Ipsy Pipsy Chicken

Dad started working for Chase Manhattan Bank in the summer of 1973 and I started law school that August. I shared the first floor of a house on Newark Street just off of Wisconsin Avenue, which was torn down shortly after we left. (No connection, I’m sure.) I have no recollection of how I found the house or the roommates. I think they were all there and were looking for a fourth. The first time I came, they made dinner for me consisting of baked fish, potatoes, and some cooked vegetable. Mmmm, my favorites!

I don’t remember much about two of the roommates, though I have a vague recollection that they were a couple and the other two of us did not get along with them well. The fourth was Kit Gage. She was from Iowa, had graduated from Grinnell the previous year, and was working in Washington for the National Trust for Historic Preservation. She and I became good friends.

Dad used to come visit me every weekend, taking out $200 in new bills from the bank (real tellers in those days), and doing his little train trick. I was impressed (and obviously gravely misled about his spending habits) that Dad spent a full $200 on me every weekend. Mostly we went out to eat. One day, however, I decided it was time to cook a meal for us. The only problem was that I did not know how to make anything. So Kit came to the rescue with a dish that she named “Kit’s Ipsy Pipsy (So Easy that Even Glenda Can Make it) Chicken.” The name stuck.

Later, when I did learn how to cook I discovered two things about this recipe. First, it is simply a variation of Chicken Cacciatore, a much less interesting name. And second, it is fairly easy but also has a lot of steps. For a first recipe, I think Kit was pulling my leg.

Kit was at our wedding and gave us a collection of cookbooks, which she inscribed with comments on my cooking abilities. That is why I still keep my original Joy of Cooking and Jennie Grossinger’s The Art of Jewish Cooking, even though they have fallen apart completely