This is very delicious, and extreme comfort food in my family! It's the one dish my sister-in-law and I had better not forget to bring to our family reunions; as it was one of the first dishes to vanish once placed on the table. We nearly always had this with our holiday meals.

There are several ways to make this. The version my sister-in-law and I made for the family gatherings was this:

1 large bag quality brand Frozen Broccoli Florets (avoid stemy broccoli)

2 cups shredded Cheddar or Colby Cheese

2 cups diced Velveeta

6 cups cooked Long Grain White Rice (I use a good brand of parboiled rice)

2 Family Size Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soups (two 22 oz cans)

Chicken Broth or Stock to cook the rice in

Kosher or Sea Salt to taste

1/2 stick Dairy Butter pats

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Heat oven to 375°f.

Use the instructions on the bag of rice to cook the rice. Cook the rice in chicken stock or broth, either homemade broth or store bought. Please don't overcook the rice. It needs to be fluffy, individual rice grains, not sticky or mushy. Once the rice is cooked, set it aside.

Spray a large casserole or roaster pan with butter cooking spray, or coat the pan with soft butter by hand.

In a large mixing bowl, dump in all the cooked rice. Add all the shredded cheese and the Velveeta. Put in both cans of Cream of Mushroom Soup, add the whole bag of broccoli florets (remove hard or stemy pieces). By hand, mix this by folding until combined. Mixing with hard utensils could break up the rice, they are best mixed gently.

It needs to be a cake batter consistency. If it isn't, add a can of evaporated milk, chicken stock or water, and mix again by folding. Taste to make sure it has enough salt.

Pour this mixture into the prepared casserole or roaster pan, smooth out the top.

This can be topped with shredded cheddar. Or it could be topped with a light coating of plain bread crumbs.

Lastly, top it with the pats of dairy butter. Cover the pan with a lid or foil. Bake for 30 minutes at 375°f, then reduce heat to 320°f and bake about one hour covered.

Uncover to allow it to become slightly toasty. It's ready once the top has become lightly toasty, and is bubbling throughout. Allow to sit about a few minutes before serving.

Yummy Options:

This is beyond delicious baked with simmered chicken meat in it. If making the broth from scratch, mix the deboned, skinned chicken pieces into the unbaked mixture. It's a whole meal that way.

The pats of butter can be mixed into the mixture along with everything else, instead of putting them on top before baking.

If you don't have cheddar or colby, it's fine to use any shredded yellow or orange cheese, or use just Velveeta and no shredded cheese.

I've made this with jarred or canned cheese dip or cheese sauce before when I was out of shredded cheese or Velveeta.

You can add fresh or canned sliced mushrooms if desired.

The soups used can be Cream of Chicken soup; or a mix of Cream of Mushroom and Chicken; or omit the soups and add evaporated milk or heavy cream in the same amounts. Best for our family was unanimously the Cream of Mushroom soups.

You could use smaller cans of soups, but it may be too dry or less flavorful that way.

You can use fresh broccoli florets, but frozen is much less work. If using fresh broccoli, be sure to remove all the stems and pieces, as this needs to be made with only the broccoli florets. The florets will go mushy long before the stems become tender. Frozen florets always gave us the best and most dependable results.