Every now and then I get this urge to do some crazy cooking. Last week I bought and roasted a whole chicken from a Julia Child recipe. Tonight I decided to try it again. I picked mustard broiled chicken and I decided to try my hand at a risotto from a magazine. I bought a whole chicken and had to break it down. It was a horrific experience. All I can say is my knives are incredibly dull and I was so afraid of cutting myself. I want to toss all my knives in the trash!
Since I never broke down a chicken before, I decided to do what anyone would do and find a video to follow on the internet. Poor John had to walk into the kitchen several times to restart the video because my dull knives took forever. He has a sensitive stomach and watching me hack the chicken apart was a bit much for him. I, on the other hand felt liberated. I worried a little bit at the beginning of this semester if I would have trouble when we finally get to our dissection lab in my anatomy course. I think as long as I cook, I'll be fine with blood. It gets easier the more you do it and it really makes you admire your handiwork and how much work actually goes into the simple things like breaking down a chicken.
The broiling bit went ok but the chicken skin started to burn and I was afraid of lighting the house on fire. So after I switched pans, I covered the chicken and baked it at 350. This was a bit of a mistake because it was coated in breadcrumbs and they never really got cooked and crunchy. The chicken was surprisingly well cooked. I was a bit terrified that the broiler would not cook them thoroughly enough but with the baking at the end and a bit of time to rest, the meat was juicy and just perfect.
This week at the grocery store, I dropped more money than we normally do shopping so I could pick up some special ingredients for a fun week of cooking. One item was a wedge of Parmesan. Parmesan is so wonderful freshly grated. I made the risotto from a recipe in a magazine and with the fresh Parmesan it was creamy and decadent and well, the best thing I can say about it is I gave John a large helping and he ate it all.
Cooking like that is definitely a chore that dirties all of my dishes. I don't know how some people do that every day but I always hope the more I cook, the better I will be at it. At this point, I count my success as a clean plate and a compliment from John. He's always supportive even when my food is inedible but it makes me happy when he loves his dinner.
Other highlights from the week include: finishing the coursework for my intro to college course, exercising like crazy, writing my CAFO paper and meeting with our wedding officiant again.
Have a great week everyone!
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