Chicken, Apples, and Cream - Normandy Style

I love Dorie Greenspan's Around My French Table. Recently, I took her Chicken, Apples, and Cream - Normandy Style recipe and changed it up a bit. According to her, cream and apples are a staple of Normandy. This dish really made me want to visit!

We usually buy whole chicken. It is less expensive than pre-cut chicken, and organic chicken is expensive enough!! I decided to bake the chicken and then finish the sauce. I was worried the liquid wouldn't be enough, so I increased it. I should not have done that. Next time, I will skip the broth all together and just use the juices from the baked chicken.

Here is my version:

flour
salt and pepper
whole chicken, cut into pieces
container of mushrooms, stemmed and sliced
one apple: cored, peeled, and cut into 1 inch pieces
2 T Calvados
1/3 C cream

Dredge the chicken pieces in the flour, salt, and pepper. Brown the chicken in a dutch oven, add the apple and mushrooms and then toss in a 350 degree oven until the chicken is cooked thoroughly. Remove the chicken pieces and start boiling the juices down on the stove. Add the Calvados and cream and reduce until thick.

This is a super tasty sauce, and it is great with something that soaks up that sauce. We used polenta.

Henry Shirt from "Sewing For Boys"

I have been really excited to sew from the book "Sewing for Boys". I previously used one of the patterns to make D's Christmas pj pants. I really like how the book's patterns include so many sizes. It feels like I can make his clothes until he goes to college! (Just kidding, little guy)

I found some awesome dinosaur fabric at fabric.com, and finally got to try the Henry shirt. I love this shirt's style in the contrasting fabrics and the large pockets on the side. Here is my finished product:

The sleeves and yoke of the shirt were all one piece. I had to really wrap my head around some of the instructions, and I found I could not sew from the middle of the back around the sleeves and to the collar all at once as instructed. I had to sew from the middle back out from the bottom of the sleeve in one go, then finish the rest of the sleeve to the collar in another.

I really like how so much of the pattern has the seams encased. I am so whiney about finishing seams. I do it, but I don't like it :P

I really didn't like the collar. Oddly, the fact that the under collar was smaller wasn't a problem for me. It stretched just like the authors said it would :) The collar and stand are all one piece, and it really flattens out. I think it is easier to make a collar stand up properly when there are two pieces. That said, it isn't so bad. Here is the collar close up:

Here is the shirt on my guy:

As you can see, it is a bit big on my lean fellow. This is as the authors intended and will work well here in Seattle. It can be brisk in the morning and warm in the afternoon in the summer, and in the autumn just cool enough to need layers. 

When I make this shirt again, I will probably use buttons and maybe add a button to each of the side pockets for fun. I might lengthen the shirt too. I wonder if cutting through the collar's interfacing will help make a collar that stands up better.