By Sheri Hopkins, Lifestyle Contributor
Hello everyone! Hope you are enjoying this weather. My precious Aunt Pat Sehorn passed away yesterday. She was a special lady and loved by so many. We sure had a lot of fun together. She could make the best coconut pie and orange slice cake. She was a wonderful cook. She loved reading my weekly article.
She also called me Dr. Hopkins because I could always diagnose people when they told me their ailments. Most people don’t know this about me, and I love to try to diagnose people. When I go to the doctor, I always like to tell them what I think is wrong with me. A lot of the times I am right.
My cousin and I were laughing about going to a Mexican restaurant with my aunt. She never knew what to order and most of the time didn’t like what she would get. I would try to help her and this particular time she had made up her mind she wasn’t budging on it. They bring our food out and we have one plate, and she had three plates. The look on her face was priceless. Me and my cousin looked at each other and busted up laughing. It was always fun going to the Mexican restaurant with her. Good times and lots of good memories.
My son called me the other day, he hardly ever calls me, and he says, “good thing I am not dead, because you wouldn’t know because you never call me.” Those are the exact words I say to him when I haven’t heard from him in a while. I said, “same to you, how would you know if I was dead or not?” He responded with “I saw you singing on your church live feed, so I know you are alive.” He got me there. Remember folks, this is the son, one and only son, that I was in 14 hours of labor with and when I was talking to him about my funeral and burial he asked, “mom is there a cemetery that you could be buried at that is closer, because the one where Nanny is buried (where I will be buried) is really too far.” I mean, I would hate to inconvenience him for one day. I guess I better start finding one that is closer to Van Buren where he lives.
Before I got off on this pig trail, we were talking and he reminded me of when I was a substitute teacher. He then says, “they actually had you teaching algebra?” He acts like I have not a lick of sense. When I taught algebra, I was there in the class and I asked the kids in my loud voice, “who has the highest grade in the class?” A shy young girl named Ciera Cotner raised her hand, and I told the whole class, “ok, kids if y’all have any questions just go ask Ciera, she will help you.” There is more than one way to skin a cat. I might also say all the kids loved me as a substitute.
Sticking with our fall theme, this is a chicken pot pie noodle skillet. It would be good on a nice, fall evening.
CHICKEN POT PIE NOODLE SKILLET
10 oz. egg noodles
2 tbsp. unsalted butter
1 medium sweet onion, diced
2 cloves garlic (I used minced garlic and just guess at it)
1 1/2 cups frozen peas and carrots, thawed
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 cups cooked chicken cut into cubes or shredded
Cook noodles Al Dente. In a large skillet, melt the butter over medium heat. Stir in the onion and garlic. Cook for about three minutes until the onions are soft. Stir in the flour until combined. Pour in the chicken broth and heavy cream, bring to a boil, reduce and simmer about five minutes, stirring occasionally until thickened (about five minutes). Add the peas and carrots till warm. Drain the pasta and add to the skillet along with the chicken. If you have other seasonings, you want to add feel free. You may need to add a little more chicken broth. Use your best judgement.
