The world’s best, easiest chicken stock:

1. Buy a slow-cooker and a whole duck

2. Tear apart duck

4. Put duck and 1.5 quarts water in slow-cooker

5. Set slow-cooker to 6 hours

We supplement the dog’s kibble with shredded duck (she seems to have a bad reaction to chicken) so I hit on this as the laziest way to prepare it.  It turns out that the (essentially leftover) cooking water is far and away the best “chicken” stock I’ve ever made, and I’ve made some pretty elaborate recipes.  If I happen to have random vegetables like carrots and celery around I’ll throw them in, but it really doesn’t matter.

You can strain or clarify it if you like (I don’t bother), but de-fatting it is trivial: just freeze it and scoop off the solid fat later. I have completely given up buying prepared stock now.

What better thing to do on a weekend of highs around 100F than spend time outside on the porch planting things?

This year’s haul:

• Basil (sweet, purple, Thai)
• Thyme (common)
• Oregano (Greek, hot)
• Lettuce (Romaine, two curly varieties)
• Mint
• Cilantro
• 2 tomatoes (Sunbrite)
• Lavender
• Rosemary
• Variegated sage

The lettuce was started back in April and won’t last much longer (I already pulled some of it to make room for basil). I’m not sure what I’ll do with the remaining space — maybe some late-season strawberries?

Oriental Veal Casserole

1 lb veal
2 tbs shortening
1.5 cups sliced celery
2 small onions
1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 can condensed cream of chicken soup
2 tbs soy sauce
.25 cups uncooked rice

Hot Dog Casserole

Potato Buds ®
.25 cups sweet pickle relish
2 tbs salad dressing
1 tbs instant minced onion
2 tsp mustard
4-6 frankfurters (sliced in half and inserted into the casserole dish upright)

Cereal Topping for Vegetables

Enhance vegetables with a buttery, crisp topping. A delightful disguise for warmed-overs.

1 half cup Cheerios ®, Kix ® or Wheaties ®
1 tablespoon butter
salt

Stir and sprinkle over creamed vegetables

Franko Corn Thins

2 eggs
3/4 cups milk
1 package Betty Crocker Corn Muffin Mix ®
Parmesan cheese
5 frankfurters
1 teaspoon celery seed
1/4 teaspoon garlic salt
salt

Cheese Pennies

1 jar Pasteurized Processed Sharp American Cheese Spread ®
1/4 cup shortening
3/4 cup Gold Medal ® flour

Other recipes omitted:

Olive Cheese Balls
Spicy English Muffins
Cereal Funny Faces
Sassy Sausages
Nippy Shrimp
Polynesian Ham Loaf
Tomato Bursts

Usually when it’s our birthdays we have two dinners: one is a big multi-course prix fixe extravaganza at a nice restaurant, and the other is cooked at home. The home-cooked dinners are easy comfort food (in their own way) and unlike most nights, the other person does not have to do the dishes. That’s the real gift.

When I make dinner for Dan’s birthday, it’s ma po tofu, adapted from Land of Plenty by Fuschia Dunlop.

My birthday was more recently. Dan made pastitsio, from Cook’s Illustrated Best 30 Minute Recipe.

Recipes follow:
Read the rest of this entry »

Last night I had to prepare an impromptu dinner for one. I made a veggie burger with bacon and cheese. The burger was cooked in the bacon fat. It was delicious.

On Friday I had dinner at NYC’s molecular gastronomie center, WD-50. We ordered the tasting menu. An incomplete list of what we had:

• Foie gras, extruded into a squared-off tube, and tied, somehow, in a knot
• Deconstructed French onion soup
• Deconstructed eggs Benedict (the egg yolk sous vide, the hollandaise sauce separated, breaded, and deep-fried)
• “Pizza pebbles”

I was disappointed that “pretzel consomme” and “popcorn soup” were only available a la carte.

1. Brew coffee at 2-3X normal strength
2. Fill a small bucket with ice water
3. Fill a tall metal drinking cup with ice and put it in the bucket. You may need to hold the cup down so it doesn’t float
4. Slowly pour the iced coffee into the cup

The metal will conduct the heat quickly away from the cup and into the ice water bath. You should go from scorching hot coffee to cold iced coffee in under 30 seconds, with minimal melting of the interior ice cubes.

If you take your iced coffee with milk or cream, try soy milk instead, even if you aren’t vegan. Trust me.

We are having a house guest tomorrow so tonight I kicked off my vacation with some CLEANING.

Normally I am a slob, but sometimes when I start cleaning things get a little out of control and I lose all sense of proportion. For example, in the kitchen: I did not just clean all the visible surfaces. I also got on a chair and cleaned the most inaccessible of the cabinets, as if our house guest was going to show up, nod appreciatively, and then immediately begin inspecting our pantry. Actually, this particular house guest may do just that.

Anyway, I threw out anything that satisfied one or more of the following conditions:

1. Had moved with us from our previous house two years ago
2. Was in a plastic bag
3. Was unidentifiable

Curiously, almost everything I tossed looked about the same. I am pretty sure the set of six things included at least:

1. Textured vegetable protein
2. Panko bread crumbs
3. Dried coconut
4. Rolled oats
5. Different bag of textured vegetable protein

Several months ago I threw out a whole container of textured vegetable protein because it was contaminated with pantry moths. The thing is, I can remember purchasing TVP only once, and for one use (veggie chili). I like it in veggie chili but not so much that I would keep buying it. I am starting to suspect it can undergo mitosis, and then gather itself snugly into little plastic bags.

I finally purchased some Pimm’s.

The story about how I became obsessed with acquiring Pimm’s is extremely boring so I won’t reproduce it here. It is enough to say that the moment this afternoon when I retrieved a case of Tremont Ale, stood on it, and reached up onto a high, neglected shelf at The Wine and Cheese Cask to retrieve my dusty prize was a highlight of the week.

The Pimm’s cocktail, as we interpreted it:

• 1 highball glass, half-filled with ice
• 2.5 oz Pimm’s No. 1
• .5oz Drambuie
• Juice of 1/2 lime
• Club soda
• Sprig of mint

Salad greens:

Minty mojito: