When Bobbleheads Attack!

Bryan Bobblehead: What you up to girlfriend?

Me: Just cooking up another Dorie Greenspan recipe from my new cookbook, chicken tagine to be more specific.

Bryan Bobblehead: Girl, you so crazy!

Me: Um...have you suddenly turned into a sassy black woman? And what are you doing here?

Bryan Bobblehead: 1) I wish! 2) I live in this kitchen and you need me.

Me (as I continue to chop onions and prep the chicken): How do you figure?

Bryan Bobblehead: Well you can't deny I bring something to this relationship. My steely blue gaze......

...hot tattoos....

and a tight ass.

Plus, you just effed up the chicken thus proving my point that you need a professional in this shamble of a kitchen.

Me: It's fine.

Bryan Bobblehead: Oh really, let's take a closer look....

....That is what you get for not fully reading directions and not knowing the basics of proper chicken preparation.

Me: Listen plastic boy, I know you have a fair point but this chicken is soon going to be smothered in all kinds of deliciousness and a little missing skin will be unnoticeable.

Bryan Bobblehead: I can see where you are going with this, but somehow I feel like you will fail.

Me: Thanks for the support.

Bryan Bobblehead: That's what I'm here for sista!

45 minutes later: cous cous cooked, and tagine finished and plated.

Bryan Bobblehead: I don't know, it looks a bit questionable.

....and did you just take a picture without me. Let's take another shot.

Me: Ugh you are a pain in my....(rudely interrupted)

Bryan Bobblehead: CHEESE!

(Snap)

Me: Listen, I know that this tagine may not win best in show, looks wise, but it tastes delicious. Chicken falling off the bone, sweet potatoes, prunes, cinnamon, saffron, and a dash of awesomeness make this a winning recipe.

Bryan Bobblehead: Say what you want, this is when I'm glad I don't have to try any of the crazy things you cook.

Me: You realize that I am bigger than you?

Bryan Bobblehead: You don't scare me.

(muffled voice from the kitchen drawer)

I was just kidding girl! HAHAHA! You know I was just joshing ya! Okay? We're cool right? You gonna let me out soon right? Right.......?

(Author's note: This recipe really was delicious, albeit some mistakes on my part. Thanks!)

It smells like chicken in here! And I mean that in the best way possible.

So I have been on a hiatus and for the few people who amuse me and read this I apologize. To put it bluntly the last couple of weeks have not been my best.  I have found myself single again and although my new relationship status is for the best a break up is a break up and it just plains sucks!   For the most part I have been kept busy by my friends and have actually done quite a few things: learning how to make homemade pizza dough, drink champagne, Indian food night, drink wine, sweaty yoga, drink beer, etc.  Ya know, the standard stuff people do to distract themselves.  

During the last two weeks I have been seeking out comfort through food.  No friends, I do not appear to be one of these girls who becomes super model skinny from sadness, which actually is a bit of a bummer.  I instead started putting on my winter hibernation weight with chocolate, pizza, falafel, and enough booze to make me feel like I was back working at Club Med. But now with the sudden turn of weather here in DC all I have been wanting is soup.  This actually works out to be a benefit to me and my waist line.  And I am definitely not the only person that feels that way as many of the other food blogs I read have been focusing on soup, so I have had wonderful inspiration.

Last weekend I attended an awesome knife skills at Hill's Kitchen which is wonderful kitchen supply store here on Capitol Hill.  The class was actually focused on how to butcher a bird.  Let me tell you that is pretty empowering to be able to take a knife and be able to take a part a whole bird.  I am not saying that I would be able to do it perfectly on my own, but the knowledge is there.  The point of this digression is that from this class I came home with a bag of chicken bones and meat that I am determined to use every bit of.  So what with my craving for soup and a bag of bones lurking in my fridge it only seemed best to try my hand at making some chicken stock.  So here is a photo essay of my chicken stock making day!  (and yes it took most of the day!) 

Guess What?.....Chicken Butt!!!

And so it begins...10:30 am

The final product....6:00 pm!

I will not be lacking in chicken stock for awhile, don't you agree?  Honestly it should have been done around 4:30 pm but with my electric stove it is pretty heard for me to maintain anything at a simmer for such a long period.  So I decided to keep it on longer to let it reduce more and I think that was a good decision.  

So what did I make with my fabulous stock now readily on hand?  Absolutely nothing!  The goal was to make stock people, not cook something with it!  Honestly I just did not think that far but there are plans for matzo ball soup, using the stock to make cous cous instead of water, etc.  So stay tuned for my chicken stock extravaganza as well as fabulous recipes with all my other chicken parts that are currently on ice!

Tootaloo chickadees and I hope all of you have a wonderful weekend.  I am going apple picking tomorrow and will try to share some pics so that you can be jealous. :)

Peanut Butter Cereal Chicken: Round 2

Okay...this time I did a baked version using the same concept that I tried last night.  Flour, egg wash, and breading made from peanut butter cereal, cilantro, chile powder, and red pepper flakes.

Right now I am just at odds with myself.  Although this was a more successful effort in that I did not pull my hair out and had perfectly cooked chicken, I missed the crunch factor that the frying provides.  Yet with frying I was not able to cook a consistently good product.  I think that when I try frying again I need to further research what can be used for breading. The cereal that I used just may not have enough fat in it to withstand the oil, as it would just char within a minute.

It was still a delicious dinner, but I see future frying endeavors in my future.

Peanut Butter Cereal Fried Chicken: A lesson in humilty

Last night I decided to try my hand at what I thought would be a simple fried chicken recipe that I had conjured up. I had read in one my many food blogs I follow a version that used honey bunches of oat and I was immediately intrigued. My mind immediately thought of the peanut butter cereal that sat on my counter and wondered if I could somehow make my own version using it. I envisioned a thai style chicken where it is not unsual to use peanut sauces. Onward I went and bought some chicken breasts and cilantro that I would add to my cereal mixture. (I also added chili powder, red pepper flakes, and salt to give it some heat and depth)

On my counter I mounted a Ford-style assembly line with flour, eggs, and the crushed cereal mixture and proceeded to heat some vegetable oil to do a lil' frying. This is where things started going down hill. You see I've never fried anything in my life. I actually tend to avoid fried food and massive amounts of oil as I am a proud WW member and these are things that just start dwindling my points allowance at a rapid pace. But hell! It was Sunday and I was going to try my hand at it.

I dunked my chicken in some flour, removed excess, then dunked it in the egg, removed excess, and then into the cereal mixture it went. Oh my gosh, I thought, this is not too bad! HAHAHA, the little devil on my shoulder was thinking, as he waited in anticipation to see my downfall. Into the oil we go. I flipped and what I saw was a blackened mess. Yikes! Crap! What?! Awww...sh**! I let it cook on the other side and took it out. What I stared at was a blackened, crispy something that even myself who is a carbon fan would not enjoy. And to make matters worse it was completely raw inside.

The tears began. (I am brought easily to tears when trying to cook.) And the frustration and anger began to mount to "get out of the way she is about to blow" on the temper meter. The BF said I should cut the pieces thinner since it may just be too thick. This in fact was a correct assumption, but at that moment his advice was just adding some kindling to the flame. Mr. Hyde may have made an appearance, but I'm not really sure as I completely blacked out and came to a few minutes later. After my griping of not knowing how to properly cut said chicken I proceeded to do a paltry, though effective job of it. I was thinking I should just bake this chicken so that it would cook through and not burn to an utter crisp, but the BF wanted me to try again. Him being the absolute darling that he is cleaned my dishes and cleaned the pan of the dirty vegetable oil so we could start again.

I wish I could say it got better from there. But by this point I was a complete maniac and was just making things more dramatic then they needed to be. We fried up half of the chicken, smoked up my lil studio, still had some pieces burnt beyond recognition, and I was left feeling emmasculated and wondering why I was so inept.

Yet, in that mess there were some specimens that came off browned and juicy, with a great crust that was peanut buttery delicious. It took me some time to recognize a small success in that fact but all I could do was dissect what went wrong and what I could do to fix it. There was no satisfaction because of my less than stellar behavior and I completely own up to that.

I realize I am still learning and have a long way to go. That to learn we must make mistakes and be willing to make an utter catastrophe so we can figure out how to make something delicious. And that when you are cooking with fire the fiery temper needs to be left outside. BLAH BLAH BLAH... I know! Trust me, I am working on it and recognize that I have one of the most patient men in my life to put up with my ridiculousness and come out of it unphased.

So in an effort to learn from my mistakes I am trying to do this recipe again tonight. There will indeed be baking instead of frying, which I think will benefit the flavors and texture that I am trying to achieve; but I am going to make this idea of mine work. I will put up some pics of the final product and will update everyone on how it turned out. Until then, happy eating friends.