Friday, March 19, 2010

Moving Forward...then Back Again...

Like a dance this moving business is. We are both up to our ears in each of the many projects required to get us settled less than a mile from here and progress (what's that?) IS being made...sort of. Like any project of human beings it had a beginning (now long gone), a middle (stretched out and bloated like a beached whale) and someday, somehow, some way...an end (when we actually don't go home at 4 pm and take naps to recover). My bathroom project...remember that? Is tiling the better part of 90% of the room in white 3X6 inch "subway" tiles. I'm about 25% finished at this point with the laying of the tiles. I removed the old base cabinet and bathroom sink yesterday in preparation to doing the tiling there but discovered that the new cabinet (actually an olde dresser) has issues with the existing drain pipe coming up from the floor so it won't fit close to the wall like it should. Drat. Soooo something HAS to be done to the drain to relocate it nearer the wall, make it smaller (not that!) or...who knows. I get to sort that out someday real-soon-now though. After laying 120 tile or so along the boundary between the shower itself and the rest of the room I quit to let the thinset mortar grab and went off to work on the kitchen ever again. This time I put the top on the oven cabinet and a shelf above the microwave and tried to sort out just how I'm going to wire in the new LED under cabinet lights. Ever so much fun. Kelly had abandoned me earlier as her painting chore had taken it's toll on her long anguished neck and some rest was needed.

I finally gave up the ghost on the place about 3:45 and wandered on home thinking about Hunter's Chicken...better known as Chicken Cacciatore which I made last afternoon as our dinner. It's one of my favorite comfort foods and besides I had already sautéed the chicken and it was ready for further stewing in the refrigerator. These days I'm leery of battery chickens, all laid out their with their pads of blood and fluid soaked packaging...I had a package of 6 drumsticks and thighs refrigerated for the last 2 days only and was anxious to get them clean and preped for use sometime this week. Thus I removed them from the wrappers, discarded all of the fluid soaked packaging, washed them under cold water, dried them off then salted them liberally. Next I cut the drumstick from the piece and trimmed the amazing extra fat layers from the thigh portion, Tyson's battery birds may not live long (5-6 weeks at most I suspect) but they gain weight from all that corn they eat and the weight is not all protein, it's yellow bird fat. Yuk. The French hens we get as battery birds are no where near as fatty and unmuscled as these poor things. Dark meat? What's that?! These things probably don't even walk around, they just eat standing in one spot til their last meal, then the jig is up! It makes for a rather disgusting view of animal raising but that's what the evidence shows. I used to LIKE dark meat, hard to come by nowadays. Anyway I poured about 1/2 cup of corn oil in the gallon lidded iron pot and heated it to just below smoking...about 375 degrees, then fried 4 pieces at a time for about 15 minutes total time. This should keep the bacteria count down while I dream up three meals for the resulting 12 pieces of chicken. One of them is the Hunter's Chicken for tonight.

Here's my recipe, many good ones exist for this classic Italian dish, Food Network.com has many for you to choose from if you don't like mine.

Makes a hearty single plate dinner for 4:

4 chicken drumsticks
4 chicken thighs
1 cup oil, canola, corn, sunflower etc.
1 teaspoon fine salt
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper

Heat the oil to just below the smoking point in a heavy skillet or pot.

Salt and pepper the pieces evenly.

Sauté (fry) the chicken a few pieces at a time for about 15 minutes turning twice.

Remove to paper towels to drain and cool. Now to the braising liquid preparation.

Braising Liquid/Sauce:
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium white onions, diced.
1 stalk celery sliced lengthwise then into 1/8th inch slices crosswise.
1 medium carrot cut length wise and sliced crosswise 1/8th in slices.
6-8 Roma tomatoes 1/2" dice.
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 cup chicken, vegetable stock
1 cup dry white wine
pinch of red pepper flakes
4 cloves garlic, diced fine

Pasta:
1 lb dried Fettuccini
2 tablespoons butter.


Sauté onions til lightly browned and transparent, 5-7 minutes.
Add celery, carrot, oregano, sauté another 3-5 minutes.
Add garlic, sauté another 1 minute
Add Tomatoes and salt, sauté another 2 minutes.
Add Chicken/Vegie stock, Dry white wine, pepper and red chili flakes.
Bring to a boil.
Reduce heat to low and add chicken being sure chicken is about 1/2 covered with
the liquid...do not immerse the chicken. Braise covered for 2 hours.

When about 40 minutes to go...
Boil 4 qts water (30 minutes??) with handful of coarse salt, add Fettuccini and cook per mfr's recommendation for "al dente" cooking. Drain, add butter and toss.

To plate:

Add Fettuccini to plate about 4 oz per person (4 servings)
place 2 pieces of chicken on top of the Fettuccini.
Ladle braising liquid over the chicken.
Add grated pecorino or parmigiano reggiano to finish the dish.

Til next time!

Site of The Day: http://atlasobscura.com/

Monday, March 15, 2010

The Wonders of Tiling

3 X 6 inch (yes the US is STILL doing English system measurements...even the English have adopted Metric but oh...no...we couldn't do THAT! So 3 X 6 INCH white, what we call SUBWAY TILE, is being installed by yours truely in the back bathroom of 311 Morgan our new home-to-be. I LIKE tile better than most wall coverings for bathrooms and kitchens as it's waterproof nature and timeless LOOK appeal to my sensibilities. Even the bloody ROMANS did tile, and the GREEKS as well! All over the middle east are amazing displays of beautifully artistic tile fountains, courtyards, building interiors...amazing stuff and beautiful to see and with great longlasting utility. Thus our choice for the bathroom(s) of the Morgan street, Suisun Street and Marina Blvd houses.





As rentals they have lived quite well with the tile work we did 15 years ago excepting the front bathroom of Morgan Street...dang it! The rot has allowed the tub to drop over an INCH into the subfloor area...which means that before we can USE the bathtub/shower in the front bathroom the tub has to be removed and the sub floor inspected and repaired/replaced. Nasty work. I will do it.