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Look no further! This is about to become your ‘go to‘ soup recipe! If you’re anything like me, Broccoli & Cheddar is easily Top #5 in your soup lineup. Listen, you don’t have to search high and low for it to be the Soup du Jour in some restaurant. Simply follow this quick and easy recipe and you can enjoy it in your own home, every day of the week! 😉

Ingredients:

64 oz. Chicken Broth

3/4 c. Salted Butter

1 c. Flour

1/2 Small Onion (diced)

3-4 Broccoli Crowns (chopped into small pieces)

2/3 c. Grated Carrots

3 1/2 c. Grated Sharp Cheddar Cheese

2/3 c. Heavy Cream

1 tsp. Salt

1 tsp. Garlic Powder

1 tsp. Mustard Powder

1 Tablespoon Better Than Bouillon- Roasted Chicken Base

Pepper to Taste- Optional

Instructions:

In a large pot, melt butter on medium heat. Add onions and garlic powder. Cook for a couple minutes, letting the onions soften. Whisk in the flour. Immediately add chicken broth and whisk well. Add broccoli and carrots. Bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer. Add heavy cream and cheese. Mix well. Add salt, mustard powder and bouillon base. Continue to simmer until broccoli is soft.

That’s it! You’re DONE! No need to make it complicated! 🙂 Now grab your saltines and enjoy! 🙂

Thank you for stopping by and trying this Hope Hill Hospitality Original Recipe!

Have a wonderful week! 🙂

Sincerely,

Erica

Pie.

The ultimate comfort food.

It’s a favorite dessert from many past special occasions and for my family, Chicken Pot Pie is one of the most requested dinner meals. Keep this recipe in your back pocket and you’ll be sure to delight and impress your family and friends for years to come! 🙂

I’ve seen numerous complaints about too much content before a blogger gets to the recipe, so for your sake, I’m going to skip all of that and get right to it! 🙂

Ingredients for filling:

3 chicken breasts

4 c. peeled and diced potatoes

1 1/2 c. frozen peas

1 1/2 c. diced carrots

2 tsp. olive oil

1/2 c. salted butter

1 c. flour

32 oz. chicken broth

1 1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. garlic powder

1 tsp. onion powder

1/4 tsp. coriander

Directions:

In a large pot, saute chicken breasts in olive oil on medium heat. (I didn’t include this in ingredients list, but my standard routine for cooking chicken breasts is a dash of salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder and coriander) not enough to measure, but enough to add a touch of flavor 🙂

When chicken is nearly done, cut it into bite sized pieces, add diced potatoes and give it a stir. Clear a space in the center of your pot, place the stick of butter in and let it melt. Next, whisk the flour into the butter. Once that is mixed, pour in the chicken broth and whisk until it is evenly mixed. Add peas and carrots and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and it will thicken. Mix in all of your spices. Salt, garlic powder, onion powder, coriander and pepper if you choose 🙂

While that is simmering, it’s time to get to the best part! The Crust! You’ve probably heard it before and I’m a firm believer, that a pie is ONLY as good as its crust! I can honestly say I have NEVER used a ready made pie crust. I simply won’t. I would rather skip the entire pie, than skimp on the most important part. Of course, you’re welcome to do what you want! That’s just me! I think it stems from the fact that I was introduced at a young age to ‘Aunt Debbie’s Pies’. My bet is that they are in the top #10 of pies ever made! Her Coconut Cream, Banana Cream, Chocolate Cream, Apple….. All of them. So Delicious! Truly what holiday dreams are made of! 🙂 Anyway! Back to it! 🙂

Crust Ingredients:

3 c. flour

1 1/2 tsp. salt

1 1/3 c. Crisco

1/2 c. cold water

Directions:

Add flour and salt into a large bowl and mix. Then quickly cut in Crisco with a fork, until you have a mixture of small crumbles. Add in water and mix well with your fork. Roll out half of the dough on a floured surface and immediately place into your pie pan. Pour the filling into the crust. Roll out the remaining dough and place it on top. With a knife, make a few slits in the top crust for steam to escape while the pie is baking.

Bake at 375 degrees for approximately 50 minutes.

Next Step.

Wow Everyone and Enjoy!! 🙂

*There are differences in pie pan sizes. I would call my pan a ‘medium’. I have a Pampered Chef pan that is deeper yet and I know that there are much more shallow pans than either of mine. This filling recipe may be enough to make two pies if you are using small pans. I also like a VERY thick crust, so it may seem a little over the top, but I encourage you to embrace the thickness! 😉

Please try out this recipe and let me know what you think! 🙂

Happy Fall Cooking!

~Erica

Quick Back Story

Real estate has been a love for myself and my husband as far back as I can remember. I can recall phone conversations we had WAY back, I’m talking early 90’s on cordless phones, that would lose their charge and you’d need to set them back on their home base to recharge for (what seemed like forever before you could call back). Yeah, those were the days we would share dreams about our future homes. Who knew at that time if the homes would be ‘Ours’ together, Heck, we were in middle school! Lol! However, deep down, I think we both had a pretty strong feeling 😉 We logged so many hours on the phone over the years! One time, in high school we literally stayed on the phone until it was time to get up and get ready for school! Sorry Mom! Lol! Gosh, those were the days! 🙂

Need. More. Light!

Fast forward to 2002, we purchased our first house three months before we got married. It was the perfect little ‘Cookie Cutter’ starter home on a mostly quiet street. Its bonus features were that it was on the end of the street, so we only had neighbors on one side and I believe it was the only one on the block that had a 3-car garage. Husbands like garages 😉 Well, mine does. It was the perfect home for his 1975 Jeep CJ-5, that we had bombed around in since we were 16 🙂 It’s now in our barn and needs a little work, but it’s our goal to be cruising in it again, now that we’re 40! Ha! 😉

Anyway, back to the Windows situation. We didn’t realize it until after we were in our house for a while, that it was pretty dark. It didn’t help at that time, the paint color that was in was red! You all remember that, right?! Yikes! We didn’t go red, because our cabinets happened to be this light maple that had a hint of pinkish-purple. Double Yikes! 😉 Anyway, I found a photo in magazine with our exact cabinets, similar flooring and the walls were DARK purple! Add that dark color, to the fact that there was only 5 windows and one sliding glass door in our ENTIRE house! It simply wasn’t enough! A couple years later, we had a window added to our dining room wall, which helped tremendously.

Let There Be Light!

After that experience, aside from location, WINDOWS and NATURAL LIGHT, will always be Number 1 on my Wish List for EVERY home!

When we purchased the farm in 2015, the windows were there, they were just nasty and needed replaced. So that was one of the very first things we did! We went from having 5 windows in our first house, to having 5 windows in the living room alone! 🙂 Ahhhh……….. 🙂 Side Note: We lived in our first house for 7 years, then we lived in another great home for 6 years and then we ended up at the farm, where it’s looking like we’ll stay! 😉

We now have:

• 22 Windows
• 2 Skylights
• 5 doors with windows

Fast forward to our first home we purchased together back in 2002, three months before we were married. It was the perfect starter home on a mostly quiet street of ‘cookie cutter’ houses. A couple positives about our house, was that it was on the end

Before

After

Thank you SO MUCH for following along today for a little back story and sneak peak of updates here at Hope Hill Farm! 🙂 Please feel free to share your thoughts and comments and Follow me on Instagram @hopehillhospitality! Have a wonderful week! ~Erica

Hey Friends, it’s Erica! It’s been on my heart for a while now, to share on the topic of being ‘Hospitable’. Don’t worry, it’s totally something that with a little effort and some practice, we can all achieve! 🙂

I happened to be in a group of moms on two different occasions and one of them mentioned that we could get together but not at her house, because of her dogs, the mess, etc. Then another mom mentioned that her house was ALWAYS a mess, so she simply could NOT invite people over. Those comments weren’t utterly shocking. I COMPLETELY understand! My house isn’t Pinterest Perfect at all times or even a majority of the time! For example, if you were to text right now and say that you were going to drop by in 15 minutes, in my house’s current state, I wouldn’t panic. That would be the perfect amount of time for me to rush around, pick a few things up and I wouldn’t be completely cringing when you walked in the door. THAT’S JUST TODAY! Things could change drastically in a week! 😉 What I DO want you to know, is that I would rather you come by, even if my house isn’t spotless! 🙂

It dawned on me, the magnitude of how many personal connections we are missing out on, simply because we don’t feel that our homes meet a certain standard. A standard that we’ve unintentionally created for ourselves. As much as I LOVE Pinterest, I do believe that it is partly to blame in the shame that some of us feel about our personal space. We get the idea in our heads that ‘So and So’ keeps their house up better than we do, to the point that we aren’t even willing to open our doors, let alone our hearts. Life is busy and unpredictable and many of us struggle to find the energy to accomplish the daily necessities, let alone do anything extra! Before you know it, we’ll have your mindset changed and your HEART and your HOME ready for company!

4 Simple Steps

1. Make it a point to end the night with a clean or mostly clean kitchen.
2. Keep your main bathroom tidy.
3. Get rid of clutter in your main living area.
4. Keep quick and easy snacks and beverages on hand.

An Accidental Discovery

Last year sometime, when my youngest daughter was 2, I was preparing a snack. I cubed some cheddar cheese for her and for myself, I kicked it up a notch with some pepper jack. She noticed right away that mine was different and asked what it was. Thinking there was NO WAY she would like it, I said that it was, “Hot Mama Cheese“. That wasn’t enough to deter her and she wanted to try it for herself 😉 Much to my surprise, she LOVED it! Hot Mama Cheese aka pepper jack is now a staple in our kitchen. It’s one of my favorites to use on a snack platter, along with pretzels and Craisins. In my opinion, its the perfect Spicy, Sweet and Salty combination! 🙂 For a fresh or gluten free option, i’ll swap the pretzels and Craisins for fresh pineapple and almonds 🙂

*Notice I didn’t mention anything about bedrooms or closets or anything crazy like that! In fact, if you have to throw some of the clutter from your main living space, into your closet and shut the door, SO BE IT! 😉

If you’ve done these 4 Simple Steps or even if you haven’t, the main thing is to INVITE SOMEONE OVER! You may or may not be ready to do it again the next week, but work on your list, get your mind right and try again! The bottom line is, it will get easier, just like anything else that you practice!

With everything going on in the world today and the isolation that we’ve all been experiencing, there’s no better time to start exercising our hospitality muscles! 🙂

If this post inspired you to open your home, i’d love to hear your experiences in a comment below! Blessings! ~Erica

It’s definitely a mystery walking into a home that was built over 70 years ago. There was one thing that left me completely puzzled. We walked into the master bedroom, across the crazy dirty, smelly carpet and over to the window. When we peered out, we found that there’s an AMAZING balcony that you simply CANNOT access! What in the world?! Honestly, deep down in my heart after that discovery, it didn’t matter how much work was going to be involved in this house, in my mind, the DEAL was SEALED! 😉 Never in a bazillion years did I imagine we’d find an old house that would have a balcony off of the master bedroom! This was about to become my ‘Happy Place’ 🙂

So, as you can imagine, OUT went the window and IN went the door!!!

Of course that opened another can of worms, because you now need to clean that space, add new siding, paint and last but not least, some new composite decking for a nice and easy to clean finish 🙂

As much as I LOVE this space, 4 years later it looks EXACTLY like this! (Well, the paint isn’t as bright white and the decking could stand to be cleaned 😉 I bought a couple super cheap chairs that we used briefly, but they ended up out on the back deck for extra seating. This time of year when the sun is shining, I think to myself that I need to get some colorful flower pots out here, but I just haven’t done it! This year is the year! Actually, this month is the month! I am on a mission to find some furniture and decor to make this the beautiful and inviting space it deserves to be!

So YOU can visualize, its dimensions are 5’6″ x 21’6″ 🙂

How would YOU fill this space? If YOU have ideas, please do share! 🙂

Hey Everybody! Happy Tuesday! 🙂 I’ve been trying to type a post since 5:30am (It’s now 3:30pm). Those of you who have young kids at home, may be able to relate 😉

About midday I made the announcement that I was going to do some ‘Work’ on the computer and I needed it quiet so that I could think. The girls didn’t say a whole lot, so I thought, “Ok! This might actually work!”. Well, that lasted about 15 minutes. Next thing I know, my 7 year old had my MacBook on the couch Googling ‘Everything you need to know about Yorkies’! No biggie! Mom will try again later! Lol.

There it was, now 3:30 (I still hadn’t had a chance to type a post). They were occupied with something in the dining room, so I grabbed my laptop, my new favorite ‘pick-me up’ watermelon Spark mixed with mango Bubly sparkling water and slid quietly out onto the front porch. Once I sat down, I thought it would be interesting to set the stopwatch on my phone to see how long it took for them to find me! I’ll post a pic of the results below! Lol. Not bad, but unfortunately, still not enough time to accomplish what I had hoped! 😉

Thank you SO much for following along! I’m beyond excited to have this opportunity to share Hope Hill Farm with you! 🙂 In my next post, I plan to share ‘before’ and ‘after’ pics of one of my favorite features of the house! Stay tuned! 🙂

~Erica

Welcome to Hope Hill Hospitality at Hope Hill Farm! It all started when my husband and I watched one too many episodes of Fixer Upper back in 2014! The rest was history after we stumbled upon an abandoned 1940’s farmhouse on 5 acres in our home town. We moved our family from our comfortable home 15 minutes away, threw on our work clothes and we haven’t looked back! Well, maybe for a minute! Lol! This house and property have been one project after another and it will probably be that way forever, but it has brought us an abundance of Peace and Satisfaction. This place is so special, I felt it needed a name. I’ve been referring to it in my heart as Hope Hill Farm for the past few years and it’s finally time to share! Whether you’re visiting from miles away in the comfort of your own home, you’ve actually been here for an event or had coffee with me on the porch, Welcome or Welcome Back! 🙂 You can expect to find plenty of before and afters, DIYs, daily family farm life, future events and so much more!

If Joanna asked, we could honestly answer, “YES! We have the GUTS to take on a FIXER UPPER!” ~Erica

Now and Then………..

Bear with me! This blog will most likely be much like our farm. It will start off pretty rough around the edges (visually) as I don’t have ANY computer design experience! What I plan to do, is make up for it with content that I know you’ll find helpful and enjoyable! I figure, we all START somewhere and that is exactly what I’m DETERMINED to do! 🙂 I will absolutely accept any design and layout tips or ideas you may have for this page! Thanks a million in advance! ~Erica

Please leave a comment on this post if you’ve ever visited here! 🙂