A role-reversed Valentine's Day (featuring chicken divan)

Sharon went off to work on BART and then came home to build furniture. Our move from DC went off pretty well, but we had to rebuy a TV stand that got busted in the process. The second pic is the result of me asking Sharon to "show me your manly muscles."

Meanwhile, I stayed home (working remotely for a bit to close out my old job), did the dishes, and continued my fledgling cooking spree, opting tonight for my step-mom Pam's famous chicken divan. The melted cheesy goodness mixed with the croutons (second crouton reference in as many posts!) really does it for me.

I thought I had never made it before and even asked Pam for the recipe recently, but I dug up an email from her from 2009 in which she had already sent it to me. I had replied back that I had made it and "felt like I used every dish in the house." Maybe I'm getting better at cooking, because it didn't seem as overwhelming this time. Since I had no memory of making this before, it spurred me even more toward writing some of these things down. Despite a small to non-existent audience, it gives me sort of accountability to keep trying.

Tomorrow, it's off to San Diego for a week to see my family before starting my new gig in San Jose. I have arranged for more cooking to follow.

Recipe: CHICKEN DIVAN

Put into glass Pyrex dish first to last:

20 oz cooked broccoli (fresh or frozen)
2 cups cooked cubed chicken (can buy it in a bag all ready to go, or cook raw chicken breast or tenders by boiling them until cooked through)

Mix:  2 cans cream of chicken soup
        1 cup mayonnaise
        1 tsp. lemon juice
        1/2 tsp. curry powder

Pour over broccoli and chicken. Sprinkle cheddar cheese over the top. Take 1/2 cup croutons (whatever flavor you like) and mix with 1 tsp. melted butter.
Sprinkle on top. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes, watch for the sauce to start boiling. Serve and enjoy!

In which Greg cooks

Hey! I hope you've been keeping in touch via other means, since it's been nearly 3 years since I've posted here. We've since moved to San Francisco, gotten new jobs, and all that jazz.

Anywho, every 6 months or so, I decide that I'm going to become a better cook. Our typical routine has been pan-fry some sort of meat, make frozen vegetables or spinach, and prepare some rice. And I know even that's ambitious compared to other people our age. But now I'm going to try some actual recipes. Who knows how long this will last? Maybe another 3 years will go by before my next post, but hopefully this will be more of a regular thing. I'm mostly writing for selfish reasons, so that I can remember things that I've cooked.

A week ago, I decided I wanted to make a killer salad. I was always a big fan of the salad bar at my work cafeteria. This was the first time I went and bought 10+ ingredients for the specific purpose of tossing a salad. I just picked a lot of my favorite things: chicken, feta, croutons, green onions, olives, walnuts, etc. It's amazing how satisfying just mixing these things in a bowl can be.

Tonight, we've used a recipe for a book given to us by Sharon's friend Yesenia, who works at Chronicle Books. I made sauteed pork chops with sweet potato and apples from the book One Pan, Two Plates. I learned a few things:

• I should have made all four pork chops instead of just the two the recipe called for, mainly because I am a fatty.
• A little bit of cinnamon goes a long way. You can taste it in every bite despite only having 1/4-tsp in the recipe.
• Sharon will make a grossed-out face any time mustard is involved. So that just means more for me.