Chicken Newburg

My picture is not very pretty, because everyone was starving and wanted their food instantly! So this is what's left after everyone ate their fill.....

Paging through a cookbook, looking for interesting, warm food to cook on a 54 degree August day, I found a recipe for Chicken Newburg. I love Lobster Newburg, and thought this would be just the thing. Except for 2 small problems: I never have leftover cooked meat for longer than "until lunch", and the recipe calls for "half & half", which I superstitiously avoid, since I think it's the same marvelous substance on restaurant tables for people to put in their coffee. So, here's my adaptation of Chicken Newburg, sinfully delicious:

CHICKEN NEWBURG

3-1/2 pounds chicken
4 tbsp butter
2 tbsp cornstarch
2 cups cream
1 cup water
4 egg yolks
1/2 cup sherry
1 pound mushrooms
cooked rice

Cut the chicken into thin strips. Saute in butter and transfer to serving dish when no longer pink. Hold in 400 degree oven while making the sauce (It took me 4 batches to accomplish this). Whisk cornstarch into chicken pan, and whisk out the lumps. Add cream and water, and cook until it starts to thicken. Whisk together egg yolks and sherry, and stir into the sauce; stir vigorously until combined. Add mushrooms (fresh or canned) and cook until mushrooms are hot. Pour over the chicken, and serve with white rice or plain noodles.

Note that I consider this a "small" recipe, because I'm "only" feeding 8 people (3 of my largest sons are off at college/life). When you're used to feeding11 people, 5 of whom are very large men, 6 foot to 6'5", and over 200 lbs, feeding 8 is a breeze!

I also served Babylonian Bread with this. It's a recipe from Calvert School's 4th grade curriculum, which I adapted so it could be mixed in the bread machine (the greatest mixer ever)

BABYLONIAN BREAD

1-1/2 cups warm water
1/4 cup butter
2 cups wheat flour
2 cups white flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1-1/2 tsp salt
3 tsp yeast

Soften yeast in water (use 6 tsp instead of 3 tsp yeast to finish this bread in under an hour). Add all other ingredients. Mix for about 15 min in bread maker (I use the "pasta cycle" to knead it), then remove from the bread machine, split into 2 loaf pans, let rise and bake for 25 minutes at 350. The kids eat this happily, because they don't know that wheat bread from the store tastes like cardboard. My 11 year old says this bread makes the best peanut butter sandwiches ever!