Chicken Spaghetti

I love how a sent, a photo, or a good meal can trigger a memory and take us back to a special place or time. Well here is a recipe that takes me back to a special time.

We were on vacation 10 years ago when my cousin prepared chicken spaghetti for us. We had a wonderful family meal sitting around their kitchen table in their old farm house.

I've been making it a couple times a month ever since that vacation. Super easy and it seems like everyone loves it. I always get requests for this recipe when I take it to the church potluck.

Chicken Spaghetti  

• 12 oz cooked / drained pasta
• 2 cups cooked / diced chicken (or shredded or chopped)
• 1 can rotel tomatoes
• 1 can cream of chicken soup (you can use cream of mushroom)
• 8 oz velveeta cheese cut into cubes

Lightly spray a 9x13" pan with Pam cooking spray. Mix all ingredients together, dump into the prepared 9x13 and bake at 350 degrees until the cheese is all melty and yummy. If the pasta is hot, it only takes a few minutes.

You can use mild or regular rotel. There have been times I don't have rotel tomatoes on hand. There are options! Saute' some onions, green peppers, celery until soft, then add a can of diced tomatoes, or fresh tomatoes you dice yourself.  If you don't have spaghetti on hand, any pasta will do. I have made this with penne and it was delish!

Sometimes I sprinkle grated cheddar cheese over the top and heat until it is melted.

For crowds, it is easy to double or triple the recipe.

One more note. If I use fresh tomatoes, I peel them first. Simple... I use a large slotted spoon to dip them into boiling water for a few seconds. Cool for a minute in a colander, then the peel slips right off.

Comfort Food Ham and Potato Casserole

This old recipe is a family favorite. It is a great way to use up leftover ham from the holiday dinner.

Ingredients:
4 lbs Ore-Ida® cubed potatoes O'Brien (2 32 oz packages)
1 1/2 cup mayonnaise (not salad dressing)
1 1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup Hidden Valley Ranch dressing (from the bottle - not the dry powder)
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 1/2 teaspoon Johnny's season salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
5-6 green onions chopped
1 1/2 cup white onion chopped
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese or colby jack
4 cups chopped cooked ham

Directions:

• Butter the inside of your slow cooker.
• First dump one bag of potatoes out of the plastic bag into a microwave safe dish. Microwave each bag of the potatoes for 5 minutes
• Then dump in the mayonnaise and sour cream.
• Sprinkle the seasonings over the sour cream and mayonnaise and mix together very well.
• Stir in the green onions and the chopped white onion.
• Add the potatoes and ham and mix everything together very well.
• Turn the slow cooker to high and cook for 4 hours or cook on low 8 hours.
• A few minutes before you serve dinner, stir in the cheddar cheese.

Options: Bake in a buttered casserole dish. 350 degrees for approximately 30 minutes - just until it's hot. Be sure to pre-heat the potatoes, just as you do for the slow cooker.

You can make this casserole the day before and refrigerate.

Johnny's seasoning salt is widely available in the Pacific Northwest. If it's not available in your area, it is available through the website: Johnny's Seasoning, Sam's Club, Costco, Amazon.com, and you can even purchase it on ebay. If you must, you can substitute Lawry's or another seasoning salt.

By the way, Johnny's garlic spread is the best! I use it to season my wood smoke grilled chicken, mashed potatoes, and linguine primavera. Sometimes I even use it for my garlic bread!

Old Fashioned Macaroni n Cheese

Now here's a real old fashioned comfort food everyone can relate to; baked macaroni and cheese with toasty bread crumb topping. This recipe is a real hand me down from generations gone by.

Old Fashioned Macaroni and Cheese

Ingredients:

• 1 (8 ounce) package macaroni
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 4 tablespoons flour
• 2 cups half and half
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• fresh ground black pepper, to taste
• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
• 1/2 cup buttered breadcrumbs

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400° F.
2. Cook macaroni according to package directions - drain and set aside.
3. In a large saucepan melt butter, add the flour and whisk together.
4. Slowly add the half and half, whisking as you add it, stir until it's smooth.
5. Continue whisking, bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium or medium low (it needs to simmer)
6. Add salt and pepper to taste.
7. Continue stirring and slow simmer for 10 minutes - this will scorch if you don't stir.
8. Add the shredded cheese, continue simmering and stirring constantly until the cheese melts.
9. Remove from heat.
10. Toss the cheese sauce with the macaroni. Pour into a buttered baking dish.
11. Sprinkle with the buttered bread crumbs.
12. Bake 20 minutes - until the bread crumbs are toasty brown

Old Fashioned Homemade Chicken and Egg Noodles

I love chicken and noodles! It seems that every family has their version from grandma's kitchen. Some serve the noodles up soupy, with short noodles. I have always believed my grandma's recipe, which was passed down from her grandma, is the very best. So here's the way my grandma made homemade noodles:

Boil a chicken in a big soup pot of seasoned water. When the chicken is
cooked, remove from the pan of broth. De-bone the chicken (take all the meat
off the bones) and shred into bite size pieces.

To make the egg noodles you'll need 1 egg, and 1/2 eggshell of water, and 1/2 teaspoon of salt for each cup of flour. For my pot of broth, I use 4 cups of flour.
Dump your flour into a mixing bowl. Stir the salt into the flour until it's
mixed in. Make a well in the middle of your flour. Dump your eggs and the water
into the well. With a fork, mix up the water and the eggs as best you can, then
start stirring the flour into the eggs. Your dough will be fairly stiff. When
it's all mixed it may be very sticky. Sprinkle flour over your rolling surface.
Put your dough onto the flour, sprinkle the top of the dough with flour. Roll
the dough out very thin. About 1/8" thick. When it's rolled out, sprinkle
lightly with flour. Roll the dough up as you would cinnamon rolls. Cut into thin
strips. Spread the noodles out into another pile of flour. Let them sit all
spread out in the flour, for about 15 minutes, to dry out a
little.

Bring the chicken broth back to a rolling boil. Drop
the noodles into the boiling broth. Stir in some of the flour... at least 1/4
cup. Reduce heat to low or medium low and simmer about 15 minutes, stirring
every few minutes so they don't burn on the bottom of the pan. Add the chicken
to the pot, taste, season as needed, and serve.

I like the thick broth and the long noodles. Of course, you should adjust the recipe to your preferences.