Happy Birthday Grandma!!! (and a recipe)

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Even Physical Therapy gets her to smile.
That is my darling girl, age 5, with her Great-Grandmother about 6 weeks ago.  Granny turned 97 on Thursday and today we are in Albert Lea, MN celebrating the best granny EVER! 

I found the perfect card that talked about rule breaking and fun having.  Granny let us do all kinds of crazy things at her house. 
  • Make corn-husk dolls
  • Make up games
  • Cook, bake, blender up a shake - and mix a martini or two
  • Color with the iris and day-lily blooms we dead-headed
  • Go swimming
  • Be silly
  • Stay up late and listen to the radio - even call in to those late night programs
  • Play Scrabble
  • Tell stories to each other in bed
  • Sleep out on the porch
  • Inspire, Love and Adore

The BEAUTIFUL Birthday Girl with 3 of her 5 Great-Grandchildren
Happy NINTEY SEVENTH BIRTHDAY Lausy!

Here is something she might love!

I was watching Food Network last weekend...per usual.  And I watched not one, but TWO hosts make a chicken stew of some kind.  It put me in the mood, but since I was NOT in the mood for beans Saturday with the idea of refried later that evening at my in-laws I made this stew up out of my head.

Enjoy.

3 Sausages - I used Chicken Apple without casings - here is where you can be flexible, use what you like.  I would suggest staying away from a spicy sausage as it would negate the herbs I used.  I considered Chicken Garlic/Spinach and a mild Itallian - but I just LOVE Chicken Apple.

1 chicken breast diced - raw or cooked/leftover - I was using up a lonely little breast in a bag from my freezer.  See, more flexible.  You could even use turkey - or just put in two more sausages and no chicken breast! 

1 cup rice uncooked - 2 cooked! (so semi-flexible here)

1/2 cup white wine - unless you are opposed, use more chicken stock.

4 cups of stock - I used chicken of course.  But you could substitute vegetable if you prefer.

The important parts are next and I don't consider them flexible!

3 carrots
1 large onion
1 red bell pepper
1/2 cup corn
2 T. Olive Oil
1 T. Garlic chopped
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
2 bay leaves
1 tsp. thyme - dried
1/4 t cumin

Directions:  Put two tablespoons water, carrots sliced to 1/4 inch and sausages in pan - cover over medium heat for five minutes until steamy.  Remove lid and brown sausages.  Remove sausages and carrots, set aside on a plate. Add onion, thyme, salt and peper, and olive oil to pan and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes on medium heat.  Add raw chicken and cook through about 5 minutes more. (If using cooked chicken you can just add after onions are translucent).

Deglaze the pan with 1/2-1/4 c. white wine that you would drink.

Add in red bell pepper sliced, cumin, garlic and cook on medium for 2-3 minutes.

Add stock, rice, bay leaves bring to a boil, reduce heat and let simmer for 15 minutes. Then check salt and pepper to see if you need more.  (if rice is cooked just heat through at this stage)

Add in corn, sausages sliced 1/2 inch thick and the carrots and let simmer for five minutes.

Serve and enjoy! 

Of course it was even better the next day.


Chicken & Sausage Stew

4 comments:

Anti-Supermom said...

Yum! That looks delicious and not *too* complicated :)

Anonymous said...

that is so nice! My 3 surviving grandparents all live on the east coast... i wish I could get there to see them again. They have never met my daughter!

sprinkles said...

I never really got to know my grandparents and now they're all dead. I would've loved to have the kind of relationship with them that you had with yours. She sounds like quite the lady!

I hope she had a wonderful birthday.

Raising Z and Lil C said...

Happy Birthday Grammy! How cute is she?!?!?! 97 is something to be proud of, she sounds like a very special lady and that stew looks delicious.

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