Comfort food

Today in Virginia it was cold. When I ventured outside at 7:25 AM I could see my breath. My friends in Minnesota will laugh, but my point is not to earn anybody's pity OR ridicule. My point is that today was a chilly day. And then on top of that many of the people in the office were going through various Ordeals .... some of which involved me, not that I'm in any sort of trouble, all I'm saying is, I was a little stressed.

And at the end of a day like that, when you are a Camp Mom and you stretch your smallish food budget by picking and choosing what's edible from the donations that come in, you just do what you have to do. And in my case, that meant digging in my cupboard and coming up with a box of Stovetop stuffing mix that I didn't know what I was going to do with, but then it made me think ....

.... of my grandma's house on much-colder-than-32-degrees Minnesota winter evenings, when I would come stomping up the front steps and turn my key in the lock and she, bending over the stove, might or might not hear me come in. "Hey Grandma ......" (trying not to startle her.) I would be frozen from driving in a car that hadn't had time to warm up. I would sit down at the kitchen table that my great-uncle had made for my grandparents out of a defunct Murphy Bed, next to the orangey glowing stove, and tell my grandma about how the piano teaching had gone that afternoon, while she shuffled things around, testing for doneness and opening lids. There was a ritual, and it involved forks and spoons, bread and jam, iceberg lettuce, and almost always, a steaming pan of "hotdish" .... otherwise known as casserole, but in Minnesota they always say "hotdish." That hotdish, served in a round, red little baking dish (which I now own) was true comfort food.

And still is. Because tonight I made it too, and although my grandma wasn't there, and my kitchen will probably never be as cozy as hers, and my husband and I ate an odd mix of purple and green salad greens disparagingly referred to as "weeds" by my iceberg-preferring grandma, it was almost perfect.

Here's what I made. Right off the back of the Stovetop box, with the amounts changed to feed my hungry-but-not-hungry-enough-to-eat-a-9x13"-pan-of-the-stuff husband and I.

Grandma's Chicken-Flavored Comfort in a Dish

1 box Stovetop stuffing (6 oz)
1 chicken breast, cut into 1" pieces
about 1/2 can condensed cream of chicken soup
about 1/4 cup sour cream
salt and pepper
1-1/2 cups frozen mixed vegetables, thawed and drained

Cook the stuffing mix according to package directions. Meanwhile, mix the chicken, soup, sour cream, salt and pepper, and vegetables together in a greased casserole dish. Top with the prepared stuffing mix. Bake at 400 degrees for 30-45 minutes or until the chicken is done.

I served it with salad and homemade vinaigrette; homemade cranberry sauce (boil cranberries and water. add sugar. eat.) and raspberry chocolate chip ice cream for dessert (NOT homemade, alas.)

Wonder of wonders, my hubby -- who was not raised eating Minnesota hotdish -- loved it.

We both feel so much better now.