What's for dinner?

In this photo, Mimi and I are relaxing and reading newspapers -- an obsessive family pastime. I know it’s after dinner because I am wearing my pajamas. We are waiting for my dad to come home from work....or maybe not. My dad may have taken this picture.

Relaxing with the newspapers after dinner

When we were very small, my mother would prepare an early meal for my sister, my brother and me. After dinner, we’d take our baths and get ready for bed. When my dad came home, we’d spend a little time with him before being tucked in…usually by 7:00 p.m. My parents would then have a quiet dinner together. My mother continued this tradition as long as she could get away with it.

With three children, my mother had very little time for cooking. She planned her meals ahead of time, choosing ingredients that were in season and reasonably priced.  Her meals were easy to prepare, tasty, and always made the kitchen smell wonderful. If she was running late (something that happened often), Mimi was not adverse to putting an onion in the oven so that it the house would at least smell like something good was cooking in the oven. 

 

One of Mimi's "old favorite" chicken recipes still appears on the Campbells Kitchen website. It's now called Campbells Tasty 2-StepChicken. It's a great standby recipe when you are in a rush to get dinner on the table. The sauce is very creamy. You can add white wine or milk to the soup.

Here's a chicken recipe that was in the Seattle Times that I'd like to try. This Spiced Chicken recipe is from a book called “Gourmet Today”.