comfort food

I am generally not one of those cooks that follows a recipe. More often than not, I have to be "inspired" by something lurking in the fridge or freezer. It's really too bad for my family for lots of reasons. Since cooking is more of a creative thing, I generally don't make the same thing twice. (Oh, sure it would be easy to have every Tuesday be spaghetti night, but where's the creativity?!?)

That being said, I must have put these flavors together before because it tastes just as comfortable as sitting on the couch in your favorite jammies wrapped up in your softest blanket on a Saturday morning.. (and while we're at it, let's go ahead and fantasize that the kids are all sleeping late, shall we?!)

Let's call it:

Serene Queen Florentine

You will notice that we buy the Sam's size of everything. Keep in mind that we are feeding 7 people, one of which is a teenage boy - need I say more? I will give the proportions I used, though the recipe is so damn easy, you can increase or decrease the servings handily.

• cook rice (3 c water 1 1/2 c rice 3 T butter)
• dice the baked chicken into bite sized pieces
• cube 8 oz cream cheese (that is one package for normal people)
• add 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• pour in 2 c half n half (or milk)
• 1 pkg thawed spinach
• add herbs/spices to taste (basil & oregano or just plain ol' salt & white pepper)