Chicken Tetrazzini Casserole, Mrs. W. Gibbs McKenney
I was shocked to realize that Mrs. Florence McKenney’s Chicken Tetrazzini Casserole is the first recipe I’ve made for Old Line Plate from the 1980 “Magician in the Kitchen” cookbook. Produced by the Federated Garden Clubs of Maryland, the book was one of the early community cookbooks in my now-sizable collection. It has charming illustrations and the title continues on the back of the book “… Genie in the Garden.” I see it frequently in online listings and thrift stores.
According to McKenney’s 1993 obituary, she headed the Federated Garden Clubs at one point. In 1983, as former President of the Woodbrook-Murray Hill Garden Club, she was credited with laying the foundation for a project where Redspire pear trees and Bayberry bushes were planted in the median of Charles Street on a stretch of Baltimore County near Shepherd Pratt Hospital. The gardeners had carefully selected the plants to withstand the salt and exhaust of the busy street. If you drive by the area today, the median is about a third the size it was in the 1983 Baltimore Sun photo, but the pear trees still stand within it.
McKenney was also a Red Cross volunteer, a trustee of Hampton National Historic Site, vice president of the Baltimore Civic Opera Guild, president of the Board of Managers of the Margaret J. Bennett Home for young working women, and on the boards of YWCA and Meals on Wheels.
Like so many recipe contributors to community cookbooks, Florence McKenney had earned a degree in Home Economics and was a teacher. After graduating from University of Maryland, she taught in Baltimore and in Washington DC.
My favorite bit of information about Mrs. McKenney came from the Baltimore Sun in 1964.
A man named Elliott Galkin had a column called “Music Notes” where he wrote about musical performances in Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York. He covered symphony and opera, writing background about touring performers, and new programming at the Meyerhoff and Lyric in Baltimore.
It seems that not everyone was a fan of Galkin. Caroline S. Jones of Severna Park went so far as to write to the Sun to complain about Galkin’s “flowery fine” writing, which she had made “a feeble attempt to understand” and found “impossible.”
Florence McKenney wrote in to defend the music columnist. “Reading Dr. Galkin’s column can be a musical education in itself,” she contended. “His understanding of the works of the masters as well as contemporary music is superb. How fortunate for music lovers of Baltimore that he also has the ability to write and accurately describe the music he hears. I, for one,” she concluded, “am grateful that Baltimore has a man of Dr. Galkin’s caliber not only to interpret the musical life of the city… but to enrich is by his work at the Peabody and Goucher College.”
John Bauernschmidt of Catonsville sided with Caroline Jones, picking apart Galkin’s heavy use of adjectives and contending that “the great majority of people will be driven away from the desire to learn to understand and enjoy great music.”
Elliott Galkin would continue his column until 1977, when he became director of the Peabody Institute.
I probably did Mrs. McKenney an injustice by trying her Tetrazzini Casserole and not the Oysters Fried in Batter that she contributed to “Maryland Cooking,” or the Baked Shad Roe she contributed to “Private Collections.” This was a pretty bland recipe that required a lot of seasoning up. Maybe I was supposed to know that.
“Magician in the Kitchen” has a lot of contributor overlap with “Private Collections,” a cookbook compiled by the Women’s Committee of the Walters Art Museum. It seems that a lot of Garden Club members were involved with the Walters.
The two books have vastly different personalities. “Private Collections” is a polished and lavishly illustrated hardbound book whereas “Magician in the Kitchen” is plastic comb-bound and more quaint, with hand drawn illustrations. Despite my lack of success with this particular recipe, I hope to return to “Magician in the Kitchen” soon to cook and write about another one of the book’s civically involved gardener-recipe-contributors.
Recipe:
- 2 Cups cooked, diced chicken
- 1 Cup diced celery
- .75 Cup mushrooms (1 small can)
- 1 Teaspoon chopped onion
- 1 Teaspoon lemon juice
- 1 Cup sliced water chestnuts (about 1 can)
- 1 Cup cooked rice
- 1 can undiluted cream of chicken soup
- 1 Teaspoon salt
Topping:
- .25 Lb butter
- 1 Cup crushed corn flakes
- 1 Cup sliced almonds
Mix all [casserole] ingredients well, place in flat baking dish. Top with topping mixture. Bake 350° – 35 minutes. May make day ahead, add topping before baking.
Recipe from Magician in the Kitchen. The Federated Garden Clubs of Maryland, Inc. Reese Press, Inc. 1980.
