2009 October | vmac+cheese

Love the salt. Hate the steam.

Posted on October 24, 2009 by vmacandcheese

A quick lesson of the day for you, and a little backstory to give it some context.

I like to roast whole chickens at home. Why?

a) It’s really easy.

b) I can throw it in the oven right when I get home from work, putz around on the Internet and watch back episodes of The Girls Next Door before Joe gets home from the gym, and by the time he is back, showered, and ready to eat, the meat is done-zo.

c) It’s versatile! You can eat the plain roasted chicken, or put it in a soup, or re-purpose it for a sandwich, or even mix it with other fixings to make a chicken salad (a delicious pesto chicken salad comes to mind).

d) You get the bonus of the carcass to make stock. It’s really a win-win situation.

Now for the past year or so, whenever I’ve done anything with a roasted bird, I tried to just salt and pepper it really well, throw it in the oven, and let it be. No herbs or lemons stuffed in the cavity (or “the butt” as Joe likes to say). Nothing lining the bottom of the pan the bird cooks in. I read in both the Bouchon cookbook and in an old issue of Cook’s Illustrated that this only creates steam, and steam is the enemy to crisp skin.

To get super crisp chicken skin — and I mean papery, crackly, seems to shatter when you stick the thermometer through it skin — you need to salt the heck out of the skin, and remove any element in the oven that creates steam. End of story.

I like to wash and dry the entire bird, then pat it really dry with a paper towel. Again, what does residual rinse water, plus a scorching hot oven equal? STEAM.

Then, salt the heck out of that sucker. Don’t be shy. Get it all over the breast and the top part of the legs, then do this number on it: (more…)

Filed under: Food, Kitchen Basics, Poultry | 3 Comments »

The Annual Pilgrimage North

Posted on October 22, 2009 by vmacandcheese

It seems that about this time every year, I find myself up in Napa. It’s rare that we go up in the summer (too hot, too crowded), and I’ve never gone during the winter (too rainy). Spring is lovely during bud break, but if I had to pick a time of year to visit, it’s definitely autumn. The vines’ foliage is still abundant, yet you can’t help but notice the tinge of golden yellows, fiery oranges and even deep aubergine that have begun to creep amongst some of the rows. The air is crisp, and clean, and a few vines still play host to the late season varietals — often merlots and cabernet sauvignons. By mid to late November, the fields are awash with autumnal color; who needs trees that change color when you have vines that do the same thing?

Last weekend, I spent Saturday visiting a number of wineries with Joe and some of his co-workers. Phelps, Paraduxx, Grgich and Sequoia Grove all made the list. Verdicts?

Listen, you can’t beat the views at Phelps. The last time I was there was in the spring, and the valley below the tasting room was a lush, verdant green. Now, it was apparent that summer had come and gone, but the expanse of land wasn’t any less beautiful to look at.

See that first blush of orange and red I was mentioning? Perfection.

The wines? We’ll get to that in a bit. (more…)

Filed under: SF/Bay Area, Wine | Leave a Comment »

An awesome recipe to kick off fall…

Posted on October 14, 2009 by vmacandcheese

Like the Mexican Pie I made a few weeks ago, I prepared this chicken dish on Sunday not just for dinner that night, but also for the leftovers I could bring to work with me throughout this week.

What I thought would be a straightforward and tasty chicken dish turned into something pretty special. I don’t know how that happened, and can only theorize that when good ingredients get a little love, a lot of goodness will end up on your plate.

Before you get too excited, I have to admit right here: I was a really bad blogger and didn’t take ANY photos of this recipe. I planned on it being one of those times where it was just me and the food in the kitchen. And I honestly didn’t know I would like this concoction as much as I did.

What I loved about this recipe was how well it bridged the last bits of the San Francisco Indian summer with the first whispers of fall — or in the case of yesterday, the first torrential DOWNPOUR of fall (thank you, Japanese typhoon).

To start, affordable (and flavorful) chicken thighs and legs were browned, then simmered in a yum-tastic sauce made from fresh early girl tomatoes, red wine, herbs, peppers and olives. With the bone-in meat taking an hour long soak in the liquid, the dish gets a healthy dose of collagen (which gelatinzes later), so the sauce has a rich mouthfeel. It’s all very Provençal — if you can’t tell that I totally have France on my mind these days, you need to get with it.

In that vein, I decided to name the recipe Poulet Provençal. I recommend you make it ASAP. But don’t make the same mistake I did — be sure to have a loaf of country bread on hand to soak up this sauce. It’s pretty incredible. I had to make do with drinking the sauce out of the bowl. Such a fat kid.

Poulet Provençal (more…)

Filed under: Food, French, Main Courses, Poultry, Recipes | 1 Comment »

Can’t walk…

Posted on October 12, 2009 by vmacandcheese

…due to my new personal trainer — Joe!

I’ve been in a rut lately with working out, in that I haven’t been doing it at all. But in trying to get back to it, I was having trouble getting motivated and getting any kind of REAL exercise done.

Tonight, Joe volunteered to be my trainer and give me a a regimen. And oh, did he ever.

He “made me” run/walk up six flights of stairs. At flight six, I had to stop and do “fun” mini-exercises: a mix of squats, burpees, sit-ups, and planks. After I did one or a mix of these, I had to walk up an additional nine flights. I’d take the elevator back down to the starting floor, then rinse and repeat. Times 3.5.

[Hilarious sidenote: to ensure that I actually completed the workout, Joe brought out one of our collapsible camping/tailgate chairs, parked it on the landing of the sixth flight of stairs, and sat there playing Solitaire on his laptop while I huffed and puffed. Only Joe.]

Standing in the kitchen afterwards, trying to make dinner, my legs felt like jelly. I think tomorrow, they’ll feel a lot worse.

A personal trainer who kicks my butt, and only costs a few smooches? I guess it’s worth the pain.

We’ll see how long this lasts before I revolt.

Filed under: Joe, Just thinking... | 3 Comments »

In disbelief…

Posted on October 9, 2009 by vmacandcheese

that United Airlines charges TWENTY-FIVE DOLLARS to e-mail you an e-receipt on flights you’ve already taken.

I couldn’t believe it either.

Today, I called the airline on behalf of a colleague to get a copy of the receipt on a trip he took last week. We had the flight itinerary, but nothing that showed dollar amount — which is obviously needed for a legit expense report.

United’s online e-receipt system wasn’t working, so I thought, no sweat, I’ll just phone up the airline and have them e-mail it to us. I’ve done it before with other airlines, and it’s never been an issue.

Long story short: I was re-routed several times by very unhelpful “customer service” reps, only to be told that an e-mail — yes, a frikkin’ E-MAIL — telling us how much we ALREADY spent with their stupid airline would cost us an additional $25. That is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.

Between the exorbitant baggage fees, the $10 soggy sandwiches you can only purchase on board, the disappearance of in-flight entertainment, and of course the general headaches of air travel (most recent flight to New York: the plane circled Newark for an hour, RAN OUT OF GAS, had to fly to Allentown, Pennsylvania, re-fuel, wait on the tarmac for an hour, then fly BACK to Newark, circled for another 45 minutes, then finally landed), it’s all enough to make you want to stay home.

Until you realize that somewhere across the great blue sea, this is waiting for you (Serenity now!):

Luberon lavender