This weekend, I cooked a lot. It soothes me and makes me very zen. I’m so proud of all I accomplished with a bit of chicken and some veg! I got three meals off of ONE chicken.
First, I made Chicken Fricassee. I cut up the chicken myself – I’m slow but I do OK. I made stock out of the backbone and chicky bits. So Saturday we had a delicious fricassee and I got 2 quarts of stock as well as about 1.5 cups of leftover braising liquid from the fricassee. I had a feeling that braising liquid would be great in a soup…
Sunday I picked the chicky bones leftover from the stock and got about 2/3 cup chicken that I used for a frittata. Sunday afternoon I made chicken soup from the stock and braising liquid. I added 5 pc of frozen chicken tenders, 1 cup mirepoix and 2/3 cup barley. I used dill as the herb because I was in the mood for dill. Voilà! 3 meals off the same chicken!
Also on Sunday, I made eggplant caponata. I started with Anne Burrell’s recipe (http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/anne-burrell/caponata-recipe/index.html) and modified it, of course. I added lemon zest (about a Tbl) and I used basil, cilantro and the fennel fronds for the herbs. I also tossed in some grape tomatoes with the eggplant to roast. YUM! I served this with shoulder steak (since I couldn’t find flat iron). Not a huge fan of shoulder steak, I shoulda gotten the flank steak. The shoulder steak reminded me a lot of hangar steak; kind of stringy but flavourful. It was a really tasty meal that was low fat and lean protein. Yay for tasty diets!
We’ve been doing great on our resolution to cut back booze and quit smoking. Of course, the DJ Incident™ probably has a lot to do with that, but whatever. I’ll take it. I’ve not smoked in a week – even when surrounded by smokers! And I’ve not had more than 1-2 glasses of wine per night in that time as well. Several nights with NONE. Maybe we can cut back the booze without Naltrexone? It’s certainly going well so far! YAY!!
This week I’m in the mood for pickles. I hope the Farmer’s Market has pickling cucumbers! I’m feeling zesty garlic dill, bread ‘n butter and maybe a coupla jars of asparagus. I’ll take pix! Everyone have a great week!