The -Trust me on this- Really Good Food Cook Book

I don't know if this comes from a King Ranch somewhere, but wherever it came from, it rules for me as a casual, make-before-hand, easy, guaranteed-to-get raves dinner for 8-10.
It uses tortillas and Rotel tomatoes which makes me think this migrated north from south of the Border. I once spent a summer studying the Maya civilization in the Yucatan. I stayed in Merida with a Presbyterian missionary family. They all had parasites and took medicines for them. I worried. But I ate. One 101 degree afternoon when the black, fat buzzards were circling low and the mariachis were sleeping, the missionaries and I went to a neighboring hacienda and were served some of the best cookies I've ever tasted. They were a soft cookie filled with a delectable mash of sweet potatoes. Don't forget that potatoes, sweet and white, are indigenous to the Americas. Before Columbus discovered America, Europe had no potatoes. Imagine! When the white potato arrived in Europe c. 1500, it was brought to Italy. Its arrival corresponded with an outbreak of the Bubonic Plague. The Italians blamed the potato and pushed it north. The Germans loved it; the French fried it and the Irish built an economy around it. The origins and journeys of food are fascinating.
This King Ranch Chicken will, hopefully, become a staple for you whether you live north, south, east or west.

6-8 big chicken breasts, boneless, skinless
1 green pepper, diced
1 medium onion, diced
12 soft flour tortillas
16 oz. shredded cheddar
1 can Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup
1 can Campbell's Cream of Chicken soup
2 cans Rotel tomatoes (Rotel canned tomatoes are in a lot of supermarkets now. They have little chili peppers in them. Call around until you find them.)

Boil chicken breasts in enough water to cover them. When done, save and cool the broth. Cut chicken breasts into bite-size pieces. Save in a bowl. Saute green pepper and onion in butter until the onion is wilted. Set aside. Take a 12x16 inch aluminum or oven-proof glass baking pan. Dip the tortillas individually in the cool broth and line the bottom and sides of the pan. (You're making a tortilla pie crust.) Now you're going to layer. Salt and pepper the chicken bites. Put them evenly over the tortillas. Cover the chicken with a layer of cheddar. Cover the cheddar with the sauteed peppers and onions.
Now mix the soups in a bowl. Whisk in the cans of Rotel tomatoes. These give the dish a slight tang which can be tolerated even by those, like me, who don't like 'hot' dishes. Pour this mixture all over the top of the dish. Sprinkle the whole thing with lots of shredded cheddar. Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes until bubbly.

To Serve: Cut the King Ranch Chicken into pieces like you would a lasagna. Use a spatula to get the pieces out of the pan. You can serve this with the Stacked Tomato Salad in the Salad section of this book and a few slices of ripe melon. If you have hearty eaters, you might want to make another little batch of this crowd-pleaser for seconds and thirds or for tomorrow.

We call you Doll House
Because we found seven figures,
Resembling dolls,
Inside you.
But you are really a Doll House
Because we only imagine
That real people
Put them there.