A very special chicken deserves very special care, and I can think of no better technique to accentuate all the wild, bug-fed chickeny goodness of a farm chicken than en cocotte.
I got turned on to this old-school French method of cooking chicken from an old issue of Cook’s Illustrated, which touted it as one of the “Discoveries that will change the way I cook”! Well, it wasn’t quite as revolutionary as all that, but it is a great way to cook chicken.
Food should be cooked with lots of love and lots of butter.
-Dutch Proverb
It’s been months since that fateful morning of flat tires, generosity and surprises at the Disco Thistle Farm, but Robyn, bless her buttons, wasn’t finished with me.
On that fateful day, I was flushed with the pioneering spirit projected by her and her husband Shane. I may have said something like: “If you ever need someone to help out…”
A couple months later they needed someone to help out.
Alright, so I missed Oktoberfest.
This means that once again I’ve blown my chance to get buzzed on Bavarian lager, clad in lederhosen, publically showing my Teutonic solidarity by dancing ‘n singing like a fool. Glückliches Oktoberfest!!!
It’s cool. I’ve avoided many a St. Patrick’s Day in my time, so culturally, I’ve already got a lot to atone for. Read More
Two Halloween memories from my formative years:
First – Walking into my elementary school dressed in a full-body black cloak, gloves, and intricately painted skull mask (seriously, it took days. Do you have any idea how many pits and cracks line the surface of a skull?) and a demon-topped walking stick that lit up when I tapped it against the ground. I stalked the halls like a boss, scattering kindergarteners and even freaking out some of the teachers. Won first place at the costume competition and the principal had to ask who I was under all that freakish awesomeness before handing me the award.
Second – Every year my mom made a Halloween treat for my class. Or wait, maybe it was just elementary school, or maybe she skipped a year or two. My memories are all messed up… For sure, she made a couple of Halloweens extra special by either baking a large, domed sponge cake with black icing and licorice sticks shaped like a spider, or serving a severed hand punch to my mostly horrified classmates.
My mom, by the way is awesome. Read More