Tag Archives: chicken

Cooking, Health, Weather +Climate

Nix Still Comes Down…Geesh

Leave a comment

Imbolc                                                       Waning Bridgit Moon

This has been a nix two-day event.  The Woolly’s, for the first time I recall, canceled.  Too little parking around Charlie Haislet’s condo.

The days events scattered around me, I never quite got traction, feel a little down.  Nothing bad, just wheels spinning.  Don’t like it.

The snow-blower, which needs a tune-up, chugged, coughed and sputtered, but worked long enough to blow the snow off the sidewalk.  I was glad.  This was too heavy for a shoveling session.

Kate and I do plan to join the Y here after I get back from Blue Cloud.  I’m after a personal trainer to get a resistance work out going again, plus I’m going to do my first Pilates and attend a bodyflow class that uses a combination of Tai-Chi, yoga and Pilates.  Sounds fun to me.  I’m deconditioned right now when it comes to muscle mass, so shoveling the walk would have hurt.  My aerobic conditioning is fine, no heart attack likely, but a lot of back and shoulder ache.  Looking forward to getting back to resistance work.

So, I’m gonna workout then roast a chicken with garlic cloves under its skin and onions on the inside.  These are our garlic and onions, still useful this far into the season.  I’m also going to use some canned beans from 2007.  A little bulgur and we’ll have a meal.

Cooking

Cooking With Clay

Leave a comment

Winter                                            Waning Moon of the Winter Solstice

A long time ago I got a clay pot for cooking, a romertopf.  Over many years I used it at least every several weeks, then it went in the cupboard, not to come back into the kitchen.  Until today.  A free-range chicken, 40 of our garlic cloves, two of our onions and the last of our leeks went in with the last of our carrots and 7 small potatoes.  Cook for 1 hour and 15 minutes at 475, take the top off to let it brown and voila!  A tasty, moist chicken with sides already done.  Throw in a steam in the bag collection of green beans, a Kate made chicken gravy and we were ready for lunch.

My cooking tends to be like that, large amounts with leftovers, whether soup or chicken.

Art and Culture, Cooking, Friends, Weather +Climate

Cooking on A Snowy Day

Leave a comment

Samhain                                                                 Waxing Thanksgiving Moon

A nap, then, making more chicken pot pies.  I have the various skills down now, so I make it up.  This one has a leek, onion, garlic bottom with a layer of chicken topped with corn and peas, all drenched in thickened chicken stock made from Kate’s boiling the chickens.  40 minutes or so in the oven and we have  future lunches, dinners ready to freeze and one ready to eat.  A lot of standing, the only part about it I don’t like.  Otherwise the cooking is a creative act for me, one I enjoy.

I haven’t been outside today since I will neither shovel nor plow these thick snows, heart attack snow.  It’s just too clumsy and heavy.  Besides, the snow will melt before it is anything more than a nuisance.  Glad we live in the burbs where we have no sidewalk on days like this.

Looked over my plan for my Thaw tour and I plan to keep it the same.  I’m not sure what happened last Thursday.  Might have been first time through jitters or somehow the chemistry between me and the group didn’t click.  Something.  If it happens again, I’ll assume it’s something to do with the tour. Then I’ll look at change.  Of course, I’ll still be in the equation.  Wherever you go, there you are.

A friend is in this photograph in front of the Swedish Institute.  He’s on the left in the blue vest.  This is the Minnesota Santas group at their pre-season social event.  What would a five year old think?

Bees, Cooking, Our Land and Home

Bee Diary Supplemental

Leave a comment

Summer                                     Full Grandchildren Moon

Kate’s made the woodenware for Artemis Hives.  Dave Schroeder suggested we mark each piece with the year made.  As we start eliminating frames and hive boxes on a five year cycle, we’ve got the record right on the box.  This year, with no marks, will be 2010.  Next year she’ll start marking them year by year.

Kate and I have been investigating honey extracting equipment.  It’s not cheap, but it’s not break the bank expensive either.  We have to have a certain level of equipment to lw-pwr-extractorget from honey supers to bottled honey, most of which will go in canning jars, but some will go in fancy jars as gifts or to sell at a farmer’s market.  This is the next to last phase of beekeeping and one still new to me.  The last phase of beekeeping comes after the honey extraction.  The colonies will need inspection for varroa mites and nosema before late fall.  Doing this stuff is also new to me, but I have to learn at some point.

(this is one unit we’re considering right now.)

We had a designer come out to discuss a water feature for our patio area.  He showed us some brochures, talked with us a bit and recommended a pondless solution.  Sounds great to me.  Once you’ve had a swimming pool, you know the hassle pond maintenance brings in its trail.  This one has a pump and running water filtered through sand and rock.  It’s not cheap, however, so we’ll have to decide.

Roasting a chicken.  Brenda Langton suggested some meat, chicken or lamb or turkey, made at the beginning of the week, serving as a meal entre, then as sandwich or salad fixings, finally boiled in a soup.  It’s a nice, straightforward way to plan a week, easy, too.

Cooking, Holidays, Humanities

A Holiday Sunday

Leave a comment

Beltane                                       Waning Planting Moon

What the hell, I thought, I’ll just cook a chicken.  And I did.  With onion, walnut, Paul Prudhomme poultry seasoning and sesame  oil.  It’s cooling off on the rack right now.  I also cooked up a pot of wheat berries.  Both are moves from the Brenda Langton course I took on healthy eating.  She had a few tips for the week.  One, pick a meat and use it for several meals.  So, you bake a chicken and have it as a meal.  That’s today.  Later on for sandwiches or in a salad.  At the end the week you through the carcass and left over meat in a soup pot and make some sort of potage or the other.

The wheat berries go into cereals, smoothies, ontop of waffles or salads.  Can be eaten alone, too.  She also recommends having nuts around the house for use as condiments and snacks.  None of this is rocket science but it is nice to have a framework.  Add in fruits and veggies and there’s a healthy week of meals.

Had to go upstairs to let a dog out and had some of the chicken.  Moist with a crunchy skin.  Delicious.

Got part way through ch. 17 in Wheelock, too.

Finally, I watched the last of the Indiana 500 mile race.  This race and high school basketball have as much to do with being a hoosier as the lakes do with being a Minnesotan.  Danica finished at #5.  Ashley Judd looked cute running down pit row, clutching her straw hat and trying to keep her sun dress decent.  Her husband, Dino Franchitti, just won his second 500 and she seemed very happy for him.