Adventures Outside of My Comfort                          Zone!

                                                     

Looks beautiful, right?  Well, actually, it is.  Lawns and gardens are manicured daily, as is the golf course that surrounds the 3 buildings.  Tennis courts are kept in perfect repair and the pools and adjacent areas are clean and sparking, for both the indoor and outdoor pools .  Inside, doormen, concierges and a huge maintainence staff offer assistace with one's every need.  Security is maintained by an army of people who have a rule for everything and make sure they are adhered to.  Beneath this complex of over 1,800 apartments is an arcade with a country club dining room, a restaurant, full size movie theater, library, dry cleaner,beauty shop, spa, clothing store, pharmacy and two food markets!! What more could you ask for?  Well, I guess I would start with...a little privacy!

But let me start from the beginning...we have owned an apartment here since my mother-in-law moved up from North Carolina.  When she passed away we rented it to a lovely young couple and we continued to live in the Manhattan that I so love...and then the couple called to tell us that the wife was expecting a baby and they had purchased a house!  At this point, the lease on the place where we lived was up and my husband suggested we move into the apartment.

OK...what I did not previously mention is that this complex is NOT in Manhattan, but a 25 minute drive to the border of Queens and the North Shore of Long Island!! It was like giving up my citizenship! 

Now a 15x28 living room is nothing to sneeze at, nor is a 14x18 bedroom...2 baths, kitchen and second bedroom (den)...BUT it comes with a penalty...most of the people who live here moved from suburbs where they were close with their neighbors and were often privy to each other's business...many others are Snow Birds and go to Florida's condo complexes for the winter, where they again are in each other's business all day long.  Canasta and mah-jongg, bridge and gin rummy all day, after golf/tennis/swimming. That is the mentality that prevails here.  And, while there is actually no age requirements for purchasing an apartment here, I would say that the population is mostly over sixty and many are quite a bit older...and infirm...with scooters, wheelchairs and walkers making up a large part of the transport around here.  There are indeed several families with children, but for the most part it is the "golden oldies", with their opinions, attitudes and self-invovement that you run into most frequently.

All of the years I was in Manhattan I greeted my neighbors cordially, said a few words and that was that.  "Hello, how are you?"..."Please hold the elevator"...

"May I help you with that...?"  Now we move in here and almost immediately I am confronted with "A Situation"!!  

After days of unpacking, guiding painters and upholsterers, moving men, cleaners and window treatment installers, it was time to stop eating out or ordering in...it was time to go food shopping!  Off we went with a shopping list as long as my arm, and when we returned home the doorman filled two big carts with our purchases.  My husband brought the car to the underground garage and I brought the carts upstairs.  I left one cart in the hallway and propped the door open with the other while I took my coat off.  Suddenly I heard footsteps in the foyer of my apartment and stepped out to see a woman stand ing in my apartment looking around!!!  "Ya painted the foyer RED", she shrieked..."Gaw-jisss..I nevah would think to do that!  Ya had a decorator, right?"  I was too dumbstruck to answer...to tell her that interior design was my business for over forty years...all I could think was, SHE IS IN MY APARTMENT AND I DON'T KNOW WHO SHE IS!!!!  Undaunted, she continued her appraisal. She walked into the living room and looked at everything, remarking on the colors, style and size of my furniture.  "She did a good job, your decorator..."   I was about to speak when she made her way into my bedroom..."Gaw-jisss...ya see...a puffesional knows culla (culla = color for those of you who don't speak Lawngyland) and style...ahhh...I shudlda used a decorator..."  and just like that, she was gone!  And this was just the beginning ...

Another time I rode down in the elevator with a woman I had never seen before, she smiled and asked if the man in the black SUV was my "Gentleman-friend"... "He comes from far away?  I see him pick you up all the time...he must be crazy about you"  I smiled inwardly, knowing I was placing valuable ammunition in a dangerous place mouth..."Yes, he is a lovely man."  I replied, and scooted into the car next to my husband, as the smirking doorman "got it" and winked at me.  

The elevator has been a place where many such encounters took place...there was the time, before a holiday, when I got into the elevator with an overflowing shopping cart, filled with food to be prepared for a huge family dinner. Two women stepped in behind me.  No sooner had the door closed, than one asked why I shopped at Fairway rather than at Pathmark...The other busied herself taking items from the bags and asking why I got this brand when another was cheaper!  She removed a BRISKET from one bag and asked how I prepared it!!! Before I could manage to get a word out of my mouth I reached my floor, retrieved my groceries and watched the door close on the two busybodies!  

So while we are surrounded by all of this comfort and luxury, I am miles outside of my comfort zone.  I cherish my privacy and unless you are very close to me, or need to know, I will impart only what you need to know.  Living here has given me enough material for a stand-up routine, so from time to time I will impart my adventures outside of my comfort zone!

I love to cook recipes with strong, delicious aromas...just knowing that he wonderful scent of fried onions and the combinations of ingredients as they roast...neighbors can smell the deliciousness!!  One such recipe is as follows...

                                      

                                                               

 CHICKEN CHERRIES JUBILEE

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken cut in eighths or 4 breasts split

3 eggs beaten with 2 tbsp. sherry
3/4 cup breadcrumbs mixed with 1/4 cup flour and 
extra seasoning...salt/pepper

1 large onion minced and saute`ed (or 3 shallots)

garlic powder to taste

2 cans beef broth (w/gelatin if you can find it)

sherry

Dip breasts in flour/crumb mixture then egg mixture then back into flour/crumbs.

Place skin side up in Pammed baking pan.

Take leftover eggs and mix with leftover crumb/flour mixture(You can add sautéed shallots and mushrooms to this mixture). If it is too dry add a beaten egg...too musht add breadcrumbs)

. Place a golfball size ball of the mixture under each piece of chicken.

Pour 2 cans of beef broth with 2/3 can sherry into a measuring cup and mix.

Pour 1/2 of the liquid over chicken and bake at 350 degrees for 1/2 hour.

Baste with balance of broth mixture and bake additional 1/2 hour.

Serve over rice with Jubilee Sauce

Jubilee sauce:

1 large can cherry pie filling

3/4 cup sherry

Put ingredients into saucepan and simmer.

Place chicken onto a bed of white or brown rice and spoon Jubilee Sauce over all.

...and hope that the aroma is permeating all the apartments around me...