~Busy Day In Missie's Kitchen~

This post will contain a few different recipes today. The reason is that it was a bit of a busy day in my kitchen. For several reasons: One being that I woke up this morning with a horrendous sore throat, stuffy nose, and headache...not sure where all of this came from but I do know that it's been less than a week since I kicked Severe Bronchitis/Upper Respiratory Infection out of my system. So, not knowing how I will feel the rest of the week I wanted to prep some items so that my brother will still have some yummy items to eat! Second, my brother has been working VERY hard at work and a crazy schedule so I wanted to be a nice sister and make him a few things that I know he likes! See...I can be nice every once in a while! Hahaha

Let's start off with Today's Menu:

BAKED CHICKEN BREASTS WITH CHEESE:

Here are a few items that you will need to make this recipe:

As you can see, there really are not a lot of ingredients needed!

INGREDIENTS:
4 Chicken Breasts; skinned (I buy the bonless/skinless)
4 Slices Swiss Cheese
1 Can Cream of Celery Soup
1/4 C. Dry White Wine (If you don't have the wine you may substitute Water)
1 C. Herbed Croutons
3 Tbsp. Butter

Arrange chicken in greased, shallow baking dish. Put cheese slices over chicken. Mix soup and wine (or water); pour over cheese. Sprinkle with croutons and dot with butter. Bake at 350 for 1 hour.

Here's what this yummy dish looks like before baking:

I must tell you, that from the little that I could smell due to my stuffed up nose, the smells wafting from my oven were good!
After baking:

I had to decide what to serve as a side dish for this, and I came up with Herbed Corn. Oh, it's so yummy and makes eating plain old corn just not feel right!

HERBED CORN:

INGREDIENTS:
12 C. Frozen Corn
1 C. Water
1/2 C. Butter; cubed
2 Tbsp. Fresh Parsley; minced
2 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Dill Weed
1/2 tsp. Garlic Powder
1/2 tsp. Italian Seasoning
1/4 tsp. Dried Thyme

In a large saucepan combine the water and the corn. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 4-6 minutes or until corn is tender. Drain, stir in the remaining ingredients.

***NOTE*** I have to admit that I didn't make it this way tonight. I cheated and used a box of frozen corn that I had in the freezer that had butter on it already. It was easy to just pop it in the microwave and then add the seasonings after. I didn't have the parsley, but it was still very good!
Here is what mine looked like tonight:

As I said, it was a busy day in my kitchen today. I also made two other recipes today. These were fun ones to make, and will compliment meals that I have planned for later this week.

ORANGE TAPIOCA SALAD:

Here are some items you will need:

INGREDIENTS:
1 Box Vanilla Tapioca (3 oz.)
1 Box Vanilla Pudding (3 oz. NOT INSTANT)
4 C. Water
1 Box Orange Jell-O
2 Cans Mandarin Oranges; plus juice from 1 can

Mix together the Tapioca, Vanilla Pudding and water in saucepan. Bring to a boil and cook until slightly thickened. Take off stove and add the Orange Jell-O, Mandarin Oranges and juice. Chill in fridge for 24 hours before serving.

***NOTE*** I used 1 large can of oranges I had in the house and just drained some of the juice from the can.

Here it is:

And last, but definitely not least I made Ribbon Salad! This is exciting for me, as I normally only get this at Christmas Time because I haven't made it before.

Some items needed:

RIBBON SALAD:
2 C. Light Cream or Milk (I used 1 C. Half & Half & 1 C. Milk)
1 C. Sugar
2 pkgs. Knox Gelatin (The box in picture has 4 pouches in it, you would use 2)
2 tsp. Vanilla
1 Pint Sour Cream
4 Different Flavors of Jell-O (3 oz. each) (Ex. red, orange, green, yellow)

Jell-O Layers: Dissolve 1 Jell-O in 1 C. Boiling Water and 1/2 C. Cold Water. MAKE EACH JELL-O JUST BEFORE YOU USE IT FOR THE LAYERING
Cream Layers: Boil light cream/milk and sugar to disolve. This this add Knox Gelatin which has been dissolved in 1/2 C. Cold Water. Let cool and then add 2 tsp. Vanilla and 1 pint of sour cream.
Put one layer of Jell-O into a 9x13 pan. Chill in fridge until firm. Then spoon out some of the cream mixture to make a layer. let harden completely in fridge before adding the next Jell-O layer. Make the next Jell-O layer and chill in fridge until firm. Spoon another layer of cream mixutre, and place in fridge to firm up. Make another Jell-O layer and let firm up in fridge. Spoon the last of the cream mixture to form another layer and let firm up in fridge. Make the last package of Jell-O and pour over the top and place back in the fridge to firm up. Then it's ready for serving.

Here is my finished product. I used Apricot, Raspberry, Island Pineapple and Berry Blue Jell-O's!

As you can see some of my layers are a little thicker than others. I found out that the shelves in my fridge are not exactly even! Oh well, it will still taste AWESOME!

I hope that you will try some these recipes and enjoy them as much as we do here in my house!