Chicken & Rice, a classic Nana recipe

I recall my mother making this one pan dish many times throughout my childhood. For some reason, hers always tasted better than what I could recreate. Through trial and error I realize two of the reasons why. For one, you can't expect to substitute good old-fashioned "Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup" with a healthy, lighter variety and expect the same yumminess. For two, I'd often not mix the soup with the rice & water well, in a separate bowl first, before adding it to the pan with the chicken. The result was crunchy chunks of rice. :(

Well, with my trial and error experience, Cade made a successful "Chicken and Rice" his very first time! Here's the recipe if you want to try it out too:

Chicken & Rice (tells you a lot doesn't it...;))

1 cup reg. rice uncooked

6-8 chix pieces (we used drumsticks and boneless chicken breasts)

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 can water

1 envelope of dry onion soup mix

paprika

Mix all ingredients and pour in a 9x13" pan. Lay chix pieces on top & spoon sauce on top. Cover with foil and bake 1 hour at 350 degrees. Sprinkle paprika lightly on top.

Seth's Turn

Once we got rolling, Seth seemed enthused to prepare the main dish of our Sunday family dinner. With their hectic practice schedules, it is difficult for the 4 of us to all be at the table at once. Not long ago we made Sunday our official family meal night. I chose "Baked Teriyaki Chicken" from allrecipes.com for Seth's entree. There was a reason behind it; I had made it for an event in Seth's 7th grade World History class and remember it being easy, and something he liked. Fortunately it was a recipe for which I had all of the ingredients on hand, except for the thighs and fresh garlic.

The only catch was the basting. Recipe called for it every 10 min. of cooking time which meant Seth had to tear himself away from the xbox frequently during the baking phase. He got a lot of practice donning oven mitts and using a cooking brush as you can see in the photo. He did a fantastic job and honestly seemed to enjoy it, never complaining when the timer would beckon him from the game room!

Lessons Seth learned:

1. Mom's 20 year old American Airlines issued oven mitt is by far the best we have, and you need a good one when you are taking a hot pan in & out of the oven frequently.

2. A 9x13 pan is not a bread pan or square pan. (His teenaged mind is on other things apparently)

3. To be on the safe side, mix cornstarch with a tiny bit of water to get the lumps out and insure it will blend well (though it didn't say so in the recipe). Seth also learned the purpose of cornstarch - thickening, in case you too didn't know!

MENU: Served with "Minute Rice", steamed broccoli, and fresh pineapple & black berries.