Whatcha Cookin' Wednesday?

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By today's standards, I was a young bride. I was 21 on my wedding day, and T was 22. One of things about being married that I most looked forward to was having my own kitchen and learning to cook. Mimi (bless her heart) is an amazing mom, but the highlight of her culinary skills is her delicious spaghetti. My dad was a fabulous cook, but he passed away when I was 16...an age I was more interested in the boys in my classes than learning my way around the kitchen. Since my diet consisted of rice cakes, lettuce, and carrot sticks between 1996 to roughly 1999, this worked out well for me. I could make spaghetti, brownies, and bake frozen garlic bread, and that was about it! So when T and I got married, I clearly didn't know much about cooking. It turned out that the very first meal I cooked for him after we were married ended up being his favorite meal ever.

At one of my wedding showers, my Granny gave me a copy of Campbell's Classic Recipes. Hoping for some inspiration, I remember thumbing through it until I came to a recipe that I thought he'd enjoy. "Easy Chicken & Biscuits" is not health food...it's comfort food at its worst. This is a meal I make very rarely because just looking at it can clog an artery or two, but T requests it often. In our home, it is simply known as "Chicken Casserole."

Chicken Casserole, the Casserole formerly known as Easy Chicken & Biscuits

{Ingredients}

*The recipe calls for Campbells soups, but let's get real here...sometimes you gotta love the store brands!*

1 (10 3/4 oz.) can condensed cream of celery soup OR 98% fat free cream of celery soup

1 (10 3/4 oz.) can condensed cream of potatoe soup

1 cup of milk

4 cups cooked, cut up vegetables (honestly, I grab a bag of frozen carrots, cauliflower, and broccoli and throw it in uncooked, along with a can of unsalted corn and/or lima beans and it turns out fine--and easier!!)

2 cups cubed, cooked chicken (I usually just cook 3 chicken breasts and cut them into bite-size pieces)

1 package Grands biscuits

{Directions}

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. In a 9x13 pan, mix soups, milk, vegetables, and chicken.

Bake for 20 minutes or until hot.

Stir. Arrange biscuits on top of mixture and cook for an additional 15-18 minutes or until biscuits are golden.

Serve and wait for your coronary to kick in.

7 1/2 years after our wedding, I truly enjoy cooking, just not so much for T, which makes me sad. In my defense, he is pickier than our three year old, and there is a long list of ingredients he can't stand. At the top of that list is cheese, which breaks my heart because not only is cheese an ingredient in just about every casserole known to man, but it is just plain delicious! With the exception of pizza and Cheez-its, he really won't touch anything else with it.

I have considered starting a dinner club just so I can have an excuse to put together some meals with different ingredients. It is sooooo boring to cook in our house! I console myself with the fact that I at least have a shot with my girls to make them adventurous eaters! I'd like to find a balance between cooking meals that T enjoys, and cooking some meals to expand their horizons a bit. Is it wrong for me to want to cook some things that I would enjoy? Any advice?

Enjoy...this is certainly comfort food--good for one of these chillier nights before Spring sets in!

{Bon Appetit!}

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