Chicken and Rice

This is one of my family's favorite recipes and it is so easy. It is also very filling so even if you have carnivores at your house, like some of my kids, a couple of pieces of chicken a piece is adequate. I have made this with chicken breasts, but they are not my favorite part of the chicken.

I usually at least double the rice for this amount of chicken. My family really likes the rice so I make lots of it! Be sure to use a deep 9 x 13 pan if you double the rice because you need to also allow room for placing the chicken on top of the rice mixture.

Budget Tip: I usually use leg quarters because they are more frequently on sale and in my freezer.

I can usually serve a couple of vegetables in addition to the salad to add a little color and nutrition to the meal.

Chicken and Rice

1 can Campbell's chicken gumbo soup
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 soup can of water
2 cups uncooked rice
1 whole chicken, cut up
1 package dry onion soup mix

Mix all but chicken in large buttered pan (9" x 13"). Sprikle 1/2 onion soup on mixture. Place pieces skin sides down on top--sprinkle rest of onion soup on chicken. Cover and seal with foil. Bake 2 hours at 325º or 3 hours at 300º.

What I Do: For years I used the onion soup mix, however, one time I didn't have any and the meal was fine. Also, I have tried other chicken gumbo soups when Campbell's has been hard to find, but Campbell's really makes the best flavored rice. However, the brands of the other soup does not matter. When I double, triple, or quadruple this recipe of rice, which I usually have done, I add the proportionate amount of the other ingredients (except chicken) except use 2 cans of water per recipe instead of one.

NOTE: Someone recently told me that they always make this with 2 cans cream of chicken soup, 2 cans cream of mushroom soup, 2 cans of water, and 2 cups of rice. I have made the rice without the chicken gumbo soup, but my family prefers it with.

Chicken Stir-Fry

This continues to be a flexible and economical meal as well as a family favorite. While my family does eat beef, we prefer chicken for stir-fry meals. I usually buy chicken breasts when they are on sale, then bag them in 2 or 3 before I put them in the freezer. Now that there are not so many of us at home, I can probably use only one chicken breast for this meal; however, when more kids were at home, I could make a meal for 8, with 4 large eaters, with only 2-3 chicken breasts.

This meal can be expanded easily by adding more carrots or broccoli or adding other vegetables of your choice. I just find that the carrots and broccoli are bulkier than some other vegetables.

I have tried other juices and my family prefers apple.Yesterday I forgot to add the soy sauce to the sauce and even for my sweet tooth, it was TOO sweet. Although this sauce only uses a small amount of soy sauce, it balances the sweet apple juice.

One day I was out of cornstarch so I mixed the apple juice with a 1/4 cup flour until the flour was "dissolved" and it worked fine.

Chicken Stir Fry

1 Tablespoon oil
2 cups small broccoli flowerets
6 green onions
¼ cup gingerroot—cut into 1” toothpick size pieces (kind of julienned)

Stir fry and remove.

1 pound chicken breast cut into bite size pieces

Stir fry, add sauce. When sauce is thick, add vegetables and mix well. Serve over hot rice.

Sauce:

1 Tablespoon sugar
½ teaspoon dry mustard
2/3 cup chicken broth
3 Tablespoons soy sauce
2 Tablespoons apple juice

Stir fry 3 medium zucchini shredded—about 4 cups—for 1 ½ minutes then arrange on a serving platter. Top with chicken mixture.

What I Do: I use 1-2 chicken breasts and add quite a few carrots when I stir fry the vegetables. Start the carrots first because they take the longest to cook. We prefer the gingerroot grated and added to the sauce. We like this sauce, it is very light and kind of glazes the chicken and vegetables, sometimes I omit the mustard. We like zucchini, yellow squash, cauliflower, green peppers, red peppers, and other vegetables added to this; although cauliflower is not our favorite. I often omit some of the other vegetables, but my family has decided that stir-fry MUST have broccoli and carrots. I sometimes use yellow or white onions instead of the green onions, although I prefer the green onions. I always serve this over rice, allowing 1-2 cups of rice per person.

See's Chocolate Fudge

How can it be that it has been a whole month since I posted? The holidays and extra snow made baking especially fun. The chocolate fudge recipe has been requested by several people so I am starting the new year posting it.

In the early 70s, the popular story going around was that this was the recipe that the See's Candy Stores in California used for their chocolate fudge. We all liked, and still like, See's candy so this became a popular recipe with my family. Truthfully, I don't think this is the real recipe because, although I really like the creaminess and flavor of this fudge, it isn't quite the same as See's. But this will always be the "See's Fudge" recipe to me!

Joyce was my mother’s cousin. She made this fudge for Christmas every year for everyone. One year she made 100 pounds of fudge for the family Christmas get together! I cannot even imagine 100 pounds of fudge! I was a young teenager at the time and didn't really pay that close of attention to what 100 pounds of fudge really looked like, but I am quite sure that I have never since seen that much fudge all in one place. Enjoy!

See's Fudge
Joyce

4 1/2 cups sugar
1 (12 oz.) can evaporated milk
18 oz. Nestle's chocolate chips
1/2 pound butter or margarine
2 cups chopped walnuts
1-7 oz. jar marshmallow cream

Put sugar and milk in kettle and bring to rolling boil for 20 minutes, stirring constantly. Put chocolate chips, margarine, and marshmallow cream in a large bowl or pot. Pour milk mixture over the contents in the bowl and beat until creamy. Add walnuts, mix well, and pour into a buttered 9 x 13" pan and let set until firm.

What I Do: I usually use margarine. When I make this for my mom, she doesn't like the nuts cut at all. I use my Kitchen Aid mixer to beat this, unlike the old days when the sign of a good fudge maker was how well they could beat the fudge. However, even in my 6 quart mixing bowl, a double batch really is too much for the mixer bowl although you can do it. Just prepare to clean up a little bit of a mess and be VERY careful when you start the mixer.

Chocolate Crinkles

It is finally snowing! I love the snow! It makes me want to cook and bake and make soups and breads. However, today I am baking cookies. I have looked for a long time for my original Chocolate Crinkles recipe that used cocoa. It was in my Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook, Circa 1971. In the later cookbooks, even the very next one, the recipe below is given, using melted chocolate.

I have successfully used this recipe by substituting 1 Tablespoon butter or margarine and 3 Tablespoons cocoa for each Tablespoon of unsweetened baking chocolate.

However, today I found what I think is the old recipe and I will use it today. The original recipe called for shortening and cocoa so I am very hopeful-and very excited-that this is it!

Chocolate Crinkles

Now, when I make this recipe, I always have several people say, “I haven’t had these in years!” So, although I don’t remember how or when I started making them, evidently this is an old time recipe.

Thoroughly cream:

½ cup shortening
1 2/3 cups granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla

Beat in:

2 eggs
2-1 oz. Squares unsweetened chocolate, melted

Sift together:

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt

Add dry ingredients alternately to shortening mixture with

1/3 cup milk

Add:
½ cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Chill 3 hours. Form in 1 inch balls; roll in confectioner’s sugar. Place on greased cookie sheet 2 to 3 inches apart. Bake in moderate oven (350˚ F.) for 15 minutes. Cool slightly; remove from pan. Makes 48

What I Do: The original recipe I had used cocoa instead of the melted chocolate but I haven’t been able to locate it in quite some time so I use 3 Tablespoons of margarine to 1 Tablespoon of cocoa for each one ounce square of chocolate because I always have cocoa on hand but seldom have baking chocolate on hand.


The new/old recipe that I used to use that I just found today. :) It was GREAT and even easier than I remembered! Still chewy and chocolaty!

Chocolate Crinkles

1/2 cup shortening
1 + 2/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 eggs
6 Tablespoons cocoa
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup milk
1/2 cup nuts (optional, I never use them)
powdered sugar

Cream shortening and sugar. Add vanilla and well beaten eggs. Sift together cocoa, flour, baking powder, and salt. Add to creamed mixture alternately with milk, blending well after each addition. Stir in nuts and chill dough at least 3 hours.

Shape chilled dough into small balls. Roll each in powdered sugar. Place on cookie sheet about 2-inches apart. Bake in a 350 degree oven 10-12 minutes.

Cornbread Stuffing

Thanksgiving is one of my family's favorite holidays because it is-ALL ABOUT THE FOOD! But as I have written before, what we really enjoy is spending the time together preparing, eating, and even cleaning up together. Really just an excuse to have a party.

Last Thanksgiving we were all together for the first time in many years and with most of the kids as adults. My son and his wife generously hosted us in their large kitchen so that there were, throughout the day, most or many of us in the kitchen at the same time preparing the food together and discussing the the changes that we have made in the traditional recipes, the events of the past year, our dreams for the future, and comfortable silence (ok, maybe not so much silence with our growing numbers that are up to 19 + friends and family members who joined us).

Like many of you, stuffing is a traditional part of our Thanksgiving dinner. While it is called stuffing, because we eat so much of it at dinner and for yummy leftovers, I rarely stuff the bird any more. I usually make a restaurant size pan (roughly equivalent to 4- 9x13 pans) of stuffing to insure that we have enough leftovers. However, this year we have a little smaller group so I am still trying to decide just how much to make-to insure we have enough leftovers. We have a fairly longstanding joke in our family about why people don't like stuffing. My kids say that it is because they use bread instead of cornbread.

I grew up with my mom and my grandma making cornbread stuffing so to me that is just what you do. Unfortunately, my kids grew up the same way so on the occasions that we have had Thanksgiving or Christmas dinners with others who prepared bread stuffing, the kids would solicit cornbread stuffing to be made when we got home. Now, we just volunteer to make the stuffing! However, there are those who prefer bread stuffing-probably because that is what they grew up eating.

If you have never liked stuffing but have never eaten cornbread stuffing, I suggest you give it a try. You might be surprised at the difference just a change of bread can make.

Just so you know, my son and I have had a little discussion about the exact proportions, but if you notice the note at the end of the recipe, the most important thing to use cornbread and some of the rest of the ingredients. My son and I are both recording the EXACT amounts (I don't know if that is possible) of the ingredients that we use this year to see if we, in fact, do agree on the proportions.

Cornbread Stuffing

Grandma Palilla

2 ½ cups chopped celery

1 ¼ cups chopped onion

7 ½ cups coarsely crumbled corn bread

4 teaspoons sage

3 + cups chicken broth

salt and pepper to taste

Mix celery, onion, and cornbread together in a bowl. Add the sage and enough broth to make very moist, almost soupy. Pour into 9 x 13 baking pan and bake at 350º for 45 minutes or until set up and a knife comes out clean.

What I Do: Sometimes I use reconstituted chicken bouillon cubes in place of or for part of the broth. Use a 9x13 pan (usually a double batch of your favorite cornbread recipe) to make this quantity. You can see my cornbread recipe below.

These amounts can vary quite a bit; the important thing is to use cornbread and some of each of the other ingredients.

Cornbread

1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

¾ cup yellow corn meal

¼ cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt (optional)

1 cup milk

¼ cup vegetable oil

2 egg whites or 1 egg, beaten

Heat oven to 400º F. Grease 8”- 9” square pan. Combine dry ingredients. Stir in milk, oil and egg, mixing just until dry ingredients are moistened. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 20-25 minutes or until light golden brown and wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Serve warm. 9 servings.

What I Do: I always use yellow corn meal, I add the salt, and I add ½-3/4 cup sugar for a single recipe. I also use shortening instead of oil. Mix the dry ingredients then use a pastry blender to blend in the shortening just until the size of small peas. Add a whole egg and milk stirring just enough to moisten. Do NOT use the mixer for cornbread, it beats it too much and makes it tough. I usually double this recipe and make it in a 9x13” pan. This recipe can be doubled, but does not turn out as well when tripled or quadrupled.

Fresh Tomato Soup

Photo by: Taste of Home

I had a few tomatoes that I needed to use. I already made BLT sandwiches on Sunday and we even had sliced tomatoes with oil, vinegar, and oregano as a side dish one night; but I needed to use the rest of the tomatoes. I had been thinking that fresh tomato soup sounded good, but since I had never made it, I was a little reluctant. I looked in my Taste of Home Big Book of Soups and they had a recipe that sounded yummy. I made it and it was yummy!

You need to not think of it as Campbell's Tomato Soup, but it is tasty, nevertheless. Today when I started the blog, I didn't have the cookbook with me so I went to the Taste of Home website and typed fresh tomato soup in the search and found the very same recipe from my cookbook.

My sons voted that this is a keeper, but one of them said, "... and cheese sandwiches?" I guess some things just go together like peanut butter and jelly or tomato soup and cheese sandwiches.

Fresh Tomato Soup
Taste of Home

1 cup chopped onion

¼ cup butter, cubed

3 pounds fresh tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped

2 Tablespoons tomato paste

1 Tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon dried basil

½ teaspoon dried thyme

¼ teaspoon pepper

¼ cup all-purpose flour

4 cups chicken broth, divided

1 cup heavy whipping cream

In a large saucepan over medium heat, saute onion in butter until tender. Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, sugar, salt, basil, thyme and pepper; simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Combine flour and 3/4 cup broth; form a smooth paste; gradually stir into tomato mixture with remaining broth.

Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes, or until thickened. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 30 minutes or until tomatoes are tender. Remove from the heat. Stir in cream; serve immediately. Yield: 4-6 servings.

Prep: 10 min. Cook: 45 min.

What I Do: I did not add the tomato paste. I added a little more flour and blended it well in the blender with some broth before adding it to the tomatoes. I am not a fan of chunks of tomatoes in my soup, so I cut the tomatoes into fourths (but I did not peel or seed them) and pulsed them in the blender for a few seconds before adding them to the soup. The soup had texture, but not chunks. I did not add the sugar and I wish I had added more basil. You remember that my son says, "Basil makes everything better!"

Nutrition Facts: 1 serving (1 cup) equals 305 calories, 23 g fat (14 g saturated fat), 75 mg cholesterol, 1,131 mg sodium, 22 g carbohydrate, 4 g fiber, 5 g protein.

Hawaiian Haystacks

I had a very busy weekend organizing a dinner for 100 16-18 year old young men and women on Saturday. Once the stressful planning is over, it is always fun to serve the food. I always think, "I could do this for a living!"

I did not choose the menu, but I have served this meal to a similar number of youth before. However, do you think I kept my notes? This time I took copious notes on how much of everything it takes to serve this meal to 100 people, and I put them in a place that will be forever safe as well as accessible. Sometimes when I put things in a safe spot, I cannot retrieve them later, but not so with these notes. They are in my personal journal.

The people that were helping me cut the vegetables were amazing! We cut 12 bell peppers, 3 stalks of celery, and 25 tomatoes in ONE HOUR and there were only 2 of us for part of the time and 3 for the rest of the hour!

One of the people who helped me last time I made this meal for an equally large group had a nifty recipe for the chicken gravy. Even if you use homemade gravy or fresh chicken at home, this recipe is really the way to go for a large group. The proportions are 2-3 cans cream of chicken soup to 1 equal size can of chicken broth, then add canned chicken (or turkey). For 100 people I used 7 cans cream of chicken, 3 cans chicken broth and 8-12 ounce cans chicken.

The only glitch... I had no idea that all rice cookers did not work the same. The last time I did this, there were enough people on the committee that we all were in charge of bringing 12 cups of cooked rice. This time, we ended up with some rice that was mushy; it's a good thing that the rice was on the bottom so as soon as the gravy and toppings were on it, no one knew the difference! The whole problem with cooking 25-30 pounds of rice is that you really can't cook more than 12-15 cups of cooked rice at one time. Therefore, we had 6 rice cookers plus my BIG pot (x2) cooking rice. I'm still working on a solution to the "cooking large quantities of rice" issue. For this meal, 1 cup of cooked rice per person is too much but 1/2 cup is really not enough unless it is a small group and you know the people will not eat more. For the large group, I settled on 3/4 (+ or -) cup of rice per person.

We have honed it to include our family preferences: crisp Chinese noodles, rice, chicken gravy, celery, pineapple, coconut, and a cherry on top (although we don't often include the cherries any more since I am the only REAL Maraschino cherry fan in the family). I have discovered that a lot of people like the cheese and tomatoes; bell peppers and green onions make most anything taste better and the other things... well, I don't use them at home, but they are always eaten when served to a large group.

Also, for a larger group, I like to serve the pineapple tidbits-they are not as messy as as the crushed pineapple and actually go further... and the chunks, well, I find them to be a little too big for my pleasure. I have bought #10 cans of pineapple tidbits for years at my favorite club stores, but this weekend there were no #10 cans of pineapple to be found at the grocery store, Costco, BJ's, or Sysco. Fortunately, I found tidbits on sale so there we were Saturday afternoon opening LOTS of 20 ounce cans (15 to be exact) of pineapple!

Hawaiian Haystacks
Betty

I realize that this is a mainstay among many, but the first time I heard of it I thought it sounded gross! To my surprise it was yummy and my family enjoys it every time!

2 cans cream of chicken soup
1 cup chicken stock
2 cups chicken, cubed
4 cups cooked rice
1 can/bag crisp Chow Mein noodles
3 medium tomatoes, chopped (or cherry or grape tomatoes)
1 cup celery
½ cup green pepper, chopped
½ cup chopped green onion (or other onion)
1 cup grated cheese
½ cup coconut
1 can (20 oz.) pineapple chunks, drained
½ cup slivered or sliced almonds
Maraschino cherries
Other possibilities that I have seen: sliced or chopped black olives, raisins, and sliced bananas

Combine soup and chicken broth in saucepan to make gravy. Stir to blend. Add chicken. Simmer 10 minutes until heated through. Serve on 8 individual plates layered according to choice.

Option: First layer rice, Chow Mein noodles, chicken and gravy. Add tomatoes, celery, green pepper and onion. Top with pineapple, cheese and more chicken and gravy, if desired.

Option: Place each item in a bowl to be served from. Each person builds their own haystack.

What I Do: We pared the toppings down to celery, crushed pineapple, and coconut on top of the noodles, rice and gravy with shredded chicken in it. When cherries were in season, I would sometimes buy fresh cherries to use on top. Often I make the gravy using a white sauce recipe and replacing the milk with either chicken broth or bouillon or use 2 cans of cream of chicken soup with 1 cup chicken broth or bouillon and 1 cup of chopped chicken or turkey. Serves 6-8.