Making Two Easy Casseroles for Dinner

Hi, family. It’s so nice. Excuse me. Mmh, I have to wet my whistle. So nice to see you all. We’re glad that you dropped by the At Home kitchen today because we’ve got some really great things. We’re going to prepare quick supper dishes. Something get in the oven or cook on top of the stove. Some you don’t even have to put in the oven. It’s great. And we’re going to make them for you. You don’t have to fire up the kitchen like you get all hot. Just a nice, you can put this out on the deck, you know, eat out there with the family, put a salad together, whatever. Just simple easy to do. I want to remind you of — if you’ve been watching At Home for a while, you’ll know that last year about the middle of 2006, I told you about a man in our church whose name was Bill Helsley. And I’d asked you to pray about him. He had an aneurysm in December of 2005 and it didn’t look good, but we were just asking everybody to pray. And I have to tell you, God is so faithful. You began to pray. In fact, I have a letter here from a lady in Pittsburgh and she said, “Dearest, Arlene,” talks about the program and all of that, how much she enjoys it. She says, “Also, I’m glad that you asked for special prayer for Bill. This young man who was in your church who had an aneurysm. I intend to pray for Bill on a daily basis and I know that everyone else who heard your request will be doing the same. We know that our God does hear and answer prayer.” Well, you know, so this is true. He does hear and answer prayer because on September, I believe it was around September the 12th, like someone flipped a switch. Bill Helsley woke up out of that coma. From December clear to nine months later he woke up out of that coma. Do you know that that man never forgot a thing? Because they did brain surgery and everything. I mean, he had a heart attack, I believe, right, while he — while they were doing the surgery. And do you know he knows everybody’s names, their phone numbers, all the things that you would think they would — the memory would be gone. He is as sharp as a bell and has been progressing on and on since then. And I’m coming to you now because it’s time for Bill to be moving, out and moving and walking, and getting back. His mind — and his full mind is there. I mean, it’s just powerful. I’ve talked with him. I’ve seen him. It’s amazing what God has done for him. And that’s what the power of prayer will do. So I’m asking you again, if you didn’t pray for him before, will you continue to pray for him? He’s just had some surgery to help with some bones of atrophy during that time. But I am believing and I want you to know that when Bill Helsley is fully restored, I am going to have him here on the program, if he’ll come. I’m sure he will because this man is a great powerhouse for God that the enemy tried to shut down but could not. And his precious wife, Renee, and their children, keep them all in prayer. Please, won’t you do that? Thank you so much. And just like Sal, we’re going to ask you to continue to pray. If you did before, continue to pray. And if you never did, please be sure to start praying for Bill now. Okay. Well, we’re going to have our hint and then we’re coming back to make our easy-to-do entrees, maybe even for tonight’s supper. Okay. We’ll be right back. Just a minute. Here’s today’s At Home Hint. Instant rice has been fully or partially cooked before being dehydrated and packaged. It takes only a few minutes to prepare but delivers lackluster results in both flavor and texture. If you’ve got a helpful hint, we’d like to hear from you. Send your hint to At Home Hints Cornerstone Television, Wall, Pennsylvania 15148-1499. Well, we’re cooking some quick entrees maybe even for you to have for tonight’s supper. I’ve got a tablespoon of maybe a little bit more of good olive oil here. And I’m going to start by just putting — this is a pound of chicken breast that you want to cut up. This first one is called Mexican chicken and rice, all done in a skillet. So you want a nice big, deep skillet with a good close-fitting lid. All right. And we’re just going to put — cut it up in nice little cubes and we’re going to start to get that cooking because that really needs to — we want to fire it up. No salt and pepper in this because the other ingredients that you’re going to put in with this are going to be enough that you don’t have to salt it separately or pepper it. Okay. Now let’s just go through. While this is starting to cook, let’s talk about what we’re going to use. Okay. We have an onion chopped up, and a green pepper chopped up. We have about 10 ounces of corn. This is sweet corn. Frozen sweet corn. You want it to thaw. All right. We have some chicken broth, 1 and 1/2 cups of rice. Now, this is minute rice. And if you heard our hint, you heard where it says it’s not very good, but that’s if you just wanted to cook it and eat it like plain. But we’re going to infuse it with a whole lot of flavor. So this works well when you’re putting other flavors with it. All right. And we have some — this is Monterey. You can use Monterey Jack or shredded cheddar about a half cup. These are the elements and, of course, we have some salsa because that’s what’s going to give it the real taste. Now, talk about salsa. You know, it comes in different strengths of heat and it can be really hot, or it can be mild, or it can be not so hot. Well, this I made is hot because this crew at the station here, they love hot. Okay. And if I had to make it the other way, I have to be putting jalapenos in it for them. So we just use hot. We thought we would do it that way. And so while this is getting ready, this is going to cook a little bit because this — we want to make sure that the chicken gets done well. And honest, it’s a matter of just putting the rest of the stuff in. I’m going to go ahead and add some peppers and my onion. And, you know, if you don’t like a lot of onion, don’t use it. If you like a lot of pepper, you could use a red pepper if you don’t want the green. The green is not as sweet as the red. The red is better as far as sweetness, but I like the green. I like the color of it and I like the flavor it brings to this. I’ve made this dish so many times. Back a few years ago I was doing some demonstrating, actually cooking demonstrations for Consolidated Gas Company. And we went to all the area malls and I got to meet so many of you during that time. And this is one of the dishes that I made during that time. They had this really great area that was like three rooms in a house and I was the part that was demonstrating in the kitchen area. And it was so nice just to be able to see a lot of you. It was great. So we’re going to keep cooking this. There we go. Look how pretty that color looks. I love it. And you want to just keep turning it over. And you want to make sure that you can get some flavor. You know, people say, “Well, why,” you know, “why do you have to cook it?” When you cook a pepper and an onion, it brings a flavor and a sweetness to it that’s not normally there. So when you can, even like when I’m doing stuffed cabbage or whatever, some people just throw a half a cup of chopped onion in. You know, I always put it in a little butter and bring it out because that sweetness really contributes to the taste of what you’re making. So you might want to do that. Okay. Here we go. We’re getting there. Ah, smells great in here. You can smell that. Peppers and onions. What smells better? Okay. Now, if you’re cooking this at home, you might want to take it — make it more brown. All you want to do is just be sure that you have the most of it cooked and the pink is gone. It’s going to cook further. So don’t worry that it’s not going to be done because it will be. If you could add jalapenos here. You could add cilantro. You could add pretty much anything you wanted. But right here, I think we’re there. Okay. Now, we’re going to add some chicken broth about a cup. So I’m going to add about half of this. Now, you might need some more, but you can add that later. Don’t add it all at one time. And I’m also going to add, let’s do my corn, 10 ounces of corn. You see all the good that’s in this. I mean, there’s — you have your meat, you have all these vegetables that are really good. And kids will eat vegetables when they’re prepared like this. I love the colors. Okay. And then we’re going to add our salsa. Haha, hot salsa. Yeah. Now I’m amazed at how much Mexican foods have really taken over in our palate as a country. I mean, everybody just loves it anymore. You say, “We’re going to do Mexican food,” you know, the free holidays or whatever it is. Man, everybody is like, “Yeah, let’s have that.” And I like that. But, boy, if you don’t like Mexican food, you’re really left out a few times, aren’t you? But it’s okay. All right. And then we’re going to add 1 and 1/2 cups of our minute rice and we just want to stir that in like that. So easy, simple to do. Just want to make sure it all gets moist. This is where you’re going to make a judgment. Should I add some more chicken broth to that? Does that look like that’s going to have enough broth in there to plum up that rice? I think I’m going to add a little bit more. Yeah. And then we’re going to let this cook. It says to come to a real big boil because if it doesn’t, the rice is not going to fluff up for us. There we go. That looks good. Now, we’re going to put the lid on this when it comes to a big rolling boil. And then when that happens, we’re going to take it off the heat and let it sit for five minutes. How much time have we spent here? About 10 minutes at the most. And then when you fluff it up, then you’ll add the cheese and you let it set for two more minutes. Supper is done. That and a salad, what more could you want? So we’re going to take this off now. Well, I want to wait till the middle comes up to a boil because that’s what’s going to really — let’s see. Just want to make sure here. Oh, yeah. It’s getting here quickly. Now, this also holds well too, like if you have to make it ahead and then warm it up. It warms up beautifully. So, here we are. While this is coming to the boil and I put the lid on, we’ll take a break and be right back in just a minute. Okay, here we are. Look at that. Isn’t that awesome? Ah. Now, that’s been sitting there. What I’m going to do now is just sprinkle the cheese. Okay. Just sit like that and put the lid on and wait to serve it. How simple is that, yet how delicious. Okay. That’s the first one. Off — no heat there. You’re just letting us sit. This one, this is a pound and a half of ground meat that we have browned. And I’m just going to add — this is called No Name Supper. And this was submitted to me by Joyce Douglas years ago. And I’m just making it now because I lost it and then I found it because I was cleaning out the office, if you know what I mean. Okay. So this is just browned. You drain off any excess grease. This is pretty nice here. And we’re going to put — this is pizza sauce. Okay. It’s just pizza sauce. We’re going to pour that all over the ground meat.

[ Dish clatters ]

I want to make sure I get it all out of there because we’re going to need it all. You have a 13 by 9 pan, baking dish ready. And you also have your oven on 375 degrees getting preheated because you always want to put it in preheated.

[ Sizzling ]

Particularly if it’s a cake or something, you definitely have to. I might have turned this baby down just a nip. There we go. Now, we’re just going to stir this around.

[ Stirring ]

Like that to cover it.

[ Stirring ]

And it’s pizza sauce. It’s not any other kind of sauce. You know, sometimes you think, oh, we’ll use spaghetti sauce. No, we want pizza sauce because this is going to taste like a pizza casserole that your kids are absolutely going to love because, you know, kids like pizza. Of course, there’s a few adults that like it too. No names but just referring to the craft, the crew. Okay. So we’re going to mix it up. You know, when I get letters from you and email, I’d say about a good 50%, 55% of the time they’ll say, “And don’t forget to thank your crew that helps you on your program.” And that means that they know that there’s a lot of work that goes on here and probably work that, you know, it’s behind the scene. So you’re not out there. But trust me, when you tell me that, I do. I’m very thankful for them because, you know, I couldn’t do this myself. So you have to have people helping you no matter what you’re doing. Okay. The crew is the best though. They’re the best.

Couldn’t eat it by yourself.

Couldn’t eat it by myself. The crew. That’s true. Very good observation, Larry. Thank you very much. Larry, ever astute. Okay. Inside joke. Where is Loretta? Okay. So we’re just going to pour this.

Steubenville?

Steubenville, yeah. She’s here. Okay. Now, we’re pouring this in the bottom of a 13 by 9 pan, and we’re just going to spread that out. Even layer.

[ Dish clatters ]

Just like that. I want to make sure that that meat is very well cooked because you’re not going to have it in the oven very long for it to continue to cook. So you want to make sure that’s it done. Now, what’s the next element in a good pizza? Cheese. And that’s what we have. This is mozzarella cheese. And you have to put a lot of this on because that’s what makes it. Okay. This is nice and thick too, thickly sliced. We’re going to break these in half and we’ll do them down along the side just like that, okay? Okay. It looks good already and we haven’t finished. Okay. The next thing we’re going to do is — you know what these are? These are terrifying to me because I can never get them without them scaring me. I know they’re going to pop, but when they do, it always scares me for whatever reason. Enough chuckles over here. Now that I’ve made everybody laugh today, and I’ve had a hard — no. Anyway, this is the crescent rolls, okay? We unroll them on a nice clean surface. What we’re going to do is just unroll them and we’re going to make the perforations. We’re going to pull those together. We don’t want this — we want this to be one big piece of dough. So we will squeeze the perforations together like that. Any place you see a hole, squeeze that together to get it to come into one piece. Easy to work with this dough because it’s so soft. It’s wonderful. Now, this going right over the top of the cheese. Yes. And you have to do them again because it stretches out when you pick it up. But that’s okay. We can do that. Like that. Just stretch it to the edge. I’ll tell you, these are so versatile, we can do just about anything with them, okay? Now, we want to take an egg like that and a tablespoon of water. Make sure I don’t have an eggshell on me there. Okay. And we’re just going to beat this —

[ Beating eggs ]

— like so. And then we’re going to paint this on top. Oops. On top of that. I got enough there to do the whole top. Okay. You just want to paint this over the crust because that’s what’s going to give it a nice sheen and also flavor, adds lots of flavor. And then we’re going to mix together some Parmesan cheese. I have some Parmesan cheese, I have some garlic salt, and dried parsley. And we’re just going to mix that up. We’re sprinkling that over the top like so. That goes into the preheated oven for 20 minutes only. Can you imagine how fast this is going to be done? That’s all, 20 minutes and it’ll be ready. And we’ll be right back and we’ll be in the dining room when we come back to show you what we’ve done today. Stay with us. Now, don’t forget, if you want these recipes and this whole month’s recipes, be sure to go to either the website at www.ctvn.org and do a subscription there, or you can send $25 check and say, I would like to receive a subscription through the mail, the US Mail. And that is at — Just At Home, Cornerstone Television, Wall, Pennsylvania 15148-1499. And please remember that anytime that you do, you’re not buying, you’re giving an offering, a gift to help to keep us on the air. We really appreciate that. We really do. Let’s take a look at what we did today. Down there in the front is our Mexican chicken and rice. Oh, boy, does that look good? Any kid I think would be so excited. So — it’s just delicious. Put a few jalapenos for those who are brave of heart on top and have asbestos tongues. If not, just push them aside and — for a garnish. And also, we put some tortilla chips there next to it, and we have some additional salsa because that kind of goes with that. You’d want that. You can put some salsa on top of that additional — on top of the Mexican chicken and rice and you can even do a dollop of sour cream if you’d like. Then we have our No Name Supper, as my friend, Joyce, says. And all we do here — doesn’t this look wonderful? How brown and glorious that looks. Remember you have a whole layer of cheese under there. So you want to just cut it in a square kind of like this. And, you know, see, you can see it’s not going to stick, but you want to get down under that and get this with my napkin. And you want to just — look at this. Oh yeah. Comes out beautifully in a square just like that. Then what I would kind of do, and you don’t have to, but I’d just take a little bit of sour cream and just doll up that right on the top. Oh yeah. I tell you what, these are the quick and easy entrées that you can make for your family. And I’m going to tell you, if you have kids in the house and you’re having a sleepover, this would be a great dish because when it’s cold, it’s good. And when it’s hot, it’s good from the oven. But this would be something those kids would clean up in a minute. Put some tortilla chips. We did a nice big picture full of good old ice tea. What more could you want? Maybe just a whole — a group of friends just like you, my family, to stop by and enjoy it with us. We’re always glad when you do. We are always glad. And, again, I’m going to ask you, please remember to pray for Bill Helsley. We are seeing you and I, and all of us that are praying, he is a miracle in the progress. And I’m telling you, we’re going to see the day when he comes to our kitchen, and I can’t wait. So please, pray for Bill Helsley when the Lord brings it to your remembrance, and please do it daily. Well, be sure to join us the next time because it just wouldn’t be the same without you here at home. We’ll see you then.

Furnishings provided by Levin Furniture, featuring Lane’s Country Living collection. Food provided by Jordan Banana Company, wholesalers of fresh fruit and vegetables in Dravosburg, Pennsylvania. Cornerstone Television wishes to thank all our faithful viewers whose consistent prayers and financial support have made this program possible.