Get Rich Slowly is a good personal-finance site. Some of his posts are snooze-inducing (like today’s Fashion on a Budget), but I find most of the content and links to be interesting and useful. I also like Motley Fool, where I can check my CAPS page to see how my picks are doing against the other players.
Check out the Unalaska Advertiser police blotter. It contains all the illegal, semi-legal and questionable activities in a small Alaska town. It is (unintentionally) hilarious.
So the father-in-law was here all weekend. Friday night we had an excellent dinner at Arroy Chop House, right down the street from my place. I think the wife’s veal chop was the best thing we ordered. Saturday we went to the Grammy Museum, which was really good. Best thing there? The interactive music-genre-thing when you first walk in. Saturday night we went to Old Kiev Restaurant, which was….just OK. Our first mistake was to make a 7:30 reservation, when no one even starts showing up until 9 PM. There was no show that evening, and the food was good but not great. The pelmeni we had as an appetizer was probably the tastiest. Sunday we watched the superbowl and I fried a whole mess of chicken. I think my fried chicken recipe is finally….well, I won’t say “perfected,” since Ella’s chicken is better than mine, but I will say that it’s “damn good.” I changed the spices, cooking time, and cooking temp, and also added the fat from the father-in-law’s ribeye on Friday night. I plan to post the recipe at some point. I actually wrote it down this time.
Today they are trimming trees outside my apartment. They have been at it since 9 AM. I have a headache. They show no signs of stopping. I may just lose my mind.
*I edited this again on Wednesday morning to add the vinaigrette on the chicken. I keep realizing things I forgot to add here.
This is my roast chicken recipe. The wife and I have this for dinner probably every other Sunday. I try to time it so that it is done right when we sit down to watch 60 minutes.
I started with a recipe in The Joy of Cooking and added my own touches. You can use any mix of chicken, though I start up with a whole cut-up chicken. When this is done, you will have several good servings of chicken, plus roasted veggies to serve on the side, plus some gravy. You’ll need a roasting pan with a raised rack to make sure that you keep your chicken skin crispy.
No reason why you couldn’t do this with all drumsticks - I have used this recipe when making chicken salad for a pool party and just used all breasts, then taken the roasted veggies as a snack for the hostess.
I like to eat the thighs, the wife eats the wings and drumsticks, and the breasts get chopped up for chicken salad. I’ll post that recipe tomorrow.
Do not baste. I repeat: DO NOT BASTE. EVER.
Windrose Roast Chicken
Implements of Destruction
Roasting pan with a raised rack (my rack is flat, not angled at the sides)
Colander
Small pot
Gravy separator
Ingredients
3 tbs lemon juice
3 tbs olive oil
1/2 tbs dijon mustard
1/2 tbs Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce
1 whole cut-up chicken (with giblets, back & neck if possible)
2 carrots, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 turnips, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
3 yukon gold potatoes
(optional: parsnips, celery root, rutabagas, or any other root vegetables)
1-2 cups white wine
1 bay leaf
1 tsp corn starch
Seasonings
kosher salt
paprika
seasoned salt
poultry seasoning
black pepper
Directions, Part 1
Chop giblets, stick in icebox
Mix a quick vinaigrette by combinining olive oil, lemon juice, mustard and Worcestershire and whisking together. Place chicken in large bowl, toss well with sauce, and stick in icebox while veggies roast. This will give it a little citrus flavor, help the skin crisp, and give the seasoning something to stick to.
Add chopped vegetables to roasting pan along with back & neck, sprinkle with salt and drizzle with olive oil
Roast vegetables 30 mins at 400 (if you are rushed, you can skip this step)
Remove roasting pan from oven and pour white wine over vegetables
Add rack, place chicken on rack, season first on skin side, then on reverse side - I use lots of all the seasonings except for the paprika, but use whatever mix you like best
Roast for 30 minutes at 400 F (skin side down)
Turn chicken skin-side up, roast 25 minutes more at 400 F, adding more white wine to the bottom as necessary so there is a good mix of juice & wine - but don’t let the wine come up high enough make the chicken soggy
If desired, for the last 3-4 minutes, fire up the broiler and really crisp that chicken skin
Directions, Part 2
As the chicken starts to finish, toss the giblets in a pot and cook over high heat for a few minutes, till they start to brown, then kill the heat and leave it (these will wind up in our gravy - we’ll come back to it in a few minutes)
Remove the whole shebang from oven and transfer the chicken to a plate, skin side up, cover loosely with foil
Toss the rack into the sink
Place a colander over a large bowl and dump the rest of the roasting pan contents into it - you’ll wind up with a colander full of roasted veggies and a bowl of juice
Fish the back & neck from the colander and add to the pot with the giblets (more goodness for the gravy)
Put veggies on a plate, set aside, cover loosely with foil
Pour your juice into the gravy separator and separate out the fat, and then either discard fat or freeze and save for matzo balls
Pour remaining juice into the pot with giblets, back & neck, and bay leaf
Simmer for 10 mins, then fish out and discard the bay leaf, back and neck
OK, now you’ve got chicken pieces, veggies, and some gravy. You could stop here, but if you want a thick gravy…
Directions, Part 3
Put the corn starch into the (now-empty) bowl you had the chicken juice in
slowly, like 1/2 a tablespoon at a time, add the juice to the corn starch, mixing well every time before adding more juice. Remember, always add wet to dry, not the other way ‘round. This is thickening up your gravy and making it shiny.
Once the corn starch is fully incorporated, put back into pot to cook down more (and add more corn starch if you still want it thicker).
Now serve with gravy on the side so that people can spoon onto the chicken or gravy as they like.
So I missed a few days of posting while I was in Reno. I’m doing my best to update this blog daily.
We had our first official CouchSurfer last night, and got a little bit of education on Celiac. She was very sweet, and I was very happy to have someone to play Upwords with. I also wound up cooking the first all-vegetarian meal I have cooked in a while (potatoes with yogurt sauce, sesame green beans with shallots and grape tomatoes and rainbow chard with garlic and vinagrette) and juiced (grapefruit/lime/strawberry/cantaloupe/apple/carrot) for the first time in a while. I love my juicer. Thanks, Erin & Max!
The father-in-law arrives tonight. Tomorrow night we are having dinner at Arroyo Chop House, which is supposed to be very good. I have never been and am looking forward to it.
Positions I would add to: WU, WMI, CL.
New positions I’m looking at: JNJ, MMM, KO, VFC, HNZ, DOV, EMR, NSC, PPG, SWK and TPP.
I am focused these days almost exclusively on solid companies, with a 10- or 25-year history of steadily increasing dividends, trading at or near 12.5 times earnings.
I recall a Friday afternoon back in the early fall of 2000 when I was riding the elevator in the ML office in Germantown. I had visited my broker and was on the way to get in a workout before the MJCC closed for Shabbat. I was in my gym clothes (including a P&H Cafe t-shirt) and toting a copy of How to Buy Stocks. Two guys got into the elevator, saw the book, concluded that I was a rube, and asked where I got it. I told them that my broker gave it to me, and they laughed. They told me that I was wasting my time and “that stuff is old fashioned, like Warren Buffet.” Being a new investor, I did not really know what to think, but now I know for sure: that guy was the rube, not me. The same rules apply now as applied 100 years ago: buy good companies at fair prices.
Last night, Clippers victory over OKC. Today, story time at Eaton Canyon. Tonight, Roller Disco. Tomorrow, Lakers vs. San Antonio courtesy of my good buddy Paul E.
Monday, headed to Reno to visit some clients and staying at the Nugget, which has the nicest staff of any hotel/casino I have never stayed at.
This week the father-in-law comes to visit. More on that later.
