This is not a test. This is not a test.

Marty decided to make an Angel Food Cake last night.  His cakes are the best ever:  rich, light, sweet, airy, perfect.  And his icing, Seven Minute Boiled, to die for.  Usually.  We are not sure what happened.  Was it the older eggs, the weather, a bad night, was he too sober (we always drink wine while cooking, but none last night), were the gods jealous of his abilities?  There were problems throughout the process.

He has used this recipe for 43 years.  Never had a failure.  Not even a close call.

Triple sifting the cake flour.

                      Cake flour, confectionery sugar, eggs, vanilla, almond extract.

                     Separating the eggs.  For the first time ever, a yolk broke and he had to fish it all out.

Adding vanilla extract as the eggs begin to beat.     

            .

The eggs are almost at full volume.

He is adding the cake flour to the beaten egg whites.  They start to collaspe!

Quality control.  All tastes great.

The cake cooling.

The finished product.  It was shorter, some denser, light, and tasted great.  We won't even go into the icing.

Past Weddings

I am trying out the heading without all caps. ( Yes, Sue, this is all about you.  I never noticed I used caps until your blog.)  I don't think I like no caps.  It just doesn't look like an important title.  And goodness knows if I write it, it is important.  You all let me know, all caps or not.  I reserve the right for the final say.

I only did 2 weddings this week.  Monday I woke up with a case of the icks and didn't go in.  Wednesday was really slow.  And I can't even remember anything about the two weddings I performed other than one bride wore a yellow organdy dress that needed ironing.  So I am going to go back to my pre blog  time and share how I wound up marrying couples in Alameda County, CA and a couple of weddings.

I am a Volunteer Deputy Marriage Commissioner. Don’t you just love a good long job title? If they can’t pay me, at least they let me sound important. Three and a half years ago I read an article in the newspaper about Alameda County’s marriage desk. I read about the clerks marrying couples, how many ceremonies a day they did, and how the clerks were pulled from their basic job to perform wedding ceremonies. The point of the article was to get a volunteer staff to take over the weddings. I read this several times and then called for an appointment. I did the orientation, was sworn in, then had on the job training. I could hardly believe the state was going to let me marry couples.

The county building is in downtown Oakland, California across the Bay from San Francisco. The Bay Area is a very diverse area. People from all over the United States and the World live here. And they want to get married. We have Chinese, Mongolian, Vietnamese, Indian, Japanese, Scots, and Brits. There are people from Fiji, Tonga, Sweden, France, Ghana, Pakistan, Israel, South Africa, and any other country you can think of. Now the only reason I bring up the countries is because the couples' names are so difficult to pronounce. I  have trouble with every day American names. Remember I grew up in the mountains of Kentucky and we don't talk like the people in CA. I have a college degree, but names are my kryptonite.

Now to the weddings: The clerk brings me the completed license, I check everything on it, and do the bookkeeping paperwork. Then I go into the lobby and call out the names on the license, hoping I have not butchered the names too much. Think about names: Andrea could be Ahn-dray-uh or An-dree-ah. Or there was once AND-REE-A. Then we have Diem pronounced Dean. Fuapou which is Foe (rhymes with no) pow (rhymes with cow). I have sticky notes to write the names phonetically so during the ceremony I will say their names right. We go upstairs to the wedding room, I perform the wedding, the license is recorded and the couple goes on their way. Sounds simple doesn’t it? Sometimes things go strange.

 I picked up a couple and we went up to the wedding room. I found out if they had rings to exchange. Did they have their own vows? Is anyone going to stand with them? And then I began the ceremony. I had forgotten one little piece of business. I didn’t say please turn off your cell phones. As I was asking “Do you take this woman…” the Groom’s cell phone rang. And he answered it! I had to tell him to hang up. I thought the Bride was going to walk out.

Cell phones are more addictive than crack. Even when I ask people to put them on mute, they don’t. They keep talking and talking. Guests have talked all through the wedding like nothing was going on. I had a witness (witnesses must be in the room by law) walk out of the room to talk on his phone. I stopped the wedding and had to go find him.

I married one couple who were in their thirties. As I gave them the certified copy of the marriage license I explained some things they needed to do. She needed to contact Social Security and DMV to do a name change and the bride says to the groom, “What is your last name?”  Did they just meet on the street corner? Was it instant lust?

I told you, I have no endings. Only beginnings.

DID YOU NOT SEE ME???

As I have written before, driving to the county building is an adventure.  Well, driving anywhere is.  Wednesday as I drove to the county building I was tested to a breaking point.  I really wanted to drive a tank down Broadway and Webster and just go for the idiots.

1.  This is my lane.  Do not straddle the line and take your half in the middle.  IT IS MY LANE.  MOVE OVER.  That especially means you AC Transit.

2.  Yes, the pedestrian has the right away.  But I am already moving through the intersection in a big honking SUV.  Do not step out in front of me.  REPEAT, do not step out in front of me.  I take a little longer to stop than a person walking.

3.  You there, the idiot on the bicycle.  Ride on the road, follow the rules of the road.  Do not zip through your red light and cut in front of me.  I have very good insurance, I am really tempted not to stop for you.  Check out Darwin's theory survival of the fittest.  I will just be doing my job as a superior being.

4. I am glad you found a parking spot.  Do you have to slam it into reverse and back up 6 car lengths, without looking behind you?  The 10 cars behind you do not want to move into another lane.

5.  Hey pedestrians, do you see that the light is green for me and red for you?  That means you have to wait just as I was waiting before.  It is called rules of the road.  See survival of the fittest. 

6.  I can almost forgive UPS for double parking.  They are bigger than me, survival of the fittest rules.  But for the average driver to just stop and turn on hazard lights as he/she runs in to pick up something at a store. Hazard lights just give me a more defined target.

Yes, I have a low tolerance for idiots.  And I almost can understand road rage.  But I control myself.  If I hit them the paper work would be endless.  If I yell at them, that could be dangerous.  I live in Oakland.  Most people are packing.  So I vent here.

School is winding down, the students are wound up

There is less than a month of the school year left.  Teachers are working harder than ever trying to keep the children focused.  The children are trying to do anything except work.  It makes volunteering interesting.

Today Ms. H was preparing for tonight's end of the year open house.  In the Fall they have an open house to tell what they will do this year.  At the end of the year they have an open house to show what they have done.  She had piles of papers everywhere.  Some were of work from the first of school and some were of recent work.  Showing progress or lack of is very important in a school room.

I helped place work in folders and grocery bags for going home tonight and into folders to use for grading. She had examples of the first story they wrote in September glued next to a story written this week.  The comparison would blow you away.  Hand writing, spelling, neatness, complexity all had improved a hundred fold.

I read a story to the children.  They then wrote a character analysis of the lead character in the book.  I know, who knew first graders could do that.  They had four boxes, in each box they wrote a word describing the boy.  Then they wrote a sentence telling why they used that word.  They used words such as : lonely, bookworm, builder, creative, intelligent, smart, popular (things changed in the book), gardener, inventor.  I was very impressed.

For lunch we did something special.  Through hard work and good behavior, the children had earned a pizza party.  And were they ever wound up over it.  At one point the party almost was cancelled.  They were so excited and could not be still or quiet, we had to use the heavy threat.  (notice I used the word could, not would)  All rules were forgotten at one point.  But they regrouped and the party was on.  We sat at picnic tables outside the lunch room.  The choices were pepperoni and/or cheese pizza.  And in order to have another slice they had to eat three little carrots.  Some wouldn't eat the carrots and were surprised we refused them seconds.  Those carrots were soon gone! There was lots of yelling, laughing, just general childish things going on. 

I told the principal I think working is easier than the pizza party.

TESTING ANOTHER RECIPE

Friday night Marty and I tested another recipe. It was a low fat Beef Stroganoff. With that we had appetizers, and with the entree noodles, chipotle shrimp salad, stuffed tomatoes, and for dessert, creme brulee in an orange. We liked the stroganoff, but felt it should be creamier. It tasted good, just didn't look like the traditional stroganoff.

Below our pictures of the evening. I took 67 pictures, I have cut that down to 15+ pictures. Remember to click on the picture to see a larger view.

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Appetizer of pimento cheese, cream cheese with homemade jalapeno jelly and matzo bread.

Marty trimming the flank steak.

I gilled the portabellas.

II chopped the onions After I did this and the mushrooms I thought no one is taking pictures of me. When Marty preps I take lots of pictures. On well. I really did the prep.

Marty slicing the mushrooms

The flank steak all sliced and ready to be browned.

Mr. I Never Turn Off My Phone browning the meat.

I can never do this. Chef Marty flipping the meat as it browns.

Even Chef Marty must check the recipe.

Here he is starting the brulee.

Filling the oranges that have been cleaned out and marinated in Grand Marnier overnight.

They are cooked in a water bath.

While the creme brulee cooks, the sauce for the beef stroganoff cooks. Notice the aluminum foil to keep the stove top clean. It didn't work.

Ready to eat.

A different view.

Using the blow torch on the creme brulee.  ( Notice foil gone.  Still a dirty stove.)

Creme brulee in an orange.

SO MANY TYPES OF WEDDING PARTIES

This week I had many different types of wedding parties. I had the sweet couples, the bratty child, the complaining couple, the bossy bride, the incredible lovely "princess" flower girl, and the really eager to marry couples.

How eager to marry you ask? One couple the bride had received her divorce degree 9 days ago. Another bride's decree was 8 days old. If you just got out of a bad marriage, shouldn't you at least let the decree's ink dry before jumping into another marriage?

I checked a license and found a typo (that the couple had put in). So I took it back to the clerk to be corrected. Before I could walk out to her desk, another clerk came up with the groom. He wanted to know why it was taking so long to do the ceremony. What was I doing that I wasn't taking them? It had been a whole 5 minutes since the license left the clerk's hand. She had told them it could be 15 minutes before they were called. I "sweetly" explained he had misspelled a word and the typo had to be corrected. Yes, the clerk should have caught it, but he and the bride had been asked to check everything too. When I did get all corrected, and we went upstairs he was all out of sorts like it was my fault. I killed him. Well, I killed him with Southern sweetness. You can drown in my syrupy voice.

I had a very bossy bride with a child from hell. The bride was bossing the groom and guests around. She was telling me how to run the ceremony, and I let her. It was her wedding. She was placing the groom here, her child was to be Best Man (he was two) so he was to stand there. On and On. Except the child was running up and down the room and then got on the pew and was walking and jumping on it. I told her the child had to sit, he could not walk on the pew, it was too dangerous. She kept saying, "Doug, Doug, sit down. Please sit down. Doug, Doug, Doug" . . . Doug just ignored her. I kicked into Super MOM mode crossed with Old Fashioned school teacher and said, "Doug, sit down now. And do not get up." He sat and did not move until the wedding was over. Super powers are great.

My favorite wedding maybe ever was on Monday. The bride had on a one shoulder white cocktail dress. The shoulder had white cabbage roses. She carried a pink rose bouquet. The groom wore a spiffy suit, white shirt and pink tie and had a pink rose boutonniere. Their daughter was around 4 years old and beautiful in a wholesome All American child way. Her blond hair hung in curls below her shoulders and there were varying shades of pink bows in her hair. She wore a long pink, full skirted, taffeta dress and carried a bouquet of varying shades of pink sweetheart roses. And on this little princess' feet, sparkly little girl high heels.

After the wedding lots of pictures were taken. I offered to take pictures of all of them. Dad picked up the child for one of the pictures. She was holding her bouquet too high and hiding her face. I said to her, " Katherine, drop the bouquet. " And she did. She just opened her hands and let it fall to the ground. We nearly died laughing.

As a past teacher, a mother, and one who volunteers with first graders, I should have remembered how literal children are.

I'LL PARK ANYWHERE I WANT!

Wednesday began badly. I looked out the window and there was a huge red crane parked on our parking pad, across our driveway, and across our uphill neighbor's driveway. Also there was a dump truck on the parking pad. A neighbor two doors up was having a humongous pine tree taken out. This tree was dangerous and needed to be cut down. But the tree company was completely ignoring the neighbors. Blocking driveways, parking on private property, blocking cars in, the list goes on and on.

Marty was ready to go to work, but couldn't get out of the driveway. We went out to ask them to move the crane and dump truck. Marty in his dress slacks, starched shirt and tie. Me in my knee length tee shirt, a Northface jacket, and bed head. The drivers blew us off. They would be moving it later. We explained, going to work, on our property, not on the city street, move it now. The driver made some snotty remarks and moved the crane to the middle of the street. Marty drove off, and the driver put the crane right back across our driveway. I went storming back out.

I told them to get it off our property. It was too heavy and would crush the parking pad. They wouldn't even answer me. So I asked for business cards, because I needed their names for my law suit. The crane driver told me he could park anywhere he wanted. It was a city street. I again told him, we paid to pave that area, the city didn't pave it. Again I told him I needed to get my car out. And that if the pad was crushed I would sue them all. He stormed off and parked across the street, on the street, blocking two other driveways.

They left the dump truck. And then put traffic cones across my drive, blocked off the parking pad, and across my neighbors driveway. When I left I almost squeezed through the cones. I clipped a couple of them, oops.

To get the full page picture, click on the below pictures and then click on the somewhat bigger picture that will come up.

When they parked the truck, they ripped off some limbs of our tree. Notice the license plate.

I have one photo with the license plate and our house number in the same shot. Just in case I have to prove anything in court.

In this shot you can see the tree limbs are much lower than the truck. Also you can see the name of the company on the truck door. I have shots of their logo and website on the side of the truck.

The red crane is the one that blocked out drive. It was parked from the white truck, across the drive, and then across our drive and up to the dump truck. It is one huge long crane.
Another shot of the red crane. And the lovely California poppies on the side of our drive way.

When I came home I had trouble backing into our drive. They had added more traffic cones. But I did it. Again an oops. The parking pad looks like it is OK. But it could just go during the night.

I don't really enjoy yelling at idiots in the middle of the street. But I made them move the crane. Sometimes being bitchy works really well.

SHE ALL BUT CALLED US LIARS

Today Marty didn't work with hot glass. So since it is National Hamburger Week, we went out for hamburgers.(This has been a great week for hamburgers. We fixed them once and went out for them twice.) Then it was what do you want to do? Well, what do you want to do? We drove around waiting for inspiration. And it hit us, the Oakland Museum has just reopened after 2 years of renovation. Great idea.

Marty googled it for hours and admission fees. The site said seniors $5.00. We parked on the street, because their parking garage rapes the public. It is way higher than other garages in the area. Anyway, we paid for 2 hours on the meter. We went in and the sign at the desk said seniors $9.00. WHAT? It has nearly doubled in the last 5 minutes?

Marty told the (trying to think of a nice word here, not happening) bitch at the counter the web site says $5.00. And she said real snippy, "No, it doesn't!" And then she laughed at us. Marty started to hand her a $20 to pay the $18 and I said, "No, she just called us liars. I don't want to go in." We left.

If she had said anything about the web site hadn't been updated or that there are old websites out there. I think I would have been fine. But it was bad enough they nearly doubled the price and then a bitchy clerk insults us and then laughs at us.

We checked the site again when we got home. It says Senior $5.00. Interestingly, we found another museum site with the new prices. Perhaps they should take down their old site.

WEDDINGS, FEW

Wednesday, I only performed two wedding ceremonies. It was very slow at the county building. All areas of business were slow. Who knows why.

One of the weddings really stands out. When clerk D brought me the license, she said the bride was in a burqa. In order to check her picture ID, clerk D had to ask the bride to lift her veil or niqab. If they will not do that at the desk, the clerk will take them into the back for privacy.

I was a little stunned by the burqa (which I have since found out is called a sharshaf in her country, Yemen). You don't see that many in downtown Oakland. Nor have I seen the full covering as hers was. She was covered from head to toe. She had a very narrow slit at the eyes (be sure to click on niqab above, the picture to the right is her type of veil). Even her hands and arms were covered in gloves. Her burqa/sharshaf was a little different from some I have seen. Instead of being like a wrap, it had sleeves. The whole outfit was black except at the end of the sleeves where there were some delicate tassels and beautiful colorful embroidery.

She neither spoke nor understood English. The groom translated for her. He was nice to her. He held her hand in a nice way and not a controlling way. When I asked for consent , she nodded yes and said yes in English.

I always feel uncomfortable doing weddings if one of the couple speaks no English. I have to trust the translator really is translating. I have to trust the non English person really wants to be married. I try to read the body language of all the people in the room. Is this a forced marriage or just an arranged marriage? If I am really uncomfortable with a situation, I don't have to do the ceremony. I can stop the wedding. And I have done that once. Did I get it right this time? I think I did.

SCHOOL ON TUESDAY

Tuesday at school was a little different. Ms. H was gone part of the morning. She was at the funeral for the father of one of the students. Other teachers came in while their classes was at library or some other special class and covered for her. Part of the time it was just me.

I did a phonics' lesson and had recess duty. I hadn't had recess duty since 1986. It hasn't gotten any better. Lots of children running, screaming, pushing, shoving, acting like children. At least it was a warm day. I remember doing recess duty in below freezing weather. Oh the good ole days.

Children nearly always act up for subs, student teachers, and anyone else they think they can fool. That didn't happen yesterday. First because they are basically a good class. But mainly because they are used to me having the power to correct them and if need be take away privileges. And the teachers taught them in kindergarten and knew every trick they would have thought of.

I was really proud of the class. Having 4 different people running the class during just one morning had to have been a little strange for them. These kids did their work, remembered their rules, and were on their best behavior. A+ to my first graders.

MONDAY WEDDINGS

Monday I performed 6 wedding ceremonies. Most of them were lovely, some were even special. And of course since it is me, we have the weird one. I think I will tell you about the weird one first, and end with the nice ones.

Wedding 4: I went out to get them. As we headed for the elevator the groom said his parking meter had run out. How long would this take? I told him to go feed the meter and I would take the next couple.

When I called them again, something was wrong. The groom stomped across to the elevator, glaring at the world. The bride grabbed a toddler, pushed the stroller with the baby, and called to her son who was probably 9. The groom continued to glare and did nothing to help her. We got in the elevator and the groom pounded on the walls, which made a huge noise and also make the elevator shake. Didn't like that. Glad it was only one floor up. We got off, he ignoring the bride and children, and go into the wedding room. He threw his huge key chain (it looked like janitor's keys) down on a pew, and then threw down the wedding packet, and crashed down onto the pew.

I had had enough of a temper tantrum from a 30 year old. I asked if there was a problem, he refused to talk. He is too busy sulking. She explained he had lost his expensive "cigarette" that was to help him stop smoking. And he was upset. I suggested they come back another day when his mood was better. No, they were going to marry now. So I did the ceremony, with his sulks continuing. This poor woman married the biggest baby in the room.

Other weddings that day made up for the brat above. One couple was older, he was 60 and she was in her late 50's. The bride was terrified of elevators, but was going to ride up to the second floor. She requested that only one person ride with her and everyone else come up after her. That was fine. There were 15 guests and we joined them in the wedding room. One woman kept trying to tell me how to run the wedding. I nicely explained only the bride, with some input from the groom, made the decisions. The groom had his brother and his son stand up with him. The bride had her brother and her daughter stand up with her. We began and I didn't think the groom would make it. He was almost sobbing, his voice kept breaking, he was so emotional. He could barely get any words out. And his brother was crying too. The bride had a little eye leakage, but not much. I was handing out tissues right and left. This couple was so happy, so in love. And both families were excited about the marriage. It was lovely.

My last wedding was interesting. The groom was 30 and the bride was 40. His parents were the witnesses. The groom was very very quiet and stone faced. I could not get a read on him. The bride was very emotional, as was the groom's mother. Again I was handing out tissues. The groom said his vows like a robot. When I said we will now do the ring ceremony, the groom grabbed the bride's hand and rammed the ring on her finger before I could say any of the pretty words. We all laughed and then I had him repeat the words. He still was stone faced. She is still crying. After I pronounced them married, he just melted. He grabbed her and hugged her, and kissed her, and laughed and smiled. He was like a different person. The man was just a little uptight with the ceremony. When all the official stuff was over, he was the happiest person you have ever seen. Love is grand.

MOTHER'S DAY

Today our son Erik spent the day with us. Marty and I had already planned to see Iron Man 2 at IMAX. So Erik joined us. We rode BART into San Francisco. We grabbed a bite to eat and then sat and talked. Then we wandered outside the Metreon in the gardens before going into the movie.

Iron Man 2 is nearly as much fun as the first one. Lots of things get blown up, lots and lots of things; there is romance; it gets tense; and it is funny. A great way to spend an afternoon.

I had a lovely day with my son and husband. Thank you Marty and Erik!

It was like dueling iPhones with the three of us, all day. I think some of these people had been there for hours waiting to get in the movie. They had lunch, drinks, and were settled in. We were in the second line and got there 30 minutes before the start.

Again with the iPhone as we wait for BART. Bart was off schedule (power failure) so we had to entertain ourselves some way.

YOU'RE A GOOD MAN, CHARLIE BROWN

Back story: The Willows Theatre has been hit hard by our national economic problems. In order to stay afloat they closed the doors on the Concord theater and moved all operations to a smaller theater in Martinez. Marty and I have been less than pleased by the plays. No money, no professional actors. The plays were more like poor high school productions. In fact we walked out on one. Some have been so so and one drama was good. We struggled with the question of renewing our subscription. We decided to give them one more season.

Marty and I went to the Willows Theatre last night. We saw You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown. The Willows is back! This play was performed at the professional level we expect from the Willows. We had a great time. The voices were excellent, acting excellent, dancing excellent. I give this performance an A+.

It will be running until June 6, 2010. Check the website and buy your tickets. You might even want to check Gold Star. Many times you can find bargain tickets there.

Our program
The first act set

Part of the set

More of the set and side panels

Close up of side panel of the set

Set for act 2, Snoopy's outfit to wear while fighting the Red Baron

Display in the lobby

Outside poster

WEDDINGS ON WEDNESDAY

We were busy Wednesday at the county building. Lots of people buying marriage licenses, and several getting married there. I did 6 weddings in 2 1/2 hours. And during that time the marriage desk clerk did 3 Spanish weddings. I really prefer to be busy that to just sit and take up space.

My first couple was so very sweet. The groom borrowed a ring from his aunt to use as a wedding ring for the bride. He said they were going shopping right after the wedding. He hadn't had time to buy her a ring yet. The aunt sobbed through the wedding, and the groom was very emotional and cried. The aunt said, "Finally after all these years, you two are married." After I was back at my desk, clerk C told me the only picture ID the groom had was his prison ID. He had just been released. And that explains the aunt's statement.

One couple were divorced and remarrying. They were in their 60's and been divorced 6 years. So much emotion at this wedding. The groom's voice kept breaking as he said his vows. She was beaming. And then he began to cry. They really got to me, I nearly cried too. They were so thrilled to be back together, as in love as two 18 year olds. Love captures even the senior citizens.

Toward the end of the day there were two toddlers running from one lobby to the next and down the hallways. Running and screaming at the top of their lungs, running and sliding across the floor, running into people. NO parents in sight. Just two little ones driving everyone crazy.

I went out to get the last couple, the two children were tearing through the lobby and around the corner out of sight. As we got on the elevator, one of the women got back off. She said she had to go get the boys! Yes they belonged to the bride and her sister. The two boys rode in the elevator screaming for the joy of knowing no one would do anything. As the doors opened the little boys took off down the hall screaming at the top of their lungs. And not in the direction we were going. I told the adults they had to control their children, people were trying to work. And the groom looked at the bride and said, "That means DISCIPLINE!" He was ticked, not a good beginning.

The children were brought literally kicking and screaming into the marriage room. And one child had an even louder screaming, furious fit that he had to sit. He was so loud, I could not be heard. The bride grabbed him and talked to him, he kept screaming. And then she spanked him. Interestingly, he quieted down. You and I will no make judgement calls on the spanking. He was not hit hard. The real abuse was no one had ever told him no.

This couple was crude, all of the women were dressed like hookers, and they had the monster children. But for the ceremony, just lovely. They wrote their own vows and they were wonderful. I was very moved by their vows and I had to wipe my eyes.

Never judge a book by its cover.

MONDAY WEDDINGS

Monday there were lots of weddings. I did five and there were 3 Spanish weddings that Clerk R did. All were lovely, normal people except for my last one. And I will only say the groom was so scary I was glad the Deputy Sheriff had me on closed circuit TV. Let us say if you have seen any B Horror movies, the groom could have been the inspiration. He had the scariest eyes I have ever seen. Stone cold mass murderer eyes. Evil slits staring at us.

The witness ( a volunteer witness) works in the county building. After the wedding she told me the groom was really scary. So it wasn't just me.

SMOTHER THAT CHICKEN!

Sunday night we tested another recipe, Smothered Chicken with Creamy Mushroom Sauce. We served it over noodles with fried eggplant on the side. For an appetizer we had steamed mussels. This was a lovely meal. The chicken will be cooked again. The sauce is so rich and yummy.

Marty began by brining the boneless skinless chicken breasts.
Here he is prepping: eggplant in salted water, chopped onions, and sliced Crimini mushrooms.

A little salt added. I know they were brined. Yet they have been rinsed and now need salt.

Chicken breasts frying in butter and oil.

Nice and brown, ready to be taken out and other goodness to be sauteed.

Mushroom, onions, garlic in more butter and oil.

Chef Marty shows off by flipping the mushrooms.

And they all landed back in the pan!

Chicken back in with mushrooms, sour cream and spices.

Marty plating.

And the stove after all that frying with butter and oil. Yuck!