Vacation and good recipes!!

My April vacation started out Friday morning April 10. Husband drove us to Salem where he stayed with his sister and brother-in-law to attend a gathering of former class mates.

I visited for a bit and then drove from there north to Portland. On my way there via I5 I spotted a cute little blue convertible mini Cooper. The driver was white haired. The car sported a personalized plate that read " X QQQ ME"

I laughed and then smirked to myself, "I wonder if that was Steve Martin?"

NAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!




When I drive I try to stop at most of the State rest stops due to diminished bladder capacity. I snapped this picture of one of the fruit trees that bloomed whilst I tarried.

I drove as far as Pendleton and overnighted at a Best Western and my aren't they proud of THEIR rooms? But breakfast was free. I got to Emmett about noon the next day. Mom and I ran around most of the week, got groceries, visited with friends and relatives and played several games of Scrabble.

While there Mom made Mexi-chicken. I decided to do the same thing when I got home.




Assemble ingredients for Mexi-Chicken as follows: (Original recipe with changes noted):I am told that that this recipe came from the California Berglunds. Yummy!

2 cups chopped chicken or turkey
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup chopped green chilies
1 medium onion chopped
12 corn tortilla's torn into small bite size
2 cans Campbell's creamy chicken soup (make 8 cups)
Make up soup, drop in ingredients, stir until cheese is melted.
Pour into greased into appropriate sized baking dish.
Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

Mom's modification
Obtain 1 package of Bear Creek creamy potato soup (No MSG!)
Boil 4 turkey thighs, 1 to 2 hours, remove from stock, cool, remove meat from bones, discard bones and skin, chop.
Use stock as part of the 8 cups of liquid for the potato soup mix.
Add soup mixture, allow stock to come to a boil, reduce to simmer for 15 minutes
stirring occasionally.
At 15 minutes, drop in chopped turkey, cheese, chilies, chopped tortilla's, stir together.
My modification (Mom will scream when she sees this ingredient)
Add one can whole black olives, drain, slice in half to check for pits.
This makes a whole stock pot FULL of Mexi-Chicken.
I used olive oil on three large casserole dishes and filled them all up.
I baked them in a 350 degree oven for 90 minutes, turned the oven off and let the dishes cool.
The smell is pure heaven, but you don't have smell-o-vision and you probably will not need salt as it tasted just perfect.




The dish tastes much better than it looks.