Dinner and a recipe for next week

     The Turkey a la King was awesome.  I boxed up a container of rice and a container of the a la King.  I also had an extra portion from dinner and since Miss M did not join us, I put that in the fridge for her for lunch tomorrow or Monday.  The only glitch tonight was that I had no Cream of Chicken Soup.  I winged it (get it, a bit of poultry humor here) and used 1 can each of cream of celery soup and cream of onion soup.  Having done this, I have figured out that if I add 1 teaspoon of Chicken Bouillon granules, I can probably get a similar taste, just using one can of soup and achieve similar results.  This will cut the recipe in half, but at dinner tonight I realized it would feed 4 easily.  That would make a great dinner that is so quick to make, it is finished by the time the rice goes off.  I will do some tweaking of the recipe and adjust it accordingly.  

     My cream of onion soup search does continue though.  I have only found it at Strack & VanTil near JoAnn’s Fabrics here in Chicago.  That is a “field trip” store that requires more time.  We tend to go there on school breaks or in the summer, about once a month or so.  I am all out of cream of “whatever” soup now, so I can’t work with this recipe until winter break when field trips occur more often.  I will check Mariano’s next week maybe. It’s not a regular store for me, but it is on my way to stores that are.  I like to go there on Wednesdays when they’ll double 5 of my coupons.  I have some for cream soup, so that will work.  I also love their pick and mix sodas.  They have so many cool root beers to try!

     Monday's dinner is Curried Chicken with Rice.  This has been around our entire time together...since Summer of 82 at least! That's a lifetime to some people!

Curried Chicken with Rice

1 T. butter

1 medium onion, chopped

2 ribs celery, chopped

1 small green or red bell pepper, chopped

1 c. rice

1 c. diced cooked chicken (see note)

2 c. water

2 t. chicken bouillon granules

1 1/2t. curry powder

     Melt the butter in a skillet.  Saute the onion until transparent.  Add the celery; saute until bright green. Add the bell pepper.  Stir in the rice and chicken.  Stir in the water slowly.  Add the bouillon and curry powder. Stir.  Bring to a boil, reducing heat to a simmer for 15 minutes or until the liquid is absorbed.  Serves 4.

Note:  If using fresh chicken, dice and saute first. Incorporate the freshly cooked chicken in the recipe accordingly.  Also, canned chicken may be used as well.