Dianne Chec poses with the chef who prepared her chicken alouette dish.
By Dianne C. Chec
Is there a cook in the kitchen?
You bet!
Being employed at GCPL’s Bainbridge Branch has been the best position ever over the past seven years. I have been able to peruse almost every new cookbook that gets delivered onsite and enjoy my favorite hobby, cooking, due to two wonderful grandmothers from Poland and a mom who had precision and grace in the kitchen.
After moving to Hudson, Ohio, I began shopping for groceries at the ACME supermarket and entered a contest for “your best quick dinner recipe.” I thought of my favorite go-to family pleaser: Chicken Alouette, a delicious dish. Consisting of a juicy chicken breast in a flakey puff pastry with a creamy garlic and herb cheese, it’s always a favorite meal.
Guess what?
I was runner-up! I won a gift card given to me after their head chef prepared my recipe and served it at the market to the staff and my husband. 
But, there’s a library connection. The best part of this experience was that I was able to look up the recipe at the library, which I had formerly prepared by memory for more than the past 25 years and enter it correctly from a Southern Living cookbook!
If you’d like to give this meal a try, here’s an online recipe.
Enjoy!
Link to PDF of Diane’s award-winning dish: 10 15 18 RECIPE CONTEST WINNER RECIPES
