#random personal stuff

[sylvanianfamilieslove]

#random personal stuff #i swear i will lose my mind if i dont move out in a few months #im too old to live with random loud and messy flatmates #pray for me #and for this poor ill calico critter too #sylvanian families #calico critters #toys

[messier51]

In reference to your tags on the food that makes life worth living post - what are chicken squares???

They're kind of like chicken salad sandwiches but wrapped up and baked in crescent roll dough.

They are very delicious.

[image description: four baked chicken squares still on the pan. they aren't very square but the crescent roll dough is nicely browned and they're covered in browned stuffing bits]

At the risk of sounding like a food blogger, these are the food that I'd ask for when given a choice for my birthday. These are kind of an ultimate comfort food nostalgia thing for me. I use an altered version of my grandma's recipe (I measure with my heart, I am so sorry gramma but it turns out just fine this way, and no extra mushrooms) which is below vvvv. There IS a recipe online, on the Official Pillsbury Website (https://www.pillsbury.com/recipes/savory-crescent-chicken-squares/) from one of their contests. The name on the recipe is not my grandma, but the location is not far from where she lived. My grandma's recipe is better (obviously) but they're very similar and the version at the link is half the size if you want to try it but don't want to do math or something.

Part of the reason for making the full 8-sandwich version from my grandma's recipe is that it uses a full modern 8oz package of cream cheese (instead of the 3oz version that used to be common I guess?), and then you do not put the other half back in your fridge and forget about it until it gets moldy. If that's too much food, the chicken squares freeze really well! Just bake them for slightly shorter (I do it about 20 minutes) and then stick them in a freezer bag in the freezer until you want to eat them. They just need to be re-baked!

Chicken Squares Recipe (from aj's grandma)

Filling:

1 8oz package of softened cream cheese

1/2 stick butter (that's 1/4 cup) (recipe says "or margarine" lol) melted (you use the other half of it below)

4 cups cooked cubed chicken (this can be approximate. One rotisserie chicken or so. Leftover turkey works great! Canned chicken would probably be good too. My sister does hers with mushrooms for vegetarian reasons but I have no clue how to do that. You can adjust this though! It's super forgiving.)

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

4 Tbsp milk (that's 1/4 cup)

4 Tbsp lemon juice

3 Tbsp chopped chives or onion. (Or like, as much as you want. If you like onion, more onion is really good in this. I have used half a large onion, a whole bundle of green onions, whatever looks good. 3 Tbsp is not enough imo, but if you're not into onions, then maybe ignore me)

2 8oz cans of refrigerated crescent rolls.

Sauce:

1 can chicken broth

2 cans cream of mushroom and/or cream of chicken soup

1 pint cream, half and half, or milk

sauteed fresh or canned mushrooms

Topping:

Pepperidge Farm Herb Seasoned Dressing (not the cubed kind) (you can use whatever breadcrumbs you have but the seasonings are really good! Sage, thyme, rosemary, poultry seasonings, whatever.)

The other half of your stick of butter

Instructions:

Cream the cream cheese (a stand mixer is helpful for this) and beat in 1/2 stick of melted butter. Beat until smooth.

Add chicken, onion, salt, pepper, milk, lemon juice. (Order doesn't really matter.) Mix well.

Separate 1 package of crescent dough into 4 rectangles. Firmly press perforations to seal 2 triangles together. Pat out dough to make thinner and larger (make it sorta square if you cant). (See alternate options below*)

Place about 1/2 cup filling into the center of each dough rectangle. Pull the 4 corners to the center. Twist slightly and pinch together, and pinch the sides that came together to seal. (It's totally ok if they're not perfect. They filling isn't gonna go anywhere.)

[4 unbaked chicken squares on a cookie sheet with a silicone baking mat. Three of them are sealed and kind of lumpy, the fourth is still laying out as a square-ish shape of dough with a scoop of filling in the middle. It's got a lot of green onions in it.]

Repeat with your second roll of rolls.

Melt other 1/2 stick of butter in a shallow bowl or pie plate and fill a 2nd shallow bowl with the stuffing/dressing/herbed seasoned bread crumbs.

Set out a cookie pan (I like to line them with parchment paper but it's fine if you don't, they won't stick).

Carefully lift one sandwich packet. Dip both sides(!) in butter and then in the stuffing. Place on the cookie sheet. (Sometimes I wear gloves for this step, your fingers WILL get gooey. You want the bread crumbs sticking out all over, it'll be delicious.)

Repeat for the rest of them.

[four unbaked chicken squares coated in butter and stuffing bread crumbs on a cookie sheet, ready to go into the oven]

Bake at 350°F for 20-25 minutes (or at 375 for about half an hour if you live on top of a mountain like me). They should be golden brown when they're done (see photos at top and bottom of the post).

You can partially bake and freeze or refrigerate for later!

Prepare sauce:

(I'm going to be honest I don't bother. Sometimes I make a can of cream of mushroom soup in the microwave and pour it on top. It's good! But it's way too much for just a me, and it doesn't freeze as well.)

Sauté mushrooms in about 1/4 cup of butter (sorry that's another half stick of butter, that wasn't in the list above)

Heat chicken broth and cans of soup.

Mix in mushrooms

Simmer until thick and bubbly. Reduce heat and add cream right before use. DO NOT boil after adding cream.

To serve, ladle mushroom sauce over each chicken square on plate.

[a baked chicken square in a shallow bowl swimming in cream of mushroom soup]

*Alternatives to trying to make squares out of crescent dough:

Supposedly it works with dinner roll dough too but I don't remember ever doing that.

Buy the sheets of crescent dough, which makes it a little less likely to split along the diagonal where you tried to smoosh them together.

Make little roll ups! Spoon filling onto large side of the crescent roll triangle and roll up just like you would if you were making it without filling (this is also really good with jam or nutella js). You can still dip them in the butter and dressing, they turn out great! You get a bigger bread to filling ratio, so you might need more rolls for the same amount of filling. Bake time is a little shorter though, keep an eye on them. They're cute though!

[three chicken roll ups(?) on a plate]

[baked chicken squares and roll ups on parchment paper-covered cookie sheets sitting on the stove]

So, go forth and eat chicken squares. I've got some in my freezer that I made after thanksgiving with my leftover turkey, I'm going to eat some on Monday for my birthday meal, as is traditional.

#replying to asks #chicken squares #recipe #idk if i would call these specifically a midwestern food but they have that vibe to them #cream cheese is so delicious #the filling is safe to eat too so you're just baking the crescent roll dough and heating up the insides #i took pics one of the more recent times i made them bc every time i mention these people go 'what' #lmao #now i have a whole post i can just link to in the future #random personal stuff #sorta

[isfjmel-phleg]

The presentation may not have been perfect, but it went fine. The audience seemed engaged, they asked interesting questions, and everybody was very kind and encouraging. It was a good group! The other presenters did excellent jobs.

I am grateful it's over. Thanks for the encouragement, everyone!

#random personal stuff #somebody asked about interpreting other books of this era through the lens of CEN #so stay tuned for thoughts on Anne Shirley's experience of CEN and how the recent TV adaptation misinterpreted that

[sotwk]

Noot Noot?

Hello Neo with the random ask! <3 I don't speak dragon unfortunately, but here's some random personal trivia in exchange:

My son didn't sprout a single tooth until he was a year old, so my sister, the HTTYD fan, began calling him Toothless. He really did have that adorable gummy smile.

#sotwk answers #random asks #random personal stuff #mutuals bonding #dragon #httyd #toothless

[galax-dragon]

Unfortunately I had to go to school today, but just now my mom was about to go shopping and I reminded her of the strike so that’s good 👍 (she knows about the strike and is not going)

#palestine #free palestine #gaza #gaza strike #random personal stuff

[hesawifebeaterdanusethegun]

Trying to decide whether I go back to sleep for a couple hours or just power through this bitch and stay awake.

#kiefer sutherland #random personal stuff #so so sleepy

[hades-bat]

I am just so happy that I found a safe space here, I can't take being online on any other social media anymore, I left twitter after being bullied and instagram is slowly becoming toxic af too. Idk maybe it's me who can't handle anything anymore, but social media should be fun so why would I spend time on it if it only stresses me?? I used to want to be friends with everyone and meet new people daily but now I have understood that I have my real friends and that I couldn't care less about people who don't like me because I'm pretty sure I'm the first one who doesn't like them :)) sorry for this long ass rant I just want to say that I'm really happy to be here and that I love u all 💕💕💕

#random personal stuff #sending love ❤️ #hades is feeling emotional

[chenria]

I went shopping today and I got clothes two sizes smaller than what I was usually wearing T_T I lost 13 kg (28 lbs) since I started taking more care of myself again in January. (I had reached levels that were threatening my health during the pandemic...)

And I honestly feel good.

#random personal stuff

[painterofhorizons]

The list of mild and medium inconveniences of today is inconveniently long and while I'm dead aware that it's all just tiny, not life altering stuff, it's still an amount that makes me very grumpy. So I'll throw it all here and look for solutions for one or the other and then let the rest be.

Last nights sleep was CRAP. Why? ONE FUCKING MOSQUITO. I'll have 12 and more bites, still didn't catch the bitch. Bitch is still alive. Had to get up at 4am and spray myself in anti mosquito spray I ever only use outdoors, and then go back to bed with that spray on my, just to be able to catch a little more sleep.

Couldn't get up and hunt the bitch down because I'm staying in a shared flat this week that's incredibly poorly soundproof so people wouldn't have been too amused by me running around in the cranky wooden floor middle of the night.

Which adds: I'm so not used to share place anymore. I don't notice the others much unless one walks around on the loud as fuck old floor, but I know they're next for and above floor and I don't like it.

I'm hungry.

I've spent 10h at the archive reading hand writings from 1790 when normally my brain is fried after 6h of archive work. So brain is extra extra fried.

And I feel like I didn't go through enough files, while I read through hundreds of pages and cases.

All while we have 30C outside. That's 10C more than I can bear.

And so much sun outside.

And tomorrow big meeting with boss with some annoying things to agree on.

And I can't even watch the daily Simpsons to unwind at 6pm because the TV only works with dvd here in this room.

And I still gotta go grab dinner somewhere which means more heat and sun and people.

Oh and the curtains here aren't really darkening anything while at home I got it more or less dark at night.

I could add more but this is kinda enough to feel cranky.

Gonna go grab food somewhere now, then boost up the work laptop again and watch some Simpsons on Disney. And try to sleep as soon as it's dark tonight, and spray myself before I go to bed so that undead bitch can kiss my ass.

#random personal stuff #sorry I just had to throw it somewhere #The inconveniently long list of today's inconveniences

[alex-the-otherkin]

Ya'all just ever see this freaky ass charecter from a some type of horror media and go "Yes, I want this one to adopt me. Yes I know they are a monster beyond human comprehension. Yes, I still want them to adopt me." Adopt me can litterly be in any form... A lover, a freind, a sibling, a parent, ect.

Mine is this wonderful fucking being ♡

#random #random post #random personal stuff #random ass post #random as fuck #random babbling #i don't know #i dont fucking know #idk #i dont even know #i dont know #pennywise #it pennywise #horror #horror movie's #tw cussing

[go-catch-a-chickn]

Just me wondering why I relate to Merlin so much, then checking mbti personality types for Merlin BBC characters and guess who has the same personality type as Merlin 💫

#infp thoughts #infp things #merlin bbc #personal #makes sense #had the exact same experience when searching Google for why I can relate to Elio Perlman from cmbyn so well 😂 #random personal stuff

[messier51]

return of the raccoon thief!

aka i’ve never actually used one of the security features on my security camera before tonight

so after i left for work my box of groceries was delivered (thanks fedex you are ALWAYS late) and it’s cold out so whatever, it can stay on my porch tonight, delivered groceries have mostly lasted the night before (last time i had this happen it was SUPER cold and some of the veg got slightly frozen)

tonight the (alleged) dish thief has returned and managed to pry open my grocery box, scaring away the cat in the process. eventually he gave up, leaving for a while. cat came back, then a few hours later the raccoon returned! this time when the cat started to run off it spooked the raccoon too, who ended up leaving first. cat went back into her little house, saved the day, saved the groceries.

the THIRD time the thief came back with a friend, and the cat did not stick around, and they seem very determined to get their little hands on my food, so I used the siren feature on my security camera. amazingly, it worked! i have successfully scared them off twice now, but i might have to keep an eye on the camera for the rest of the night D:

sorry food delivery service, this is an unsatisfactory delivery, it is NOT fuzzy thief-proof, and now my stray porch cat is off somewhere in the snowy cold hiding instead of in her warm cat condo

#we've gotten a few inches of snow since last night and there's a bunch of little animal tracks now #i am still a little worried about my groceries the integrity of that box has been compromised #my big backyard #more updates from the top of the mountain #random personal stuff

[isfjmel-phleg]

I'm presenting my paper in the very first session of the convention, on a Friday morning at 9:20. They lumped me in with other papers on British Literature, which makes sense, and I'm relieved not to have to appear alongside other fields of study (this convention covers all the disciplines, not just English/literature) that tend to get taken more seriously. Our group will include a paper on "Emotional Maturity of Fathers in Shakespeare's Plays," another on "Cyclical Redemption in The Hobbit as a Reinvigoration of Faith" (...I think I understand those words separately but not together), and finally mine on "Reclaiming Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden as a Narrative of Healing from Childhood Emotional Neglect."

That's a lot to be the follow-up act to. Really hoping for at least one person in the audience who's there specifically for TSG.

#random personal stuff

[willows-woes]

when i was younger (like eleven or twelve), i decided dragons were my favourite animal because they were always portrayed as the bad guys. i thought it must feel bad to be seen as the bad guy all the time, for nobody to give you any humanity or personification, for nobody to ever listen to you.

and after that, i tried looking into every dragon-related thing i could find. i had an obsession with them -- I'd play games related to them, draw them, watch movies purely because there's a dragon in it, and i'd ask for dragon-related toys and decorations. and to be honest dragons still have a special place in my heart.

#random personal stuff #dragons #this might have something to do with neurodivergence or maybe not i don't know

[wooden-turtle]

there's a pigeon on our balcony despite the decoy raven decoration we have and our cat is losing his mind

#random personal stuff

[hades-bat]

my favourite breakfast combination is oscar wilde and the smiths. I call it the great depression meal