Chicken A La Ollie Chicago Tribune 3/69
When Great Great Great Grandpa Hahn decided to pitch a tent on Lake Okauchee in 1903, he was camping, fishing, and hunting. Eventually he built a cabin, which is the footprint of the cottage that exists today. It really didn’t get much more fancy with the inclusion of a roof and four walls. The family still pumped water and used an outhouse. There was a potbelly stove for the heat as well. This was important; I found out in his obituary that my Great Great Great grandfather spent 7 months out of the year at the lake during his final years.
There are many items that remain from those early days at the lake. There were a few “camping spoons” and “camp forks” that my grandma used on a daily basis when she cooked or served. There is also still a chest of camping gear in the basement along with camping chairs from the turn of the century.
The reason these utensils are important to me is because I use one of those camping forks in my kitchen. I used it tonight on the chicken! When I looked them up, I realized they are actually Civil War era Union soldier issued 3 pronged forks and heavy spoons from mess kits and were most likely bought second hand and meant for cheap camping supplies in the early 1900s. For us, they were a pivotal tool in the kitchen. They worked so well on everything. The kitchen fork was so easy to pick up and flip meat. It was good for mixing spinach, cooking steak, checking if potatoes were done. These forks were the shit- so much that one of them was important enough to be included in my mothers Wedding Day present to me. She had to ask grandma pretty please- and grandma gave her one that was missing a tine. I’ve also included a picture of my mothers fork- which has all three tines (?!).
It’s early spring in California, and to us that means asparagus and artichokes. We got some of the first artichokes of the year to go along with this beautiful chicken dish. They were steamed for an hour and served with garlic butter before the chicken. As good as these softball sized beauties were, they couldn’t steal the show from Grandma’s chicken. It was VFG, so juicy and flavorful. And boy was there plenty for leftovers. It was perfect for a family of five I’m sure.
Chicken A La Ollie Chicago Tribune 3/69
1 frying chicken, cut up
3 tbsp Olive oil
1 tbsp each: poultry seasoning, parsley flakes
½ tsp each: oregano, seasoning salt, garlic salt, salt, sage, paprika, salt
¼ tsp Pepper
1 cup Dry Sherry
1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms
Cook chicken skin side up in olive oil in heavy fry pen until brown. Turn over and season with half of all seasonings. Cook for ten minutes, turn and season other side. Cook for ten minutes. Place in dutch oven. Pour ½ cup of wine into pan; scrape seasonings from bottom of pan. Pour over chicken. Add seasoning, sherry, and mushrooms. Simmer 45 minutes longer, covered.
