Day #6 - Chicken Casserole, Softball and My Dog Bill

I spent the morning and early part of the afternoon at Sarah's opening day ceremonies for softball, it was a lot of fun and the best part was Sarah won the Hit-A-Thon, 2nd year in a row!  She was a little nervous before it started, but she pulled it off, way to go kid!  My friend Tina came with us to hang out and we had a great time.  Sarah and her friends are pretty funny. I forgot what it was like to be 14 and Tina and I were having fun giving Sarah and her friend Maddie a hard time. Of course there was a raffle and of course I did not win anything, but Tina won a cool basket with cute flip flops, Itunes gift card, lotions and other useless junk.  All in all it was a great day.  When Tina and I got back to my house we were unloading my car and we both looked over and saw a guy stopped in the middle of the street and his dog was laying on the ground (I live by a park), I have seen this man several times walking his dog, the dog is a large golden retriever named Buttercup, she was having a seizure, poor thing, I ran and got him a baby aspirin and some cheese and we waited until Buttercup came back to reality, we got her into my car and we drove them home (about 5 blocks).  This happened to my boxer, Lucy, when she got older, it was very scary because the dog can't tell you what is going on.  I came home and told my dog, Bill that he wasn't allowed to get old and that he needed to just stay the way he is right now (of course he understood me because he was wagging his tail).  These darn animals just worm their way into your hearts and hold on tight and even though the end comes, I could not imagine my life without my critters.  Bill was a rescue dog from the Humane Society, he was probably the biggest sissy in the whole place, he wasn't like the other dogs that were running around their "jail cell's" he sat in the corner and stared at the wall, why I thought I needed that dog, I have not a clue(probably because I was in the process of getting a divorce from husband #1).  Auntie M and my sister were with me at the time and we all loved him! The funny thing was, Bill was a stray, so he didn't have a name and the Humane Society named him Grizzly, he was the farthest thing from Grizzly.  It took me awhile to let myself love him, like I loved my boxer, Lucy, but I could not imagine a day without this dog in my life.  Auntie M's dad, grandpa, used to say that animals find you, I tell Bill daily that I'm sure glad he found me at the orphange that day.

Well, tonight I am making dinner for my sister, Katie, brother-in-law B, my mom, Auntie M and grandma(Auntie M's mom) and the main dish is Chicken Casserole, I had to "build" this recipe last night and refridgerate it overnight.

Chicken Casserole:
3 cups cooked chicken (the original recipe called for a stewed chicken, I bought a rotiesserie chicken at Costco)
2 cups chicken broth
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
1/2 lb of Velveeta, cubed
small pkg of macaroni (the original recipe calls for "creamette" I had no idea what a creamette was so I Googled it and it is macaroni), uncooked
I also added some salt and pepper and some thyme

Mix all of this together and refridgerate overnight

Bake 45 minutes at 350

We are also having green beans, peas and carrots, bread and butter, fruit salad and of course the apple pie that was baked last night.

My mom had a cookbook that was put out in 1939 that was titled the "Armstrong Ladies Aid Cook Book" and my grandma was the secretary, I can't wait to go thru it and find other recipes that she had. There is a little poem inside:

Take a little dash of water cold,
     And a little leaven of Prayer,
And a little bit of morning gold
     Dissolved in the morning air.

Add to your meal some merriment,
     And a thot for kith and kin,
And then as your prime ingredient
     A plenty of work thrown in.

And spice it all with the essence of love;
     And a little whif of play,
Let a nice old book and a glance above
     Complete a well-made day

This is my dad, my grandma Opal, Aunt Ruth, Aunt Lizzie, uncle George and aunt Peggy....looks like they are enjoying their meal. We sure enjoyed ours, good food and good company, life doesn't get any better...but I wish my husband was home to enjoy it with us.