To Thine Own Self, Be Food

Every now and then, my local grocery store has a great sale on whole fryer chickens.  At three or four pounds each, these little guys are great for shredding for sandwiches, soups, salads, etc. Here's how easy this is... Lovely raw chicken photo courtesy of the folks at Prevention mag. This is Chicken in Child Pose Position.  It's important that the dead chicken is calm and relaxed before consumption. Into a slow-cooker or pot on stove, place the chicken, 4 cups of water, some carrot and celery sticks, a whole onion (chunked up), some salt and pepper, and a couple of bay leaves.  Let the slow-cooker go for a 8-10 hours, or simmer (very low heat, please) a few hours on the stovetop.  Cover the pot so that the water doesn't evaporate.  You'll do something amazing with it later. Basically, when the chicken falls apart as you're trying to take it out, it's done.  Remove the carcass and all the meat bits, and let it cool.  Then, get your hands right in th

First of all, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, etc. to you and yours! For me, the holidays are always about the food.  Naturally.  But, I guess there are people out there (mostly of the younger set) who feel the holidays are about The Stuff.  The loot.  What Santa brings.  Etc. Etc.  PlayStations, Xboxes and televisions and iPads and iPhones were the gifts given to young people I know...which make Brent and I look like miserly Grinches because we gave Legos, painting sets, and promises to our children. But I say to you: did any of those kids have a six-course, all-day Hobbit feast for their Christmas Day dinner? No, they did not. The Hobbit meal idea was borne of the recent release of the final Hobbit movie this month  Diehard Tolkien fans know that Hobbits eat several meals a day including a first and second breakfast, lunch, tea, dinner and supper...not to mention a mid-morning meal called Elevenses. This idea is a little repellent to non-Tolkien fans...after all, it does s

1. Yes, there is some capital outlay involved.  You certainly *can* make sushi without a bamboo mat or the right kind of rice, but I have a hard time seeing it without the nori/seaweed paper. 2. While I enjoying rolling it, cutting it, etc...sushi is one of those things most people want someone else to make for them.  There is a fair amount of effort involved, especially with the cutting and the preparing of the rice.  But, see, I dig that kind of thing, so it's doesn't bother me, but it might be a deal breaker for someone else. 3. Most people either love it or hate it, and it's not always a favorite at something like a church potluck. And it is for those three reasons that we will not be bringing sushi to the Nelson Family Christmas this year.  While one of my husband's brothers and wife would love it, the MIL, FIL, and other two brothers probably would not. Alas.  More sushi for me. At a Asian food store about an hour from here, I picked up all the accoutre

In which you have not ridden your Bavarian Cream bike in a long time, but once you get going, you think , Hey! I remember this!  This is fun!  This is easy! Wheeeee!   And then you make a teeny little mistake, miss that teeny little rock in the road, and suddenly you've wiped out, big time. I don't think I've mentioned it here, but a friend of mine asked me to do the food-providing for her small-group business holiday party next week, and of course, I've been testing and pairing recipes like madcap. I'm in the shower this morning, and I realize I have the ingredients on hand for Bavarian creams.  And even better, I'm going to divide the creams out, so I can play with flavors. But, first...a creme anglaise.  So far, so good. This right here is what is referred to by pastry chefs as "nappé" (nap-pay).  I wanted my egg-sugar-cream mixture to cook at a low temp long enough to get thick enough to coat a spoon...and then hold the line I drew through

It was a rather low-key Thanksgiving Day here at the Chez Nelson...and no wonder.  The menu was pretty understated (for me, that is): Appetizers: Bacon-Wrapped Shrimp Blue Cheese and Pear Crostini The Dinner: Turkey Roasted Mashed Potatoes Green Beans & Corn Medley Stuffing Gravy Cranberry Relish Pumpkin Cheesecake Dutch Apple Pie Dutch Apple Pie with Blue Cheese And then you remember that I did my Thanksgiving Dinner like this: Layer #1 & 2: My mom's stuffing, which had, hours ago, filled the main orifice of Mr. Turkey.  Then, the stuffing layer was covered with a nice, generous layer of shredded turkey, cooked the day before. Layer #3: A straight-up, no-frills corn and green bean medley.  Green bean casserole would be good.  So would scalloped corn.  So would diced roasted sweet potatoes or squash.  You just gotta have some vegetable in there. Layer #4: Mashed potatoes.  I roasted some Yukon Golds in the oven first then mashed

Well, what a month November has been. My National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) novel is almost at 40,000 words, so I'm par to finish on the last day of the month .  Nothing like the 11th hour, right? Professionally speaking, there are changes coming in the next month for me.  I took a job last month that didn't quite fit my overall career goals, so I'm making some changes in that regard.  Hopefully, this change will make my home life a lot less stressful.  I have also had some interesting business propositions come my way, and now I guess it's time to, putting it crudely, crap or get off the pot. Or, like Andy Dufresne says in The Shawshank Redemption - get busy livin' or get busy dyin'. I can talk more at length about that some time later.  For today, though, I am finally going to reveal my Thanksgiving dinner plans. The past several years' Thanksgivings have been full-out, all the stops affairs.  And especially the past two years, there have

A little over a week until that great American holiday of Thanksgiving.  And the big furor this year are the number of shopping places that are announcing that they will open on Thanksgiving Day, in addition to Black Friday.  Of course, critics from sea to shining sea are outraged at the desecration of the sacred American Family Holiday. You know, because we just can't have good family time any other day of the year besides Thanksgiving. But, don't read that last sentence the wrong way.  Although close members of my family participate, I do not go Black Friday shopping...ergo, I would not consider shopping on Thanksgiving either. To me, Thanksgiving is ALL ABOUT FOOD.  Of course it would be. In fact, my mom and I already have our Thanksgiving meal planned.  I want to wait a few days...then, you'll all have your set Thanksgiving menus, and won't want to take my idea. Let's just say it doesn't quite involve your mom's green bean casserole.  I'm n

The first week of National Novel Writing Month is over (NaNoWriMo), and because of work, kids' activities, and all that jazz, I have fallen behind on my word count.  So, on a free morning like I happen to have right now, I am doing the right thing... Procrastinating. It's weird.  I love to write, and I should leap at the chance to work on my story.  But, to be honest, it's been a struggle this year.  It's a story idea I absolutely love and have had in my head for about two years...but I feel like I'm killing it with my subpar, half-hearted writing.  But, that's my problem, not yours.  Your problem is to read my subpar, half-hearted writing here. Ha.  Jokes! So, anyway.  I'm procrastinating on writing my novel this morning.  Instead, I did my grocery list, submitted an invitation request for the new Echo on Amazon, flatironed my hair, and cleaned and organized my kitchen countertops.  And as always, cleaning and reorganizing any kind of home space usu

Tuesdays are Ethnic Food Night here at Chez Nelson.  So far, we've done chicken curry, shrimp and pork spring rolls, and alfredo lasagna (probably not really true Italian, but who's keeping track?). Tonight, we paid a little homage to our Korean family with: Bulgogi (a Korean marinated and grilled beef), rice, homemade white kimchi, and seaweed wraps. The dynamics of this meal was incredible: savory beef, neutral rice, salty wrap, and spicy-sweetish kimchi. I don't have much to say about this tonight, except that you should make it sometime.

Monday is my Sunday...and Sunday is a fun day. Good things: 1. The last soccer game was yesterday, and so now, our evenings and weekends will be soccer-practice-and-game free!  Let me say, though...I do support my children.  It's just, well, it'll be nice to have the time back...time to eat meals together again and whatnot. 2. My parents have dug up about a 14' x 24' patch in their backyard so that we can do a nice, big, communal garden next spring.  My mom and I are big garlic lovers, so we decided to give growing out own a shot.  And that special member of the Allium family went into the ground this morning to sit and get all deliciously garlicky over the winter.   I know it's hard to tell exactly what's going on here...but if you look at the top and bottom center of the picture, you'll a group of small bulb-looking things.  That's the garlic, planted in happy little groups.  The other junk in the picture are the worked-in scraps fro

Ate at P.F. Chang's today for lunch and received this fortune... Hahahahahahaha!  How fitting.  It is, after all, National Novel Writing Month...so, yes, I will write a book.  Thank you, mass-produced Chinese fortune cookie fortune. If I'm a little scarce here, that's probably the reason why.  Oh, and yeah, I need to talk about work here one of these days.  Along with craft beer. Speaking of which...let this tide you over. Trappist ales are my new favorite beer these days.  And tonight I tried them with an extra sharp cheddar.  Verrrrrry nice.

The television show, "The Office" - ever heard of it?  I personally enjoy the opening scenes of each episode...especially this one. The only thing that ties this clip to today's blog post is the mention of beets.  Otherwise, there is no relevancy whatsoever except that I wanted to try embedding a video from YouTube.  And it worked, so let's count that as Success #1. Success #2 includes the vegetable mentioned in both The Office clip and my blog entry title today.  Beets.  Up until the last couple of years, I never gave beets much thought.  Most of the time I saw beets on salad bars in pickled form...and that just didn't excite me. Until I learned about roasting them.  And then all of a sudden, beets were amazing and delicious!  And they are beautiful, too.  (Although, a word of caution, wear gloves when you work with them - you'll be grateful later) And here was my latest brainstorm...I bought three beets earlier in the week, and by the weekend, th

Guilty Pleasure Sundays will very, very likely be a Once a Month Thing only. So, no, this post will not be about anything sexual.  Get your minds out of the gutter! I am talking about junk food. Yesterday was quite the long day at work for me...as in, thirteen hours of non-stop prepping and serving food to hungry college students.  Sundays are my Saturdays, and a day that I try to cook as little as possible. So the idea originally was to eat out somewhere decent for dinner, but then, my thirteen-year-old daughter and I came up with a brilliant idea... and We originally were going to call it Junk Food for Dinner...but then Kirby came up with "Guilty Pleasure Sunday Dinner".  Brilliant! Understand that I don't normally condone junk food.  If I can't or don't want to make it myself, then I try to stay away from it in the grocery stores.  Which is why - I never usually would buy Little Smokies, plastic Easy Cheese, Ritz Crackers or microwave popc

Ecclesiastes 3 is a popular biblical verse for those meaningful rites of passages: birth, death, marriage, puberty... And, more importantly, it is THE game-changer in the Kevin Bacon version of "Footloose".  John Lithgow was NOT expecting his rebellious daughter to employ Ecclesiates 3 as the cornerstone of Kevin Bacon's moving "Let This Town Dance" argument. And I agree...for everything, there is a season.  Fall just happens to be the season for soup. It's mid-October here in Iowa - that crazy, unpredictable time of year when anything, weather-wise, can happen.  We could have snow tomorrow and 80 degrees the day after.  That's how we roll around here. Yesterday, though, was gray and rainy and windy.  My front lawn is littered with yellow and orange leaves from our birch trees, and yesterday's wind was the final straw as many of them finally let go of the summer season.  And it was on this odd and spiritual note that I smiled...and got my mir

This is usually my modus operandi for buying new and unusual foodstuffs I see in the produce section of my sort-of-rural supermarket.  Any time I see some cool thing that definitely does not grow in Iowa (cherimoya, chayote squash, etc), I buy it lickety-split-quick.  Because.  It's a like a conveniently quick, cheap ticket to some exotic place in the world.  Except there's no long airport lines, no TSA, no risk of malaria or worse, Ebola. And then when I get it home, I Google it to find out what I can do with it. Today, doing the weekly shopping, my small-town Iowa grocery store has this in the produce department: I know, right?  It's like a hairy little sea anemone or something.  Its real name is rambutan , and it comes from Vietnam.  It's indigenous to many Southeast Asian countries...that means it's a tropical fruit.  These fruits (or at least the ones I found at the store) are small, even in the palm of my hand, and the weirdly prickly skin is pee

Some college-level football player gets fed by me just about every day.  If that isn't saving lives, then I don't know what. So, almost three weeks ago (tomorrow) marks my last day as an employee of the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, MI.  That means I've been home for about two and a half weeks.  And I am different.  I have changed, and sometimes the environment I live in has not changed quickly enough for me. But.  It is what it is.  Things will realign most soonly, I am sure.  Until then, the first item of business is to get a job...because a.) it's just simply the thing to do these days, b.) I've got to put this new degree to use, and c.) not working is not part of my genetic makeup. Here in Small Town Iowa, there's only a few jobs available to me.  So I applied for a Cook job with Sodexo Corporation, which runs the cafeteria at the college here in town.  I also applied for a Cook job at the local hospital and I even interviewed, but have not heard bac

I woke up this morning, about 6:35 a.m.  I walk down the hallway to the front room of my house.  There, I see a colorful assortment of school detritus, papers, backpacks, blankets, and clothing strewn about the floor.  Oh, and a totally functioning microwave in the middle of the floor that my parents want, but have not found the time to come get yet (even though my mom is now retired and has more hours in the day than she knows what to do with). Continuing on to the kitchen, I am greeted by random Cheerios on the floor, not to mention other wrappers, rubber bands, and litter that has not been swept up recently.  Our kitchen is actually one long room that contains the dining room and TV room and that means I can see the mess that is normally called the dining table.  Chili splotches that did not get wiped up from the night before, more school papers and such scattered about, etc.  The entrance to the downstairs is actually blocked by a random plastic bag and my daughter's Adidas g

What you're looking at is photographic evidence of a happy little beer-food pairing I came across last night.  Panna cotta is among one of my favorite desserts to make...easy, cheap, versatile, and yummy.  And I had two slightly overripe bananas that needed something doing with.  I had no idea I was about to do something incredible. The porter is a dark, malty beer with roasty, slight coffee notes.  Typically, porters (and their stout cousins) go well with spicy foods, barbeque, some chocolate dishes, etc. And, as it turns out, porters also go well with Roasted Banana Panna Cotta.  After adapting the original recipe from Cody Curl here , I turned out the dessert onto a plate and began digging in.  It is a very sweet dessert, and next time I will cut out the sugar altogether.  Roasting the bananas give them a roasty sweetness that completely negates the need for granulated sugar.  Curl's recipe called for a banana-flavored liqueur to bloom the gelatin in...which, what?  W

Current parenting trends tell us it's not appropriate for moms to declare that they have a favorite child. But I say, sometimes, that's just the way it is.  Depending on the day, the situation, etc., I most certainly do have an especial inclination towards one of my three children.  And equally, there are days and situations in which none of my children are my favorite and I actually prefer the cat over them. This morning, I caught a glance of my youngest, 10-year-old Elliot, hauling his laundry basket downstairs for washing.  My kids all do their own laundry, they have been for at least a year now, and he is consistently the only one we don't have to remind or nag to do it.  So, yeah, favorite child award today goes to him.  On the other hand, the 15-year-old is currently on my Crap List because his favorite slacker trick when doing dishes is NOT to remove the silverware, thus letting pile up and not get washed properly.  I am considering having him revert to the old

Today is the first day of October.  It's a beautiful day.  That kind of pale, gray, gently rainy morning that is perfect for a cup of coffee, the latest issue of Mother Earth Living, hard-boiled eggs gently simmering on the stove... This is serendipity, folks. Until the husband comes upstairs and says, Hey, how about we do the cat's ear medicine now? Thankfully, only Juno the cat's morning was the slightest bit disrupted, as Brent went back to work and I was quickly able to rediscover my bubble of tranquility. Starting tomorrow, my family and I are doing the 10 Days of Real Food Pledge (as discussed at this website http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/ ).  Because, frankly, I won't be getting as much exercise here at home as I did on the island, and I just need a better plan for food around here.  Eating "real food" is very easy in theory, but difficult in practice. For example.  According to the Real Food Rules, those bottles of squeezable fruit spread

I have suffered only one breakdown/panic attack in the almost-week I've been in Iowa.  That one occurred on Friday when I felt compelled to tidy up the laundry room...and became completely and utterly overwhelmed by the amount of, pardon my French, shit my family and I have managed to accumulate over the years.  The piles of clutter were insurmountable and I felt like I would never be able to conquer them.  Ever. So I hyperventilated.  I panicked.  I cried.  I freaked out on my husband. It was a very sad Friday, indeed.  But, I managed to pull myself up by the shoestrings on my Asics and get on with it.  And I ended up having a great weekend. Of course, it helps that it was, like, an unseasonably 82 degrees here in Iowa...which allowed me to do this: Brent and I have decided to do our grocery shopping biweekly, as opposed to once a week.  Perhaps it seems like a waste of time, but we found we were dealing with more spoilage or menu items not being used, etc.  You know, f

I'm sure that is the burning question on everyone's mind: What kind of culinary chaos did Heather come home to after five months? Let me say...frankly...it wasn't so bad.  I was expecting worse.  I was expecting my shelves to be exploding with Hamburger Helper and Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, etc. etc.  However, I appeared to have rubbed off on my husband somewhat - hurrah! All of the pictures below need a context.  Here it is:  I have three children: one in high school, one in middle school, and one in elementary.  The high schooler and middle schooler are in cross country and soccer.  The elementary kid is soccer only.  Then, my boys are in Cub/Boy Scouts while my daughter (the middle schooler) is on Student Council.  Suffice it to say that fall is a very busy time for our family and there is a lot of taxiing that goes on...of which Brent has been shouldering the sole burden of since April. So...can you really blame the guy for what you're about to see?  I think n