Chicken Lemone

Here's an...ahem...interestin recipe from Mrs. Betty Sanders, via friend of the blog Mrs. Gertrude Black.

On first read-through I said to myself, okay, what's so special about this? On second read-through I said out loud, "Now for heaven's sakes Betty, why the frozen lemonade? That's a rather odd choice for marinade." To which (in my imagination) Betty Draper replied, in between drags off a cigarette, "Who cares. I'm trapped in a loveless marriage under the repressive thumb of 1960's male chauvinism. You're lucky it's not marinated in Kool-Aid and whiskey."

At least the recipe name sounds French, so you can pretend you're Julia Child when tellin folks what you've made...

Ingredients:
Boneless breast of chicken (1 full breast per person - 2 pieces) (but what if I want to serve more than two people? what do I do then? I CAN'T DO MATH!)
Frozen lemonade (1 can for 4-6 servins) (this still has me shakin my head)
Grated rind of 1 lemon (fancy!)
Salt, pepper in flour for dredgin
Oil (what kind? oh who cares. I'm lucky it's not baby oil, right Bets?)

Oven temp: 350 degrees

Pan size: Who cares. Just try not to burn down the house.

How to:
Wash and pat dry chicken pieces. Place in a bowl. Lightly salt and pepper. Pour lemonade in a bowl and add to it the grated rind of lemon, stir to blend. Pour over chicken pieces. Cover and marinate for at least 8 hours. (8 hours!? why, that's like a whole day of work! what am I supposed to do, get up at the crack of dawn to make this recipe? well maybe it's just for those lucky stay-at-homers.)

To Prepare: Remove chicken from marinade and dredge with flour. Lightly brown in cookin oil (oh.) and place in a bakin pan. Cover with marinade and bake for approximately 1 hour at 350 degrees. Should come out moist, tender, and delicious. (If you say so, Betty...) Serve with rice and salad and vegetable (just one) for a delicious meal. (All right. I tried to give you the benefit of the doubt, but now I believe the lady doth say "delicious" too much...)

Chinese Bean Casserole

Here's another one from Erna, this time for a casserole that calls itself Chinese, though I am hard pressed to find anythin actually "Chinese" about this. If it were topped with chow mein noodles, or included water chestnuts, perhaps I could be swayed. But as it is, I think we can just chalk this one up as another ethnic-food-fakeout. Let's at least give the old gal props for not callin it "Oriental Bean Casserole".

Ingredients
1 can French cut beans
1 can wax beans, yellow (really, is there any other color of wax beans? and if they're canned, they're more "sallow" than "yellow")
1 can bean sprouts (oh, I bet this is where the "Chinese" comes from, because, y'know, only The Chinese eat those - that's why they're always branded "LaChoy" or "China Boy")
1 can cream of mushroom soup (it's not a casserole without one or more "cream-of" soups!)
1 can French fried onions for toppin

Oven temp: 350 degrees

Pan size: "greased bakin dish"

How to:
Mix first 3 cans. Mix in the can of mushroom soup. Put in a greased bakin dish, and bake 1/2 hour. Put onions on top the last 10 minutes. (Hey waitaminute...this is just a standard green bean casserole, but with bean sprouts thrown in. "Chinese", my Aunt Fanny!)

Notable Canned Dinner

There are some times where I just crack open a recipe book and BOOM - a classic recipe perfect for the Midwest Cookin blog socks me right in the face. This is one of those times.

This recipe is courtesy of Dixie Rohle of Immanuel Lutheran Church, and I would love to ask her about the significance of the title. The "Canned Dinner" part of it is perfectly clear to me. But what about this makes it "Notable" I wonder? To investigate the worthiness of addin the word "Notable" to the title of this dish, I may try it myself w/tuna or crabmeat and sub regular cream of mushroom soup instead of the creamy chickeny concoction. I'll post an update if that actually happens. In the meantime...

Ingredients:
1 can tuna, chicken, turkey, or crabmeat (flaked)
1 can chow mein noodles (wait a sec - aren't those the crunchy noodles? I didn't think those came in a can...)
1 can Chinese vegetables
1 can creamy chicken mushroom soup (does this soup actually exist? I've heard of cream OF chicken and cream OF mushroom, but not creamy chicken mushroom. Must investigate...)
1 can celery soup (do you mean cream of celery soup? I will assume yes.)
Sliced water chestnuts (as desired) (FYI, though not explicitly stated here, these come in a can too)

Oven temp: 350 degrees

Pan size: 1 1/2 qt. casserole

How to:
Combine ingredients, savin part of the crisp noodles (ha! I knew it!) to put on top the last 5 minutes of bakin. Bake in a 1 1/2 qt. casserole at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.