Month: October 2004

I made some rather excellent chicken noodle soup on Wednesday. I should post the recipe. It was similar to the one I already posted, but there were a few differences. I am really looking forward to eatng it for lunch today. I made it ostensibly for Jeremy, who was sick this week, but you know, I’m really not that good a person. I just like making soup and getting “Oh, that’s so thoughtful!” comments from people.

You know what you don’t want to hear from a Target employee? That they’re having pest problems. I went a week ago to buy some face wash and TP, and I figured while I was there I might as well pick up some Jalapeno Cheddar Cheese Nips. The market section had vanished, so I hunted down a couple of employees to ask what was up. I got “problems with a vendor” twice before the guy told me there was a pest problem. EW. Yeah, I’m going to avoid buying anything edible at the Redwood City Target for a while. I suggest you do, too.

Okay, people? Learn to estimate times better. I am fine if you say, “I’ll be gone for an hour, can you hold down the fort?” However, if you say, “I’ll only be gone fifteen minutes,” and then come back forty-five minutes late, I’m likely to be a little irked (in my brain, not out loud). Overestimate, if anything.

Mynnyd lived! Joanna almost died again. So now Cameron’s campaign is over, and next week, we start Jer’s. Which means we need to stock up on wands of cure light wounds, because our cleric’s going to be absent.

I’m trying to cut down on my Diet Coke consumption- I don’t know if I’ve already talked about this. Working at a company with free DC is… well, you get tempted to go overboard. Which I did, the first week. Now, I’m trying to limit myself to one can during the work day. I drink a lot of water. Surprisingly, it also quenches your thirst.

You know you’ve been spending too much time at your brother’s house when you go to their local market and the cashier says, “Did you get your hair cut? It looks nice.” (She was right- I got it cut two weeks ago.)

Damn. I went down to Mountain View last night to deliver the soup, and then I decided to take the coupons Ryan had given me and go to Bookbuyers, a used book store. I got a couple of cookbooks, and then wandered around downtown. A couple of doors down is another bookstore called Books, Inc. I wandered in because they had a big display of Cook’s Illustrated books and magazines. Turned out they had just finished an appearance and signing by Christopher Kimball. Damn! I could have seen Annoying Bowtie Man in person! Oh, would I have loved to ask him his opinion of Sandra Lee and the trend of Krap Kooking these days.

Well, that… sort of worked.

I roasted a chicken last night (whole bird, variations on this recipe). I wanted to make it without going to the store, so that meant no little potatoes. What I ended up doing was this:

I didn’t have any sage, so I finely minced some rosemary. And I only had dried thyme. Whatever, the butter was still good. During the first fifteen minutes of roasting, I melted the leftover butter in a pan and added a cup of rice, which I cooked slowly until glossy, then removed from the heat. After the first fifteen minutes of roasting, I added half a cup of water and half a cup of white wine to the roasting pan so the drippings wouldn’t get burnt. During the next fifteen minutes, I defrosted a small container of French onion soup that my brother had made about a month ago (I was bringing it into work for lunch, but we kept having barbeques), and mixed that in with the rice. I also added what was left of the bottle of wine- probably an eighth of a cup. When I flipped the chicken over, I spread the rice mixture in the bottom of the roasting pan, lowered the heat as per the recipe, and cooked for another thirty-five minutes.

Okay. Chicken drippings make everything better. I wish I could just buy chicken drippings, because I only ate a leg last night. The rice was fantastic! However, I need to adjust some things, because it was stil vaguely crunchy in places. It was really, really good, if you could forgive that. And I could.

This’ll probably never work in exactly the same way again, though- how often am I going to have Jon’s French onion soup just sitting around in my freezer? I’m happy, though, that I was able to create something really, really good with what I already had.

I brought the rest of the rice and the other leg for lunch today. I’m really looking forward to it.

D&D tonight! I am predicting DEATH for Mynnyd!

This past weekend was quite fun and full. However, I didn’t cook a single thing. Unless you count toasting a bagel.

After work on Friday, I went up to San Francisco to meet with some Television Without Pity people. (Stop freaking out, Mom, they were quite normal.) We went to the Pig and Whistle, a quite excellent little English pub. We sort of watched Bush and Kerry posture about, but the sound wasn’t loud enough for us to hear. Mainly we talked about… well, television. And also that a majority of us worked in biotech- in fact, two of the people there worked at the same company, just on different floors. Small world and whatnot. Andyway, if I lived in the city, I think I’d want to frequent that bar. Pool table, dart board, fairly cheap beer, an excellent selection on tap, and some very excellent looking bangers and mash. Keckler was not on hand, sadly, but the five of us had a grand old time. I think. I hope. Well, I did, at any rate.

Also this weekend was a trek to the parents’ house for closet-cleaning. Woo! That was… tiring. I had a LOT of old prom dresses. And a lot of random papers that I don’t know why I was keeping. We made piles in the garage of stuff to throw out and stuff to give away. We probably could have gotten a decent yard sale together with some of that stuff, but it was just too much hassle.

I defrosted a chicken. I’ll do something with that tonight. And Jon, if you didn’t cook yours last night, you should cook it tonight. (We had a mixup where two chickens were defrosted- it was totally my fault.)

Roast Chicken with Potatoes

1 4-lb. chicken, neck and innards removed

1 1/2-lb. small red or Yukon Gold potatoes

4 Tbsp butter, softened

1 Tbsp fresh sage, chopped

1 Tbsp fresh thyme, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

10 cloves garlic, unpeeled

Vegetable oil

Salt and pepper

In a large container or pot, combine 1 1/2 quarts or cold tap water and 1/2 cup kosher salt (1/4 cup table salt). Stir to dissolve. Submerge chicken in brine and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Remove chicken from brine and dry well with paper towels. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 450. Prepare the roasting rack by spraying it with nonstick cooking spray.

In a food processor, combine butter, herbs, and minced garlic, and pulse to combine into a paste. Loosen the skin over the breast and thigh on each side of the chicken. Spread three-quarters of the paste under the skin. Tie the drumsticks together with kitchen twine and tuck wings behind back. Oil the skin lightly and season with pepper. Set chicken breast-side down on prepared rack in roasting pan and roast for 15 minutes.

Quarter the potatoes and place in a bowl with the unpeeled garlic cloves. Toss with salt and pepper (to taste) along with the remaining tablespoon of paste. After the first fifteen minutes, scatter the potatoes and garlic cloves in the bottom of the roasting pan. Continue roasting for another 15 minutes.

Remove roasting pan from oven and decrease temperature to 375. Rotate chicken breast-side up on the rack, stir the potatoes and garlic, and return to the oven for approimately another 30 mintues, or until the breast meat is 160 and the thigh meat is 175 on an instant-read thermometer.

Let chicken rest for about ten minutes before carving. Transfer the potatoes and garlic to a serving bowl. Serve with bread, upon which the roasted garlic cloves can be spread.

I realize that I am not a good blogger. I have not been posting as regularly as I should. I am sorry. The problem with a new job is that you want to impress people, and you can’t do that by goofing off at work. And I’m really quite tired. I haven’t made anything since the weekend. I’ve got about a third of that post written. I’ll finish it. Probably.

Okay, I’m over my annoyance.

Last night was Ryan’s birthday party. Jon and I made lots of food. Jon made guacamole, crepes, ham and cheese sandwiches, and pesto. I made blackberry-rosemary syrup, basil-lime syrup, onion dip, salsa, chicken liver pate, mini twice-baked potatoes, and goat cheese stuffed basil leaves. Ryan, even though she was the birthday girl, made mojitos and raspberry coulis.

Yes, all right, the onion dip was a package of soup mix and sour cream. I’m evil! The potatoes were a variation on the original recipe, using pesto and monterey jack cheese instead of cheddar and green onions. Jon thought the pesto ones were better. I’m not convinced yet, although I do agree that the pesto was magnificent. I would link to his recipe, if only I could remember where his neglected blog lives.

We had a recently-pregnant lass at the party, which is why I made the syrups, so she could have fun drinks in a non-alcoholic way. The new one, the blackberry-rosemary syrup, I think needs more sugar. It was very… subtle. The rosemary was much stronger in flavor than the blackberry, which was kind of an afterthought. I might try it with raspberry next time. Wow, was it a pretty color, though. Veryvery pretty.

We did kind of run out of food, although we made a TON. And I was exhausted. Seriously, I fell asleep on the couch as people were heading home. I had to stay over at Jon and Ryan’s that night because I wasn’t sure whether I could make the ten minute drive to my house. It was kind of nonstop cooking from after work Friday until the party Saturday night.

And then, on Sunday, I made stock and cookies. Why not? I’d like to try making fish stock next. Or beef stock.

Blackberry-Rosemary Syrup

2 cups blackberries (fresh or frozen)

1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp sugar (3/8 cup)

2/3 cup water

1 1/2 Tbsp finely chopped fresh rosemary

To serve: club soda or sparkling white wine

Combine blackberries, sugar, water, and rosemary in a small, heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil and then turn heat down. Simmer uncovered for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until mixture has thickened and reduced by about half.

Pour into a fine sieve set over a bowl or whatever container of holding you’re using. Let stand about five mintues- do not press on solids. Cover and store for up to a week.

To serve: Pour 1-2 Tbsp into the bottom of a glass, add ice, and fill with club soda. Or omit the ice, and fill with sparkling white wine. Stir and enjoy.