Cutting up a whole chicken: file under "not worth it"

In my ongoing efforts to save money*, I bought a whole chicken to cut up at home. The intention being that I would get the chicken pieces I wanted, plus extra meat and the bones to make chicken soup with, and pay LOW LOW PRICES! I saved $0.50 per pound, which on a 7 lb chicken, added up to a $3.50 SAVINGS!

I have cut up cooked whole chickens before, so I applied the same principles. Cut through the meat to the joints, knife into the joint, crack. Remove the extremities, then separate breasts along breast bone. Okay, now imagine cutting up that lovely smelling hot roast chicken if it was ice cold and slimy. Not cool, dudes! That 7 lb bastard slid thisaway and thataway all over my counter until I had successfully butchered it, and not myself. Mission accomplished.

Over my ziplock bag of broth fixin's and bowl of parts soaking in buttermilk, I considered whether it was worth it. My verdict is no. You can't put a pricetag on having someone else pull the kidneys (testicles? spleen?) out of a raw chicken for you.

Next time at the grocery store I will gladly pay more for cut up chicken.

*by save money I mean pay less for essentials so I can still do stuff like have my cell phone and buy craft supplies.

M is for My other hobbies

I crochet (or knit, now) almost every day, late at night when we're unwinding in front of the TV. But fiber stuff isn't my first or only hobby.

My first hobby is baking. This is Deuce's birthday cake. It's two layers of chocolate cake with white frosting and decorated with mini, plain and peanut butter M&Ms. I got the idea from Parents magazine. It took just as much time to decorate as it did to bake and frost!

I got my love of baking from my dear Grandma Anne. She has "got it." She times cookies by when they smell done. She measures with a scoop. Like, not a measuring cup. She just knows how to bake, and though I'm not as skilled as her, I do love it.

My favorite hobby is scrapbooking. I started scrapbooking before I was married, just to spend time with friends and because I thought it was fun. Now that Deuce is on the scene, I do a LOT of scrapbooking.

This is his second year, what I was able to finish before his party:

(that's an American Crafts D-ring binder, which I love for any project that isn't ever really "done")

Scrapbooking is the way I record my feelings and emotions, express my love for my family, create something I can share, exercise my mind... and let's face it, it's how I spend a lot of money. DeuceDad actually doesn't mind though because I've had this hobby for about 5 years now, longer than I've ever held down a single job, so it's not a waste.

I am so fortunate for all the nap-time I spend on these hobbies. So when I'm not blogging, you know what I'm doing!

Our Backyard

is decked out in Backyardigans! Today is Deuce's 2nd birthday party, and we're ready for action. Guests are coming at 5pm and we're going to grill hots and burgers, play a game, have cake and open gifts. The mechanics of the party are all set, but I'm not ready. I mean, I changed out of my sweatpant capris (hot) into jeans (socially acceptable). But mentally I'm not ready. He's out there in a man's outfit kicking a ball around with his dad. Who is this 2 year old and where did he come from.

I'll share my sentiments to him on his actual birthday (Monday). I don't want to get emotional before people come. I will share my recipe for the pasta salad I make for him that he loves.

Pesto Pasta Salad

1 12oz box tri-color rotini
provolone (ask the deli to slice a 1/2 thick piece), diced
hard salami (again with the thick piece), diced
1 small can sliced black olives
1 small can cece beans (aka chick peas, garbanzo beans)
1 packet Good Seasons Italian dressing mix, prepared with balsamic vinegar
1T basil pesto

Cook the pasta, drain and cool under cold water. Combine the dressing with the pesto. Toss it all together - garlicky and delicious! Add cucumbers, diced bell pepper, cherry tomatoes - anything you want to use up.

A good reason to open a bottle of wine

This Friday I decided to make a nice dinner and open a bottle of the wine we bought in Sonoma. The wine is Cline 2007 Los Carneros Viognier. Dry and fruity, very delicious. I decided to make pasta puttanesca so I could cook with the wine as well as drink it.

Here's a leetle mis en place after the tomatoes were started. This is a good spot to point out one of my favorite kitchen items - Epicurean cutting boards. I have them in 3 sizes and use them every day. Mine are the basic Kitchen series, the thinnest ones, but they are in great shape after 3 years of near daily use and dishwasher cleaning. Have to love the patina (they start out much lighter in color). I'd also like to note that I have never found a gourmet brand of capers. Suggestions? Oh and still using a cheapo knife as we never found the Wustof santoku. But back to the food...



And, if you can excuse my perpetually stained sink, some 10/12 count shrimp I've been saving in the freezer for a celebratory dinner when I get a job. Blerg. But yummy.



And the finished product, steamy and ready for eating!

Want to eat something yummy today?

Puttanesca Sauce with Shrimp

2 T olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 t red pepper flakes
28 oz tomatoes (I had crushed on hand, but I also like whole peeled broken up myself)
1/2 C wine (use whatever you're drinking, red or white)
juice of 1 lemon
2T capers, drained
1/2 C kalamata olives, chopped
1/2 C parsley, chopped
1 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined

In a large pan, heat the oil over medium and saute the garlic and red pepper flakes about 2 minutes until garlic is soft. Add the tomatoes and wine to the pan and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes. Add lemon juice, capers and olives and stir to combine. Nestle the shrimp in the sauce and bring the heat back up to medium high. Cook just until shrimp are done (10/12 count took about 8 minutes). Add parsley and serve over 1 lb pasta.

Not too shabby

We've made some pretty serious progress landscaping the house in the last week. The first step was to remove the original landscaping, then step back and enjoy a clean slate. Check out what DeuceDad accomplished this weekend!


All along the porch were three 5 ft high shrubs. Yes, only three of them. They took a chainsaw and a stump grinder to remove.

I basically just wrangled toddler and dog, and hauled brush. So today I thought I'd contribute a little more to the yard cleanup and demo-ed the "planter." I use the term planter loosely as nothing was planted in it.

This:

Was reduced to this... (don't ask where the grass went. It's only April in upstate NY, which, sadly, is too early for grass)


... and this...

Deceiving how many bricks were in there because many of them were buried. Yes, buried in the earth. When people retire they need to take up golf, not burying masonery supplies in the yard!

After that satisfying demo, it was lunch time and time for some more domestic pursuits. Spring cleaning has created unprecidented amounts of laundry. (2 days, for reference, and contains pillows):

All work and no play makes me hungry for cookies, so I whipped up a batch of these lovelies!

Those are Amish Sugar Cookies, with spring M&Ms added. I hadn't had this recipe since my grandma moved to senior living, so maybe 7 years ago, and I forgot how delicious and fine-textured they are. The M&Ms actually kind of take them down a level. They would have been better substituted for chips in the tollhouse recipe.

But back to the cookies at hand. This is an awesome recipe I need to put back into regular rotation and is from my Grandma Anne - no idea the origin (but if you had to guess? maybe the Amish?).

Amish Sugar Cookies

1 C butter, softened

1 C vegetable oil

1 C sugar

1 C confectioners sugar

2 eggs

1 t vanilla

4 1/2 C flour

1 t baking soda

1 t cream of tartar

Combine the butter, oil and sugars in a large mixing bowl. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat 1 minute until well blended. In a separate bowl, sift and combine flour, baking soda and cream of tartar. Add to wet ingredients and mix to combine. Drop by rounded teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 375 for 8-10 minutes. Enjoy!

Makes 5 dozen.

Free Labrador!

Up for adoption is one Labrador Retriever, no papers, eight months old, neutered, microchipped, friendly with young children! Comes filled with cheesecake!


(At this point I hope you're thinking "CHEESECAKE?" Why would a dog come filled with cheesecake? Oh, because HE ATE ONE and it's IN HIS STOMACH.)

And now you know why I want to give away the dog. My plan for a post-Easter post was to tell the tale of the cassata cake. History, recipe, pictures. A real foodie post. Unfortunately, I chose to bring said cake up to room temp on our sideboard at dog height. Then I chose to shower. I think I could have pulled off one of those things and ended up with an intact dessert, but not both. My brown furry friend decided to jump up, eat the delectable cinnamon crust from all the way around, most likely consuming a few chocolate chips out of the perfectly-textured ricotta filling in the process, leaving the cake unable to be consumed by people, let alone served for a holiday.

I would have loved nothing more than to take his tags off and push him into the street never to be seen again.

But I couldn't. After only a month, I have a real soft spot for this animal, Marly tendencies and all. How can you help but love an animal who loves Deuce this much?

Spring Eating

I love buying in bulk, and it shows.

I don't even have a picture of can-cabinet part deux and the spice cabinet!

One of my spring cleaning/moneysaving tasks for the week is to use up some of the food we have. Did I mention we have a chest freezer too? My goal is really to have one cabinet with canned goods (instead of the second overflowed one), no food on the top of the fridge, and bulk storage in some of the useless recesses of the cabinets (have I mentioned this kitchen is poorly designed? No? Oh, well it is.).

The situation isn't too bad as is, but there are still boxes of kitchen items to be unpacked, and there is nowhere but nowhere to put anything addtional in this kitchen.

The best part is that when we've used up some of the old stuff, I get to buy fresh new pantry-fodder! Don't say it. I know ;)

Tuesday Napday

Tuesday seems to be nap day for me, but I think I can break with tradition just this once. What could possibly be worth it? My house is at that point where it could easily be kept fairly neat, or slide into disaster. Seriously, just 30 minutes of picking up and I'll be happy.

New recipe last night was a bust. Just didn't bring much to the table. I even used a little of my creativity by adding more garlic and toasting the almonds (I didn't have roasted). Then I went to Jazzercise and shook it for an hour.

Then home to work on another Seija Set. That didn't last long, as I immediately dropped my second H hook down the couch (yes, both of them are down there now) and wasn't in the mood to turn the chaise over to get it out.

So I went back to the hat for DeuceDad. I'm starting to be able to rock a little on 2x2 rib. I'm still trying to knit Continental style, and I'm not 100% sure I'm doing it right. I don't "pick" the yarn without the help of another one of my fingers, but this video shows using a finger for help. It just seems a little strange.

I'm going to come out of my knitting shell and go to some groups this week. Tonight is church knitting group. Maybe someone there can answer my Continental question, plus they're going to be my outlet for tons of practice knitting on stashed acrylic. Then Thursday I'm either going to hit a yarn store sit-n-knit, or, if I feel super outgoing, Chicks with Sticks. CWS seems like a younger crowd who knits in bars and coffee houses. A much better opportunity to meet potential dudes, but certainly outside my fibercrafting comfort zone (which until now has been limited to my couches).

Oookay - breakfast, coffee, playgroup, then all this crafty business! Here I go!!

Monday Monday

Off to a good start on the Creativity Project. I made a new recipe for dinner - Asian short ribs from Real Simple. I had never cooked that piece of meat before. It was a hit all the way around the table!

Didn't sew yesterday because BFFs normally super neat and clean house was all pushed into her living room for painting. I need to just bite the bullet, mop my kitchen floor, and sew those curtains here.

Two scrapbook pages - and when I ran out of juice I just stopped. Why push it? Got inspiration from Pencil Lines.

And last but not least, Deuce and I did an "in like a lion, out like a lamb" project. I printed out a lion and a lamb, he colored them, and then glued cotton balls to the lamb and yarn to the lion's mane and tail - so cute!

Today's challenge is to think of a creative way to get Deuce to behave at the library while I check out books. Strap him into the stroller? Worth a try.

The Not-A-Shower

I'm back and ready for action! This week I need to catch up this blog (among other things). First up, the recap of the second-baby-not-shower-luncheon-and-make-and-take.

Friday I prepped the food. The menu was light - veggie tray and little sandwiches, punch and cake.

The sandwiches went off without a hitch. Mix 8 oz softened cream cheese with one packet of dressing mix:

Spread on 8 sandwich wraps (these are Flat Out).

Layer your fixin's - here spinach, ham and swiss. Leave some exposed cream cheese at the top to stick the wraps closed.

Wrap and slice. Easy!

Now the cake. Fuck. This was a lemon chiffon cake from Williams Sonoma "Baking." Lovely, I'm sure. If you don't accidentally leave the oven set to broil from the night before. If one were to do that, one's hypothetical cake would not cook in the middle. And when one turned it upside down to cool as per the instructions, one would dump the whole fucking thing all over the counter.


Fuck. (that's cake batter stuck to the front of my btw)

After a brief trip to Wegmans to get a carrot cake, and then a miraculously uneventful drive north, lunch was ready.

Momma was happy, and got TONS of meals for the freezer.

I would do this party again in a heartbeat. It was fun, and low impact to plan, and I think it provided a real benefit to the mom. Good times!

Christmas Cookie Compromise

Christmas cookie baking is one of my favorite traditions. Every year my mom and I spend one of the days after Thanksgiving baking 10s of dozens of Christmas cookies, many of them Italian recipes handed down from her immigrant grandmother. We use fragrant ingredients like orange zest, cocoa, anise and nuts to create delicious treats we only have once a year.

These cookies are my favorites for sentimental reasons as well as their taste.

DeuceDad really loves chocolate chip.

I maintain that there is nothing special or festive about a chocolate chip cookie. I make them all year long and while they are delicious there's nothing Christmas-y about them.

But last year I figured out a compromise - I made chocolate chip Christmas tree cut-outs. The dough is too sticky to roll them out, so I spread the dough on a half-sheet pan, baked, cooled, then cut with a cutter.

The process begins (with some minor sampling from the corner)



Festive, huh?


The leftovers are the cook's treat:



Feel free to use that idea - you can cut any shape. Enjoy!

Tackle It Tuesday: Menu Planning

It's that time of year again - cooking and eating all the once-a-year special foods you only get at Christmas time. And for us that means buying exotic ingredients that I will no doubt forget at the grocery store unless I have a detailed list. Sharing time!

My birthday is coming up on Saturday (28! Yike!). We're having:
Beef chili
venison chili (depending on how many people are coming)
white chili
corn bread
fritos
toppings: cheddar cheese, sour cream, onions, green onions
beer
cake

We're hosting Christmas eve and having:
DeuceDad's family's seafood salad
DeuceDad's family's tuna recipe
lemon spaghetti
caesar salad
some kind of dessert I haven't decided on yet

And Christmas morning:
Hashbrown casserole
fruit
pecan french toast

So good!!

It was worth the back pain

I have a muscle problem in my back that gets worse when sleeping on unsupportive mattresses and riding in the car for extended periods of time. Guess what I did this weekend? And my back feels...? Exactly.

It was a really nice weekend, though, and worth the aftermath to my back. While I had no internet, there is just enough cell signal there seems to be improving so I wasn't totally out of the loop. Saw family, friends, and didn't go to the scrapbooking store. I know that's a total reversal from Friday! That was my last chance - she's closing - but I'm okay with it because I saw my BFFs and their children (and 2 pregnant bellies!) so it was really great. Oh and MIL fed us until I couldn't walk. She makes this dish she calls Steak Pizzaiola that is so delicious. She uses beef and makes the sauce separately. I thought pizzaiola had bell peppers in it, but whatever, this is so good it could be called Mystery Surprise and I would still love it. I make it with venison, so here is my crockpot version.

Venison Pizzaiola

4 lbs venison roast, steaks or stew meat, or any tough cut of beef
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 28 oz cans tomatoes (any style i.e. diced or crushed)
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 C breadcrumbs
1/2 C grated parmesan reggiano cheese

Combine meat, garlic, tomatoes and spices in the crockpot and cook on Low 8 hours. Transfer to a 9x13" baking dish. If a roast was used, cut the meat into serving size portions. Sprinkle the cheese and breadcrumbs over the casserole. Bake at 325 degrees for 25 minutes. Serve over mashed potatoes or pasta, or with crusty bread.