Ghosts of Theatres Past.

 

Young's Theater

 

Opera House - Monticello Memories Calendar - 1988

 

 The Opera House aka Young’s Theatre has a history rich in entertainment.  Originally built in 1907, it was a community center for Monticellians to play basketball, put on plays, hold dances or watch movies (silent ones of course).  In 1918, a severe snowstorm dumped so much upon the building’s roof, it completely collapsed.  Along came Alfred Young, who built a new building, in a different location, and called it Young’s Theatre. Naming things after one’s self is definitely a way to be remembered.

The Theatre remained opened until 1931, and then was purchased by…, San Juan Record, May 10, 1934, page 5, “Marie M. Ogden last week purchased the Young show hall, a well-known building which has been idle for two or three years. It is expected that a community house will be made, that is, it will be converted into a place for her people to stop for rest while considering their future activities in this county.” 

However, in 1935, the controversy over the death of Home of Truth member, Edith Peshak, forced Marie Ogden to close the theatre, and it has remained closed since that time.  While the Monticello Community Foundation made many attempts to obtain funding, to renovate and save the building, it, sadly didn’t happen.  Now it is scheduled to be demolished as the San Juan County Public Safety Building Expansion Project plans to remodel and expand the existing facility, which houses the Sheriff's Department, courts, and corrections.

However, entertainment was not lost to the citizens of Monticello.  Mr. and Mrs. Claude Foy opened their first movie theatre, on Main Street, June 15, 1936. Then, in 1939, they opened a larger 120-seat theatre, located in the Moab Garage warehouse, which Mr. Foy also managed.   The first movie featured was “Young Mr. Lincoln”, with Henry Fonda. The seating was eventually increased to 225, and in 1953, Mr. and Mrs. Harry Randall bought the theatre, but alas, it too closed down.

 

The Little Theater - Cinema Treasures (https://cinematreasures.org/theaters/67616)

 

 

Personal story time!  Bill Boyle, editor of the San Juan Record, related, to yours truly, a story about his mother.  During the 1930s, she would go to the theatre daily, and with leading actors such as Cary Grant, Clark Gable, Humphrey Bogart, Robert Montgomery and Errol Flynn…hubba hubba, someone get me some cold water please!

In 2015, the San Juan Record’s editor hosted a haunted hayride, The Monticello Ghost Tour, and related ghostly stories of various buildings around the city.  This was one of the best events for Pioneer Weekend, so Bill, please bring it back, I’m begging you!!!  Anyway, the San Juan Credit Union, in 2015, was the former location of the movie theatre; the rooms over the San Juan Pharmacy (now Main Street Drug) were used for storage for the theatre.  Monticello was making headlines all over the United States when an armed gunman was noticed in the upper window.  A young police officer, Kent Adair (Monticello's long time Chief of Police for 34 years) deftly disarmed the culprit with an expert karate chop.  Only to find out he had knocked off the arm of "Rambo", a large cardboard display of Sylvester Stallone; Kent's call in to other officers..."The suspect has been disarmed."  

 

If you’re interested in seeing what The Monticello Ghost Tour was all about, go to my travel blog posting at: https://www.southwestbrowneyes.com/2015/08/hayriding-to-meet-ghosts-of-monticello.html

Now, after all that researching to find details and photos of the old theatres, I am hungry!  How about a comforting plate of creamed chicken over country biscuits?  The best part about this recipe is that you can make this dish over and over, but with different flavor enhancements.  This is a semi-homemade recipe, so using “cream of …” soups for the sauce making.  Two cans (10.75 oz.) of cream of chicken gives that downhome chicken taste that is so satisfying.  Use one can of cream of chicken and one can of cream of celery or cream of potato, you’ve got pot pie.  For a more savory taste, one can of cream of chicken plus one can of cream of mushroom; and adding some sliced mushrooms into the mesh won’t hurt either.  By the way, I boiled the chicken breasts, in salted water, over medium-high heat, about 20 minutes, and then diced it up.

 

Creamed Chicken

 

Ingredients:

1 can (10.75 oz.) condensed cream of chicken soup

1 can (10.75 oz.) cream of (see variations above)

1 cup half n’ half

1 (12 oz.) bag frozen peas, thawed and drained

¼ tsp. ground black pepper

2 cooked chicken breasts, shredded or diced

Preparation:

In a saucepan or large skillet, over medium-high heat, combine contents of the soup(s) plus half n’ half, and whisk until smooth.

 

Two chicken breasts, boiled in salted water, then diced.

 

Add in peas, black pepper and chicken; stir and let cook until bubbles begin to form around interior wall of pan.

 

Serve immediately over biscuits, rice, or mashed potatoes.

Makes 6 servings.

So, put on a movie, and enjoy a bowl full of creamed chicken.  Um, don’t watch a very scary movie though, don’t want you throwing that bowl of food up in the air.

Mary Cokenour 

 

Another Easy Chicken Recipe.

When it comes to bone-in chicken, there is only two ways I usually use it; deep fried or baked in barbecue sauce.  So, when I received a ten pound bag of chicken leg quarters, all I could think was, "That's a lot of chicken to fry up."  Yes, when it comes to bone-in chicken, I don't have much imagination for its use; Roy and I are more prone to eat boneless, skinless chicken breasts.

Ah, then an idea hit me, why not make the chicken and stuffing crock pot recipe, but use this chicken instead.  I layered the chicken on the bottom of a six quart crock pot, covered it with whole kernel corn, stuffing mix and a soup mixture.  Six hours later, on low heat, the meal was done; miserable part was, the chicken came off the bones.  As I spooned out stuffing with chicken, included were pieces of bone that had to be picked out before serving.  Talk about a mess and nuisance!  The chicken was parboiled to remove skin and fat, so I wonder if I should have simply cooked it for four hours instead, to keep the chicken intact.

Alas, I have no photos of that cooking mishap; hint, do NOT allow your spouse to use a camera without taking photos off of it first!  He doesn't know how he did it, but all my photos had been deleted while he was recording a snowfall outside.  Fortunately, I used the loss of the photos as an excuse to make the dish again, but in a different fashion.

After parboiling, skin and fat removal, seasoning, the chicken was placed into a baking dish.  Corn, stuffing and soup mixture went into a separate baking dish.  The corn stuffing finished 10 minutes earlier than the chicken, but this gave it time to settle.  Now this meal was so much better; the chicken came easily off the bone, but didn't have to be picked out of the stuffing.  Roy brought over some to his mother and brother to try; they cleaned their plates and wondered if more was available.  I'd definitely say it was a huge hit!

Trial and error; sometimes cooking is a fail, but it spurs you on to try again and find a delicious solution.

Baked Chicken with Corn Stuffing

Ingredients:

8 chicken leg quarters

2 tsp. each salt and ground black pepper
2 Tbsp. paprika
2 cans (14.5 oz.) whole kernel corn
4 Tbsp. butter
2 boxes (6 oz.) chicken flavored stuffing mix
1 can each (10.5 oz.) cream of chicken and cream of celery soup
1 and ½ cups milk

Preparation:

Parboil the chicken for 15 minutes; let cool slightly before removing skin and any remaining pieces of fat.  Preheat oven to 350F; spray inside of two 9” x 13” baking dishes with nonstick cooking spray.

Mix together salt, black pepper and paprika; split mixture in half and sprinkle over both sides of chicken.  Place chicken, bone side down, into one baking dish; place inside preheated oven.

In second baking dish, pour corn (with liquid) inside and place butter in four corners of dish; spread stuffing mix over corn.  In a medium bowl, mix together soups and milk; pour over stuffing and spread out evenly.  Place in oven alongside baking dish with chicken.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chicken will take about 40-45 minutes to bake (internal temperature of 185F); corn stuffing will take about 30-35 minutes to bake (soup mixture firmed up, liquid from corn entirely absorbed by stuffing).

Makes 8 servings.

Mary Cokenour

Crock Pot Comfort Food.

This year, summer in Monticello, Utah seemed to consist of two weeks in July and two weeks in August.  The rest of June, July, August and even September has been cool and rainy; not that I'm complaining mind you.  The primary source of our water is from the Abajo Mountains, that's right, real mountain spring water flows down, gets filtered and pours out of our faucets...jealous much?  Now what we didn't expect was to see snow on the tips of the peaks in June and July; and this past Friday the mountains themselves were covered in a light blanket of snow.  Down in Monticello, it was, what the locals call, very breezy; while visitors kept asking, "Why is it so windy?"

Let me explain, "10 to 30 mph = slightly breezy", "30 to 50 mph = breezy", "50 to 80 mph = very breezy".  As to the question, "Why is it so windy?"  Well scientifically, "Warm air, which weighs less than cold air, rises. Then cool air moves in and replaces the rising warm air. This movement of air is what makes the wind blow. A windstorm is just a storm with high winds or violent gusts, but little or no rain."  Or I could give you one of my snarky (yes, I'm snarky, not snippy) answers, "See the windmills at the north end of town; that's our wind farm making all the wind.", or even better, "Go to the BLM office on Main Street; they have the weather machine and can adjust it for you."  Hey, ask a silly question...

Anyway, with temperatures dipping into the 30s at night, and low 60s during the day, it seems a good time to begin thinking about fall and winter meals, especially the comfort food type.  Comfort food, that which wraps itself around you (figuratively), making you feel warm all over and it's soothing to the soul.  I remembered a recipe from my first crock pot cookbook from the 1990s, "Swiss Chicken Bake" and knew this would be a perfect comfort food for a cool day. Bad news though, while I was in the process of divorcing my first husband, he broke into the storage shed and stole a box full of my cookbooks.  Why did he do this?  To hurt me of course, but they were only books, material items that could be replaced, or replaced with similar items.  I looked in my current crock pot books, but couldn't find this recipe, so here's where memory had to take over, and I did a pretty good job at remembering!

 

 

Creamy Swiss Chicken Bake

 

Ingredients:

6 frozen boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 tsp. salt
½ tsp. ground black pepper
1 (10.5 oz.) package herb seasoned stuffing cubes
1 (10.5 oz.) can cream of chicken soup
1 (10.5 oz.) can cream of celery soup
1 cup milk
8 slices Swiss cheese

Preparation:
 

Spray inside of a 4 quart crock pot with nonstick cooking spray; place frozen chicken in bottom and against sides of crock pot; sprinkle salt and pepper over chicken.  Pour stuffing cubes into the “well” made by the chicken.

 

In a medium bowl, whisk together soups and milk; pour over stuffing cubes and spread out to edges of crock pot.  Cover the “sauce” with slices of Swiss cheese.

 

Cover crock pot, set on low; cook 4-5 hours; chicken will be fork tender and easily come apart.

Makes 6 servings.

Option: use cornbread stuffing cubes with Cheddar cheese instead of herb seasoned stuffing cubes and Swiss cheese.

Enjoy the comfort!

Mary Cokenour

Chicken Pot Pie Using Crescent Rolls.

Chicken Pot Pie is one of America's ultimate comfort foods. Whether it's done with a pie crust, biscuits, or the Amish way with pot pie squares; it makes us feel good, all warm and snuggly.  Every day someone is posting recipes on Facebook, and I certainly wanted to try "Chicken Roll Ups"; the photograph of the finished recipe looked so good!  Of course I made some changes to the original recipe; unsweetened almond milk instead of cow's milk simply because it's what I had in the refrigerator.  The recipe asked that the chicken breasts be boiled in water, no seasoning; then use the broth in the sauce mixture.  This sounded so bland to me, so I seasoned the cooking water with salt, ground black pepper and celery seed which gave, not just the water, but the chicken added flavor.

The recipe came out fabulous; rich, yet comforting; so yummy, it was difficult not to eat more than two.  It tasted exactly like a homemade chicken pot pie, but only one minor problem, no veggies.  I intend on making this recipe again, but this time I'll buy a package of frozen pea and carrot mix, defrost them and add them to the chicken pieces before rolling up the crescent dough.  Heck, I might even put a few spoonfuls into the sauce for some texture.

Chicken Roll Ups

Ingredients:

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

4 cups water
½ tsp. salt
¼ tsp ground black pepper
¼ tsp. celery seed
½ cup reserved broth (from water used to cook chicken)
1 (10.5 oz.) can cream of chicken soup
½ cup unsweetened almond milk
1 Tbsp. flour
1 (8 oz.) canister crescent roll dough
1 (8 oz.) package shredded Colby/Monterey Jack cheese mix, divided in half

Preparation:

 

Place chicken in 5 quart pot; cover with water and add in salt, black pepper and celery seed.  Cook on medium-high heat for 20 minutes; remove chicken and chop or shred, reserve a half cup of cooking water.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In a medium bowl, thoroughly combine reserved water, soup, almond milk and flour; set aside.

Preheat oven to 375F; spray a 9” x 13” baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Open canister of crescent roll dough, separate 8 triangles onto board; press half of the cheese onto the dough.  Divide chicken into 8 portions, place chicken at larger end of each triangle of dough.  Carefully begin rolling the dough over the chicken, tucking in the ends if necessary; place completed rolls into baking dish, leaving one inch space between each.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pour two thirds of the sauce between and around the rolls; spoon remaining one third over the rolls.  Bake for 25 minutes; remove from oven and spread remaining half of cheese over rolls; bake additional 5 minutes and let rest for 5 minutes before serving.

 

 

Option:  add teaspoon of defrosted frozen peas, pea/carrot mix, or sautéed chopped mushrooms to chicken before rolling up.

Makes four servings.

Mary Cokenour