Chicken and Dumplings

Roasting whole chickens is my new thing. I love the smell. I love the mulitude of options after I make one. Homemade stock, crispy skin, old-fashioned fun. It doesn't get better. I roasted another chicken last night too. This time I used salt, pepper, and garlic powder. I ended up basting it with olive oil a bit later because I had to put it back in the oven after it wasn't done. Expect even more chicken recipes from this.

That last chicken I roasted went to both the chicken salad and this. Plus, all that lovely homemade stock made up the base. Since I had both the chicken cooked and stock made, all I really needed was to make dumplings. I found this recipe here and used it for the dough. However, I'm lazy and didn't roll it, which I think I should have. The dropped biscuits were just a little too hard and didn't taste very good. There are always more fish in the sea, so I'm sure next time will be better. Either way, the end product was still very tasty.

Chicken Salad

How time flies! You guys have missed a ton of food! I was cooking up a storm during finals, then furiously preparing for Christmas, then actually having Christmas in Pennsylvania meeting my future father in law. So yeah. I've got a lot to catch up on and hoping that I don't forget too much. I'll try my damnedest. Starting off easy...

You guys remember that I'm on the hunt for the perfect chicken salad recipe, right? Well, this ain't it. However, it was tasty. Now, I'm one of those horrible people who will find a recipe, only use half the ingredients listed, and say it wasn't great. Warning: didn't use the celery or sour cream because I forgot them.

Now this has all the elements I'm looking for: good chicken to mayo ratio, fresh fruit, walnuts... but it's missing something. I say this knowing I didn't add all the ingredients, but those weren't it. Let's dissect. I was screaming that I should be buying purple instead of green grapes while I was still in the store but didn't. I think they're just a little sweeter and it helps perk up the flavor. I really liked the green onions instead of normal ones because it added that bite without me picking through it or overwhelming it. The chopped walnuts are also a must. I think the sour cream might be a nice addition too, so I'll have to remember next time. But what else? Does anyone else have a recipe with my "musts" that I have to try? Let me know.

Roast Chicken: Lesson in Dissection

Every once in a while, I cook something that makes me feel classic. You know? Like I'm cooking in slow-mo, bathed in yellow sepia colors and maybe wearing a hand-sewn apron in my farm kitchen. Alright, maybe you're not Farmer Betty when you cook, but sometimes it's there and sometimes it feels awesome.

Since I discovered roast chicken so many moons ago, it's been a staple in my life. There is nothing better than a perfectly roasted chicken leg. However, I don't actually remember roasting a whole chicken before. It could have happened, but it's not ringing any bells. So with sepia-washed thoughts of rich chicken stock and fresh chicken salad, I picked me up a hen.

There's something comforting about holding a raw chicken in my bare hands. It's got a solid weight that makes me a feel a bit earthy. It's almost like holding a baby. Just a baby that I'm super excited about rubbing with spices and cooking under high heat, which is possibly one reason why I'm never having children. However, I didn't have twine on hand, so I decided to roast it on a cookie sheet, breast-side down with the wings and thighs tucked under. This might have been a mistake. I took the chicken out when it was "done", then realized that it had a meat... popper thingy in the breast that of course didn't pop. But was it because it was held down or is it not done? Dilema... Then I noticed that the thigh area was like a balloon with liquid bulging the skin out and looking like a very funky blister. So in it goes again, breast-side up. After a while, it's browned and I'm sick of the smoke-haze* that's settled over my kitchen and living room, so I take it out. Still not popped. To which I said, screw you popper of doom! It's done! Notice unpopped popper.



*Tip: I normally put olive oil over my thighs before roasting. It's awesomeness incarnate. However, on a whole chicken it slides down to the roasting juices, pops, and makes your oven smell funny and sometimes smoke. Don't think I'll do that next time.

Moving on, I let it rest for a while then whipped out my knife. Now, I know how to carve a bird (even though I'm more a fan of the rip and pull method). I'm cool that way. But I'm not interested in just the obvious parts. I want to know all those Southern cook secrets about the best hidden parts and what to do with intestines. So I now present to you: Chicken Butt.



And Oysters: Before



After



Um... they don't have a whole lot of chicken intestine pictures out there that say, "Hey! This is the heart, delicious when cooked in butter." So I had to do some searching. Still, I couldn't find anything that said I needed to start with cooked or uncooked chicken, so I gave it a miss this time. I'm also afraid of seperating the parts I want from the parts I'm too afraid to want. Next time.

Anyways, the oysters are dark meat and have a firmer texture than the rest of the dark meat. It's said that they taste more chickeny too. Well, the texture was nice, but I don't think it tasted more like chicken. I actually think they were a little blander, so they got torn up with the rest of the white meat for chicken salad and dumplings. The tail... the tail! I might break a few ankles for that piece. It's two tiny bites worth of crispy skin, fat, and a smidgen of meat. So I think this roast and exploration was a success. I'll be updating soon on what I've done with my bird, except for the legs and wings which I like plain. Happy hunting!

French Onion Soup

There's something in me that keeps pushing me to try things I might not like. Which is why I have a habit of accepting large quantities of vegetables I don't really eat. Like onions. Like lots and lots of onions. So I push on and try new things. I've made french onion soup once before and wasn't crazy about it. This time, however, I had no one to pawn it off on. So I ate my obligatory bowl. Then I realized that I couldn't just dump it out, so I ate another. And another. Then I finally tore down the mental block and realized that I liked it. Of course, I ate is less as a soup than as a heavy sauce for my hunk of cheesy toast, but still.

It got eaten- all of it. And I liked it, damn it. It was so good. I'm a believer. Well, as long as I can strain out the chunks of onion because I'm still a goof. I'm almost so converted that I want to use the rest of my onion stash to make another batch, but I've got another recipe waiting in line.

Caramelizing onions still kind of freaks me out. I'm always afraid that they're burning, then afraid if I take them off too soon I'll just be making partially cooked onion soup. I usually pull through with something resembling caramelized, but I can never be sure. So I took tons of pictures.

All of these...



Filled my big stock pot to here...



Then reduced to this.



Here's my nice dark brown stock.



And the finished product. Yeah, the onions here are for show.



Make sure to check out the recipe over at Baking Bites. As a side note, I used Rachel Ray's beef stock for mine and it turned out pretty well. I haven't tried enough other brands to give a good comparison though.

Happy Days!

My favorite computer geek managed to fix my computer for free! So I get to show you what’s been going on lately. It all started with a casserole. Admittedly, it kinda sucked, but I did use up a ton of leftovers and about to go bad food. I guess it doesn't matter though, since I couldn't bring myself to eat more than that first serving.



Then, along came tests. Not the run-of-the-mill, I can pass this with my eyes closed tests, but the ones that you have to start studying a week in advance and stress about until you think your eyes are going to bleed. I had one a week for my two hardest classes. Finally, I snapped. I needed real food, damn it. It was down to either wings and a beer at Hooter’s or tuna steak and a beer at Outback. Luckily, I went to neither. Instead, I ordered a tuna steak and fresh broccoli.





This is the food I nearly had sex with.



A little ginger dressing to swab the tuna steak in and several servings of asparagus sautéed in butter made me a happy girl. This was the start of good eating around here. The whole Olive Garden vibe followed; think the soup, salad, and breadstick deal.

I even came home on my lunch break and whipped up a round steak with sautéed broccoli.



I’m, like, jealous of myself right now. It’s been lovely.

Possible Hiatus

This one's not my fault. Or, it probably is but I didn't mean to. Essentially, me and my computer aren't talking and she went to stay at a friends house for a while until we can work it out. I don’t know how long this will be, but I have to do all my necessary computer work at school, which makes it a pain to do anything fun. Like update blogs and load pictures. Sucks for you too because I’m eating pretty well right now. I nearly had sex with some asparagus and a tuna steak the other night, plus there’s been a host of salad and soup combos. One of my favorite dinners just made an appearance and I bought a shiny little bundle of fresh chestnuts to try. I’ll see what I can do, but with the computer and holidays coming up, I can’t make any promises. Til later.

California Pizza Kitchen

Okay, okay! I'm finally cooking again. Of course, there's still an element of eating out that you wouldn't deprive me of just yet. Right? I just had to drop a quick note about the single serving California Pizza Kitchen pizzas. Why? Because after I turned a few delectable frozen pizzas to coal in my oven, I found these microwavable wonders. Of course, nothing worked for me then and they wouldn't cook all the way through in the middle, but still. CPK is less than 10 minutes! My deal is that I appreciate the quality ingredients and crispy thin crust, but I can wolf down a normal sized CPK pizza in one sitting. This is definitely one of those foods that demand a side. However, for $2.50 in pizza and maybe a little extra for a side, it's still cheaper, and tastier, than fast food.

As a side note, I'm really starting to hate blogger. I can't add pictures half the time. I know it won't sound like it, but it's a big reason that I don't update as often as I'd like. I'll have a few pictures waiting to go up that can't and then I just won't post the... post. I wrote this days ago and still can't put up the picture. Hates it. Hates!

Spinach--Cheese Bake

Oh, how I love Winn-Dixie. I remember when I lived in Tifton and all I had were the local southern grocery chain and Walmart. Winn-Dixie just seems so... fancy in comparison. Not that I don't like Harvey's and their sometimes local produce, buy hey! I like variety. And I LOVE the buy one get one sales with my Winn-Dixie card. I sound like a commercial don't I? I can't help it. Remember all those "I've got more potatoes than I know what to do with" posts? Those were buy one get one.

My newest catch? Two bags of spinach. These have a tendency to go bad on me really fast. Either that or I just forget about them so completely that it seems to fly by, which is just as likely. I know you're all greatly worried about the health of my spinach, so let me assure you, at least one bag has gone to good use.

Casseroles are like the dump cakes of the savory world and few things are as easy or delicious. I actually made this one for breakfast. Holy Hell, this stuff smelled good in the oven. I was starving when it came out. I love the directions for this too, three steps. However, if you're finicky about mixing, you may want to measure out all the dry ingredients together before adding the wet. I just dumped it all in one bowl.

I did make a few substitutions though. I used half hot habanero cheese and half cheddar, because that's what I had. I left out the cayenne for obvious reasons. I think I used less cheese than called for, but I only had 9 oz of spinach too instead of the 12. I used the two full eggs, but kinda ghetto mixed the 4 egg whites with the egg replacement powder I have. Seriously, 6 eggs? No. Oh, and coating the dish with melted butter what genius. Genius!

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Make your own! Spinach-Cheese Bake from here.