Christmas Dinner

For our Christmas dinner, I wanted something that I could prep the day before and then bake. I thought about many different things, but narrowed it down to a form of chicken cordon blue. That is one of my husbands favorite food items and we used to get a delicious version that was served on rice with this yummy sauce at this nice cafeteria. But that cafeteria closed and though we have tried different versions, nothing is ever the creamy delicious flavor of all the items that I was looking for. So I made up my own recipe after looking at several ideas online. I wanted to go casserole style to simplify things. I also needed to make it gluten free. I originally thought I would bake it with the rice for more simplicity, but I was worried the rice would absorb too much liquid and it wouldn't be the creaminess that I was wanting.

So I determined to bake the rice separately. Baking rice is one of my favorite ways to prepare rice-no overflowing mess, no extra appliance just for rice, and it always turns out so good-I do add more water than what most recipes state and I always add butter and salt and often coconut oil when I bake rice. I have found that it always takes longer to bake than what recipes online state, so keep that in mind when baking rice-maybe it's just my oven or where I live-who knows.

For baked rice, measure out your rice and put in baking dish (nor more than 4 cups for a 9x13 pan). Then add 1/2 tsp salt for each cup of rice-I often do part of the salt as kosher, pink, or some of my own seasoned salt. Then add 1/2-1 TBLS butter per cup of rice. For your water or liquid (you can do a broth or part broth), double the measurement of rice, and boil it (I usually do this in the microwave) and then pour over everything in the baking dish. Cover tightly with foil and bake for 35-45 minutes at 375 degrees. Let rest for 5-10 minutes after pulling it out of the oven. If you like a more sticky rice, do the longer time and let it rest longer. If you like less sticky, lean towards the shorter time and remove the foil and fluff with a fork.

Baked Rice Recipe: (~9 cups rice)

• 3 cups rice
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2-1 tsp kosher, sea, or pink salt 
• 3 TBLS butter
• 6 cups boiling water

Creamy Chicken Cordon Blue

• slice up 1/2-1 cube of butter into bottom of baking dish, then place
• 2-3 lbs chicken breasts, sliced into 1" pieces over the butter. Sprinkle chicken with Ed's Seasoned Salt (or a mixture of salts and peppers and some garlic powder) then sprinkle on
• 1-2 lbs of chunks of thick sliced ham to cover the chicken decently (I used a ham steak, but you could use leftover ham if you have it) then sprinkle on
• 2-3 cups shredded swiss cheese (more if you want more of a sharp cheese flavor)
• 2-3 cups Mexican blend cheese (or another cheese of your choice, like colby jack)
• whisk together 1 cup sour cream, 2 cups chicken broth, 1 cup milk, 1-2 tsps Ed's Seasoned Salt (or a mixture of salts, peppers and some garlic powder)
• Top with 2-4 cups crushed corn flakes (you could toss the corn flakes with some melted butter first if desired). If you aren't going for a gluten free option, you could use a box stuffing for the topping.

Cover with foil and bake for 50-60 minutes at 350. Remove foil and bake for another 15 minutes.

For the actual dinner, we started with a wedge salad for an appetizer (when I pulled out the rice and main dish we served up salad while those items sat to rest a cool for a bit). For a wedge salad, you slice iceberg lettuce into wedges and then have toppings ready to put on top. I sliced up tomatoes, red peppers, red onion, avocado, and then had bacon bits, croutons, Eds Seasoned Salt, and ranch dressing. It was fun and super yummy!

For a side dish I made this delicious and super easy 

Raspberry Pretzel Jello.

I made Garlic Pull-Aparts the day of-I suppose I could have tried making them the day before, but they are pretty easy to make and so delicious fresh and warm.

For a vegetable, I made Baked Broccoli, a dish that we love that we often add potatoes and carrots to. It's very versatile. It's best to steam the broccoli for a few minutes first. While broccoli is steaming, whisk together:

• 2-4 TBLS olive oil 
• 1-2 TBLS ranch dressing powder
• 1-2 tsps of Ed's Seasoned Salt (or just a mix of salts and peppers). 

The amounts depend on how much broccoli you are doing or if you are adding potatoes to it as well (and if you add potatoes, first just whisk with the potatoes, bake them for about 15 minutes, then add in the broccoli so that it doesn't burn). Toss onto steamed broccoli and set in baking dish. Bake for 20-30 minutes at 375. If you didn't steam the broccoli first, then cover with foil for the first 20 minutes and add 15-20 minutes to your time.

I also made Brown Sugar Glazed Carrots.

• 1 1/2-2 lbs carrots, peeled and sliced, set aside while you whisk in frying pan the following:
• 2 TBLS butter
• 2-3 TBLS brown sugar
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp parsley flakes or 1 TBLS fresh parsley 

Toss in the carrots and stir fry for 3-5 minutes. Then place in baking dish and bake for 25-35 minutes at 375. Cover with foil for the first half, then stir and remove foil for the second half.

I have a pan that has 2 divided sections and I place the broccoli after steaming and tossing with oil mixture in one section. Then I placed the carrots after stir-frying for a few minutes in the other section. I covered the pan with foil and placed it in the fridge. Then I baked them the following day-a little longer since they were cold.