April Birthday Party
April has three birthdays for our family: Hubby, Mama, and my Father-in-law. I hosted a birthday luncheon on Saturday to celebrate. I stressed a little over my menu because I waited until the last minute to get ready. It all turned out fine in the end and I think that everyone enjoyed the afternoon.
Here’s the menu:
~Simply Good Chicken Casserole
~Roasted Asparagus
~Macaroni and Cheese
~Jeweled Fruit Salad
~Rolls
~White Chocolate Amaretto Cake
Simply Good Chicken Casserole
1 3lb. broiler-fryer chicken (I used five breasts instead)
1 quart of water
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
1 can cream of celery soup
1 can cream of chicken soup
8 oz. sour cream
1/s tsp pepper
2 sleeves of Ritz crackers, crushed
1/4 c. melted butter
Combine first four ingredients in a large dutch oven. Bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer until the chicken is done. Remove chicken, cool slightly, shred.
Combine soups, pepper and sour cream. I added curry powder because I like the taste with chicken.
Crush Ritz and combine with melted butter.
Layer half the Ritz in a greased casserole. Spoon chicken mixture over the crackers. Top with the rest of the Ritz.
Bake at 325 degrees for 25 min.
Jeweled Fruit Salad
8 oz vanilla yogurt
2 T oj
1 T mayo
1/2 tsp. grated orange peel
1 pint strawberries, sliced
1 1/2 cups green grapes, halved
1 11oz can Mandarin oranges, drained
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
1 cup fresh or frozen raspberries
1 medium kiwifruit, peeled and chopped
1/4 cup fresh or frozen cranberries, thawed and halved I omitted these.
In a small bowl, combine the yogurt, oj, mayo, and orange peel. In a large serving bowl, combine fruit. Toss with dressing.
My Mama never uses a cake mix and I try not to, but I cheated this birthday celebration and used one for this recipe. This cake has a great flavor and is very tender. I iced it with buttercream icing.
White Chocolate Amaretto Cake
1 (18.25 oz) package cake mix I used French Vanilla
4 eggs
1 (3.3 oz) package instant white chocolate pudding mix
1/2 cup cold water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup Amaretto Liqueur
14 tsp almond extract
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease and flour a 9×13 or 2 9″ pans.
Combine cake mix, eggs, pudding mix, water, oil, Amaretto, and almond extract. Blend for 3 minutes.
Bake at 350 degrees for 45 min. **2 9″ pans were done in 30 min.**
I didn’t use a glaze this time, but this is great to use when baking in a 9×13″ pan. Poke holes in the cake while it is warm and pour the glaze over the top. This is heavenly!
Glaze
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup water
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup Amaretto
Bring ingredients to a boil. Boil for 10 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and immediately spread over cake.
Your birthday party sounds so nice! Love your cake. Thanks for sharing your recipes. They are on my list to try.