A Good Day To Be Alive

Yesterday was a fantabulous day. It was cool without being cold or rainy, just enough breeze to keep away the bugs that are out already. Goose and I went for a short walk around town in the morning, then after her nap, we walked out to the farm.

On top of that, I weeded much of my gourd patch - it's about 15'x5', with approximately five gourd plants. The rest is solid weeds! I squatted almost the whole time, so combining that with the walk, I didn't think I'd be able to get out of bed this morning. So far, so good.

We started the day off with pancakes - I have been using the recipe on the container of powdered buttermilk, but it's finally used up. Since Kim's recipe for honey maple syrup (scroll down a bit) was so good, I think I'd probably better try her pancakes next, too. (We halved the syrup to make sure we'd like it - and since we're half the size of her family!) It was delicious - thanks, Kim!

What's a day in the kitchen without some sort of incident? I cooked my bone-in chicken breasts in the crock pot during the evening night before last, and took them out to let them cool a bit. Then I forgot to put them in the fridge - they just sat on a plate all night. Surprisingly, my cats left them alone (my mom just fell out of her chair at that bit of info) so I had Hubs shred them up and I used them to make Chicken and Rice.

As an aside, one of the links I provided on cutting split breasts noted that she got about 2 cups of shredded chicken from two split breasts. After I cut the meaty breast piece off, I noticed there was another meaty piece, like a chicken tender - long, skinny, and narrow. (This is probably actually where chicken tenders come from!) So I cut that off, too, and threw it in with my marinades. I then ended up with about three cups of shredded meat from eight split breasts, just enough for this recipe.

Chicken and Rice

Cook 1 1/2 cups rice in water per package directions. (I have been using brown rice, I'm still not quite used to it in here, though.) Saute one onion, chopped, and 1 cup celery in butter. Combine rice, onion mixture, 2 cans cream of mushroom soup, 2 cups chicken broth (I usually use less), 3 cups cooked diced chicken, 1 can water chestnuts (I usually run them through the handy chopper) and one can mushrooms.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes, then cover with crushed potato chips (I usually don't have any plain ones, so I skip this) and bake another 15-20 minutes until heated through. Yield 8-10 servings.

Tweaks - I have dumped it all in a crockpot and cooked it on low for a few hours, and I have just heated it through on the stove. That's probably why I use less chicken broth. Yesterday, I actually dumped everything in the rice cooker and let it cook that way. It took two cycles, though.

After cooking, I put about half of it in the freezer for another meal and we still had some leftovers after eating it for lunch.

Goose and I are supposed to go to the nearby "city" for a Nebraska Friends of Midwives potluck at the park, and it's raining! We don't really have a backup plan, so I'm thinking we'll just go and get a little wet and have a good time.