Cheesy Chicken and Rice Casserole

Some friends who moved to a new place asked us over for a housewarming dinner yesterday. I was super stoked, but a little nervous because they asked us to bring a dish. I walked into the kitchen and looked around and thought to myself, "What the heck are we going to bring!?" As if a yummy dish of some sorts was going to magically appear before my eyes simply because I was willing it to. *sigh* Normally I would have left the matter up to Sammy, but because I have vowed to make more of an effort to cook (or try to cook), I told Sam I would handle it. You're proud of me already, aren't you? You haven't even seen what I came up with!

Cheesy Chicken and Rice Casserole.

1 can (5 oz.) chunk chicken (I used about 6-7 oz chicken breast cooked stove top in vegetable oil and garlic salt)
1 can chicken and rice soup
Salt and pepper to taste (I just used pepper)
1 can cream of chicken soup (I used cream of celery soup)
1 1/2 c. grated cheddar cheese
2 c. cooked rice
1/2 c. Ritz cracker crumbs

     1. Mix chicken, soups and rice in greased casserole dish.
     2. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.
     3. Take out and top with cheese and cracker crumbs.
     4. Place back in oven for 10 minutes.

Super simple recipe I found in seconds online at cooks.com.

After consulting with Sammy how to make rice and telling him quote, "I hope I don't fuck it up" lol I made the dish without any mishaps. And you know what, it was actually fun. Shocking!

The housewarming dinner went well and everyone seemed to like my dish. I didn't see anyone gagging on it anyway. :) Sammy told me it's definitely one he'd like me to make again. I told him sure thing, since I now know how to cook rice. YAY! I thought it was delicious.

With love,

Mama Hauck

Time To Learn To Cook?

I am not a cook. I fear and loathe cooking. I've admitted it to ya'll before in passing (I think). But if you never caught on, I'll now admit it outright. I am not a big fan of cooking. On a fun scale of 1-10, cooking pretty much is a 1, maybe a 2....but that's pushing it. It's just not my idea of a good time, so I tend not to do it at all. It's messy and it seems hard and makes me think in measurements and degrees and stuff. That's some scary math stuff! I fear math! Ugh. I need one of those measurement conversion magnet things to go on my fridge. (And no, my lack of cooking skills is not the fault of my Mother. She tried her best when I was younger to show me the ways of the cooking world.....I just couldn't retain all the information. Sorry Mom.)

When I say "cooking" I'm not talking like boxed mac and cheese, hot dogs and brown beans, PB and J's, and frozen pizza with a side salad type of cooking. Of course I can do that and I do it all the time so my children don't starve to death during the day. I'm talking REAL cooking. Grab things out of the cupboard and slap them together to make something delicious type of dinner cooking. Find a sweet, new recipe in the cookbook and whip it up type of cooking. Sammy can do all this. He likes it.  

I understand this whole situation might seem a little...odd.  The hard working man goes off to work to provide for his family only to return home to cook dinner for his wife and kids? Gosh, I can feel the hate glares upon me now. How horrible am I? Can't even cook dinner for my own family. Why did Sam even agree to marry me!?

Now just to give some credit where credit is due, I do have a few recipes up my sleeves. I can at least follow a recipe if, for some weird reason, I DID feel like cooking.....like my husband needed the day off or for special occasion. But I have to follow it EXACTLY and even then I ultimately wind up needing Sammy to assist me for one reason or another or decipher what the heck the recipe is talking about. Here is a short list of meals I have prepared with my own hands.

*Homemade mac and cheese.....a family recipe

*Homemade tuna noodle casserole (I can actually do this one all on my own, without a recipe!)

*Homemade calico beans

*Homemade heavenly hamburger.....a family recipe

*Homemade stroganoff.....a family recipe

And most recently

*Homemade.....from scratch....blueberry muffins with a cinnamon sugar crumbly top.

With love,

Mama Hauck

The Handy Man

Sammy and Anthony went on a dirt bike ride yesterday and on their way home stumbled upon a pile of old barn wood. A dozen cool projects came to my mind when I went to go look at the wood. But ultimately we decided on making little benches! My husband is oh so handy. I just love him.

The wood

The hard working man

Anthony helping

Molly helping

The finished product. Don't you want to buy one? ;)

With love,

Mama Hauck