Apricot-Catalina Chicken

Have you ever gone to the store with a recipe in mind and the store is lacking an ingredient? Short of running to several other grocery stores, what do you do? In general, the best thing to do is search for another recipe similar to the one you are preparing and substitute.

Example: Last weekend for Super Bowl, one of the suggested recipes was Catalina Chicken. We'd had bad weather for days and when I went to the grocery store to buy the chicken, catalina salad dressing and jellied cranberries to make this recipe, the store did not have jellied cranberries. In fact, they had no cranberries period. I decided that cranberry juice would change the consistency of the sauce. Everyone was taking advantage of the break in the weather and the lines were long, making the drive to another store undesireable.

I searched my memory and remembered that we had also posted a chicken recipe called Russian-Apricot Chicken that had a similar flavor. Luckily for me, I remembered the recipe (but using your iPhone to check the blog works, too!). That recipe called for Russian dressing, apricot jelly, and honey. With honey already in the cupboard at home, I picked up the apricot jelly and went to trade the Catalina dressing for Russian dressing. Only there was no Russian dressing. Heck, I figured. Let's combine the two and see what happens. Hence was born another delicious variation of this recipe. This one I call Apricot-Catalina Chicken.

Ingredients:
4-6 chicken boneless chicken breasts
1 bottle Catalina dressing
1 small jar apricot jelly
1/4 cup honey
1 package onion soup mix

1. Spray cooking pan with cooking spray. Lay chicken in the pan.

2. Mix all the other ingredients and pour over the chicken.

3. Cook at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes or until chicken breaks apart with a fork.

Serving Suggestions: Baked potatoes or rice goes well with this chicken. Enjoy!

Step

Ranch Dressing I

I am on a search for a tasty homemade ranch dressing recipe. This one is very good, but the dill flavor is predominant. It is also better as a dip than a salad dressing. If you have a good ranch dressing, please email me at worthadamnrecipes@yahoo.com.

Difficulty: *

1 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup sour cream or buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon dried chives
1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon dried dill weed
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon of onion powder or minced onions
1/8 teaspoon of salt and black pepper

In a large bowl, whisk together all ingredients and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before serving.

Tip: You can add milk to this to achieve the desired consistency.

BLT Salad

Difficulty: **

Ingredients:
6-8 slices of bacon, fried and crumbled
2 eggs, hardboiled and then diced
1 head of lettuce, chopped
2 tomatoes, diced
1 small can of peas (or 1 cup of cooked frozen peas)
1 cup shredded sharp cheese
1/2 cup chopped red onion (optional)
1 cup raw carrots, diced (optional)
1/2 a cucumber peeled and diced (optional)

Instructions:
1. Put 2 eggs in a pan and cover with water. Bring to a boil and let simmer for 5 minutes. Put in sink and cover with cold water to cool.
2. Fry bacon and leave to cool on paper towel.
3. Chop lettuce and put into serving bowl.
4. Crumble bacon on top.
5. Add tomatoes, peas, onions, carrots, and cucumber.
6. Peel and dice eggs and add to mixture.
7. Put cheese on top and toss the salad.
8. Serve with favorite dressing.