Chicken de la Gaynor

(another night-time picture--please forgive)

Gloria Gaynor (as in "I Will Survive") has just released a new book that is a compilation of essays of people who have survived various struggles. I happen to have written one of those essays. My essay is about seeing my mother a few months before she died of a brain tumor.

So if you're looking for an inspirational read, check it out. It's called We Will Survive. You can find it here.

The publicist for Ms. Gaynor's book asked the contributors if they had any blogs, etc. where they could promote the book. I'd be happy to, I said, but I just have a food blog. Well, lo and behold Gloria Gaynor eats; she even cooks. They sent me this recipe for me to include in the blog. I thought that was pretty cool.

The even better thing was that the recipe was yummy and easy. It can be made whole food style or pantry staples style. It can be made in the oven or in the crock pot. It is very adaptable, as I learned by having not quite the right ingredients for one thing and accidentally forgetting to add something else (that's how dinner rolls around here).

It's a perfect little recipe for putting dinner on the table through the craziness that can be December.

Chicken de la Gaynor
from Gloria Gaynor
serves 6
prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 30-40 minutes
Cost: $5.90
chicken: 4.00, cream of chicken soup: .50, mushrooms: .60, sour cream: .50, other: .30

2 lb chicken (Gloria recommends wings; I only had breasts, so that's what I used)
10 oz cream of chicken soup (I made my own chicken white sauce)
3 oz can sliced mushrooms, drained (I had regular mushrooms, which I cooked in a bit of butter)
8 oz sour cream (okay--I managed to get that one right)
1/4 C whole milk
1/4 C cooking sherry (forgot; it was still delicious)

I cut my large chicken breasts into strips. You can just leave it at that and throw them in the oven with salt and pepper, but I like to brown mine in some olive oil or butter first. To do this: Heat olive oil in skillet, add breasts (with salt and pepper), and cook the breasts until they're browned. They don't need to be cooked through. They're going in the oven. (Note: You can totally skip all this browning and throw them in the oven, but I like to do this with chicken breasts because I think it adds more flavor).

Heat oven to 425. Throw breasts in the oven (you know in a pan and stuff).

While the chicken bakes, you're going to pour cream of chicken soup and sour cream in a pan and heat it. Then you'll add the milk, sherry, and mushrooms. When the chicken is just barely cooked through (20-40 minutes depending on how big your chunks of chicken are--I always just cut into the fattest one to check it). Pour soup mixture over chicken, return to oven, and cook fifteen more minutes.

We served it over rice with broccoli on the side and it was delicious. We ate all the chicken and the next day I just had sauce and mushrooms over rice, which was also delicious.

Potential adaptations:

Crock Pot: I have not done this, but I am 99.9% sure it will work. Just throw everything in the crock. Eight hours on low; 4 on high. Done.

Homemade: You'll notice above that I was missing several canned ingredients. It wasn't a problem. For the cream of chicken soup, I made a simple white sauce. Here's how: Melt 2 Tbsp butter. Whisk in 2 Tbsp flour. Cook one minute. Whisk in 1 C milk and 1 tsp chicken granules (one cube bullion). Stir until it just starts to boil and thicken.
-For the mushrooms, just slice and cook in butter until they're lightly browned.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Abundant Earth Works--a post about jewelry, not food

And here we have another post that is not about food.

Soon this is going to be one of those blogs where people just post about boots and hairstyles and stuff. Okay, probably not.

But I did get something really amazingly beautiful for my anniversary in November. I was so happy with it that I wanted to give a little call-out to the shop Abundant Earth Works and the designer Dawn on Etsy. She's not a personal friend or anything. I didn't know her at all until I asked her to do this necklace for me (uh, which was from Kip for our anniversary). I just was so so happy with the necklace she made me. And since it's Black Thursday weekend now seemed like a good time.

I should tell you all that I have a small jewelry addiction. Not the fancy stuff from those corner jewelry stores in the mall. No. I find them a little boring and a lot overpriced. In fact, I noticed last year when I went from store to store looking for an original-looking mother's ring that all the rings from every jewelry store in town looked exactly the same. In fact, everything sort of looked the same. I've always liked jewelry that looked a little different from everybody else's. It doesn't hurt when it has a $20 price tag instead of a $200/2000 price tag either.

In particular I tend to love stones. No, I don't mean diamonds. I'm talking about, you know, rocks. I love them. Nerdy style. Like me and my kids will go to these "shows" put on by the lapidary club and just spend hours looking at rocks. Last year, at one such event, I got a piece of polished chrysocolla for free with another purchase. It was so so beautiful, but I didn't really know what to do with it. It sat on my shelf for quite some time and then I thought maybe I'd try to find someone to wrap it for me. I checked many many shops on Etsy. They would mostly do it for between $30 and usually closer to $50 or $60. That was a little high for me. But Dawn at Abundant Earth Works did it for less than $20. Which is remarkable in and of itself, but she also did a bang up job. I linked to several examples of wrappings that I liked, sent her my stone, and then crossed my fingers and left her to do what she thought best. (I've done this with other Etsy jewelry people before and found that we often just don't see eye to eye, no matter how anal my descriptions are of what I want). What I got was better than anything I could have imagined. I mean, it was just gorgeous. The picture looked better than what I'd pictured and then the actual necklace was even prettier than that. I've never been so happy with a jewelry purchase before--especially one I had asked someone to design (meaning I didn't really know what it would look like at the end).

You don't have to have a random stone hanging around your house either (though if you do, we could totally be friends). She's got plenty of stones on her shop to choose from.

So if you're in the market for something pretty, unique, and not bank-breaking this holiday season, give Dawn a try. She's having a Black Friday sale through Dec. 3rd where she gives at least 15% off (and up to 25% depending on how much you spend). Do it.

Green Beans with Pine Nuts and Lemon

(nighttime picture; arg)

I know everybody's all crazy about the green beans with cream of something something something and also cheese. But there are things I like better. Especially on a day when I'm already eating turkey with gravy, potatoes with butter and gravy (and maybe some sour cream mixed in), stuffing with about 12 cups of butter melted therein, that sweet potato casserole that we all know is not a casserole, and PIE. Yes, hopefully lots of pie. As one of my friends said (and a true doctrine of my life as well): If I'm going to have to choose between the beans with cream of something something something and cheese and another piece of pie, well, I'm taking the pie.

But wait, now you don't have to. Because you can now have amazing green beans and eat your pie too. Or maybe eat your pie two. (Ha ha. How clever am I, right? Yeah, don't answer that.)

I got this recipe this summer from Kalyn's Kitchen and it was amazing. Wonderful flavors and even a few indulgent ingredients, but just enough for flavor and texture--nothing that goes overboard and bumps out the pecan pie. Because we wouldn't want that.

Green Beans with Pine Nuts and Lemon
adapted from Kalyn's Kitchen
Makes 4-6 servings
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 10 minutes
Cost: $2.40
beans: 1.50, Parmesan: .10, pine nuts: .50, other stuff: .30

Note: It's harder to find perfect green beans in the winter than it is in the summer. Do your best not to get tough, seedy, nasty ones.

1 lb fresh green beans
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 clove garlic. minced or a light sprinkle of garlic powder
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp lemon zest
1 Tbsp Parmesan (I use a bit more than this)
2-4 Tbsp pine nuts

Prepare beans by washing, drying, and chopping off the ends.

Heat oil in a skillet. Add green beans and cook at medium heat. You want them to cook through, but also to get some good color. So after they've cooked through, you might want to turn up the heat.

When they are cooked to the tenderness you enjoy (for me this is not crazy crispy, but definitely not soggy), up the heat a bit, then throw in the garlic powder (or clove, but take care not to let it burn) and stir it in some oil, then mix with the beans. Add the pine nuts and stir fry for a few more minutes.

When it's done, throw the lemon juice and zest into the pan and give a stir. I ALSO ADD SOME SALT.

Remove from heat and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Serve immediately (this is the toughest part of doing this on Thanksgiving Day). It's still very good if left to sit for a couple minutes, but not as pretty.

PRINTABLE RECIPE