B-gock!

I cooked a chicken!  A whole one!  It was my first time!  I forgot to take any pictures, but that's probably for the best, because to be honest... it's kind of a disgusting process.  It tasted great, but I definitely considered becoming a vegetarian more than once throughout the course of my afternoon.

Things got off to a rough start, when I realized my defrosted chicken was not actually defrosted.  I sent it to the lukewarm water spa for an hour or so, which seemed to help.  I opened up the chicken to remove the little package of gross things, only to find it was still frozen and wouldn't come out!  And not only that, but the package was PAPER, so it ripped open and oooooh it was not a comfortable 10 minutes of surgery.  (Who puts a paper package in a typically moist location??)  Eventually I got it all out and into the garbage, put the chicken on it's rack, and washed my hands 17 times.

I pureed a bunch of fresh thyme, sage, and parsley with some salt and pepper, butter, and a bit of olive oil, and rubbed it all over the chicken, inside and out.  Strangely, it turned the skin yellow... like fake tanner. (Spa, tanning session, maybe the I wasn't being so cruel to the chicken after all...)  I had half a tomato leftover from lunch, so I put that inside the chicken, along with a quartered onion.  Placed about a half cup of water in the bottom of the pan, and covered the roast with foil.  Into the oven, 350, for about 90 minutes (this chick was a little under 6 pounds).  Then I bleached everything in the kitchen.  Not really, but I wanted to.  I tried to be reasonable, and only bleached areas the chicken had been.  And washed my hands 16 more times.

I removed the foil for the last 10 minutes, and then put it back on for about 20 minutes after the chicken came out of the oven.  The smell was woooonderful, and I couldn't keep my hands off for long... I needed to know how it tasted!  Lucky for me, it was delicious!  I went right to work making little piles of white, dark, and soup meat, but a good portion of it went straight into my mouth.  I hadn't realized how slimey (the spell check wants me to say smiley, but it doesn't feel appropriate considering the carnage) I would get!!   I think the slime helped combat the compulsive hand washing, because the skin on my hands is feeling a little softer than usual today, haha.  (Gross!)

I tried to use as much of the leftovers as I could... I made gravy and broth too!  The gravy had the flavor of the roasted herbs too, really nice.   I couldn't think of anything to do with the skin though, it was way too disgusting (I've heard you should use tit to make the broth taste better, but ewwwww slime).  The whole process was pretty gross, it was tasty (served with steamed broccoli and experimental sour cream & parsley mashed potatoes), but once again thoughts of vegetarianism are swirling through my head... I don't see too many whole chickens in my future... for now I think I'll just stick to my former approach to cooking, mainly cooking things that are not recognizable as body parts!  And maybe I'll start growing some of these chickens, I know my mom would be very, very happy:

Peeps!

PS - Have any of you ever microwaved a peep?  I'm a goody two shoes and therefore haven't tried it, but I've thought about it...  maybe that should be my preferred method of "growing" peeps?

Easy and delicious cuban food!

I love cooking, but I never have enough time.  Which is why I love my crock-pot so much.  Husband loves my crock-pot too, because I use it to make him ropa vieja*!  I know I've probably mentioned this before, because it's so easy and I make it fairly often, but I don't think husband will ever get sick of it, so I'm ok with that.  I made it Monday and he's having it for dinner tonight, 4th night in a row, haha.  Here's how easy it is!  The list looks long, but it's just faking you out.  Plus, it will last a while.    You could also freeze it, but we always eat it all.

Ingredients

• Flank Steak
• 1 can of diced tomatoes
• 1 can of tomato sauce
• 1 can of tomato paste
• Red Bell pepper, sliced
• Clove or two of garlic, minced
• Large onion, sliced
• Bay Leaf
• Cumin (tablespoon?)
• Oregano (teaspoon?)
• Salt and Pepper
• Wine, Cooking wine, or white vinegar - 1/4 cup(ish)

Directions

• Place garlic, onions, and peppers in bottom of crock-pot.
• Place flank steak on top of the veggies.  Sometimes I sear in the juices first, sometimes I don't.  I haven't noticed too much of a difference.  If you don't sear and it has any visible fatty portions, you should probably remove them.
• Add tomato paste, oregano, cumin, and bay leaf.
• Pour in the tomatoes, sauce and vinegar or wine.
• Cook for 4 hours on high, or 8 on low.   Longer is not a problem.  
• Pull out steak and place on a large plate.  Cut in half or thirds, against the grain (to make strips shorter when shredded).
• Using two forks, pull in opposite directions with the grain, and the steak should shred very easily.
• Mix shredded steak back in with tomatoey goop in crock pot.
• Salt and Pepper to taste (authentic would be lots of salt, but not so healthy), and serve over rice!  (or mashed plantains, or potatoes, or in a burrito, though cuban husband would be mortified by the potato and burrito suggestions) We usually have with rice, cuban black beans**, and sliced avocado.  Sour cream also goes nicely... as do scallions)

To make it more veggie heavy, you can add a bunch of shredded or diced carrots, and the flavor won't change much.  I've also heard apples work, though I haven't tried it.  You could also up the amount of peppers and onions, or use only half a flank steak (but don't tell my husband!).


*Husband would freak out if I served it as shown in this Wikipedia image.  Yellow rice and black beans can't be served together!  Silly Cuban food rules.  Or maybe I got the rules mixed up?  Husband?  Care to clarify?
 
** You can buy Cuban black bean soup in a can, but I make husband make the beans!  Recipe to come if I ever try my own hand at them...

Amazing!

Remember when husband's phone decided not to come back inside after all that shoveling?  Well after last week's thaw, our snow mountains shrunk into snow sand castles... and husband found his phone!  It had been soaking up some rays, so it was looking nice and steamy after that slow soak in the melting snow.  I'd heard that if you take a phone apart and put it in a bowl of rice, it helps draw out the moisture... so we tried it. 24 hours later we put it back together and plugged it in... AND IT WORKS!  I kid you not.  Best cheap phone EVER!

I made these ricotta cookies to celebrate (also, they're Italian... and we're going to Italy!). They are delicious!  I had one for breakfast.  Now it's snowing again... maybe we'll play hide and seek with another phone?

Kale Fail

I've been hearing a lot lately about kale chips.  Everyone says they're awesome and that they're just like potato chips... so I couldn't wait to try them.  A crunchy, delicious way to eat kale?  I was doubtful, but figured it was certainly worth a shot.  Kale is one of those foods that I want to like, I just can't seem to get there.  Smitten Kitchen feels the same way!

Unfortunately, my kale chips are super gross.   They did nothing for me except make my house smell like broccoli while they baked.  And then they still tasted like kale... with a slightly "burning" undertone.  Did I do something wrong?  Do any of you out there like kale and recommend a way of eating it?

Eatily!

I was supposed to go to Eatily today for dinner with a friend.  I haven't been yet, I can't wait to go!  But things came up, and we changed our plans to lunch at Le Pain Quotidien.  I had some delicious vegetable quiche that claimed to have less than 400 calories (I don't believe it!) and tasted some bread spread with ricotta, figs, and honey.  MMMM!!!  I'm sad that i didn't get to check out the smorgasboard that is Eatily, but that's ok, because WE BOOKED A TRIP TO ITALY TODAY!!  (The real thing, not the restaurant!)  GIVE ME ITALY TIPS!!  What do I HAVE to see?  What do I HAVE to eat?

I'm so excited!!!  We're not going until May, but that gives us pleeeenty of time to plan!  I've never been, so I'll pretty much be happy with whatever we see, though we have a history of action packed travel agendas.  We'll see!

To celebrate (and to mourn the train home that I missed by 1 minute), I enjoyed a take-out frozen margarita on the train ride home, yippee!