My very good friend, Lisa, is an awesome cook. Possibly part of it is out of necessity because she has 5 very large males to feed and that's not even counting Nicky, her husky! She gave me this recipe which is called "Easy Chicken Casserole" from the Wolitarski family cookbook. Who can boast of a family cookbook? Not many of us. Anyway, we just call it "Lisa's Chicken" around our house. Here's what you'll need:
2 packages of chicken breast tenders (Not the kind at McDonalds:)
1/2 cup of Wishbone Russian dressing (Not so easy to find these days, but it's out there. Of course like everything, Walmart has it.)
1/2 cup of apricot jam
1 pkg. of Lipton Onion Soup Mix
All you do is combine the ingredients in a casserole dish (I try to mix the ingredients right in the dish. It makes clean-up easier!) You then put the chicken tenders in the sauce. Bake at 325 for an hour, and believe it or not, that's it!!! Lots of white rice is the perfect compliment. (Serves 6)
Cooking Tidbit: Did you know that one of the main reasons rice gets gooey and lumpy is that it is cooked too fast with the heat too high?. So when the directions say turn it on low, make sure you turn it very low. (I learned this the hard way.)
Round and Round
Often I come up with random ideas. Sometimes they work and sometimes they flop. This idea is one that totally worked. It was for our wedding rehearsal dinner. (It seems like these days couples have a sit down dinner after their wedding ceremony, but this still applies.) The idea is that the guests at the dinner get to visit with at least one significant couple such as the Bride and Groom, the Best Man and Maid of Honor, etc.
The significant couples eat the salad course at their first table, the main course at a second table, and the dessert at a third table. See the diagram below and it will make more sense. (An important detail is that there needs to be a separate salad fork, main course fork/knife set and dessert fork.) This rotation game makes a wedding dinner extra fun. Maybe you or your daughter, niece, etc. is getting married and you can share this with them. (Of course number of tables, significant couples, etc. can vary.)
Fun Saying:
Recently I heard someone say that they went to a flea market." Now that's a lovely image! The French came up with the term "Marche aux Puces" which referred to a market that sold the type of old furniture and clothes that might actually have fleas. Great! Just great! Thank goodness our modern day flea markets don't have fleas hopping around.