It takes a Village...

I'm making chicken curry tonight.

The kind of curry a dear, sweet staff member from good, old FV taught me to make. A lady that shall remain nameless, as I firmly believe it's quite rude to name people on the internet without getting some form of permission first. The kind you could smell walking up the hill to the cafeteria, on those special Friday nights that another sweet lady had taken the night off, and you just knew that dinner was going to be something GREAT. The best nights were the nights she let us help make homemade egg rolls... vast quantities filled, rolled, and stacked high, crispy, light, and heavenly. I wish I could remember how she made them. The only thing I remember was finishing the filling with a light sprinkle of ground peanuts before tightly rolling into a log.

I credit the ladies at the Village with my love of cooking, and restaurant work in general. I love to play the hostess, love to set up dinners, hate to clean it all up.

So tonight's curry, much like the curry at the village, features whatever veggies I can find in my fridge, which would be some potato, carrot, green pepper, and peas. Gotta clean that baby out- nine days left till the big move!

My giant crock pot reminds me of the huge electric pot that sat next to the convection oven by the back door. Oh, the experiments I pulled off in that thing, and fed to my unsuspecting classmates.

Oh, well. Nobody died.

So here's what I did for my no-stove, tribute-to-high-school curry:
in the crock pot on high:

four chicken breasts

Mixed in bowl:
1 Can coconut milk
3 T Yellow Curry Powder
2 T flour
1 T paprika
1 T ginger (out of fresh, so I'm slumming)
1 t garlic (see above note)
splash of soy sauce

Pour over chicken, cook one hour.
Add long cooking veggies,
tonight we've got half a pound of baby cut carrots,
and three small red potatoes.

Cook one hour, add short cooking veggies,
tonight, it's a couple of bell peppers.

check chicken and veggies for doneness, stir in no cook veggies, if using,
tonight, it's a half a bag of thawed peas.

Serve over long grain rice...

Yes, it took a Village to teach me to cook. Although, I clearly remember this being made with bone-in thighs and drumsticks, and I'm sure I've changed the sauce over the years, the smell takes me back to the good dinners that sweet lady used to fix us.

Man, that was one great lady.