The Beauty of Brine

Happy New Year! I was originally planning to talk about our holiday menus today. We had a ton of good stuff to eat, many enjoyable hours were spent in the kitchen and most items surpassed expectations. But they all paled next to The Brined Chicken. Thus the title and focus of today's post will outline the beauty of brine. Veggies be warned and come back again later.

How could something so simple, so low tech, so frugal make so much difference in a piece of meat? With nothing more than a gallon of water and a few ounces of salt, a meal can be transformed from "oh, chicken again" to "don't you dare come between me and that chicken!" There are a jillion web pages that explain the science behind the process that keep lean meats moist and tender. I recommend http://www.cooksillustrated.com/images/document/howto/ND01_ISBriningbasics.pdf, which gives a quick and dirty lesson on the how and why.

But it's enough for me to know that it does work wonders. Brine is to chicken and pork what a crock pot is to beef or lamb. We had a whole chicken ordered special from our friendly neighborhood butcher. It was a big boy because we do love us some leftover chicken salad (with a little dill and carrot, oh my!). We generally roast our chickies in the rotisserie. You know, set it and forget it - we're also suckers for As Seen on TV, remind me to tell you about our Ninja. Anyway, the rotisserie is a wonderful invention and totally worth the hundred bucks or so. It keeps the chicken moist and the skin gets all crispy, just fabulous. But I do have to admit that a brined chicken makes that taste like sawdust. We soaked our boy in a simple mixture of 1 gallon water, 1/2 cup salt, four cloves of garlic and some crushed rosemary. Set the pot in the fridge for a day. The Husband pulled him out and gave him a rinse Christmas Eve morning and patted him dry. When I got home from work, we stuck him in the rotisserie for an hour and three quarters. We usually give some additional searing time after the meat is done to make sure everything crisps nicely, but maybe it was something in the brining that made it unnecessary this time.

I don't usually eat the chicken skin. I love it, but it's completely incompatible with Weight Watchers. However, there was no turning it down. Resistance was futile. And I honestly didn't try very hard. Oh my goodness, bless my buttons, and come all ye faithful, I have never had a chicken like this. It was everything I've always wanted a chicken to be, but never knew it could. Please try it. Really, please get a chicken this week and brine it before cooking. You won't be sorry, I promise you.

We have no leftovers...

Other menu items over the last 10 days included a Chinese buffet, phyllo dumplings, stuffed mushrooms, sundried tomato dip, baked la-ziti and baklava. Fruit and veggie cleanse tomorrow! Best wishes for a happy, healthy and successful New Year!

All Around the Mulberry Tree

No bushes here. These babies are full-grown trees, and they mean business. I do believe these trees intend to feed the entire world, or at least their corner of it. Check them out:

See what I mean? They're HUGE. I've never seen so many berries in one place in my life. I don't know if you can see it, but the ground below the trees is covered - literally caked with mulberries (click on any photo to see it original size). So yahoo. Free fruit, right? Um...sure.

My first mulberrying experience was a little overwhelming. First, the trees grow enormously heavy branches that reach from around 10 feet up the trunk to almost brush the ground. You stand underneath them and it's like being in a green, fruit-scented cave it's so thick. Little bugs and teeny tiny spiders. I don't mind, they have to eat, too. The berries grow strangely, right up close to the branch in a V of the leaves. Look here:

And they were insanely ripe, so that I didn't even really have to pick them, I just held the bowl underneath and sort of brushed them with my fingers. They plop right into the bowl. The thing is, they were so ripe, that every time a branch moved - because I moved it with my touch, or a breeze blew, or it just got too darn heavy from all the fruit - berries fell off from above. That was what made it strange, it started raining mulberries in my green fruit-scented cave. Squishing in the fallen stuff on the ground ( I had to scrape my shoes off after, it looked just like preserves), berries in my hair, in my pockets, down my blouse...it was a whole lot of mulberry.

But here's what I brought in after 5-10 minutes:

It's hard to see, but that's a two-quart dish, about 3/4 full. Not bad for a few minutes of weirdness. They have tiny little stems that you don't even have to remove if you're eating out of hand. I couldn't believe how sweet they were. Next year, I'm going to cook & strain them to add to strawberry jam. The sweetness of the mulberries and the tartness of the strawberries should offset each other perfectly. No sugar, no fuss, just a little pectin and we're good to go!

Have I mentioned how much I love summer food?

Here's what's in season now:

Squash of all kinds
Lovely fresh peas (best eaten directly out of the pod while standing in the garden)
Cherries
Blueberries are hanging on
Onions
Raspberries
Broccoli
Garlic is fabulous
Cucumbers
Beans are coming
Carrots and peppers will be here soon

Our garden, like everyone else's in the area, has taken a beating this year. We've had an insane amount of rain. Not gentle summer showers, either, but massive harmful downpours. Our peppers are struggling, and our tomatoes had better learn the backstroke if they want to survive. The farmers are having a tough time of it as well, which means higher prices at the local markets and farmstands. We persevere, but are not very hopeful that we will be able to harvest enough to see us through the winter like we did last year. At least we have the luxury of a hundred grocery stores, but there is nothing like opening a jar of your own tomatoes in February - it's like you've canned a bit of summer!

Have a great one!

Silence

I haven't updated lately, but in all honesty, I haven't had much to say. Yes, Mom, you can mark it on your calendar! Work is fine, home is fine, The Tall Guy is fine, the kids continue status quo. I've had bronchitis for two weeks, but am recovering now. We're settling into the house, which will be better once we buy some furniture. The garden is gone, leaves are changing and things are starting to snuggle down towards winter. My energy and motivation are pretty low these days, in keeping with the diminishing daylight hours and f-r-e-e-z-i-n-g morning temperatures.

But I will pick this up again soon. A dear friend and her new hubby are expecting their first child in the spring, so that means lots of sweet little baby creations over the winter. I've been working on a pizza dough recipe and will share it when it's perfected. The Tall Guy has taken on some projects to be completed over the winter season, and we'll keep you posted on those also.

In the meantime, I have two recipes to share with you:

**The World's Best Chocolate Chip Cookies, And I Mean That Sincerely**

1 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F and grease two cookie sheets.

1. Mix together flour, baking soda and cinnamon.
2. Beat together butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar at medium speed until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla.
3. At low speed, beat in flour mixture until blended. Note: I use my food processor for steps 1 & 2, it just seems easier 'cause I'm lazy.
4. Fold in oats and chocolate chips. Cover with plastic wrap, chill for 1 hour.
5. Shape dough into 1" balls, place 2" apart on greased cookie sheets and flatten each cookie slightly.
6. Bake until lightly browned. The recipe calls for 10-12 minutes, but I take them out around 8 minutes since we like them very soft and chewy. Use your own judgment. Put cookie sheets on wire racks for 2-3 minutes to cool, then transfer cookies to racks to cool completely.


**Chewy Flour Tortillas**

These are ridiculously easy and SO MUCH BETTER than store-bought tortillas.

2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 tsp vegetable oil
3/4 cup warm milk

Mix all ingredients together and form into a large ball. Cover with plastic wrap or a towel and rest for 20 minutes in a warm place. Separate into 8 balls and rest another 10 minutes. Roll into discs, they will be smaller than you're used to, around 6" in diameter and irregularly shaped. Heat a pan, skillet or griddle over medium - high heat. DO NOT USE OIL! Place tortillas on dry surface for 1-2 minutes. When one side starts to get light brown spots, flip over and toast the other side. Use hot for tortillas with Mexican ingredients; or use cold with hummus or salad / sandwich toppings as you would flatbread or pita. Fantabulous!

Enjoy :)

SALSARIFIC!

This weekend we finally found enough ingredients ripe and ready at the same time for salsa. So I made it, and ya know what? It was beautiful. I mean it was really, truly a thing of beauty. Here's the recipe:

A bunch of tomatoes, any kind, really ripe
Banana peppers
Walla-Walla Onion
Garlic
Sea Salt

Chop it all as fine as you can, mix it all together and refrigerate overnight. Next day, grab some chips or a spoon or a snow shovel and gorge until you can't take anymore. Finis.

I know, there are no quantities listed. Because that's how we learn to be flexible and cook creatively. But if pressed, I would tell you that I used 1/3 as much banana pepper and 1/2 as much onion as I did tomato. And I don't remember how many cloves of garlic, but I think there were four. And a few dashes of salt. It made a medium Gladware bowlful, minus what The Tall Guy stole from me during the process. It was delicious.

What else have we been doing? Well, zucchini, of course. Lots and lots of zucchini - in stir fry and pickles and salads and bread and cookies and gifts for anyone who will take them. It's not been too overwhelming because we eat them almost every day so as not to be overrun in our sleep. Also yellow summer squash, early spaghetti squash, tomatoes, cukes, tomatoes, potatoes, tomatoes, green beans, asparagus beans, tomatoes and those amazing onions. Peaches, plums, dill, basil, oregano and bee balm (for tea). Soon the tomatoes will start arriving in bushels instead of pecks and The Mama and I will have a day of canning sauces, salsas and chutneys.

I love summer!

Soup & Census

I was originally going to call this post "What's for Dinner?", but the alliteration of "Soup & Census" struck me as a good title. It was a busy weekend, even though we specifically made no plans. Sunday evening snuck up on me, so as I usually do when it's dinner time and I have no dinner plans, I make soup from what's available in the house. Tonight it's red lentil soup with barley:

It came out very nice. The variety of textures is wonderful: the lentils are broken down, a little gritty and earthy, the barley is springy and I threw in a handful of flax (because why not?) which stayed crispy-crunchy. It's a thing of beauty. I can't give you a proper recipe because I rarely use one unless I'm baking. But I can tell you what I put in it and how it was prepared.

One slice bacon and 1/4 pound breakfast sausage**, reserved for this purpose
One bunch green onions
Fresh marjoram leaves, left over from making herb butter
One can diced tomatoes
3 cups red lentils, picked over
1 cup barley, picked over
About 2 1/2 qts water
3 chicken bullion cubes
Salt & pepper
Cumin
Red pepper
Shot of olive oil

**Note: When I refer to cooking any kind of meat, be assured that we use only free-range, vegetable- and grass-fed, antibiotic and hormone-free animals from our local butcher. It's the right thing to do.

I broke up the bacon and sausage into tiny pieces and browned them in a stockpot. When they were just done, I added the green onion that I ran in the food processor and the olive oil. While that was softening, I whirled the marjoram and flax in the processor with a cup or so of water. This didn't actually grind the flax, but busted them enough to release their oils (rich in Omegas!) in the abbreviated cooking time the lentils require. Once the onions were soft, I stirred the barley into the oil for a minute. I don't know why, but this rice technique I learned from a Mexican mama keeps the barley happy during it's simmer. Add the water, tomatoes, spices and lentils and you're on the way. Lentils and barley take about the same amount of time to cook (approx. 45 minutes) and combine to form a complete protein. Plus that yummy texture attribute I mentioned.

So as that was bubbling merrily, I opened yesterday's neglected mail and found this:


Sorry about the crap cropping job, but this "American Community Survey" is, in fact, the new 28-page census. Now normally I wouldn't mind filling this out, civic duty and all that. Plus I'm one of those weird people who truly enjoy filling out surveys and regularly get several of them in the mail. But the second I saw the big print (in bold and italics) informing me that I am required by federal law to complete and return this form ASAP, the Taurus in me rocked back on my heels and said "Oh, yeah?"

I'm resistant.