I did my best

I love my pal Alicia Bien. She's funny and smart, and even if she wasn't, she has a big, kind heart and I'm just a sucker for that. Although she mostly writes scripts, she recently wrote a book, The Evolution of a Wine Drinker, that I bought and read and adore. It's a great collection of essays about her journey toward being an oenophile. They're all really informative and fun and funny, because she's the nice, adventurous kind of wine connoisseur, not the snobby I-Don't-Drink-California-Wines kind.

Recently, she's put a couple of recipes on her blog (New House Girl), recipes that look so delish and so simple, even I might be able to cook them. And I'm the woman who knows how to ruin a recipe in a thousand different and unique ways.

I was at the store tonight with the following grocery list: dog food, kitty litter, Excedrin, and dinner. I looked up and down several aisles but could not find a box, bag, or can marked "dinner" so I had to punt. What could I toss together in a short time?

Wait - what was that chicken and rice recipe that Alicia made? I remembered the ingredients (or thought I did) and made a quick run through the store, gathering what I didn't have at home. When I did get home, well... here's how it went down.

Alicia says:

INGREDIENTS: feeds 5

Rice; 2 dry cups (plain, not Jasmine or any other flavored rice)

Water; 4 wet/fluid cups for the rice (American measurements are so confusing) 

Chicken legs; 10 (they cook faster than chicken breasts and aren't too large so guests can eat one or two without feeling piggy. Or maybe I'm talking about me feeling piggy?) 

Soup stock; 2 cubes (Use to flavor the rice. I use the low salt or sea salt stock varieties)

Bread crumbs; 1/2 cup (In advance, I grate hardened rice flour bread or rye flour bread and store the crumbs for just this type of impromptu dinner. Plus I like knowing all the spices used in the bread crumbs--in this case zero)

Onions; 2 diced 

Celery; 6 stalks diced
Carrots; 5 peeled and diced

Ground coriander; 2 teaspoons

Cumin; 2 teaspoons

Saffron; 1/2 teaspoon. (This will color the rice yellow and is purely used for cosmetic purposes and therefore not necessary since Saffron is expen$ive)

Salt; a couple shakes.

Parsley; chopped (I like the curly variety)

Red wine; 3/4 cup for the pot. The rest for you and your guests. 

 

Gayle did:

I remembered the chicken, onions, celery and carrots. At home, I knew I had rice, bread crumbs, salt, and red wine. The rest ran through my brain like water through a sieve.

 

Alicia says:

 

DIRECTIONS:

1) Bring a pot of the water to boil on the stove top with the soup stock cubes and saffron. Once water boils, add rice. Bring rice to a boil then turn to simmer. 

2) Heat olive oil in Dutch oven over medium high heat. 

3) Open a bottle of red wine and pour yourself a glass.

4) Pour bread crumbs into mixing bowl and coat drumsticks. Put drumsticks into Dutch oven. Chicken needs time to cook, but once both sides of drumsticks are browned, add salt, onions, carrots, celery, coriander and cumin. Cover.

5) Add wine. Cover. The moisture will help imbue the chicken with these flavors and help cook it. 

6) When the meat is falling off the bone, dish into shallow bowls, garnish with fresh parsley, stir rice and dish up.

7) Serve. Voila!

 

Gayle did:

 

1. We have a rice cooker and I wanted brown rice and I forgot the stock cubes and the saffron was optional anyway, so sue me.

 

2. Check. Olive oil heated.

 

3. I actually did this step first. Check.

 

4. I opened the package of drumsticks and saw there was only five, not six. Did I need to reduce everything by 16%? Punting, I coated them with bread crumbs and browned them in the Dutch oven, then added the onions, celery, and carrots.

 

Um... here's the thing... I dismantled my spice cabinet and could not find cumin. I did find coriander seeds, but they were from a spice rack I got for my first marriage in the 70s. Is there an expiration date on spice?

 

Again, Gayle the Punter to the rescue, I thought about the glass of wine I poured in step 0. It was a Barbera, and a damn fine one. Hmm, I says to myself, if I use the Barbera* to cook the chicken, and Barbera is an Italian grape, why don't I substitute Italian seasoning?

 

*I know what you're thinking: that chick is wasting perfectly good wine to cook? Because I subscribe to the philosophy that once the alcohol has been burned away, what's left should be deliciousness, not cheap-bitter-fakery.

 

5. Wine added, to the pot and my glass. Check.

 

6. It took about 40 minutes for the meat to fall of the bone. I didn't have parsley, but here's how mine turned out -

 

 

7. Voila indeed.

 

So maybe I took a few liberties with Alicia's recipe, but it was easy and completely delicious, even with the substitutions.

 

Thank you, Alicia! If you write a cookbook, I'm in!

P.S. BeeTeeDubs, Alicia is having a book signing next Tuesday, November 19, at the V Wine Room, 903 Westbourne Drive, West Hollywood, from 7:30 to 9:30. I have to work in Chino Hills until 5:00, but I plan to schlep my horsey self to WeHo just to pick up SEVERAL autographed copies of her book!
 

 

I'm tired

Ah, the post-Christmas malaise. In ye olde days, I used to sleep all day on December 26th, then be up and on my feet by the 27th. This year, when I haven't been forced to work, I've been sleeping.

Of course, this is the first year we've had Christmas dinner at our house for Dale's family (mine is 2,000 miles away in Illinois). I was up at 7 a.m. to get the turkey in the oven so it could be done in time to get out of the oven and let the ham have its turn. After that was another 45 minutes for the stuffing that didn't fit into the bird and another 30 minutes for the sweet potatoes. While I wasn't cooking, I was getting out plates and arranging the tables and giving my darling son instructions about which floor to mop and what to get at the store, etc.

There's a million little things to do when you're trying to make 15 people comfortable in your home.

I got the last dish dried and put away at 1 a.m.

Don't misunderstand - I loved having the bustle of so many people in my house. It was fun to take care of them and make sure everyone had something to drink or eat or unwrap. Dale's youngest brother and his family spent the night and our nieces and nephews were nothing but good.

And now I'm exhausted.

The worst part is, the fog of fatigue has kept me from writing. It took me about three times longer than normal to write my column this week. I opened the file on my latest Peri story, looked at it, and closed it again. All I can do is play with my new Kindle Fire and do the puzzles in the newspaper.

My Fire and my mechanical pencil - that's all I need to rejuvenate.

This woman was not exhausted from cooking and cleaning, but every time I think, "I'm tired," I think of this:



How about you? How did you survive the holidays? Or are you TIRED?