What do I mean by "magic moment"? How about a magic week? Would you believe that I am still getting birthday cards? Each one is as special as the first one I received. I kind of lost track of the actual number these past few days, but I am near if not exceeding 190!!! Just as amazing was the count of guests at my birthday open house. We came up with a count of 242! When analyzing anything as spectacular as “my day”, there were a number that I was sure would be there but weren’t. Then the ones who amazed me by their attendance balanced out the day into one perfect one. But wait, there was one disappointment. I did not get to visit with many of you as I would have liked to. If that is true for you, stop in. I will clean off a chair, wash a cup and we will have coffee and talk till our heart’s content. If you doubt the number of cards, I have them all in one box. Stop in and count them yourself. You may come up with more than I did. Next week I am going to take one whole day, reread them and cherish each one all over again.
Last Tuesday evening was my monthly meeting of my Home Extension Club. We were going to a special restaurant in Auburn and I very innocently went in where there were about 15 members waiting patiently for us to arrive. Almost immediately I felt someone behind me. The president had placed a crown on my head. They presented me with a bouquet of fall flowers, three balloons, a notepad and paid for my evening meal! What a special group of friends! Maybe being the oldest member has its advantages.
More important than all my partying, is our moral obligation and privilege of going to the polls to express our belief of who is most capable of managing our government. I hope you were an informed voter and all of you took advantage of the privilege and duty. I had some trouble trying to vote intelligently in some cases where there were damaging ads about an opponent and the next ad was his opponent being just as negative about him. Do we have to spend so many millions of dollars with this kind of campaigning when it is so unproductive and the money could have been spent much more wisely in a productive manner?
I will get off my soap box and turn to food where I am more nearly an expert. That gives me lots of room to improve. I shouldn’t tell you about an entre served at the excellent restaurant last week. I think it was (or could be) called Hawaiian chicken. It had cubes of chicken, pineapple chunks, I think a sweet/sour sauce and was delicious. A friend ahead of me took a generous portion. I was afraid to trust her judgment and took a much smaller serving. Darn! I decided that I can make that without a recipe! Wrong. First of all I used 6 chicken legs that I browned to perfection, steamed it for an hour or so, deboned it and cut up the pieces. Next when I went to add the pineapple chunks, the only resemblance I could find in my well stocked pantry was a can of crushed pineapple. I put in a small amount of brown sugar and thickened it with corn starch. It was edible and quite tasty, but it looked like only a third cousin of the dish I was trying to duplicate. I ate some of it but it was a disappointment. Returning to my inborn training that you do not throw out anything that is good food, I decided to cook some rice the next day. I heated my prize project and served it over the rice. Not too bad, but do not think it will win any original cooking awards.
Now let’s go to some tried and true lab-tested ideas. Since I am so full of company food, we had a small impromptu gathering at my house tonight of a few relatives with snacks, real mashed potatoes and yummy beef and noodles made from the leftover baked steak from my party. (I did not cook it.) So I am not even interested in desserts tonight, but I think you will like these two meat dishes that are very easy to make.
CLUB CHICKEN
I cup finely crushed Club or Town House crackers
1 package Italian salad dressing mix
3 pounds frying chicken
3 or four tablespoons melted butter
Combine crushed crackers and salad dressing mix in a large plastic bag. Shake 2 pieces of chicken at a time in the crumb mixture. Place chicken skin side up, in a casserole dish. Drizzle with the melted butter. Bake for I hour at 375 degrees.
BEAN BOATS
2 cans (15 oz.) chili with beans
4 French rolls
¼ cup melted butter
½ cup shredded cheddar cheese
Cut tops off each French roll. Hollow out each roll saving bread pieces. Brush inside and outside of rolls with butter. Mix I cup of the bread pieces with chili and fill loaves. Replace tops of rolls and wrap in aluminum foil. Bake on cookie sheet at 375 degrees for 25 minutes. Removes tops and sprinkle with cheese. Replace tops and serve hot.
Hope all of you were at the polls Tuesday!
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