Home

Blue & White Christmas Living Room 2018

I know this is a crazy busy time of year for everyone and I must say that this week has been a doozy for the Parsons’ family.  We have been slammed with stuff to do and appointments and obligations from every side…family, work, church, school.  That’s why I’ve been quieter than usual on my blog.  It was just not possible to get a post out mid-week.  We’re expecting a winter storm this weekend here in MN and I’m sort of hoping we get even more snow than expected, so we have a good excuse to stay in our jammies and cocoon ourselves from the world for a couple of days.  (I also hope to get a chance to paint, because I have not been able to since before we left for Thanksgiving and I miss it!)  But, today, I am a part of the Farmhouse Christmas Tour with an amazing

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I’m Marian, a painter, writer, and lover of all things creative. From art and antiques to home projects and everyday life, I share my journey in hopes of inspiring you to embrace your own creativity and make beauty in the spaces you live.

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