Aunt Ellen's Sunday Supper, a new DVR and Hextall

Hextall, our 15 plus year old cat is currently missing. This is alarming as he always comes home and is generally spotted hanging about the front of the house. And he sleeps with us and it's just not like him to be gone for over 24 hours.


Early this morning, before it was fully light, we heard at least one bobcat raising hell in the woods. I hope Hextall wasn't involved in an untimely end. I am worried.

Update on the satellite - Our DVR has an error on the hard drive. So, after resetting it and then calling Direct TV and staying with them for just over a half hour, it is determined that the receiver is dead. That means all the television shows and movies we recorded are gone. Forever. This includes one of our favorite Star Trek (Next Generation) episodes…(Snort) Yes, I am a geek . Maybe it will come on again and we can record it on the new box.

So a new DVR receiver arrived today and we'll send the damaged one back. No television isn’t a bad thing to be sure, but there were a couple of series we follow and …too bad, they’re gone. I asked the tech support person if they could beam our recorded shows back to us. It IS a satellite after all. She explained to me, very patiently, as you would a small child who is just grasping higher language skills, that it just doesn’t work that way because the box is indeed like a computer. So it's wiped out and gone forever. (scratching head and wandering back to kitchen to cook something. Kitchen electronics I understand.)

Anyway, here is a meal we had when we visited Ellen in Mississippi.

Chicken Spectacular

3 cups water

1 cup uncooked wild rice


These are the dry ingredients you'll need:


3 cups cooked cubed chicken breast meat

1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of celery soup

1 (4 ounce) jar pimentos, drained

1 onion, chopped

2 (14.5 ounce) cans French style green beans, drained

1 cup mayonnaise

1 cup water chestnuts, drained and chopped

Salt and pepper to taste

Combine water and wild rice in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cover, simmer until tender.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (175 degrees C)

In a large bowl, toss together the cooked rice and all other ingredients. Turn the ingredients until it’s thoroughly mixed.

Chop chicken....



Mixing in the green beans...........


Mixing in the pimentos and mayo...........



Transfer to a 3 quart casserole dish.

Bake in preheated oven for 25 – 30 minutes or until heated through.

Doesn't this lok good? Too bad I was so caught up in visiting and eating and did not get a snap of this plated. It was very good.



Jellied Cranberry Sauce Mold

1 large package strawberry or raspberry Jell-o

1 can whole berry cranberry sauce

1 Granny Smith apple, peeled and chopped

2 stalks celery, chopped

Pecans, finely chopped


Boil 2 cups water and add dry Jell-o to water. Add the cranberry sauce to hot mixture and stir to dissolve.

Add only 1 cup more liquid (cranberry or fruit juice may be used instead of water – do not use pineapple juice).




Have your chopped apple, celery and pecans ready. Please note my Aunt Ellen did all the work here. The only time I lifted a finger on this one was to pick up a fork and devour it!


Fold it in.


Mix it up, gently!


Pour into a mold and when Jell-o is partially set, carefully stir in apple, celery and nuts.

Chill in refrigerator overnight.

Now dessert..................


Strawberry Cake

1 Duncan Hines Moist Strawberry cake mix

2 10 ounce packages frozen strawberries, thawed

1 small box vanilla pudding

1 cup milk

2 cups Cool Whip or whipped cream

Follow directions for making the strawberry cake in a 9x13 inch pan.

Remove from oven when it is done and wait for cake to cool.

Poke holes in the entire top of the cooled cake.



Puree strawberries in a blender or food processor then pour over the top of the cake.




Combine vanilla pudding and milk. Mix until all is dissolved and appears thickened.
Fold in Cool Whip.



Spread on top of cake and refrigerate overnight.



It was pretty when plated up...honest...I don't know why I fell down on the job snapping nicely plated dishes.