Divine Divan

I think I am fortunate that we aren't the type who go out to dinner often. Cooking every night is an everyday thing for me, so unlike many of my friends, I am not struggling with quarantine cuisine during our "shelter in place" confinement. Sure, we've had our "I don't want to cook one more night" dinner of French Toast (on Easter Sunday no less!), but for the most part I manage to get something on our plates that is fairly nutritious and tasty. A few times since the lockdown began I have been inspired to go above and beyond, making do with what I have on hand. One night I became inspired to make lobster/crab fettuccine using leftovers from a Friday Night Date Night Take-Out seafood supper, a recent addition by our community eatery. My fettuccine began with a base of home made stock from lobster and crab shells and lots of other savory things. I served it on home made pasta. Oh, and it was delicious! This was something I had never made before. Thank God for the Internet and lots tons of recipes, with ratings, at one's fingertips... literally!

Bits of lobster and crab waiting for the stock to reduce.
Pasta waiting to be cooked.

Most recently my inspired meal choice was Chicken Divan. 

I've never had Chicken Divan. The idea came about from a conversation with my bff. She mentioned, with a fair bit of excitement,  that she was cooking it for dinner that evening. I mentioned that I had never had it before, and asked how she made it. She rattled off the recipe. It sounded tasty (who doesn't like gooey, melted cheese?) and I tucked it in the back of my brain. 

Flash forward... well, in these times the days don't seem to flash... but suffice it to say... later, I decided to make the dish for dinner. I searched online to look at recipes and I also found the history of the dish.

Wikipedia tells me that: "Chicken Divan is a chicken casserole usually served with broccoli and Mornay sauce. It was named after the place of its invention, the Divan Parisien Restaurant in the New York City Chatham Hotel where it was served as the signature dish in the early twentieth century. Its creator was a chef named Lagasi."

I came across a link to the WORLD'S BEST Chicken Divan and stopped there. I'm glad I did! I read through the the blog post/recipe and began pulling out the ingredients. Because I can't go running off to the grocery store I made a few substitutions and changes, working with what I had on hand. I guess we all have similar limitations! 

I certainly identified with New York Time's columnist, Sam Sifton's column entitled "Substitution City".  He wrote: "With everyone out of this pantry item or that one, recipes have become mere suggestions of where you might start. They’re like assembly charts from Ikea when you have only 60 percent of the fasteners."

 The major substitution I made was using the broth from a can of chicken noodle soup, mixed with water, for the chicken broth and bouillon... and what the heck, I threw the noodles in the casserole as well. Knowing that canned soup tends to have a ton of salt in it, I did not add any other salt in my cooking. 

The recipe link above has detailed instructions. Here is my "Cliffs Notes" version:

• Sauté seasoned cut broccoli and cauliflower (I didn't have enough broccoli) in olive oil for 30 seconds, then add 1/2 C of chicken soup liquid and water. Cover and cook for 2 minutes. Remove with slotted spoon and put in a baking dish.
• Add some butter to the pan after removing the veggies. Increase the heat. Put in cubed chicken that was previously seasoned liberally with pepper and paprika. Sear the chicken for about a minute, then stir and cook only until just done. Spoon the chicken on top of the broccoli/cauliflower mix.
• Add a hunk of butter and some olive oil to the juices in the pan. Add some flour, seasonings and make a paste. Add more of the chicken soup liquid with water, some milk (I used half and half) and cook to thicken. Add sour cream, shredded cheddar and parmesan. I also plopped in some mayonnaise. Combine and spoon over the vegetables and chicken. (The recipe called for corn starch. I used it. I wouldn't use it again. My sauce became very pasty. I don't think it needed additional thickener.)
• Pour some bread crumbs on top and cover with additional shredded cheddar. (When I make this again, I'll add some pats of butter on top of the bread crumbs)
• Bake for 30 minutes at 350 and then enjoy.... thoroughly!

Just an aside....
this was posted on FaceBook. It was written by Haroon Rashid.
Wow... what a powerful message, putting us all in our places!

We fell asleep in one world, and woke up in another. 
Suddenly Disney is out of magic. 
Paris is no longer romantic, 
New York doesn't stand up anymore, 
the Chinese wall is no longer a fortress, 
and Mecca is empty. 
Hugs & kisses suddenly become weapons, 
and not visiting parents & friends becomes an act of love.

Suddenly you realise that power, beauty & money are worthless, 
and can't get you the oxygen you're fighting for.

The world continues its life and it is beautiful. 
It only puts humans in cages. 
I think it's sending us a message:

"You are not necessary. 
The air, earth, water and sky without you are fine. 
When you come back, remember that you are my guests. 
Not my masters."

Chats on the Farmhouse Porch: Lost!

Hahaha.... that's funny! Patrice thought she lost Wendell! I mean, if Wendell really had gotten out of the pasture, it wouldn't be funny - but she is right - how can a person lose a horse that weighs what? 1800 pounds?!
But heck, I don't have the right to laugh. How rude of me. Will you forgive me, Patrice? I mean, how can I laugh when I had a momentary panic attack when I thought I had lost my two horses! My two Haffies, weighing in at about 1100 pounds each, sure beat one Wendell! Anyway, I am thinking I probably know exactly how you felt when you thought Wendell might be gone!
One day I had the horses in our back yard. It's just under an acre. There are 5 gates in the fencing, so there is the chance, a small one, but one, none-the-less, that they could open the gate and escape. It so happened that I went out to collect the horses for dinner. I looked to the right, towards the gate that leads to the main road, no horses. So, I headed around to the left. No horses. How could that be? They weren't to the right of me. They weren't to the left of me. Oh! My! God! They escaped. I started running toward the gate leading to the road - the worst case scenario, and almost ran into Pippin's somewhat ample rear end! My Haffies had been 'hidden' behind a tree. A very small Spruce tree. But, since I had been close to the tree, it blocked more of my view, and I simply had not seen the horses there at all (at least that's the story I'm telling folks!) Phew! I was relieved to have 'found' them... but I did feel kinda silly getting ramped up into panic mode!

Can you believe the little Spruce to the right of Pippin

managed to block my view of both Haffies?!
I can't even say that the tree has gotten any bigger since
this picture was taken... in fact, it may be smaller
since a friend drove her trailer over it!

Anyway, Patrice has invited us to her porch for our weekly chat. What a great friend to host us all each week! Here are her questions and my answers:

1. What's your favorite kind of sandwich?
Tough question. It depends on my mood. Sometimes I think there is nothing finer than a PB & J on gushy white bread. Other times I like something a bit more exotic, like a pork, pear and cheese panini. Or, I can easily be enticed with a meatloaf sandwich, with ketchup. I'm not too fussy!

2. Do you have more photos or artwork on your walls of your home?
This one is easy! I have more artwork. In fact, I can't think of a single photo that is actually hanging on the walls. Most of my 'art' consists of old prints. A lot of my prints are horse-related and a few are of dogs. I even have two Currier & Ives' prints that our Realtor was coveting.

3. Do you switch your wardrobe (clothing) when the seasons change?
If, by 'switch', you mean moving summer clothes to storage and bringing out cool-weather clothes, then, no. I don't 'switch'. But, I do change from mostly shorts and sandals to jeans, socks and long sleeves. On cold days I'll wear corduroy pants and throw on a fleece. The thing that I find so amazingly stupid, about the way my brain malfunctions, is that when the season changes, I can't recall what I used to have that 'goes' with a particular pair of pants, or a shirt or whatever... even though the clothes have all been in my closet or chest. It takes me a while to get back into sync and remember what goes with what!

4. How do you keep your recipes: books, cards, computer?
I use all three. I have only a few favorites in books, and I know which books have the recipes I am looking for. I have a small box of cards and then recently I have created a folder on my computer where I stash recipes from Blog friends or that I find elsewhere. That's the modern equivalent of the folder I have in my kitchen cabinet with recipes I've torn out of magazines or that I have previously printed from the Internet, or even ones I have scribbled on some sort of scrap of paper.  Often I will Google what I want in the way of a recipe and go straight from my computer.

5. What are you looking forward to the most in the month of September?
We have signed up to go camping on two weekends with two different groups. One will be fairly small, only about 4 different RV's but they have planned some interesting places to visit that are near the campground. The other trip is to a State-wide meeting so there should be quite a number of people going. We will be guests of a local chapter, and will camp with their group, which consists of about 8 RV's.

If you'd like to join the conversation you can click on the link below to visit Patrice's Blog and you can connect your blog to her's - or you can join in the chat by commenting either on my page or on her's.
I'd love to hear from you!