Chicken Tetrazzini.

For lunch today, I was inspired by a website I recently came across, adventuresinbentomaking.com, (now http://www.aibento.net/).  Bentos are packed lunches, and mine was clearly not, but the goal of making a beautiful meal is the same.  This is my first attempt, but it was fun to do, and fairly easy, so expect to see more.

Dinner tonight was chicken tetrazzini.  It was a favorite from my childhood, published in a cookbook from my grandma's hometown the year that I was born.  It's even better when you take the time to cook the chicken, but I generally use a large can of chicken instead.  I know, it's sad to see some of the flavor go, but it's neglible when compared to the time gained, at least for me. Here's how you put it together.

CHICKEN TETRAZZINI

Preheat your oven to 375°, and pull out a 1 1/2 qt. casserole dish.

Ingredients:

4 oz. spaghetti, broken (approx. 1 cup broken up)

1 can cream of celery soup

1/2 c. milk

1 c. diced, cooked chicken (or one large can chicken, drained)

1/4 c. chopped pimientos

1/4 c. green pepper

1 T. minced onion

1 c. shredded cheese

1/4 t. black pepper

Chop all vegetables, and drain the pimientos (and chicken, if needed) before beginning assembly.

I prefer to mix the soup and spaghetti first, with the chopped vegetables.  This way the spaghetti is nicely broken up by the time everything else is mixed in.

Add the milk next.

When you add the chicken and pimientos, be sure that you break up any large pieces of chicken so that it blends well with the rest of the dish.

Finally, add the shredded cheese and pepper, reserving some of the cheese for sprinkling on top.

Mix everything well and place in the oven.  Cook for 30 minutes.

If you care to make cleanup easier on yourself, be sure to wipe the casserole dish around the top with a paper towel before cooking.  Enjoy!

Great Aunt Mary's Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Alright, I am willing to make these cookies for anyone, but I consider them one of my few family recipes that stays with me.  I love to make them, and they're fairly quick, but they call for a lot of ingredients.  Thankfully, I keep most of them on hand, so it's not difficult to whip them up in a pinch.

Because the recipe is so large, (it calls for a pound of butter, among other things,) I always make a half recipe.  Even then, I have to place my hands over the edges of the bowl when the mixer's on to keep it from overflowing.

I made these for the women's retreat I went to this weekend, and they were a hit.  I brought fifty cookies, and came home with the broken pieces of about five cookies.There were around thirty women at the retreat, so I figure that was pretty good.

Now, I am definitely cookied out.  Maybe some bread next?  

P.S. My hubby is fantastic.  Tonight he made me a salami sandwich, when I was perfectly able to make one myself, because he's sweet and I was being lazy.  MMM...hubby sandwich...

Grilled Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwich.

This was my brunch.  Pan-seared creamy peanut butter with strawberry preserves on wheat bread.  Delicious, and super-sticky.

Hello World! Mmm....cookies.

I love to cook.  I love to bake.  I love to try new recipes.  This is where I get to talk about all of that. Enough explanation.

I've been wanting to make cookies for about a week, but kept putting it off.  Finally, when it came time to make a meal for a family at church, I had an excuse.  I was out of chocolate chips, so my favorite recipe was not doable, but I found this recipe instead.  It was in a cookbook that my mom gave me, which was originally my grandmother's.  It has a combination of recipes from the 30's and the 80's. Fun fun!

P.S. If you all want me to actually post the recipe, please cast your vote for it in the comments.  I'm still figuring out the format for this blog!