New Year's Rule #1: A Better Relationship with Food
I love rules. Brian thinks I would do well under a fascist regime, so eager am I to follow rules to the very letter. Give me a strict recipe and I'm in heaven... loose guidelines and I'm left wandering with no idea what to do.
Given my love for rules and regulations, I'm a bit surprised that I've never made any New Year's Resolutions until this year.
Perhaps that's because the word resolution is itself rather loosey-goosey: Resolution - a resolve or determination
No, I'm not one to be left to the open-endedness of my own determination. Instead, this year I'm going to make for myself some very strict New Year's Rules.
New Year's Rule #1: Develop a Better Relationship with Food
This is not exactly what you think. I actually have a very healthy relationship with food... I LOVE food (and it loves me back). No, this rule is not about dieting or eating healthy, or whatever. Rather, I want to really get to know my food. Like, what it is and where it comes from. It's time for me and food to take our relationship to the next level:
For the next year, I'll be making a once-weekly attempt at cooking food from scratch. And I don't just mean opening a can of tuna and making tuna salad. I mean going down to the fishmonger, buying a whole tuna, deboning it, and grilling it up myself. Or buying a whole chicken, degutting it, roasting it up whole, and making stock out of the carcass. You know, the stuff other people usually do for you behind the scenes.
We live in a land of too easy, too clean, too bloodless fast food, where chicken magically becomes bite-size McNuggets, where mashed pork gets pressed into McRib sandwiches, "rib bones" and all. They say driving is a privilege, not a right, so I'm applying that same principal to being a carnivore. This year, I'm going to earn my chops.
Week one, as you can see, is chicken. I'm roasting it tonight (yes, I'm getting a little head start), making soup out of it tomorrow. Next week, I think, will be lamb. OK, so I'm not going to go slaughter a lamb, make dinner, and then knit a sweater out of it - meet me halfway here people... it's a start.
*** more New Year's Rules to come ***
12 comments:
That's such a great rule ... one of my goals for the next year is to try to do this too, as much as I can. I'm not so much squeamish as I am lazy so it's an obstacle to overcome. Good luck to us!
You go girl. I do what you describe about three nights a week. Once you get the hang of it, it's pretty easy. Weekends are the best time for roasting or braising. Nothing like a good book and the smell of something tasty in the oven.
- Chubbypanda
Great idea CC. Ill tell D to make sure he follows your Rule #1. He cooks she eats...that's my resolution!
Hahhaa.....cool pix!
right on, sister. i've been wanting to do this myself but somehow always managed to talk myself out of it due to lack of time or plain ol' laziness (in fact there are 2 frozen chicken carcasses in our freezer just waiting to be made into stock--thing is they've been there for months!); i should really follow your example!
happy new year to you and brian! hope to see you guys soon! =)
Todd - I think that's a fantastic idea. I read about your and Beth's 100-mile challenge for Thanksgiving and was totally inspired. I need to get in touch with my roots! (celery roots, that is!)
Anon - it's so weird, cooking that whole chicken was the easiest thing ever... and it lasted for about 7 meals! I gotta get more in the habit of this... easy and cheap too
CP - you are my hero, I wish I was better about doing this regularly. A hot French Oven and a good book sound like heaven to me... sign me up!
Jeni - you've got the hookup with the gourmet caterer relationship thing. Your new year's resolution is exactly what I would do too! (you do make a fantastic hot pot though, so perhaps you can switch off once a month)
TF - thanks! I had lots of fun holding a camera in my left hand and shoving my right fist up the cavity of that bird... while trying not to get chicken guts everywhere. Good times.
DG - yeah, I'm betting my resolution will last about 2 weeks (OK, I'm going to try for longer). But I'm a realist - it's the laziness factor. Look forward to seeing you again soon too!
Love all the new posts! The last one reminded me that I never used the Applebees gift card my grandpa gave me last x-mas. . .
Roast chicken is the best thing in the world to make - satisfying, delicious and suitably Sunday-dinner like. Perfect when you want to get into domestic goddess mode without going broke or risking failure. The Barefoot Contessa's "Perfect Roast Chicken" recipe is sublime - simple prep, succulent, fragrant meat, crisp skin, and an accompanying roast-up of caramelized fennel and carrots that are sweeter than candy! YUM! You have to brave a trip to the Food Network website, but it's worth it! I don't know how to put the link here, so just go to the Food Network site and search "Perfect Roast Chicken" Ina Garten's is the first on the list.
freakyfrites - how did you know?!? that's the exact recipe I used and it came out WONDERFULLY. I've had nearly seven meals out of that bird so far.
Oh, that's so funny! I'm glad you liked it! I'm embarrassed - my hubby and I usually devour the entire bird in two nights. . .os
Have you tried making chicken stock from the bones and using that for soup? That's one of my favorite cooking tricks (now, if only we had a bigger freezer).
OK, I should actually read the post carefully. You mentioned stock.
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