Progressive Dinner

Our Adult Sunday School class is having a Progressive Dinner this Friday, and we are hosting the first stop. Our church does Progressive Dinners differently than we are used to. Instead of us fixing the appetizer for everyone else...everyone brings an appetizer.

I LOVE Progressive Dinners. Our church in Illinois would have one every year. The first time I heard about a PD, I didn't get it...then we participated in one, and had a blast.

An aside:
That church actually taught us a lot in the two years we were there...things like "Spring Forward and Fall Backwards." Seriously...we thought they were pulling our legs...kind of like changing the air in your tires. The Man and I had only been married a year, and had grown up in Indiana. Hoosiers are practical people...they see (or saw...because for some strange reason they started DLST this year :/) no reason to mess with their clocks! *WHY would you do that? Time change Sunday happened to be on Easter Sunday...and our church decided to have a Sunrise Service. When they "reminded" us to change our clocks forward, we laughed at their joke.

Ha ha... *sure we are going to have to get up at 3:00am...Hahahaha. ha. ha...except, they were not joking!

Thirteen years later, I ask myself the same question every spring...WHY????

But I digress. This year, we are hosting the Appetizer/Salad course. I need to make three courses. I have decided on Country Chicken, Sausage and Potatoes for the main course, my friend Christi posted, back before Thanksgiving, about her daughter's Pumpkin Cheesecake recipe...so I think I am going to make that for the dessert. I have been trying to decide what to make for an appetizer. Since I have to make three courses AND get my house ready, I need something easy. I am pretty sure I have decided to make a potato soup that is out of this world...and easy. What do you think? Below is the recipes for the main course and the soup. You can follow this link for the Pumpkin Cheesecake.


Country Chicken Sausage and Potatoes

3lbs Chicken
1lb hot sausage (in links)
4-6 Potatoes
1 Red pepper
1 Green pepper
onion
garlic
14oz can of chicken broth
1/4C red wine vinegar
2tsp Italian seasoning
3TBS Corn Starch

Cut first three ingredients into large bite size pieces and bake at 425 for 20 mins. Stir in peppers (in large pieces) and onions. Add one cup of the broth, then the vinegar and seasoning stir and cover. Bake for another 40-45 mins. When meat and vegetables are done, place them in a large bowl. Put cornstarch and remaining broth in a pan, then take left over juices from the meat/veggies and add to cornstarch mixture to make 3 cups. Thicken, then pour over meat....serve.

Potato Bacon Cheddar Chowder

16 slices crisp bacon (or use real bacon bits)
2C chopped onion (or onion powder)
5C Cubed uncooked potatoes
3C water
1 can cream of chicken
1 can cheddar soup
2C sour cream
31/2C milk
1/2tsp salt
dash pepper
2TBS parsley

Fry bacon until crisp; crumble. Saute onions in bacon grease. Boil potato in water until tender DO NOT DRAIN! Mix soups, sour cream and milk in a bowl separately and add this gradually to potatoes. Add bacon, onions and seasoning. DO NOT LET BOIL.

Ok, Internet, I can hear you asking..."But Tammie, how are you going to fit 20-30 people in your house?" I have *no idea...