Raccoon Mountain, Chattanooga, Tennessee
And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky.” ~ Genesis 1:20
A blink of an eye. That’s how long it took us to get to our new destination today! Our departure time and our arrival time were exactly the same – 11:15am! How’s that possible?, you’re wondering. . .
Well, our travel time was an hour, and we changed time zones, that’s how! It turned out to be more than an hour though, because we had to stop to re-fuel. Those sixty miles were uneventful today. In fact, it was so uneventful, I only have a few pictures to share.
Today, it’s a bridge!
In hindsight, I can tell you we never got around to visiting it.
May have been interesting. But maybe not.
Especially since neither of us really care about socks – or hose. : )
Desoto State Park, Fort Payne, Alabama
Not much room, and you couldn’t really tell if anyone was coming around the corner!
The State Park is pretty nice, but we only have SD satellite here (not a big deal, it’s the way we all used to watch TV 😊), but the other, more important issue is, the internet service isn’t very strong. But at least it’s working!
Dinner tonight was a new recipe I’ve been wanting to try. Remember when we were in St. Louis and we visited the old train station? Remember that I took a picture of a Fred Harvey recipe he used to serve at his restaurants? It’s called Chicken Maicel. It turned out pretty good! The only issue we had was that there was way too much sauce for us. I thought the sauce recipe made only the 2 quarts required, but maybe it was more. Anyway, we agreed that we liked it enough to try it again with either more rice or half the sauce. Since it’s just the two of us, I’m sure I’ll go with less sauce. This meal ended up being, not three, but at least six servings! I also had to make two substitutions because I wasn’t going to buy sherry or curry just for one dish. I Googled what to substitute.
That’s slices of Swiss lying on top.
CHICKEN MACIEL (Fred Harvey)
1# chicken breast, cut in 1” squares
4 T. butter
2 t. curry powder (substitute w/combination of cumin, turmeric, ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, chili powder, garlic powder. I used ¼ t. each, except for the garlic, which was ½ t. because we like garlic)
¼ C. sherry wine (substitute with white wine)
1 qt. cream sauce (see below) After making this the first time, I’m thinking it makes more than 1 quart!)
2 C. cooked rice (2 cups cooked, not dry)
¾ C. swiss, grated
Prepare the cream sauce. While it’s simmering, prepare the rest of the recipe.
Start the rice.
Melt the butter in a pan, stir in the curry and wine. Add chicken and sauté 5 minutes. Using a 2 qt saucepan, heat 1 qt cream sauce.
Cream Sauce: (try just half of this and see how much there is.)
½ C. butter or chicken fat
½ C. flour
4 C. rich milk (3 C. milk, 1 C. chicken broth)
Salt and pepper to taste
In 2 qt. saucepan, melt butter over medium heat, then add flour and stir to make a light brown roux (2-3 minutes). Meanwhile, combine milk and broth in a separate pan and heat to boiling. Carefully pour into roux, stirring constantly with a whisk to prevent lumps. Reduce heat and simmer 30 minutes.
Carefully blend cooked rice and chicken into the sauce. Stir well. Place into three individual casserole dishes, or one 9 x 9 pan and top with cheese. Place under broiler until brown, or bake at 400⁰ until brown and bubbly (approx. 10-15 minutes).
Serves 3 (Well, that’s what the recipe says, but we got at least 6 servings out of this recipe!)
Tomorrow we’ll check out something in the Fort Payne area.