Memories of precious saints....

This last week brought back some memories of when I was a little girl and my family spending time with cousins, aunts and uncles and friends of my parents. My parents believed relatives should get to know each other so it seemed like every event or holiday, our family either hosted or spent time with another family at our house or their house.

Of course coming from a German background, my family believed in providing a huge dinner or potluck. When I was young, you could hear the older relatives speaking a form of low German. My grandmother was a formidable woman and she would state, "You are now in America, and you must speak Enlish." My dad related it drove him nuts as a young boy because he only knew German, and didn't like to speak English. Looking back, I wish they would have continued to speak both languages but that never happened.

During these gatherings family members never made just "one" dish, but would make four or five dishes including making a dessert. I think this has carried over to myself and siblings because whenever we get together, we always bring our share of food and the table is always over-flowing. If you ever come to a potluck where I'm invited, you'll find I've made several dishes because I don't want anyone to go home hungry. If there are leftovers, I send the leftovers home with friends.

As I mentioned earlier, the memories flooded back because our family lost two more older saints this last week. The loss reminds me that my siblings are now the older "it" generation. One of these saints regularly hosted Father's day events either in Dallas, Salem or Portland, and again, there was an abundance of food. Chicken seemed to show up in some form or another at every potluck.

My mother made this chicken dish using raisins and prunes. Yes, I said prunes. They provide am amazing addition to this chicken dish, and the recipe I'm sharing today is my mother's baked chicken with gravy.

Baked Chicken with raisins and prunes with gravy

1 cut up chicken, cleaned and washed
salt to taste
pepper to taste
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup prunes
1 onion sliced into four pieces

Place the chicken in the bottom of a roasting pan and salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle on top the raisins and prunes and onions. Cover the chicken and bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour. Take the top off the chicken and continue to bake and additional 30 minutes. Remove the chicken and place on a platter and cover with foil to keep warm.

Deglaze the pan with 1 cup water. Mix together a "slurry". We traditionally used some type of shaker jar. 1 cup water with 2-3 tablespoons flour. (The water should be cold). Shake the jar until there are no more lumps. Add the slurry to the deglazed pan with the fruit in it. Cook to gravy consistency. Taste for salt and add it if needed. We had the gravy over mashed potatoes but you could use rice or even pasta if you wanted. Enjoy.