September 2025

September 2025
Over the years, we've always compared our family life to a wagon train heading west. Just as everyone had to do his part to get to Oregon years ago, so everyone in our family must do his/her part to make our journey through life successful. If somebody climbs in the wagon and lets the others do the work, we just don't make any progress. We all have to pull our weight and work together. Along the trail we find lots of pebbles that make for a smooth ride and some bigger rocks that jar us a little; we hit the occasional pothole that can slow us down. But if we purpose to search diligently, there are countless gold nuggets and precious gemstones along the way as well. This journal is an attempt to preserve some of those precious moments for our children, and our children's children, as together we travel this trail called life.

Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. Psalm 16:11


Monday, February 7, 2022

Chicken & Gravy With Wild Rice

 This is another family favorite that I was a little appalled to find un-archived (I do like making up words) last spring sometime. Many birthday meals consist of this dish and I'm not sure why I've never shared it here but it's finally time. It is super easy and delicious. Here goes.

Chicken & Gravy:

3-4# boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into serving size pieces

1 teaspoon Lawry's salt

1 teaspoon salt

3 cups mozzarella cheese

3 cups cream soup

20 crushed crackers

1/4 cup melted butter

Layer in greased 9x13 pan (or 10x15): chicken, salts, cheese, and cream soup.

*this is one of those recipes that is very forgiving. Add more or less of anything according to taste and preference*

Mix crackers and butter; spread on top of chicken. Bake 350d for about an hour. Excellent to make ahead and refrigerate.

Ready to bake -

I've no idea where either of these recipes came from; they've been around for years and the kids have loved them for years. And I. CAN. NOT. make the chicken without the rice. It's just not even an option, just like pbj with peanut butter isn't an option. Or a hot fudge sundae without the hot fudge. So. When we have chicken & gravy, we have wild rice. I haven't made the amounts shared here for years; actually I can't remember if I ever did. Au contraire, I usually do x3 or x4; because of course if we'd run out of rice before we run out of chicken, the sky would probably fall. But leftover rice disappears quickly around here; and what is left after a few days goes into the freezer for the next batch of chicken rice soup. Easy peasey.

*This is the recipe how it's written in my recipe binder*

Chicken Flavored Wild Rice

1 1/2 cups long-grain white rice

1 stick butter

1 quart chicken broth

1 onion, diced

1/4 teaspoon celery salt

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 tablespoons chicken bouillon powder

In a large kettle, sauté onions with butter until onions are tender, just a few minutes. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Transfer to baking dish. Bake, covered, for about 1 1/2 hours. Makes 5 servings.

*This is the recipe how I did it yesterday* 

Put 6 cups rice into roaster and set aside.

In large kettle, sauté 4 sticks butter with 

4 diced onions 

(about 4 cups, which I pulled out of the freezer (where they were since fall 2020)(which was an excellent onion year. If you remember, 2021 was a major onion flop)), 

1 teaspoon celery salt, 

2 teaspoons salt, and 

6 tablespoons chicken bouillon powder.


Cook all this until onions are a little bit tender, just a few minutes. Add to roaster.

Add 4 quarts of chicken broth to roaster, and mix a little.
Bake an hour and a half (or so) at 350d.

Finished chicken & gravy-


Finished rice-


Rice, stirred/fluffed and ready to serve-


Yes. That is a crazy amount of rice. But we didn't have a terrible lot left after 10 people had supper. It's just that good. 

And that's it.

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