Here’s a recipe so simple and standard that it didn’t occur to me to write it up until my eldest son asked me to! It’s a down-home oldie but goodie, mild enough to please the youngest and oldest, but still flavorful enough to please robust adult appetites too.
Baked Chicken with Crispy Rice
(Serves 6+)
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Arrange in a medium-sized roasting pan:
2 cups water
2 cups rice (brown, white, or whatever you like)
Sprinkle over the top of everything a generous amount of approximately:
1 tablespoon of Lawry’s Seasoning salt (or your favorite)
1 tablespoon minced garlic
2 teaspoons crushed, dried parsley leaves (can use 1 tablespoon fresh, chopped, if you have them)
1 teaspoon crushed (or fresh) basil
1 teaspoon crushed (or fresh) oregano
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
Add 6- 8 chicken thighs (or breasts, whichever you prefer)
Sprinkle over the top:
2 teaspoons crushed Rosemary
1 teaspoon crushed sage
1 teaspoon crushed thyme
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon crushed garlic
Cover with the top of the roasting pan and bake in the oven for about 2-2.5 hours, or until the chicken is fully cooked and the rice has absorbed all the water and juice from the chicken. Ideally, you want to bake it until the edges are starting to get crispy and golden colored.
Serve it with some veggies, and you’ve got a memorably satisfying, nourishing dinner!
“Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits,
even the God of our salvation” (Psalm 68:19).
P.S.— I made some not too long ago for one of our kids’ families, who’d caught Covid. I baked the chicken for 2 hours, then added a 1-pound package of frozen on top and recovered the pan with foil. Before serving, I asked my daughter-in-law to finish baking it for another half an hour at 375°F.
Fortunately, we’d also brought along a warm loaf of Alan’s famous honey wheat bread so the kids didn’t starve while they were waiting for dinner to finish baking! (Don’t you love how kids can be sick and still look so perky and happy?!)
P.S.S.—My eldest son’s wife said it might be even yummier if I used chicken broth instead of water. I think that would affect the saltiness, so if you try, maybe back off a little on the seasoning salt. As the chicken bakes, its juices do add their own broth to the rice, but . . . maybe experiment and figure out what your family likes best! 🙂
Song of Solomon 8:14 Well, last week’s meditation was quite an aside. I hope you didn’t mind. Let’s go back to our last verse and savor just two words: “My beloved.” First, Jesus is ours: He belongs to us. Second, Jesus is our beloved: He is the one with whom we are entwined forever in a love relationship. “My beloved.” He is mine. He is yours! He belongs to each of us uniquely and individually, and we all belong to him and to each other in the universe’s grandest and most glorious, mysterious corporation…a corporation which offers incredible benefits, perfect job security, dividends “above all that we ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20), and a pension plan that will provide for us through all eternity. How do you like that for a package? “Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation” (Psalm 68:19).
We love him because the expression of his love through his mercies is fresh and new each morning. Look at Exodus 6:7, “In the morning, then ye shall see the glory of the Lord.” Do you know what the children of Israel saw? They saw manna…the perfect bread sent down fresh from God’s kitchen. Did you know that “manna” means “What is it?” In John 6:51 Jesus explained what it is, and what he is: ”I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever.” Jesus is our manna…our living Bread and our living Word (Matthew 4:4). 
He is our Morning Glory…the one who satisfies us early. (As a flower lover, the idea of him being my Morning Glory is my own “pet” name with a double meaning, but isn’t it a sweet thought?) Are you feasting on the warm, fresh, inviting, living Word and being filled afresh with his glory morning by morning? The children of Israel got to the point where they complained bitterly about having to eat manna in the wilderness. “Our soul loatheth this light bread” (Numbers 21:5). They grew tired of perfection. Have you?
Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah
This morning at 4:30 am I sent my husband off on a grand adventure to Spokane, Washington, where he’s going to be helping our son Jonathan drive all his “worldly goods” in a moving van (with his car on a dolly) back to GR. 
Jon has just been appointed as the director for Moody Bible Institute’s new Center for Global Theological Education, so his family is moving from the West Coast to Chicago (but via Grand Rapids and Germany, where they’ll be spending his sabbatical between now and January 1, 2017). 
Meanwhile, back at Tanglewood Cottage (our house), all Jon’s “worldly treasures” (i.e. his wife, Gerlinde, and their three darling, preschool-age daughters) are in the air flying eastward to Grand Rapids. 
Sooooo, I’m rushing about stocking the fridge and freshening up the house in preparation for Gerlinde’s arrival this afternoon. We will all be together here for the month of July before they head to Germany for the fall semester. I am super excited to see them, but I’m sharing all this to say that—although my head is swimming with things I want to share from the past weeks— 
such as how impressive Venice looks sailing through the Grand Canal, 
or how much fun we had on our last birthday club outing to the Living History Museum in White Hall, Michigan,
or how amazing the new Cypress Unit is at Pine Rest, 
where we attended the dedication and reception last night…
As happy and exciting as life is right now, 
I am anticipating being a full-time grandma (“Nana”) and mother for the next weeks, and as such, my blogging time will be reduced to little bits and pieces. 
Therefore, if I don’t post often, or if my posts have approximately zero to one photos attached, know that this is “the best” I have to offer at this point…perhaps just a patchwork of little thoughts. 
It reminds me of something I learned as a young mother, when my personal quiet times of meditation and prayer were often interrupted by needy infants. 
I read somewhere that our prayers to our beloved heavenly father don’t have to be a like a big, ornate blanket. 
God knows our hearts and our needs, and He appreciates quilts too…simple moments of time when we lift our hearts to praise while nursing an infant…or when we send up little (or HUGE) requests for grace while struggling to keep calm and mother on in the midst of messes. 
Whatever you’re doing this July, I pray that you’ll be busy practicing the presence of God, as I also hope to be doing. May we find peace and rest in His presence, and may God bless you on your spiritual journey!
“Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits,
Summer Setting 