Days until we come home for Christmas: 15!!
Well, I officially did it! I conquered the whole chicken. Saturday night, the chicken was finally defrosted - for some reason it took three days in the fridge to de-frost. I thought that's how long a really large turkey took - not a three pound chicken. On Friday night, I had gone down to Williams Sonoma and purchased a trusty pair of poultry scissors - "the better to cut you up with, my pretty! whoo-ha-ha-ha" (Said in voice of wicked witch of the west). I took these out and watched my online tutorial one more time (thanks you-tube) and faced the chicken head on. And it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I tackled the legs first, and they practically popped off on their own.
then the wings were a little bit harder i couldn't get them to pop out of their joints but I finally managed to snip them off. Ten I split the back from the breasts and set it aside to make stock with. Getting the breast bone out was actually the hardest part. I ended up splitting it in half and basically having to tear it out, but the breasts didn't look any worse for the wear. Then I took the ribs and skin off and voila! Boneless, skinless chicken breasts:
Then I split the thighs from the drumsticks and removed as much skin as possible and TA-DA!! Take that whole chicken:
So, there you have it. I did it. And the whole chicken only cost $12 and it only took about 15-20 minutes to cut it all up. It was an organic, free-range chicken and Neil actually commented on how much better it seemed to taste than regular chicken. I don't think I'll go back to the old way. We'll see how long that lasts. :) So, in the spirit of doing things myself, I embarked on a whole day of making things from scratch. First up: Ricotta cheese for cannelloni later in the week:
Then, since I was really feeling in the swing of things, I decided to conquer something new: butter! It's so simple to make, you just whip heavy cream in your stand mixer until it goes past whip cream and the butter and buttermilk separate, and voila again! Butter!
Then, you "wash" the butter with ice water - meaning just process it some more - until all the buttermilk is removed, and then salt it and put it in the fridge. It was a lot of fun!
Then, to finish off the day, I made some homemade granola - with slivered almonds and coconut flakes and maple syrup, brown sugar and cranberries. I had some in my homemade yogurt today and it was delicious. I'll post it soon, if anyone is interested. Yummy!
I felt like it was a very successful weekend in the kitchen. Oh, and we finally got the lights up on our tree. Maybe soon we will actually get the ornaments on. But it looks very beautiful, and I am finally starting to get in the Christmas spirit. It's been a little colder here this week, and it was overcast on Sunday, so that helps! Neil has his last few classes this week and then, after Friday, he is all done until Jan. 20th. I think it will be a nice break for him, he's been working pretty hard and I think he's a little bit tired out.
Ok - I'm off to make some Christmas cookies and Wassail!
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