or Some Darn Good Chicken Salad
So I have this “Bucket List of Cooking,” if you will – dishes I want to prepare before I die. It may be better known as a list of dishes which seem intimidating to me, but either way, it exists. Now, I have not actually taken the time to write down this list, and if I did, you would probably laugh at it, because I can assure you it is not comprised of a lot of complicated things, just foods which seem complicated in my mind. One of these dishes is chicken salad. I think one reason I am afraid to make chicken salad is because there are like three bajillion ways to make chicken salad, and I get overwhelmed by that large of an imaginary number. I have never been one to claim to have a seasoned palate, so even though I know what kind of chicken salad tastes good to me, I don’t believe I have the ability to discern what goes into that chicken salad. So I just sort of gave up.
Until this past weekend.
My dear friend Chelsea, whom I was blessed enough to meet my freshman year of college, has a great blog which you all should check out. She also has an Etsy shop which is worth your time, particularly if you are clothing small children. She is close to finishing up a year far from home in New Orleans, Louisiana, and is using this time to really pursue her hobby of sewing, and, apparently, cooking. Last week she posted a recipe for chicken salad which sounded amazing, but I was scared. I wanted to somehow eat this chicken salad without actually having to cook it myself. Since I didn’t have the ability to hop in the good old Toyota Corolla and drive down to NOLA, I was left with only one other option: face my fears and make the darn stuff.
And I did.
And you guys, it’s AMAZING.
So go make some yourself.
If I were Katie Ett or somebody I would start a THIRD blog and solely devote it to crossing items off my Cooking Bucket List (a la Julie and Julia), but for now I’m just going to enjoy my amazing chicken salad and leave the blog a pipe dream.
I love chicken salad. I’ll have to give it a try.
If and when you do make the drive to NOLA, Shreveport is on the way. Come see me!
1) I was like, “Where is the post about hanging out with me, and why is Noel talking about this dumb girl instead?”
a) And then I saw where you mentioned me at the end.
b) And then I read Chelsea’s blog and realized that she’s not dumb and that that is the most intimidating recipe ever and that I can’t believe you actually made that.
c) Also, you know I was in Julie and Julia, right? Just checking. It’s been a while since I bragged about it.
2) I didn’t really need to number this, because there’s only one thought here.
I did mention you, but I guess more appropriate would have been to actually LINK to your three or four or ten blogs or whatever the number is now. And I had no idea you were in Julie and Julia! Do give more details, please!
Oh, good, so I was right to brag about it. Well, so, I was randomly looking through jobs on craigslist and saw one where a movie was looking for “European-looking women with short hair”. And I was like, “Well, this is the one and only time where having short hair is a desirable thing, so . . .” I sent them a picture, they called me right back, I went to the casting agency to have more pictures taken, and they made me an extra in the movie with a costume and hair and makeup and everything (my subsequent part in “Lipstick Jungle” just had me showing up in my own clothes and doing my own hair and makeup). It was mostly just sitting around with the other actors all day waiting, but we eventually got called in for this embassy party scene where we had to pretend to chat and smoke and laugh while the camera went by us. I was RIGHT by the camera and would have been the star of the scene had they not CUT IT. Instead, you just see the back of me as I walk past Julia and her two friends (one of which I accidentally hit in the shoulder). If you ever watch the movie again, look for me right after Julia’s in the bathroom and meets the two women she’ll eventually write her cookbook with for the first time. When they exit the bathroom and walk into the party, I walk out of the room to the left of them. MOVIE STAR!!!
No, but even if you just see seconds of me, I had an awesome time, and Meryl Streep was so funny and charming on the set, and I loved seeing what goes on behind the scenes of a movie. I’d actually love to be an extra full-time but am a little bit spoiled by my salary and the comfort of sitting at a computer all day.