I think I figured it out!

There are things in every ones life that are special memories from their childhood. I have several that when I smell something or see something, just brings them right back to the forefront of my mind. Dad and softballs or a Frisbee (Debra, stop laughing), a Coleman stove and old army auctioned vehicles! :)

But a very strong part of my childhood is certain food dishes that my mom prepared that always bring me back . . . I have several but there have been a couple that have been elusive to me. I still have yet to replicate my Mom's spaghetti sauce. I have tried and tried but nothing quite tastes like it. She always measured the spices in the palm of her hand and so it wasn't on a recipe card and I had asked her many times for it but she never wrote it down. She learned it from an Italian woman from her old neighborhood and that's all I know.

But, I think I may have discovered the recipe for a dish that was always tasty on a cold evening! She called it Chicken Fricassee and even though I looked under that name (at my favorite recipe site "allrecipes.com") I couldn't find anything that resembled what it looked like. Finally I had just typed in "chicken in white sauce" and came up with something they called "Chicken Ala King" - but the ingredients weren't quite right. But, I started reading the comments section and discovered some interesting entries! Several of the people had commented how they had this dish when they were kids and loved it but it didn't have "this and that" and they just replaced it with "this and that" . . .
I was soooo happy because what they described was almost exactly what I remembered as a kid! I jotted it down quickly and decided I had to make it. The only thing I knew I probably wouldn't find was this whole canned chicken my mom used to get. It was really greasy and you had to spend about 1/2 an hour tearing the meat off the bones to add to the sauce!


Mmmmmmmm - here it is cooking on the stove. It smelled almost exactly like it! I couldn't wait to try it!

This is how we always had it . . . a nice piece of toasted white bread with a big scoop (Mom used to use an old ice cream scoop) of white rice and a generous amount of this creamy mixture with peas, carrots and shredded chicken poured over the top!

The two older kids liked it (well, Hayden didn't like the toast getting soggy. He wants it on the side next time) but it gave me a great opportunity to share with them a childhood story and I think it even made it taste better!!! When I tasted it I was pretty happy. It was what I remembered.

Kurt never did try it, he saw the picture and said it looked like someone threw up on the rice and toast. I will not be deterred. . . All I can say is " Kurt, you're missin' out"!

Thanks Mom for the memories - now for the spaghetti sauce recipe . . . . .