Suzanne sent the full recipe for her chicken recipe. We had it tonight and invited Grandma and our neighbor, Heather, for dinner (and celebrated Heather's birthday). I substituted Panko (Japanese bread crumbs) for the whole grain bread crumbs and it was great.

Baked Ranch parmesan chicken

6 chicken breasts halves
½ Cup Hidden Valley buttermilk ranch dressing
1 Cup whole grain bread crumbs
½ Cup Digorno grated Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon cracked black pepper (opt.)
1+ teaspoon sage
½ teaspoon salt

Marinate chicken in ranch dressing overnight (4 hours minimum)Preheat oven to 450
Combine bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, sage and salt. Mix well. Coat the marinated chicken in breading mixture and place in lightly sprayed 9 x 13 glass pan.
Bake 20 minutes then reduce oven temperature to 350 and bake 30 minutes or until done.

Black Rice Dessert

1 cup black rice
1.5 cups water
1 can coconut milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sugar

Open coconut milk from bottom of can. Pour coconut milk into a glass and scoop out the cream into a small bowl. Put cream into the fridge. Mix sugar salt and water until all dissolve. Put in rice cooker with black rice and coconut milk. Press button. Wait with bated breath until rice is done. Allow to cool a bit. With wet hands form into balls, place on dessert plates. Dab some coconut cream on each ball.

Garnish with mango or mint leaves or something if you feel extra fancy tonight. This might take advance planning, so you should have decided how fancy you were going to feel ahead of time.

This is the recipe I should have followed, not the recipe I did follow.

Leslie's Mock Libation

Leslie Melchert, Age 20, Des Plaines, IL (First Prize Winner)

1 cup fresh squeezed orange juice (3-4 oranges)
2-3 orange segments
1 Tbsp. vanilla yogurt
1/2 tsp. orange-flavored gelatin (dry)
Orange and/or grapefruit segments
Fresh mint

Prepare glass.*
In blender, combine all ingredients except garnish; blend until smooth. Pour into prepared glass; garnish with 3 citrus segments threaded on long wooden skewer. Top drink with mint. Makes one 9 oz serving.

*Chill tall (10-12 oz) glass in freezer. Turn frosted glass upside-down on small amount of additional orange-flavored gelatin to coat rim; return to freezer.

Whizzy Sour Mocktail

Whizzy Sour (Janna Jarvis, Age 17, Little Rock, AR)

2 cups fresh squeezed OJ (6-8 oranges)
1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/4 cup maraschino cherry juice
1 bottle (1 liter) lemon-lime soda or club soda
Orange cartwheel slices
Maraschino cherries

Combine fruit juices. Pour into 2 ice cube trays; freeze.
To serve, place 3-4 frozen cubes in each 8oz glass.
Fill with soda; stirr well.
Garnish with orange slices and cherries.
(Makes 24 cubes for 6-8 7 oz. servings)

Note: Unused "orange cubes" can be stored in plastic bag in freezer. Make a couple of trays ahead and keep in freezer to have on hand.

Mocktails (Mock Cocktails)

Years ago I received a Sunkist pamphlet on Mock Cocktails. It included "Twenty-two award winning party time beverage recipes from the 1989 "Sunkist/S.A.D.D. )Students Against Driving Drunk) Mock-Cocktail Recipe Contest. Each recipe contains refreshing, flavorful citrus juices and a colorful citrus garnish for extra eye appeal." So credit goes to "Sunkist Growers, Inc., Consumer Affairs Dept., Box 7888, Van Nuys, CA 91409" just in case you want to write them for these recipes (by now they are probably on a website somewhere). So, not having tried any, I thought I'd like to write them down to try sometime!

Phantom of the Prom Punch (Elizabeth H. Brown, Age 14, Rex, GA)
2 quarts fresh squeezed orange juice, chilled (24-32 oranges)*
1 bottle (48 oz) guava fruit drink, chilled
1 can (12 oz) frozen concentrated cranberry juice cocktail, thawed
1 1/2 tsp. almond extract
1 1/2 bottles (1 liter each) club soda, chilled
Orange Peel Rose Ice Ring**

In large punch bowl, combine fruit juices and almond extract; stir well. Float Ice ring in punch. Makes 22 cups

*Make orange peel roses before cutting oranges in half and juicing.
**To unmold Ice Ring, place metal mold briefly in warm water; remove Ice Ring and float in punch.

Orange Peel Rose Ice Ring: With vegetable parer or knife, peel 4-6 oranges in thin continuous spirals (about 3/4 to 1 inch wide), removing outer colored layer of peel only. (If necessary, palce peel in near-boiling water for 1-2 minutes to make more pliable; cool in cold water for easy handling.) Cut peel into 6-8 inch length strips. To make roses, wind each strip of peel in revers, with colored side in. Roll peel to form a rose shape with the bottom of the roll tighter than the top so the rose will flare open a bit. Secure with toothpick. Make 8-12 roses; freeze for one hour. Pour about 1/2 inch of water into a 1 1/2 quart metal ring mold. Cut off excess toothpick from each rose. Arrange roses, upside-down, in mold; freeze until firm. Add enough water to cover roses, freeze again. Fill mold with water to within 1/2 inch of top; freeze until firm.

Ranch Baked Chicken

Aunt Suzanne served this on their 40th wedding anniversary today. It sounds really good.

Marinate chicken in ranch dressing overnight.
Make a breading of
bread crumbs (used whole wheat),
sage,
salt
and parmesan cheese
Coat chicken pieces (dressing is so thick breading really sticks)
Bake at 450 for 20 minutes then 350 until done

Eileen has a similar recipe. Bread chicken with crushed saltine crackers mixed with Parmesan cheese and bake (no ranch dressing, however). Eileen's recipe is called Trena's treat (or something like that).

Onigiri (Rice Balls)

Very easy, but delectable. It’s just sushi rice formed into a shape with stuff in it, sometimes wrapped in nori (seaweed paper.)

Here’s how I made mine.

Sushi Rice:
1 & 1/2 cups sushi rice
1/4 cup rice vinegar
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
roasted sesame seeds

Sushi rice tastes much better than long grain rice and will form better balls. It is found in the oriental section of Kroger’s.
1. Put the rice in the rice cooker with 2  cups of water.
2. While the rice is cooking, bring the vinegar, sugar, and salt to a boil, then set aside.
3. When the rice is done, pour in the sauce and fluff gently.
4. Sprinkle sesame seeds liberally  and then fluff some more.
5. Taste.
If it needs more sesame seeds, repeat the last 2 steps until it’s good.
6. Form into shapes. I just use my hands to form it into flattened ball shapes or into triangles. I have also done squares and hearts. The rice could be packed into anything to give it shape though, e.g., cookie cutters, mugs, rubber ice cube trays, etc. The key is to make sure your hands and whatever implements you use are wet so the rice doesn’t stick.
7. (optional) Wrap with nori. For ideas on how, see Google.