Well. I tried out a couple of recipes with several of the wet cooking methods we learned in class this week. I now feel really, really good about buying pre-cooked chicken. For some reason, the "easy" oven poaching of chicken took more than twice as long as it should have and was rather a pain in the ass. Trader Joes frozen teriyaki dark meat chicken suits me just fine and costs about the same. Or maybe even less when you factor in how much time it takes me to duplicate the effort. OTOH, the herbed butter worked out excellently. I steamed half a head of cauliflower thinking I'd save half after tossing it in the herbed butter. Not so much. Ate all of it. Then put the rest of the butter in the freezer using the trick of sliding a waxed paper tube of it into a paper towel core so it maintains a nice shape. Next time I use it, I can just slice off discs of it.
I spent so much time away from home in the last two days, it felt like vacation. I definitely need to do more outdoors on my weekends since it makes me feel so much better to do it - not because I think I should for nebulous reasons that come from external expectations. I kept freaking out last night (staying up too late reading a novel) that I was going to be screwed at work the next day because it was so hard to believe the weekend wasn't over yet!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
Dude!!! You ate that much cauliflower the day before returning to work? You are either very brave or impervious.
Pulling for you, Lorraine
CO, your blog of late is making me hungry. :) Care to share the steamed cauliflower & herbed butter recipe? I hate veggies, so anything that makes them more palatable is appreciated. Especially when butter is involved. [g]
Cut florets off cauliflower working from stem to tip. Put a bay leaf in the steaming water (helps kill any sulfur smell) and steam cauliflower over the water until partially tender for 5-6 minutes, then turn off heat and let stand 2 minutes before mixing with herbed butter.
- Soften 2 sticks of butter.
- Chop up 2T each of fresh herbs, recipe suggests chives, italian parsley and tarragon. (Just for giggles, I actually used what the recipe called for)
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 1/t tsp salt
- pinch (white) pepper to taste
Mix above in food processor then use wax paper to mold into a roll and freeze briefly to set. cut off enough to add to hot steamed veggies (~1T/quarter head), mix, salt to taste. Can freeze excess butter for several weeks.
Tarragon seems a little liquorish flavored, and normally I don't eat raw onions but I put the whites of the chives in with the rest and it's good.
The poached pears worked out better than the poached chicken (which tasted fine, but was more work than it was worth to me).
Oh, and I have a bunch of papaya pills that I've been sucking down like candy. They aid in digestion, so that could be why things weren't totally embarrassing today.
Meowm is now feeling inspired by you and may look for a cooking class to take. She really needs to start eating at home more! And she loves papaya pills-although she doesn't use them as much as she probably should!
Post a Comment