you should try...

... this recipe I sort of made up. I readily acknowledge that The Man Who Lives Here is not hard to please - he will eat almost anything I put on the table, has never been hard to please. It has gotten more difficult in recent years to cook for him - because I find it hard to cook for only one person. After many years of feeding the people I grew up knowing, starting as a teen when my mom was guiding my cooking experience, then cooking for little people who eventually turned into adults and now have their own kitchens, I've always prepared food for multiples.

There was a time when I was cooking for a larger crowd on Wednesday nights, when we attended a small church that had fellowship dinners about six months of the year. Beginning when we were paying someone to prepare the meals, a lunchroom worker from the public schools. But over time as the attendance began to decline, income decreased, I became the chief cook and bottle washer, with some degree of assistance from daughters and fellow Presbyterians. Just multiplying the ingredients for recipes I was familiar with that had fed my family over the years to have enough for forty or fifty mouths.

Cooking for one is not easy to master, but I am catching on. I found an interesting recipe for one serving involving pork chops in the Richmond newspaper, but have yet to remember to purchase one chop to prepare. Plus if it is as good as the ingredients make me think, one chop will not be enough for The Guy Who Loves To Eat.

This recipe I am providing is an adaptation of one I read on line as a result of getting too frequent emails from Kraft Foods. It was for a meal you can have ready to put on the table in fifteen minutes. My version is not quite that speedy, as I used plain raw rice rather than the RTU/shelf stable stuff, that comes in a bag ready to micro for thirty seconds and eat.

I think the recipe as I recall called from 2/3 cup of salsa: use the kind you normally buy. We don't eat anything spicy so mine is always mild, but if you like the one with fire, go for it. Add enough chicken stock to make two cups. Or water if you don't have stock on hand. I certainly won't judge you for that. (Remember that the proportions for cooking rice are 2:1 - twice as much liquid as rice, so if you are making for a crowd, just double everything.)  Brown the raw chicken pieces. (I cut a breast into thirds so it would cook quicker - you could leave it whole or cut into thinner slices like 'fingers'.) I added a diced onion and diced green bell pepper - you can or not. After the chicken is browned, add the liquid and rice. Cook till the rice is tender.

The Man Who Lives Here has learned he better say Thank You after he has a home cooked meal. But when he sat down recently to the chicken and rice cooked with salsa, he repeatedly said how good it was. So I did it again tonight. Took a frozen breast out and put it in a bowl of water to thaw for about twenty min., then sliced it into thirds, and put it in the skillet with a little olive oil. Saute the veg., then add liquid and rice. Cover. That's it.