Receta Crock Pot Comfort Food.
This year, summer in Monticello, Utah seemed to consist of
two weeks in July and two weeks in August.
The rest of June, July, August and even September has been cool and
rainy; not that I'm complaining mind you.
The primary source of our water is from the Abajo Mountains, that's
right, real mountain spring water flows down, gets filtered and pours out of
our faucets...jealous much? Now what we
didn't expect was to see snow on the tips of the peaks in June and July; and
this past Friday the mountains themselves were covered in a light blanket of
snow. Down in Monticello, it was, what
the locals call, very breezy; while visitors kept asking, "Why is it so
windy?"
Let me explain, "10 to 30 mph = slightly breezy",
"30 to 50 mph = breezy", "50 to 80 mph = very breezy". As to the question, "Why is it so
windy?" Well scientifically,
"Warm air, which weighs less than cold air, rises. Then cool air moves in
and replaces the rising warm air. This movement of air is what makes the wind
blow. A windstorm is just a storm with high winds or violent gusts, but little
or no rain." Or I could give you
one of my snarky (yes, I'm snarky, not snippy) answers, "See the windmills
at the north end of town; that's our wind farm making all the wind.", or
even better, "Go to the BLM office on Main Street; they have the weather
machine and can adjust it for you."
Hey, ask a silly question...
Anyway, with temperatures dipping into the 30s at night, and
low 60s during the day, it seems a good time to begin thinking about fall and
winter meals, especially the comfort food type.
Comfort food, that which wraps itself around you (figuratively), making
you feel warm all over and it's soothing to the soul. I remembered a recipe from my first crock pot
cookbook from the 1990s, "Swiss Chicken Bake" and knew this would be
a perfect comfort food for a cool day. Bad news though, while I was in the process
of divorcing my first husband, he broke into the storage shed and stole a box
full of my cookbooks. Why did he do
this? To hurt me of course, but they
were only books, material items that could be replaced, or replaced with
similar items. I looked in my current
crock pot books, but couldn't find this recipe, so here's where memory had to
take over, and I did a pretty good job at remembering!
Creamy Swiss
Chicken Bake
Ingredients:
6 frozen boneless,
skinless chicken breasts
1 tsp. salt
½ tsp. ground black pepper
1 (10.5 oz.) package herb
seasoned stuffing cubes
1 (10.5 oz.) can cream of
chicken soup
1 (10.5 oz.) can cream of
celery soup
1 cup milk
8 slices Swiss cheese
Preparation:
Spray inside of a 4 quart
crock pot with nonstick cooking spray; place frozen chicken in bottom and
against sides of crock pot; sprinkle salt and pepper over chicken. Pour stuffing cubes into the “well” made by
the chicken.
In a medium bowl, whisk
together soups and milk; pour over stuffing cubes and spread out to edges of
crock pot. Cover the “sauce” with slices
of Swiss cheese.
Cover crock pot, set on
low; cook 4-5 hours; chicken will be fork tender and easily come apart.
Makes 6 servings.
Option: use cornbread
stuffing cubes with Cheddar cheese instead of herb seasoned stuffing cubes and
Swiss cheese.
Enjoy the comfort!
Mary Cokenour