Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

I know all you Fiddler fans now have that song in your head, but seriously.  Tonight my middle liked dinner–and it was MEXICAN FOOD!  Or, if not actual authentic Mexican food, it was certainly southwestern, being my sister’s Green Chile Chicken Casserole.  (She hated the black beans I served on the side, also possibly the corn, but hey.  Baby steps.)  Everyone else seemed to be a fan as well, including my friend’s two children who happened to be there.  Sadly, I can’t just post a link to the recipe, or even cut and paste; my sister emailed me a picture of the recipe card, since she was pressed for time. It was, however, good enough to be worth the effort of retyping it, so here you are!

Green Chile Chicken Casserole

1 1/2 C chicken broth

1 medium onion, chopped

1 C (or two small cans) chopped green chilies

2 cans cream of chicken soup

3/4 t salt

1/2 t cumin

1/2 t pepper

1 t minced garlic

Saute the onion and garlic in a bit of olive oil, then add the rest of the ingredients and bring to a boil.  Add 1 C sour cream.

There’s your sauce.  You also need 3 cups of chopped cooked chicken, 3-4 cups of grated cheddar cheese, and corn tortillas.

Spray a 9 by 13 pan and cover the bottom with a thin layer of sauce.  Layer tortillas, chicken, cheese, and sauce twice.  Finish with tortillas, sauce, and cheese.  Bake at 350 for half an hour or until nice and bubbly.  Serve with corn, some form of beans (I made these Quick and Easy Black Beans), and/or cilantro lime rice (if anyone else in your family likes it besides you.  If that’s the case, I’m kind of jealous.).

I actually used part Monterey Jack and part sharp cheddar, because if I did that I didn’t have to get out a new block of cheese.  I also used half sour cream and half leftover ranch dip, because I desperately wanted to get it out of my fridge.  (I couldn’t even tell.)  And I used Rotisserie chicken from Costco, because I had it to use.

Enjoy!  My sister should get a prize, since my poor middle has NEVER been known to willingly eat anything of a southwestern flavor before.  I halved it to be easy, but I still have tortillas to use, so I might just make it again.

In other news, I finished Kaye Gibbons’ A Virtuous Woman tonight, and I was actually impressed.  It was an Oprah pick, and it certainly shares a few common Oprah book club traits, but the ending was not as tragic as it could have been.  Actually, since the tragedy there WAS is introduced in the first chapter, it ended up being more uplifting than not.  A love story of sorts, it’s told by the husband and wife in alternating chapters.  I liked both of them from the start; I found the book much more compelling than I thought it would be.  (There is more language than I would prefer, but it’s not contextually gratuitous.)  Are you sensing a theme here? because I certainly am.  I always like a theme of pleasant surprise, though.  Who doesn’t?  My only real beef was that the very end was rather awkwardly written, partly because it wasn’t in either of the two voices.  I can appreciate why the author changed her approach, but it wasn’t as well done as it wanted to be.  It was still a satisfying ending, however, and on the whole, I think I’d recommend this one.