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.