Curry in a Hurry

Today was one of those ridiculously long days. We all have them - when you try to fit in too much in a short period of time.

I had to run into work for a couple hours today, which is always the least funnest thing to do on a Saturday. At least I got to sleep in a bit before my cold-nosed alarm clock decided I had slept long enough and there were bushes to sniff outside.

Since my office is right near Trader Joes, I used working as an excuse to get our weekly shopping trip out of the way. Have I mentioned I HATE shopping on Saturday afternoons? Seriously I swear that for some reason they send out a bulletin telling every one to show up at the grocery store at that time - which means the place is always a zoo.

I got home hot and already tired, but Thatboy and I had decided that today we'd run all our errands so we could just spend Sunday relaxing. So off we went to Babies R Us to pick up a couple last minute items, make some returns, and use our completion code. Can I just tell you how awesome their staff is? I probably could have just sat in a chair and had them shop for me. They were running all over the store helping us find things we couldn't find. Then they let us combine a bunch of coupons which weren't supposed to be combined. Then they applied "use on one item" coupons on multiple items. We scored - spent a little over $70 for $270 worth of merchandise.

Next was a Target run since Target is beside Babies R Us and neither are particularly close. There are so many fabulous things about where we live, but we are sorely lacking in Targets. And this one is being remodeled which makes it even less convenient. But we were able to grab a bunch of little things that we needed.

Next stop was Blockbuster to trade in some movies. Then came Bevmo to pick up some beer for Thatboy. He's been dying to try one of the newer San Diego Microbreweries - Iron Fist. And luckily Bevmo carries it. And can I tell you how good it smells? I was also excited to see Bevmo appears to be carrying my favorite beer - which is usually fairly difficult to find. Thatboy asked if I wanted to pick some up and I gave him a look. "More than ANYTHING. Thanks for rubbing it in." I got some Oogave Ginger Ale instead - Oogave is my vice of choice at the current moment.

By the time we finally made it home, it was after 6. I hadn't been really home, except to drop off groceries, since 9 something in the morning. And both of us had been fairly terrible about eating. I was a step ahead of Thatboy since I had a bagel for lunch and he had skittles. We needed dinner. And we needed dinner soon. And we were both (understandably) exhausted. (Thatboy had been surfing while I was working.) I'm a huge fan of curried chicken salad. It's one of my summer staples. But cold chicken salad is such a lunch item. Or picnic item. Or beach item. For dinner, I thought I could easily take the same basic idea, but warm it up. Instead of using greek yogurt, which I use as a binder in most of my cold salads, a white sauce would serve the same purpose and turn my cold chicken salad into a warm dinner entree. And would be a little more stick-to-your-ribs for those of use who had very little to eat throughout the day.

Warm Curried Chicken Salad
2 Tbsp butter
3 Tbsp flour
1 cup milk
1/3 cup heavy cream
2 tsp curry powder
1/4 cup raisins
1 1/2 cups chopped cooked chicken
2 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice
salt and pepper

1. Melt butter in saucepan and stir in the flour. Cook 2-3 minutes, stirring until a thick paste forms.
2. Slowly add the milk and cream and stir until it is thick and smooth.
3. Stir in curry powder, raisins, chicken, and lemon juice. Salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for 5 minutes.