What is it about a simple chicken salad sandwich that brings back happy memories? Okay in this case my memory was helped along by a visit from a dear friend from down South in Victoria. Diana was on the Sunshine Coast on holiday with her husband this weekend and visiting friends in the area.
Diana is very attractive and is one of those people who can wear one of those slinky beaded dresses you see in the fancy magazines. I’ve always been envious about that. She and her hubs are beautiful people but they’re beautiful inside too.
Paul’s twice as tall as I am and travels around competing in Iron Man events. They share a special dog child that is the apple of all four of their eyes and as soon as they arrived, our Charlie knew they were “dog people.” Their dog’s name is Toby and I have fond memories of when Diana took this furbaby to her heart ten years ago.
He walks with mum in the morning, goes to work with dad all day and sometimes he gets to ride behind dad when he trains on his bicycle. He likes this a lot. At the moment poor Toby has tonsillitis and he’s staying with Nana back in Victoria where I suspect he’s getting (more) spoilt.
I made Ina Gartens apple crisp and I’d share it with you but frankly, I didn’t like it. It was like eating a mouthful of dust for me. I’ll keep looking for a recipe I like better. I won’t share a recipe that looks good but tastes rather crap.
Anyway, after Diana left I was thinking about how we met her and it’s a lovely memory for us. A week or so before the end of the year 2000 I was at our local bank doing business and the manager came out and said, “Maureen, what are you two doing for New Year’s Eve?”
I told him we were headed for our boat on the Hawkesbury River and John would be driving it down to Sydney to watch what were advertised as being the best fireworks in the world that year. As you can see in the photo, I did the important, heavy work on that journey.
The bank guy said he was headed to Sydney too and would watch the fireworks from his brother’s place. As you do, I laughed and said, “Well, if your brother gets boring, give me a ring on my mobile and join us on the boat.”
Did you instantly think he thought that was a good idea? Yep. He called the next day and said thanks for the invitation and he was bringing a friend with him to Sydney and they’d love to watch the fireworks from the boat and could we pick them up from the Taronga Wharf. (that’s where the Sydney zoo is) John said, “You said what to him??” and then we both laughed.
We were anchored just off the Taronga Zoo which is opposite the Sydney Opera House and looking down toward the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It was a perfect location. When you have a boat in a situation like this, there’s no, “Let’s pull up the anchor and motor over to the pier,” because boats were everywhere and if you gave up your spot, someone else would take it. Our boat wasn’t huge but a 40′ boat needs a lot room to swing around in the wind – and it was windy that night.
John left in the little tender to pick them up and the bank manager was wearing a suit and Diana was in heels. (They were expecting a boat more flash than hours, I’m sure.) Because of the wind, the water was very choppy and both of them were quite wet from splash when they got to the boat. Neither was one bit concerned – just happy to be with all the happy people.
Also with us that night was my brother Jim and a friend from California and John’s sister from Melbourne plus his teenaged son and a friend. The kids were sleeping up on the flybridge but we had all cabins full below before these two arrived.
As I was in the galley getting the food ready, Diana asked if she could help. I told her I wasn’t putting on too much of a spread because the boat was rocking a lot and mostly I wanted to be a part of the fun. “I’m just making chicken salad sandwiches and salads and potato chips,” I said. We had plenty to nibble on and lots of beer, wine and cocktails too.
“I’m a vegetarian,” Diana said softly, “I don’t eat anything that has a face.” Of course I asked myself if a chicken has a face and yes, yes it does.
Back in Maine, hot dog rolls are sliced down the sides so they can be buttered and toasted for hot dogs, lobster or crab rolls – and that’s how I like them. We can’t buy them like that anywhere but Maine and a few parts of New England but I slice the sides off the ones I buy and bob’s my uncle.
We found enough food in the fridge to keep Diana fed and the first fireworks began before 9pm. Spectacular in every sense of the word. The fireworks were gorgeous, the people in the other boats were happy and friendly and the whole evening couldn’t have been better. The bridge was lit up, the Sydney Opera House was lit up and by the end of the night most everyone on our boat was lit up. When the midnight fireworks went off, everyone on the water was feeling no pain. One boat next to us ran a blow up doll up the main mast, another boat had hula dancers and our boat? We were just having fun.
After the fireworks ended, John said, “Maureen, I don’t think I can get them back to Taronga pier without nearly drowning them, it’s that rough.” (he also couldn’t drive even a dinghy after drinking) So a bit of moving things around, finding things to sleep in – they spent the night with us.
Diana was working as a travel agent back then and we said we’d try using her to book our trips and she was so good – we hired her and she worked for us for years. I remember once we were traveling to Canada and on the way one of the flights had been cancelled and when we got off the plane Di called and told us the next flight was cancelled. “I’ve rebooked you and you’ll leave in 15 minutes instead of 25, get your running shoes on.” This woman is so organized she could keep the President or the Prime Minister on track.
Do you have any old friends you met in a funny situation that you’d love to catch up with again? I have a few but I can cross one off my list and look forward to seeing her again soon.
- 2 cups cooked chicken
- 1 stalk celery finely chopped
- 1 red onion finely chopped
- ⅓ cup walnuts chopped
- 1 apple peeled and chopped
- 2 tbsp cup parsley, chopped
- ⅓ cup mayonnaise (or to taste)
- 1 tsp fresh lemon juice
- 1 package hotdog buns
- Place chicken into the bowl of a mixer with a flat blade and run on slow until the chicken is shredded.
- Chop apple and toss with lemon juice.
- Chop celery and onion, walnuts and 1 tbsp parsley
- Add apple, parsley, celery, walnuts and onion to the chicken
- Mix in mayonnaise.
- Slice sides off buns, butter and toast until golden.
- Fill with chicken salad mixture and sprinkle a bit of chopped parsley on top.
Really fun post to read. Great story about your friends, and I’ll bet watching the fireworks from your boat was amazing. I like the idea of using walnuts in chicken salad, too. I’m pretty happy with my recipe, but it could use some kicking up – I’ll give that a try.
What a fun memory and an incredible fireworks show! There’s nothing better than good friends that you can easily reconnect with, no matter how much time has passed. I love chicken salad, these rolls would make a tasty lunch!
Aw, Maureen such sweet memories and your friend is gorgeous. The boat the firework, oh what fun. Wish I was there on that boat..
The sandwich with walnuts, yummmm.
I have way too many friends I rarely see, and way too many family members in the same situation… it’s the price one pays for leaving the home country, but I am not bitter about it, it’s just a fact of life. Makes meeting them a lot of fun, just like your time with your friends
(Diana is wearing a gorgeous dress, by the way… )
I know just how you feel. When I head back to the states I plan my journey to stop at as many places as I can. I agree about the dress 🙂
Beautiful chicken salad. I can eat it anytime of the day.
So many wonderful memories and great people, animals, and food in this wonderful story I don’t know where to begin. What a great way to watch the fireworks: Close up, with great food, and even greater friends. Times and memories do not get any better than this.
And you told it all so wonderfully I felt like I was on teh boat with you. I could even feel the rocking of the boat.
Chicken salad looks fantastic. I just finished lunch and am stuffed, but wanted to dive right in that salad.
You’ve made me so long to be out in that harbor- preferably with fireworks, but either way will work!
Gorgeous pictures, Maureen! And the chicken salad sandwich is making me hungry! You are so lucky that I live far, far away from you. 🙂
What a lovely story about your friends. You’re right Diana can certainly pull off the beaded dress. The fireworks from the boat must have been spectacular. GG
My heart would have plummeted at hearing that she was vegetarian but you managed wonderfully as always. It sounds like your a very hospitable couple welcoming new arrivals whatever the circumstances. Diana does look gorgeous in that dress, I must say.
Wonderful sandwich roll. I’ve never had such a variety of ingredients in the ones I’ve made … mayo, celery, chicken and salt and pepper are about it for me. Even my crab roll was pretty simple though I’m hoping to go all out for a future lobster roll by making my own mayonnaise. 🙂
What a great story, Maureen… love the chicken roll, yum! And how about those photos on the harbour!
What an amazing and dependable woman! She’s definitely the person I’d like to have organizing my travel itinerary. 🙂
What a wonderful story Maureen! I don’t really although my friends that I’ve met in normal situations think it’s pretty weird that I’ve made so many friends over the internet!
Thanks for a wonderful story! Sometimes we become friends naturally without trying hard on an interesting circumstance. The fireworks from the boat looks fantastic – so beautiful!! Simple chicken salad sandwich roll look delicious!
Lovely sandwich filling indeed, so full of flavour- but I’ve never got the potato chip with a sandwich thing. Probably just as well as I certainly don’t need any extra calories 🙂
G’day Maureen!
LOVED your post today, true!
PERFECTLY timed 🙂 and yes, can I share a couple of stories re meeting friends too! lol
Your chicken salad is now on the list to do!
As it brings back MANY wonderful childhood memories and am needing some comfort foods today too! Thank you!
Cheers! Joanne
[laughing] Oh sugar: one of the most delightful stories you have written as far as I am concerned: well, if you have BEEN there, you can feel every step! Have sailed on Sydney Harbour hundreds of times: more often in 36’ers! But as we lived D Point and in-laws at the point of E Bay, we did not have to worry about cooking on rocking boats or how many times the glass was refilled 😉 ! Thanks for the memory, as the song says!!!
I love your stories your stories Maureen! This is up there with one of your best!
Your friend is a gorgeous advert for turning vegetarian – but I live with a man who says he has to eat something with a pulse every day (of the dead chicken/beef/pork/fish kind I hasten to add!) Whenever I go back to the UK I always go to M&S and get their chicken salad sandwich on granary – you just can’t beat a good sandwich can you.
Great read Maureen. Isn’t it funny how certain people are sometimes just destined to become part of our lives, and how others fall away? Having lived in so many places growing up, there are so many people I’d love to catch up with – Facebook gets you half-way there, but there’s nothing like reminiscing face-to-face with a glass of wine… or three 🙂
That sounds like the best NYE ever. NYE can often end up being such a disappointment. I think you were so right to make a simple supper. What you prepared was perfect boat fare. How you managed to sleep everyone on board after the fireworks is a mystery but yes, so much better to enjoy a few drinks than have to ferry everyone home xx
I love this story! It made me chuckle in a few spots. Always good to reunite with old friends, and talk about the ol’ days and make new memories. Hey BTW I would trade all the US blogging conferences and then some for a chance to see those fireworks in real life…Oh my goodness! I love fireworks…no one else in my family get me, but I love them! That picture is amazing!
First of all Maureen, chicken salad is my favorite sandwich of all so you got my full attention just with the title of your post – lol. I also loved your story. I think we are all a tad bit afraid to reach out to people we don’t know very well but your story proves that is how good friendships start.
Maureen, there are blog posts and there are thoroughly engaging stories — this was one of the latter, including your story & memories about hot dog buns. (Will try your “sliced sides” method — the prospect of that chicken salad on a toasted bun sounds marvelous!) Thanks for a great read and nice to “meet” your friends. I have a feeling they feel the same way about you! Gorgeous fireworks shot, too… what a night.
awww thanks
chicken salad has and will always be my favorite type of sandwich in the world. I don’t want it over lettuce I want it with a nice toasty bun and this looks divine! DIVINE!
This post reminded me of the 4th of July firework that we saw from a boat…lots of fun!
The chicken salad sandwich roll looks perfect for the weather that you are having now…yum!
Hope you are having a wonderful week Maureen 😀
Hehe I think some friendships start off oddly but then endure. I know that if someone doesn’t appreciate the odd adventure then I’m probably not going to be great friends with them 🙂 BTW chicken sandwiches are my comfort food!
I stayed on the boat all day warning people that they couldn’t park 2 feet away because we’d swing in the wind and knock ’em over, so I had plenty of time to cook the chicken and make the salad while John took the tourists to the wharf and then a ferry ride and then a tour of Sydney all day. It was easy to toast the rolls on the bbq and eat out on the deck. I like chicken salad too. All the last bits of the chicken go in a salad and the frame goes in the crab pot. Nothing wasted when we have chicken!
Oh I wonder did my comment upload? I think it’s lost 🙁
I have no idea why some comments go through just fine and some get caught. Yours always go through but I found one today in spam. All is good!
What a fun night to remember…new friends, family, food, spirits, and amazing fireworks! And you were the hostess with the mostest…and you’ve also given me a chicken salad craving 🙂
It most definitely wasn’t a foodie night. That was on the huge multi-million dollar yacht next to us. They hired water taxies to bring load after load of seafood for the celebrity chef they had on board. When we swung together they sent over cocktails and food to my brother saying, “Don’t drink that Victorian beer – have the good stuff from South Australia!” 🙂
That picture of the fireworks is just exquisite. It takes me back to my last night in Australia, which was in Sydney. My hotel overlooked the Opera House, and there was an amazing display of fireworks that night. This brought back some great memories! The chicken salad looks great. I had to laugh about a chicken having a face! 😉 And, I agree with you on Ina Garten’s apple crisp recipe.
Yay, I’m not the only one who thought that apple crisp was crap. I figured I was on solid ground making that for company. That’ll teach me to think.
Talk about a love a first site story. 🙂 Don’t you just love it when that happens. Great story Maureen. Your chicken salad is very similar to mine, but I’ve never served it in a hotdog bun. What a great idea!
In Maine, lots of sandwiches are served in rolls like this. I was going back home with this one. 🙂
Sounds like a memorable new years eve indeed – and you scored new friends out of it. What a win! I remember that new years eve because just 10 minutes before midnight my daughter walked into a plate glass door. She didn’t break it (or her nose) but we spent the next 1/2 hour stemming her blood nose and comforting her. A memorable night for us too!
Your poor daughter! It wasn’t any special day but the time before last when my sister visited she tried to go through a glass door. I can laugh now but at the moment I was sure she was dead. Out cold.
I laughed when I read “I don’t eat anything that has a face.” That is exactly what I say to people when I have to explain how vegetarian I am (yes, I get asked that all the time as it seems a lot of people think vegetarians eat chicken and fish).
Thanks for sharing this lovely story. I don’t really have any funny stories about how I met my friends, except for my best friend, who I met online, and the first time we met she got us lost in the middle of Sydney CBD as she has absolutely no sense of direction. We walked up and down the same street several times and in the end, exhausted we found somewhere for a drink and had a laugh about it. We’ve been best friends since.
I laughed when I read “I don’t eat anything that has a face.” That is exactly what I say to people when I have to explain how vegetarian I am (yes, I get asked that all the time as it seems a lot of people think vegetarians eat chicken and fish).
Thanks for sharing this lovely story. I don’t really have any funny stories about how I met my friends, except for my best friend, who I met online, and the first time we met she got us lost in the middle of Sydney CBD as she has absolutely no sense of direction. We walked up and down the same street several times and in the end, exhausted we found somewhere for a drink and had a laugh about it. We’ve been best friends since. 🙂
I love that story, Jennifer. I never really thought about chickens having a face. I know they have a personality. I still miss my chooks. 🙂
What a great story – and by the sounds of it, great friends! I think that’s the sort of mutual experience that would really cement a friendship 🙂
Loved reading this Maureen. Thanks for sharing a story about friendships and yassss, FOOD! Always good to be reminded to try and stay in contact with the ones close to your heart.
Thanks Adrian and so nice to see you again!
You have just taken something rather dull and made it spectacular!! this sandwhich is making me drool! Looks like you’re having fun and your friend is gorgeous – wish I could wear those dresses too!
Mary x
I don’t think it will ever happen for me, Mary. They’d have to cut all the good bits off the bottom so I wouldn’t trip over the dress and patch the sides to fit around me. 🙂
Let me start off by saying.. I LOVE THIS chicken salad. It looks absolutely amazing. I just found your blog and I absolutely love it. I can’t wait to explore more. Thank you for this recipe
Wow, thanks so much for the lovely comment and I appreciate the visit!
What a lovely experience with friends. Thanks for sharing, Maureen! These chicken salad sandwiches look absolutely delicious. Perfect for a day on the water!
Hi Georgia and thanks for coming by. I did have a lovely day.
Dear Maureen,
It is a great story and nice that you got to catch up with each other. It is a shame there are good intentions but so many times people just don’t keep up with one another.
Life seems to pass by quicker and quicker and doesn’t leave time for fun. It is up to oneself to make time for some peaceful and relaxing memories. I am so glad that you do.
I just love a good salad it makes a delicious dinner with a good cup of coffee to go with it.
Blessings dearest. Catherine xo
I love the title of this post! Simple –yay to simple! Love this chicken salad using hot dog buns! I can eat this all the time… delicious! 🙂
Beautiful chicken salad sandwich recipe along with some gorgeous photos and a sweet, cute, adorable, fun friend memoir. Total package 🙂
Thanks for making my day, Your highness.
LOL I never thought of myself as HIGHness because I’m barely 5′ tall 🙂
You always have the best stories 🙂 And this sandwich looks incredible! I’m getting hungry just looking at it.
Wonderful story Maureen, it’s great how such small accidents lead meeting friends for life, and it’s even better when you can stay in touch. I keep hoping to run into olds friends, but me and them being on different parts of Europe makes it a bit difficult.
Someday I am going to travel to Maine and get a real lobster roll… until then… I am going to sub the chicken for it… it looks amazing. 🙂 Your friend is indeed beautiful!! 🙂
Thanks, Ramona and when you eat that lobstah roll (you have to say it in Maine-speak), think of me. 🙂
I love the story – the suit and heels on a boat are hilarious but what a great spirit they had about it all. I will have to think about how I met friends. It could bring back interesting memories.
Your friend is really pretty Maureen 🙂 I know how disappointing it is to work on a recipe that looks great on paper but tastes crap in reality. I love this salad in a roll……bookmarking it, my boys will love it.
Great story Maureen!! Isn’t it always freaky when someone responds positively to an offhand invitation?
Love the way you shred the chicken!
Shredding the chicken that way wasn’t my idea but it’s genius.