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 r...

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-T...

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 ...

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 i...

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...