I found these figural linen cocktail napkins on ebay.
This one has a wonky eye
I think they were made in the 1950s. I had these birds of a feather framed together, and they brighten up my laundry room. (It’s not like I was going to buy original art to hang next to the washer.)
My family has always had a thing for hens and roosters, because my maiden name or some variation of it means “chicken” or “hen” in German. I collected roosters for a while, starting in college, but there’s no real challenge to finding them — they’re everywhere — and I kept just a few when I got married.
When I was around 8 years old, I came across a book of riddles in one of my parents’ friend’s bathrooms. They had those kinds of friends. Anyway, one of the riddles involved a rooster, and I had no idea what was so funny about it, but when I told it to my parents (because they liked roosters) they about bust a gut laughing. From that point on, they would encourage me to tell it to their friends (“oh, go on, tell them your joke!”), who would also cackle with laughter. Like I said, they had those kinds of friends. Here’s the riddle, in case you’d like to teach your young ones to tell it for cheap laughs:
Q: What’s the difference between a rooster, Uncle Sam, and an old maid?
A: The rooster says “cock-a-doodle-do,” Uncle Sam says “Yankee doodle do,” and the old maid says “any cockle do.”
Again, they had those kinds of friends. [Note: “cockle” is intentionally misspelled :)]
Well, just as some times you want cheap and easy wall art, or a cheap and easy laugh, some times you want a cheap and easy chicken dinner, and that’s what has inspired this Easy Chicken Pot Pie. It’s tasty and satisfying factory-to-table fare that you can put together in about five minutes. I was introduced to it when my friend Laura, herself a new mom, brought it over for my family after my daughter was born, and it was as appreciated then as it is now on busy school and work nights. Cock-a-doodle-do!
- 2 9-inch pie crusts (I use Pillsbury refrigerated pie crusts)
- 2-3 cups chopped cooked chicken breast (I usually use rotisserie chicken)
- 8 ounces frozen peas and carrots*
- 8-ounces frozen corn
- 1 can Campbell's Cream of Potato Soup
- 1 can Campbell's Cream of Chicken Soup
- ⅓ cup water
- ½ teaspoon dried dill
- 1 tablespoon dried minced onion
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- *Note: can substitute 1 pound of frozen mixed vegetables for corn and peas and carrots
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place one pie crust in a deep dish pie plate. In a large bowl, combine remaining ingredients and mix well. Transfer filling to pie plate, and cover with remaining crust. Press edges of top and bottom crusts together, crimping decoratively. Cut 3 or 4 vents in top of crust. Bake for approximately 1 hour, or until crust is golden. Let stand 20 minutes before serving.
Spoon the filling into the crust 
Cut a few slits in the top crust to allow steam to escape
Cheap and easy — like my parents’ friends