Day in the Life

Pillsbury Crescent Chicken Pot Pie Recipe

As everyone knows, I am a southern gal. Born and raised in the south with the southern accent to boot, that is what makes up me – Jen Houck. I could not imagine life any other way.

Ever since I was a small little girl, my brother and I would be in the kitchen to see what we could create to surprise our parents. My love of cooking has grown even stronger over the years and most evenings, you will still find me in the kitchen. This is why it is an honor to be asked to be a Crescent Cook Pillsbury Ambassador and share my easy and delicious recipes with all of you… busy parents!

Let’s back up here and tell you the time line of how this all took place. Back in June, I filled out an application about why my love for Pillsbury Crescent Rolls was so big. I did not have any expectations, so when I received a call to say I was in the top 100 out of 3600 applicants… there was lots of grinning ear to ear. I had to submit two recipes to see if I could make it to the next round and I DID! It was then telephone interview time, to my surprise, I was not nervous at all. More than likely, it was because I was speaking of a subject that was very dear to my heart. Cooking! I didn’t hear anything for a couple weeks and then the day of L’s surgery, I received the call that I was one of the 4 finalists. I wanted to scream from the roof tops, but I have had to keep it quiet till today. That was hard.

Now fast forward to the winning recipe.

So let’s take Comfort food + Pillsbury

and we have Pillsbury Crescent Chicken Pot Pie that will make your mouth water.

Now does that not look delicious?

INGREDIENTS

* 1 bag (16 oz) frozen mixed vegetables or 1 large can of veg-all
* 2 cups cubed cooked chicken
* 1 can (10 3/4 oz) condensed reduced-fat reduced-sodium cream of chicken soup
* 1 can (10 3/4 oz) condensed reduced-fat reduced-sodium cream of mushroom soup
* 1 can (8 oz) PillsburyÂ® refrigerated crescent dinner rolls

DIRECTIONS

1. In large bowl, mix vegetables, chicken and soups. Pour into greased or sprayed 13×9-inch (3-quart) glass baking dish.

2. Unroll dough into 2 long rectangles; press perforations to seal. Place rectangles over chicken mixture; pinch center edges to seal. Press outside edges of dough to edges of baking dish.

3. Bake at 350Â°F 25 to 30 minutes or until top is golden brown.

As we all know, us southern ladies really do love our comfort food. Ok… go on… what are you waiting for? Let’s get to cooking 🙂

How Did I Meet Technology

Once upon a time there was a girl that loved to play in the dirt and build mud pies with her brother and then she came across this keyboard in the dirt. Her world took a major drastic turn. These glasses popped up on her face, these suspenders all of a sudden popped onto her jeans, and she kept saying geek power, geek power, and geek power over and over. The world has never been the same since Jen Houck became an instant geek over night.

That is right, I am a geek and so proud of it. I remember my first brother typewriter and thinking I was all that with my awesome A drive diskettes. I totally still have my diskettes too. My first computer class at public school and my eyes locked with those back in the day apple computers, I just knew it was love at first sight. I knew this was going to be an addiction that would be very hard to break for sure. DOS and typing commands just helped me so much release my inner geek that I would count down the minutes to computer class. A couple years passed and our school upgraded to Windows 95 and IBM computers. I even got my first yahoo email address and received my first email from a boy. Oh this could go downhill very fast, but you know the inner geek in me prevailed and my parents had nothing to worry about with secret emails going out to random people. I had more important things to worry about like how I could get my first paint project printed off.

Fast forward to 2010 and the total geekiness has reached all new levels. I am such a tech geek and have to keep up with the changing technology even though my purse has been taking a huge hit in the last two years. It was last year in 2009, that I realized my love for computers needed to take me far places in this world. I enrolled into the Computers Information Technology program . It has been an awesome journey ever since.

I am a proud mom of two elementary aged girls who are so into technology it makes my husbandâ€™s head spin. On a recent business trip, my 7 year old gets her daddyâ€™s phone and starts text messaging and sending pictures to me of how their day was going. My poor husband was blown away as he did not even know how to even get the text messaging program up on his phone. I am a proud mom!

I work in the social media field which is really taking over the world as we speak. I have been a blogger since 2005. Blogging is just a part of my life journey. I love writing and I love to share with the world. Technology just happens to be a part of the whole blogging world which makes me very happy as technology will always be a part of my life.

I just have to put out there that technology does not have to run or rule your life, but if you use it correctly, it can actually help you run a smoother lifestyle. As I see it, life is just that much better with technology as long as you use it as a family. Yes, I am a geek!

New Raleigh NC Mom Blogger

Stop the presses people, Jen has left her beloved mountains for the big city living in Raleigh, NC.

It is true my readers, I had to break off the relationship with the Blue Ridge Mountains. We just couldn’t take it any longer as I kept cheating and driving down to Raleigh throughout this year…. it became more apparent that Raleigh, NC would be our new hometown. Mountains, I still love you though and you are only 3 hours from me, so now I can cheat on Raleigh and visit YOU!

Here is to a new journey for our family. Better job opportunity for my husband, better school system for our girls and a better environment for L and her asthma. Also a better area for green and organic living. Trader Joes is definitely all that and a cup of fresh cheeries. We have already bonded tight!

So here we are… stay tuned on this new ride as I am sure we will have plenty of tales from a county girl living in a big city with a super thick southern accent. It’s all good!

Let’s get you all started on this journey with the girls’ first day of school. My babies are growing up. L started kindergarten and M started 2nd grade. L had a bit of anxiety but with some great pep talks from mom (more coming on that) she had a wonderful first day. M said everyone kept wanting to talk to her… maybe they are just enjoying her southern accent as well 🙂

Aren’t they just the cutest, stylish girls on the planet? Of course they are!

We did unfortunately already have our first ER trip and wasn’t even here a full 2 days. My precious L got spider bit. I of course naturally freaked out but all is well again and L’s foot is back to normal. It wasn’t looking so great when it first happened.

You would have had a panic attack too… or maybe I am just a overly worried mom. Yes… that’s what it is I am sure.

Here we go on the rest of our big city journey. Now let me go charge my GPS so I can find my way back to Trader Joes! They do have more than 2 stop lights here you know 😉

NYC BlogHer 2010 Recap

I Came… I Saw… I Mingled… I Connected… I Home!

Where do I even start? Such a great experience in NYC participating in the BlogHer 2010 conference. I thought last year was a great event, but this year was even better if that could even be true.

Let’s walk through the journey Jen went on from Thursday to Sunday!

Hanes put out the red carpet for such a great welcome event Thursday afternoon. My first event right off the plane. I didn’t even have time to go to the hotel and get all dolled up but Hanes you know… they believe in comfort so I was welcomed right on in. It was there that I had my very first bra fitting and now know why my bras never FIT. I was wearing the wrong size OH MY. Hanes to the rescue and oh what about the hottie Michael Moloney from Extreme Home Makeover. It is true, he is a super saavy organizer and finally brought me to my senses that I need to quit hoarding clothes from the 90s.

The clock striked and it was time to zoom back through the streets because I had a hot date with Samsung Home Appliances. I will say hands down that this was such an awesome PR event put on. It was so well done that it will get its own blog post coming really soon. The PR connection here was just over the moon and the explanation of their products and where they plan to go in the future with their modern products was just hit out of the ball park. Awesome evening for sure.

I had to unfortunately tell my hot date with Samsung Home Appliances that it had been a long day and Jen needed a little sleep if it was meant for her to carry on to the next day.

Rise and shine Friday morning. I hit the ground running with my partner in crime over at BabyCenter. Have I mentioned how much I love this gal named Dina? NO? Well, just let me tell you. She is all that and then some. We made our first stop at Starbucks of the BlogHer weekend and goodness gracious knew we needed it since we were full speed on the whole weekend.

After I downed my Starbucks, it was time to go get pretty at Audrey’s and Vera’s Getting Gorgeous event. What a true event for women! This was such a well planned event to get us women more gorgeous. They had clothing brands, technology brands, make-up brands and more there to connect with us. The highlight of the event and well pretty much the whole weekend was meeting Audrey’s family. I have been talking with Sharon and Jane for around 3 years online now and I was so giddy to meet them. They are the most sweet and genuine people you will ever meet. Sharon is one of my hero’s that I look up to when I think back to raising my girls. I so want to have that relationship with my girls when they are adults. Sharon and I shared some teary eyed conversations… she is just an inspiration. LOVE Mom Generation gals!

It was on to have a quick bite to eat. I was so thrilled with BlogHer this year for having such great healthy lunches for everyone. Way to go BlogHer planners!

Since my belly was all filled… it was time to go check out the Expo Floor. It was two levels this year and no I did not get through the Expo floor but I did try my best to make connections with most everyone. I do have to say that it was well organized Expo floor and plenty of room this year to maneuver through all the brands. It is here where I had a one on one chat with a Dream Analyst that Proctor and Gamble had on the floor. We spoke about the dreams I have about my Grandma and I just started crying right there on the floor. Thankfully Amy Hodges was there with me the whole time to offer hugs and smiles!

I gathered my heart and put it back where it was suppose to be and ran back to the Hotel room. It was time to get all dolled up for the Wine in the City Event. I could only stay for the reception but I was so happy that I went. It was in the limo ride there that I met a super fab group of food bloggers and one in particular Rhody Girl Tests. I so can’t wait to begin reading her blog and getting to know her more. She was a real charm! Shannon and Erika put on a great event and I was so bummed that I had to sneak out early.

It was time to get in the Christmas spirit and do my sleigh ride over to the Hallmark Party. They are coming out with some awesome products for this Christmas season. I will be writing more but just let me say, you will WANT these products in your house or to use for this upcoming Christmas season. You know it is in like 4 months right…. YIPPEE 🙂

Santa agreed to drop me back off at my hotel if I would give Rudolph some reindeer food so I agreed and was off to the hotel. It is here that I met up with the ever so fab Dina again to head over to the Savvy Sassy Mom’s Ciao Bello Penthouse Party. The party was so jamming up on the 53rd floor and the views were just out of this world. The Gelatto was simply amazing… you must try it if you have it in your area! It was here that a group of the BabyCenter Momformation bloggers were just having a blast hanging out in the fancy bathtub… you know fully clothed in all but with that view of the city and great friends… you couldn’t resist.

My internal alarm clock was telling me that I really needed my pillow and fast so we cruised on back over to the hotel and I had a date with my pillow.

Saturday morning started out with Starbucks of course. They have Starbucks on every street there I think. There were no withdrawal problems in NYC for Starbucks. I started the morning with having an on air TV interview with Yahoo Shine! The Yahoo folks were so courteous and generous with their time for interviewing us and publishing us really soon. Will share details soon.

The rest of the afternoon I visited a couple of BlogHer panel sessions and made my way through the Expo floors. I sure did get up on stage and dance my heart out with the Just Dance team. Just Dance 2 is coming out next month and I will be first in line to get it :). It was just so much fun and who cares the whole world was watching me shake my booty… as long as I was having fun that is all that matters right? HEHE!

I grabbed little conversations with bloggers that I haven’t met, brainstormed with PR brand leaders, and shared my Southern Jen charm to finish out the Saturday afternoon.

As soon as it was 5:00… all hats were off and it was time to go have fun in the city. Times Square on a Saturday night was crazy. Who knew it was shoulder to shoulder? I ended the night with falling in the road and slicing my foot open. But Prince Charming aka Police Officer rode up on his horse to call an ambulance… I graciously declined as I had my bloggy friends Carolina Mama and Deb Mom of 3 to help me across the street to Walgreens to be doctored up. There was no way that I was going to be causing a big scene in the middle of Times Square with an ambulance coming to fetch me up HAHA!

And that is a wrap folks. Sunday was a full day of sight seeing that I will give its own post.

It was a blast… See you in San Diego 2011 🙂

Mom and Daughters Go Magical at Disney

On our recent road trip, the girls and I sneaked away for a couple nights and had some much needed one on one time with each other. I have mom guilt so much since I work full-time and so when the opportunity fell in my lap by a wonderful and inspiring mom friend, the girls and I were off to the most magical place on Earth…. Disney.

As you know we were at Animal Kingdom but our first night in the magical land, it was all about Magic Kingdom.

Since my beautiful princesses were in tow, I of course had to make our first stop with a walk through Cinderella’s castle.

As soon as we walked through the royal palace, the girls locked their eyes on the ever so popular Carousel ride. Every time we go to Magic Kingdom, the girls have to make sure they ride the Carousel. I loved the Carousel as a child growing up so to see the glitter in the girls eyes, just makes my heart melt all over again.

Skipping off the Carousel onto “It’s a Small World” ride all the while singing it as loud as we can holding hands….

We glided right off that boat onto our magical carpet to see the ever so cool 3D show that splashes water on you and blows air in your face. The smiles, the giggles, and the nerdy yellow glasses. Memories forever with my girls.

As the darkness was setting in, our hearts were bursting out at the seams for the Electrical Parade. We first heard of the Parade back in February at Disney Social Media Moms, so to be able to experience the Parade in person was really a dream come true for the girls.

We sought out our spot to make sure we had the perfect setting to be able to enjoy the parade and up came a little handsome boy that wanted a hug so bad from L. He held out his hands to her over and over.