In everything give thanks . . .

Rejoice always;
Pray without ceasing;
In everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
I Thessalonians 5:16-18

It has been a rough day but the Lord prevailed as He has a grand way of doing.
The world hits so hard sometimes and it can be hard to not throw our hands up in despair. Thankfully, the Word of God carries us through and gives us what we need to continue on.
My parents, sister, and two year old nephew stopped by when they were in town and I was in a bad mood. My clothes got ruined when washed in hot water (long and aggravating story) and there are so many people hurting and in need of our Savior’s touch --- I ended up in angry tears.
Jesus is truly all we need.
When we let HIM take over us, the results can be astonishing.
Today was one of those cases. I ended up cooking a big package of chicken breasts with bone in the pressure cooker (two batches) and this has been a favorite around here for some time. The chicken was served with pesto linguini and iced tea. After they left and the kitchen was cleaned, I drove to my oldest son’s house and visited for a few minutes with my DIL and grandbabies. My husband picked up our son and I met them back at our house and a friend came home with our daughter to spend the night. My DIL and grandbabies met over here (my husband and our two oldest sons went to an audio convention) and we women decided to gather here We made stacked tortillas served with organic, fresh spinach leaves and iced tea and finished the meal off with chocolate cobbler covered in cream and coffee. The Lord blessed us all with such wonderful conversation, visiting time, and watching the children play.
Chicken Breasts with Bone and Skin in Pressure Cooker I followed instructions from Vicki’s pressure cooking site. I have gone to her site for years and used her outstanding charts for pressure cooking beans, rice, chicken and more.
http://missvickie.com/
I would love to get her cookbook one day!



Back to the chicken:
I washed it, put three big pieces in my pressure cooker and added 1 cup of water. The site said a minimum of ½ cup so I went with one and it worked well.
I secured the lid and got it locked on and kept the eye on high until two red lines were visible on my pressure thing. (Gauge? Valve?) Each pressure cooker is different so please follow the instructions you got with yours to the letter. My first pressure cooker (used it for years) was monitored by the top whistling and “dancing” and it was right when it rocked steadily. Too crazy and wild meant there was too much heat and not enough dancing meant not enough. Some cookers have electronic settings to just dial.
When the right pressure was achieved, I turned the heat to low but it went down to one red line so I upped it until it quietly stayed at two red lines. Sounds so much harder than it is! Ten minutes and the eye was turned off after that and I waited until the pressure dropped and the top was safe to open.
Delicious! I used a funnel to pour the chicken broth into a glass jar and have it in the fridge for when I need it for recipes. If I don’t use it soon, I’ll freeze it.
The linguini was cooked and drained and then added to a pan where I sautéed some onion and added a few tablespoons of pesto. I topped it with freshly grated parmesan.
For dinner tonight:
We just sautéed portabella mushrooms (sliced) with onions in butter and olive oil and then added cubed chicken breasts (from the pressure cooker) and freshly chopped garlic.
We heated tortillas on the cast iron stove top grill and spread each with sour cream, seasonings, and shredded cheddar before topping them with the chicken/mushroom/onion mixture.
The kids were so cute taking care of our spinach leaves! I washed them and spun them in the salad spinner and after the kids washed and dried their hands, they broke the stems off of each and stacked them up.
At one point, Emily, our three year old grandgirl (our oldest grandchild) looked up and said:
“I need more weeds, Nandy!” Our precious darlings!
The chocolate cobbler recipe is the one I’ve shared on this blog quite a few times!
Have a wonderful weekend!