elrhiarhodan

I've said many times over the last two weeks that things could have been so much worse for me. My home was undamaged, ALL my friends have been unstintingly supportive, and I always had a place to go when I needed light and shelter and (gross) bathing facilities.

( Hopefully, this will be the very last time I use my 'Fuck You, Sandy' tag. )

Hiya Flisties...

One of the things I love to eat most in the world is cold Fruit Soup. I used to be able to get this awesome stuff at Fairway, but it's been years since the one by me stocked it.

The thing is, I've never found a recipe that I've liked.  Most of them have some type of dairy or soy or rice startch in it.  I just want something that can be made from hardstone fruits and watermelons and strawberries and maybe even some pineapple.  I know that I should just experiment, but so many of you are awesome cooks, I thought I'd ask you for your recipies.

Bring on the awesome, and I'd write something for you.  Maybe foodporn.

It's not that I don't like to cook, or I am a bad cook - it's just that I rarely have the time or the desire to cook.  My work days start at 7:30, and I usually don't get home until well after 6, so the last thing I want to do is come home and start with the shopping and the prepping and the cleaning and doing and cleaning again.  We usually end up eating out two or three nights a week, and do the left overs on the other nights.  Expensive and not terribly healthy, I know - but this is the result of busy lives.

I like holiday cooking - getting menus together, conferring with friends about recipes.  D does most of my prep work - I couldn't ask for a better sous-chef.  But I always seem to go overboard - my Thanksgiving menu had five courses - it would have been six if I didn't burn the soup, plus 7 different desserts (M doesn't like this, and A & D don't care for that, plus F & G brought a delicious dark chocolate and orange liquor torte, and the Champagne and strawberry intermezzo wasn't needed since there was no soup, so that became part of the dessert menu too). 

Passover's coming up, and while I still manage not to find the Hagaddahs, I enjoy the "festive meal."  It's a link back to childhood.  May not invite A & D, but definitely F & G.  M, too.  

But, I digress.  A few weeks back, I bought a slow cooker - the big oval one that's on sale in Costco.  Made beef short ribs first, very good, but that's a once a year thing.  The next week, made a chicken dish - not so successful.  Too much cumin, and the white meat was still too dry - despite 7 hours cooking in a very rich broth.  I was able to salvage it by making a mushroom and onion risotto the next night and shredding the leftover chicken into it.  There was still too much cumin, but D enjoyed it. 

Today, the only thing I needed to do (besides working on the mfnl)  was return some DVDs to the library (that was a successful trip - got four seasons of Supernatural, plus the first (and only?) season of Castle - thank you flist for broadening my horizons).  Given the awful weather and the fully defrosted chicken parts in the fridge, there was absolutely no excuse not to cook today.   I just let my inner Alton Brown out.   Browned the chicken (skinless legs and thighs), seasoned it with the usual suspects*, braised it in chicken stock with a few splashes of Worchestershire and a tablespoon of corse ground mustard, sauteed some onions and garlic too - and just let it simmer in the cooker for 5 hours.  Did the mushroom and onion risotto again, but used the cooking liquid from the chicken as well as the organic stock from Trader Joe's.  I think it was the best thing I've ever made.  (BTW - D just came down to thank me again for such a wonderful meal).

The leftovers will probably be better tomorrow.





*Celery salt, dried mustard, garlic powder, white pepper, onion powder and a dash of koshering salt.  If you season after browning, the spices won't burn.