hello and happy friday!
my sweet, strong grandma passed this week at the age of 97. wow — she had an incredible life, 8 amazing children, too many grandchildren to count, and great-grandchildren! she created a very special (and big!) family in her lifetime. now she is happily at peace with my grandpa.
in honor of Grandma B, i am sharing a recipe she concocted while i was in high school. i don’t know what it is about this dish, but i just loved it and haven’t had it in forever! last week i remembered how yummy it was and had a hankering for it. i texted my mom for the recipe and she sent it to me. what crazy timing. i still haven’t made it, but may have to make it this weekend.
grandma’s luncheon special
i gave this dish a fancy name because i thought it was just that good! also, i think we used to add mushrooms to it! it’s one of the classic old school recipes with a lot of cans of “cream of” soups, which i literally never use. maybe i’ll try to put a bit of a healthier lauren spin on it this weekend. or i’ll just make it like grandma made it. :)
enjoy!
…and no, there are no real measurements. that’s just not how grandmas cook! use your heart for the measurements.
(the simplest) crock pot chicken
this is something really easy to do if you just want/need some cooked chicken on hand — and i think we can agree that it’s always handy to have cooked chicken on hand! we made a batch this week, and served it over rice with a creamy mushroom gravy. yum! i always use frozen chicken for this, so if you use fresh, maybe bring the time down a bit.
the best part of this is, you can use any spice that sounds good to you at the time!
dump these things in your crockpot:
1.5-2 cups of chicken broth
1 package of frozen chicken thighs (or breasts)
1 tbsp chopped garlic (about 2-3 cloves)
a generous helping of your favorite seasoning — we have done this with greek seasoning, a mexican blend, a ranch seasoning packet, or something as simple as onion powder / salt / pepper
a good pinch of salt
cook on low for 8 hours, and then enjoy moist, cooked chicken! the chicken thighs tend to just shred right apart, but you may have to give drier chicken breasts a pull with 2 forks.
a 2022 garden!
we are so excited with our 2022 garden plans! we are adding on a bigger bed and growing corn, tomatoes, okra, zucchini, herbs, and flowers! last year we did a lot of peppers, and while they grew well, we realized we just weren’t eating them that often! this year we tried to get really high quality seeds for veggies that we know we will ear. i am so excited about the different types of tomatoes we got!
speaking of gardens…
wil and i flew through the show “homegrown” on discovery+ recently. imagine an hgtv home flipping show, but instead of a designer coming in to redesign your kitchen, it’s a professional farmer coming to show you how to build a garden in your backyard. we LOVED it. it’s cool because it makes growing your own food seem doable and you learn SO much about gardening. bonus: it’s based in atlanta, so if you’re in the southeast you learn a lot about what plants grow best in our growing zones! if you are looking to have a successful garden in your backyard or just want to learn more about backyard gardening, give it a watch!