Week 23 – Platinum Jubilee

What a week of events. I have been glued to the television at the ungodly hour of 5:30am to watch the Trooping of the Colour and the Church Service at St. Paul’s in London. The big party on Saturday was not broadcast during the day but rather I found bits and pieces of it on YouTube in the evening. What I saw was spectacular. Our church is having a special Platinum Jubilee Evensong service followed by a “fit for a queen” high tea. We have had so much fun finding memorabilia and tea cups as wells as silver tea services and candles. The recipe at the end of this missive is for Coronation Chicken Salad which I made to serve at the tea along with cucumber and other wonderful sandwiches. We even have a few bottles of Pims to share (mixed with lemonade I am told).

Anniversary

June 5th is my parents anniversary. They would have celebrated 74 years this year. In the corner of this picture is a picture of them on their wedding day in 1948. Beautiful and handsome and from the looks of it, very much in love. It was four years ago on the 3rd of June that my mother died. I celebrated a sort of anniversary this week. It has been seven years since my heart attack. So far things seem to be fine. And it is my brother-in-law’s birthday too. A busy week of remembrances.

Walking in the Village

I set a record this week. One of my favorite walks is called “The Village Walk” which the dogs and I enjoy frequently. It always takes awhile to do the walk as I run into all kinds of people who are out and about and, of course, I have to stop and have a catch up. The walk is five miles round trip and usually would take about 1 1/2 hours to complete. Well, I made it last three hours this time. The number of people I ran into was very special and we had some great catch ups. When you haven’t been around for almost three years there is a lot to say. Then I decided after so much talking that I needed an iced decaf americano from our new wonderful local coffee and wine shop The Mercantile. The dogs were ready for a rest and so was I. Of course there were more folks there to catch up with which made it even more special.

Projects

In Canada we continue to repair and improve the outside furniture which took a beating over the last three winters 19/20, 20/21 and 21/22. John is pretty much finished with the repair and staining of the wood furniture and I started a project to repair and paint the bench that sits under the kitchen window. I scraped and sanded – even learned how to use an electric one which was a little intimidating – and then painted it. The painting was a disaster as the paint was really too old to use. I left it outside and it rained and the darn green paint just ran off the bench and onto the sheet and stained the porch. So I very unhappily had to get out the scrub brushes and the hose and wash the porch to get rid of the green. It worked thank goodness but I was pretty mad at myself. Now I have to sand it again and paint it with new paint -on the lawn!!!

Jenny Lane

I received a number of suggestions after asking for ideas for the front of Jenny Lane. This is one of my favorites so far. I tried to merge this photo with the one of Jenny Lane and Katie said it looked like Noah’s Ark had crash landed on the house. We all had a good laugh but I think we are getting closer to the right idea. Hopefully we will find someone who really knows how to draw an artists rendition of our idea. I’m not much of an artist myself.

Noah’s Ark?

Recipe

Coronation Chicken in individual serving cups

Coronation Chicken from thepetitecook.com

It’s a number of steps but absolutely delicious. Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
  • 2 tablespoon white onion (or 1 shallot) finely chopped
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 2 teaspoon mild curry powder
  • 1 teaspoon double-concentrated tomato paste
  • 60 ml red wine
  • 60 ml water
  • 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
  • 1/4 teaspoon brown sugar
  • 200 g mayonnaise
  • 125 g creme fraiche (or unsweetened whipped cream)
  • 1 tablespoon dried apricots finely chopped
  • 2 large skinless chicken breasts (600 g or 6 cups) cooked and shredded or cut into chunks
  • salt & pepper to taste
  • 3 tablespoon toasted almond flakes (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS

  • Heat the extra-virgin olive oil in a large frying pan over medium-low heat.
  • Add in the onion, bay leaf and curry powder and gently cook for 2 minutes.
  • Add in the tomato paste, red wine and water and bring to a gentle boil.
  • Add in the lemon juice and a pinch of sugar, then season with salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste.
  • Simmer for 2 minutes, until the sauce is slightly reduced, then remove from the heat. Strain the sauce through a fine sieve and allow it to cool.
  • In a large bowl mix together the prepared sauce with the mayonnaise, creme fraiche and finely chopped apricots.
  • Add in the cooked chicken breast, and mix gently all the ingredients together. Finally, add in toasted almond flakes if you using.
  • Serve the coronation chicken with a salad, rice or as a filling for jacket potatoes and sandwich

The Finale

I will never forget this day or this weekend. Our service of Celebration of the Queen’s 70th (Platinum Jubilee) was just wonderful. As our celebrant said, we will never see this again in our lifetime and maybe ever. I feel so blessed to have been a small part of the celebration. The coverage on-line was spectacular. What a weekend, what a day.