Curried Chicken Salad with a Story

In VA on August 24, 1991, my best friend Cathy Cornman, was married to Clayton Hill. I flew out for her wedding, as I had known Cathy since I was 13. My family moved to Springfield, IL from Lovington, IL when I was in seventh grade. The counselor at the school introduced me to Cathy (probably because we both played the flute) and we became inseparable throughout high school and beyond. When I was in VA for Cathy's wedding, I had some free time to shop at Tyson's Corner. I went into the Neiman Marcus store and there was a lady who was introducing her new cookbook. She had samples from her recipes for the customers. I tried her Curried Chicken Salad with Grapes that was delicious! I was going to buy her cookbook, but I didn't buy it at that time. I wrote the name of the cookbook and her name on a piece of paper and put it into my wallet. I carried that in my wallet for nearly 10 years. When I lived in Dallas around 2000, I went into a Corner Bakery and ate some of their chicken salad, which reminded me of the chicken salad I had sampled at the Neiman Marcus store in VA. I decided that I wanted to buy the cookbook after all. I looked and looked for that cookbook, but I didn't find it. I tried Amazon.com and I found out that the cookbook, "Picnics" by Marilyn Myers, was no longer in print. Amazon.com said they could hunt for the book I wanted if I wanted to pay whatever price it was. They found the book and I paid around $25 for it. So far, I have only made the curried chicken recipe from the cookbook, but I have passed along the recipe to many friends and I have used the recipe many times, so it was well worth the money I paid for the cookbook. Here is the recipe:

Curried Chicken Salad with Grapes

4 boned chicken breasts, cooked and cut into pieces
1/4 cup slivered almonds, toasted
1/2 cup good quality mayonnaise
3 Tbsp. whipping cream (I use nonfat milk)
1/2 teaspoon curry powder -- I use a Madras curry powder from a Middle Eastern grocery store
Salt
2/3 cup seedless grapes

Mix the mayonnaise, whipping cream (milk) and curry powder in a cup. Pour over and mix with the chicken, almonds and grapes. This is good on croissant rolls or just alone as a salad. Enjoy!