Pot Pie Review: Marie Callender

Okay, it is time to get off my blogging butt and write something on here! Here's a little post I wrote last week, when pot pie was heavy on the brain. I wanted to put pictures on here and such, but it seems that the only time I am inspired to blog is at work (shhhhh, don't tell!). So, I finally gave up on the pictures and decided to post as-is. Enjoy!

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Lately, I have been on a huge pot pie kick. Evidently, Baby D needs a good amount of artery-clogging country food in his/her diet. I've been having one almost every day for lunch, so I thought, What the heck! This might be good blogging material! So, without further ado, let's take a look at the one I'm eating today!

Note: all pot pies are microwaved and eaten with a side of cottage cheese.



Marie Calender's Chicken Pot Pie

Crust: AMAZINGLY browned on top, exceptionally gummy down below. Somehow, the box is manufactured so that you get a beautiful, oven-browned crust when you heat the pot pie inside. It was great!

Filling: Generous chunks of chicken, good veggies. This pot pie had a very unique onion flavor, and it was very strong! I'm still trying to decide if I liked that or not.

Gravy: I will not lie, I was kind of scared when I first cut into the pie. The gravy is nuclear yellow, a shade not known to nature. It was also a tad bland.

Microwave Performance: Hot on the outside, cold on the inside. Perhaps I should have heated it up longer.


Overall: Let me level with you: I was raised on the cheapie 50-cent pot pies, so that is the taste that I am accustomed to. Marie Calender's is more of a gourmet dish, so that kind of threw me off. I would probably only ever eat this pie for the crust, which is the best I've ever had on a microwave pot pie. Unfortunately, even though I can have Marie Calender's for free at the place I'm house-sitting right now, I probably won't eat it again.

My rating: 3 (out of 5)

Full disclosure: Marie Calendar did not bribe, coerce, hire, or in any other way make me do this review. Opinions are cheap, and mine is no exception.

A Riddle for Monday

My office has a day-by-day calendar that includes bits of random trivia or puzzles on the back. On Saturday, there was a riddle. I thought about it all weekend, but couldn't come up with the answer (maybe I'm just a little slow), so when I changed the page today and saw the answer, I was astounded! So I will pass on this little riddle to you:


Three brothers share a family sport:
A non-stop marathon
The oldest one is fat and short
And trudges slowly on
The middle brother's tall and slim
And keeps a steady pace
The youngest runs just like the wind,
Speeding through the race
"He's young in years, we let him run,"
The other brothers say
"'Cause though he's surely number one,
He's second, in a way."


Can you figure out the answer? No googling allowed! ;-)

Saturday Evening Blog Post: February Edition

I am pleased to be participating in Elizabeth Esther's Saturday Evening Blog Post for the first time! This is a fun little carnival in which you proclaim what you believe to be your best post from the preceding month. (And seriously, how can I resist the opportunity to display this delightful picture on a post?





Ah, Norman Rockwell, how you've influenced me.

Anyways, the selection I bring to you is What I Learned About Romance Today, posted on- when else?- Valentine's Day. Enjoy the post, and be sure to check out what other people are writing about on the Saturday Evening Blog Post!

WFMW: Water-Drinking Tips

For most of my life, the extent of my liquid intake was my morning coffee and water with my meals. And I was very happy in my camel-like ways. And then.... I got pregnant.

So you could imagine my response when my midwife matter-of-factly told me that I must start drinking half my body weight in ounces of water every day: "Are you kidding me???"

But after a mere couple weeks of this oceanic experience, having drunk over 1,400 ounces of water already, I am ready to share my water-drinking tips with you. Ready to float away with me?


1. Put your day's worth of water in one large jug. This has probably been the biggest help, because I can see how much I've drunk and how much I still need to drink. If it's getting later in the day, I can tell at a glance that it's time for more "bottoms up!"


2. Use a large glass. When I used a mug, I failed pretty badly. Since it held less water, it gave me a false sense of drinking more than I actually was. Switching to a 12-ounce glass helped immensely! Now, I only have to drink eight glasses, as opposed to sixteen a day.


3. Flavor that water! I will be honest with you: Tang is my new best friend. I don't know why it's easier to drink water when it's not, well, water-flavored, but that's the way it is. In order to not completely rot my teeth out, I use about half the recommended dose. Lemons are also fantastic! Those who are unable to keep fresh lemons during the day, take heart! My mother has informed me that there's this great product called True Lemon-- crystallized lemon sold in packets that tastes just like the real deal. I'm very interested to try it! I've also heard that mint, crushed strawberries, cucumbers, or a small amount of juice helps make water irresistible!


4. Drink it at room temperature. Maybe I'm just weird, but I find it difficult to drink large amounts of chilled water from the fridge.



Is there anything I've missed? Please leave a comment! Remember, I still have about 18,200 more ounces to go till this baby is born! :-D

Be sure to check out the rest of the carnival fun at Rocks In My Dryer!

Q: What goes *whoosh whoosh* and is incredibly difficult to find?

A: My baby's heartbeat!

After last weekend, in the absence of any warning signs or discomfort, I decided that there was no cause for concern over not hearing Baby D's heartbeat. So I called up the midwives and asked if we could just wait another week or two before scheduling an ultrasound. So yesterday, a week after the last appointment, I went in to go hunting for Baby D's heartbeat again.

Can I just say how much I love going to the midwife's office? It always smells sooooooo good in there, and it's very comfortable and homey! Can I live there, please?

Anyways, after about fifteen minutes of searching with the Doppler, I was starting to get frustrated. Baby's No Show, Act 1, Scene 2. Sigh. And then--

whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh.

Success! Turns out, my baby likes to hang out waaaaaaaaaay down at the bottom of the uterus. So that's the happy ending to my mini pregnancy drama.

A Great Giveaway!

There are lots of giveaways flying around in the blogosphere, but the majority of the products fall into my "Sure, that looks nice, but it's nothing I couldn't live without" category. Well, folks, I would like to point you towards one giveaway that I am wildly enthusiastic about!

Kitchen Stewardship is offering two books from the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes series! Be still my beating heart! The reason this is so exciting to me is because after a lifetime of botched batches of bread, I discovered a nearly foolproof (and quick! and easy!) method of baking delicious loaves. And that, dear readers, was Artisan Bread.

There are a zillion ways to enter, so go ahead and check it out here!

My Beautiful Costume!

For the past couple weeks, every Tuesday and Thursday night has been devoted to standing around on stage acting in the opera Rigoletto. I'm a "super", which means that I'm not actually singing in this production. I cannot tell you what glee it brings to my heart when me and my fellow female supers are addressed as "Super Women". YEAH!

This week has been dress rehearsal week, so I thought it would be appropriate to get a couple pictures of the dress:

DANG. This is definitely the best part of being in an opera!

I am the only female in the entire cast that got out of wearing a wig because my hair was already what they had in mind-- long and curly. Score! And look at all that makeup! It looks good on stage, but is pretty scary close-up!

Well, I should probably get some beauty sleep. Gotta keep looking good for all that acting, you know. ;-)