Chicken a la King

2/3 c cold, cooked chicken, diced
3 Tbs butter
1 Tbs green pepper, cut fine
1 Tbs pimento, cut fine
1/8 tsp celery salt
2 Tbs flour
1 1/2 c milk
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg yolk, beaten
3 slices toast

Melt the butter, add the green pepper, cook slowly for 2 minutes, and then add the flour. Mix well and add the milk slowly. Cook until creamy.

Add the celery salt and the salt. When very hot, add the beaten egg yolk. Mix well, and add the chicken and pimento. Reheat.

Serve very hot on hot toast. (Do not cook the sauce any longer than absolutely necessary after the egg yolk is added.)

Makes 3 portions.

Chicken Loaf

1/2 c cooked chicken
1/2 c ground, cooked veal
1/2 c soft bread crumbs
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp celery salt
1 tsp chopped parsley
1 egg
1/2 c milk

Mix the chicken, veal and bread crumbs. Add the salt, celery salt, parsley, egg and milk. Mix thoroughly. Bake in a well-buttered pan thirty minutes in a moderate oven.

Makes two portions.

January Menu no 4

So I made the next menu yesterday, and had my buddy A over again with my husband and me. This meal was technically a luncheon for Bettina and her friends. My husband was very leery of this menu (and the next as well) because there are some very 20th century foods on these menus.

The menu is:
Chicken a la King
Toast
Light Rolls and Butter
Bettina Salad
Salad Dressing
Cheese Wafers
Strawberry Sherbet
Hickory Nut Cake
Candied Orange Peel

There were a few changes to the menu. Firstly, I skipped the candied orange peel. We didn't need more sugar. Secondly, I could not find strawberry sherbet, and I feared raspberry would be too sour. So I bought strawberry ice cream (although I forgot to serve it!)


The chicken dish was quite tasty - chopped chicken, from a roast I made that afternoon, in a cream sauce. My husband said it was a little bland. It was served on toast. The rolls were delicious and easy enough to make. This made pull apart rolls, which I didnt expect! The Bettina Salad worried my husband. It's a bed of lettuce, with a slice of pineapple, half of a pear, salad dressing in the hollow of the pear, whipped cream on top, a maraschino cherry, two walnut halves and two marshmallows. Yeah. It surprisingly wasn't terrible! I ate the components separately, and the pear plus salad dressing plus whipped cream was quite tasty. The cheese crackers were also on the side of the salad. This was also the first time I'd ever made a boiled salad dressing. Annoyingly, I had to reduce the recipe by three quarters, as the original recipe called for 12 servings and I needed 3.


The cheese crackers were easy enough to make, but I dont think that making a cheese spread and baking SIX CRACKERS is really a worthwhile use of my time. Just sayin'.


The cake went well, and easily. Although I subbed in walnuts as I couldn't find hickory nuts. Oh, and the frosting was delightfully easy, unlike last time's kerfluffle.


Round up, cheese wafers aren't worth time, and Bettina Salad is odd and awkward to eat. But everything else is worthwhile.

January Dinner no. 2

Coked the second meal today (I know, it was supposed to be Tuesday, but I didn't get around to making chicken for leftovers yet). Prep for the actual meal, I roasted chicken breasts for early dinner yesterday (and made chicken dumpling soup for midnight snack, yum!). I thawed the second package of ground veal. Cooked down cranberries for jam. And while making cookies this afternoon, I also baked all of the sad little potatoes we had in the house (they needed a lot of spots cut off, poor potatoes!). And then I was ready for this evening!

Menu:
Chicken Loaf
Creamed Potatoes
Baking Soda Biscuits
Cranberry Jelly
Caramel Custard

I was nervous about this meal. Many of the components needed to be in the oven damn near close to the same times. But, I came home from work, cooked the veal, added sugar and jarred the cranberries, and picked the chicken carcass. Then I made the loaf. While the oven was heating, I made the custard. Put both in the oven at the same time. Made the biscuits. Made the potatoes. And because all of the steps were back to back, I was able to use one bowl and one saucepan, just rewashing after every step. And then bing bang boom, dinner was all ready, all at once. Magic!

Both my husband and I feel this was a very successful meal. Add in a vegetable, and you have a very solid and well portioned meal for two! This will be happening again. I do find it amusing how everything is beige. :)