I’m on the hunt for recipes that work for both my husband and I and for our almost 9-month-old baby boy. We’re in danger of (or more accurately, firmly entrenched in) an oatmeal and sweet potato rut. Recently he’s gotten very interested in picking up tiny pieces of food and aiming them torward his mouth (he ate a whole pile of steamed zucchini the other day!) Yesterday, another mom at playgroup mentioned that her daughter loves lentils, which sounded like a perfect finger food, so I decided to look for something made with lentils that was simple and not spicy that would also appeal to grownup palates. I found this Gourmet recipe which fits the bill perfectly, with a few minor tweaks. I prepared and served it in two stages: first the lentils and the compound butter, made without salt, with the leeks finely chopped, and with the addition of some carrot for the little man, which he ate up happily, then adding salt, a splash of wine, and preparing the fish for me and dad. Dad is a little iffy on salmon, and he even liked it! I haven’t fed the baby fish yet, but he’ll have a few flakes of the leftover salmon with his lunch today.

Saumon Aux Lentils
Adapted from Shelly Wiseman, Gourmet March 2008

For mustard-herb butter
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 tablespoon chopped chives
1 teaspoon chopped tarragon
2 teaspoons grainy mustard
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

For lentils
1 cup French green lentils
4 cups water
2 medium leeks (white and pale green parts only)
2 medium carrots, peeled
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
3 tbsp white wine
1/2 to 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

For salmon
4 (6-ounce) pieces skinless salmon fillet
2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Make mustard-herb butter:
Stir together all ingredients. When you’re ready to cook the salmon, add 1/4 tsp each salt and pepper.

Cook lentils:
Bring lentils, and water to a boil in a heavy medium saucepan, then reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, until lentils are just tender, 20 to 25 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand 5 minutes. Reserve 1/2 cup cooking liquid, then drain lentils.

While lentils cook, halve leeks, wash thoroughly to remove any sand, then chop fine. Finely dice carrots. Cook leeks and carrots in butter in a heavy medium skillet over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until softened, 6 to 8 minutes.

Add lentils with reserved cooking liquid to leeks along with 3 tablespoons mustard-herb butter and cook, stirring, until lentils are heated through and butter is melted. Remove from heat. At this point, baby’s dinner is ready! I served him about 3 tbsp of lentils along with 3 defrosted mashed sweet potato cubes and 1 tbsp of yogurt.

When the baby is asleep, gently reheat the lentils and add lemon juice, wine and salt and pepper to taste. Remove from heat and keep warm, covered.

Sauté salmon:
Pat salmon dry and sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper (total).

Heat butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until foam subsides, then sauté salmon, turning once, until golden and just cooked through, 6 to 8 minutes total.

Serve salmon, topped with remaining mustard-herb butter, over lentils.

This addictive recipe comes from the Stonewall Kitchen Favorites cookbook.   The authors suggest them as an appetizer but they are great as a main course with lemony potato salad, cold blanched green beans, or as shown with a light salad of pea shoots, goat cheese, and pine nuts and a glass of chilled Torrontes. This is one of those things that you will be compelled to make again and again by peer pressure.

The inspiration for these crisp, savory “chips” came from an episode of the wildly entertaining show Iron Chef America on the TV Food Network. The “secret” ingredient was scallops, and Iron Chef Morimoto thinly sliced them and served them with a dipping sauce. That idea led us to remember how much we love an old New England favorite — deep fried scallops. These scallop chips are a combination of East meets West — very thinly sliced sea scallops are coated in panko breadcrumbs and fried so that they are crisp on the outside and tender inside –and they cook in about 2 minutes! We like making them in a wok because the oil sits at the bottom and none of it splatters.

Serve the scallops as an appetizer with Cocktail Sauce, Garlic Aioli, Asian Dipping Sauce, or lemon and lime wedges.

1 pound sea scallops, tabs removed
About 2 cups safflower or vegetable oil
One 1-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled
About 2 cups Panko breadcrumbs, or fresh breadcrumbs
1 lemon, cut into wedges

Place the scallops in the freezer for 30 to 45 minutes to make them much easier to slice.

In a wok or a large, heavy skillet, heat the oil over high heat about 20 seconds. Add the ginger to the oil and let it heat up for about 2 minutes. The oil is hot enough when you drop a tiny bit of panko into it and it sizzles immediately.

Meanwhile, thinly slice the scallops horizontally. You should get 3 to 4 slices from each large scallop. Place the panko in a bowl and lightly coat each slice of scallop with panko on all sides. Place on a plate.

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees F.

Remove the ginger from the oil with a slotted spoon. Cook the scallops in batches in the hot oil. Add enough scallops to fit in a single layer in the pan. Cook for 30 seconds; gently flip them over and cook for another 30 seconds. Drain on paper towels. (If you’re making a double batch and need to keep the scallops warm, place them on an ovenproof plate and place in the oven while you fry the remaining batches; otherwise. Serve immediately.

Serves 6 to 8 [very polite people or 2 lucky bastards. -Ed.]

Since my son was born, I’ve become an even bigger fan of things I can cook in the oven with minimal interventions before or after, so roast chicken is in even heavier rotation than before.  I used to be at a loss for what to do with the leftover bits, but I’ve come up with a strategy and a few options.  We eat the dark meat the night I roast the chicken, since the white meat is more flexible as an ingredient.  Then I save the chicken in a gallon freezer bag with as much juice and good stuff as I can scrape off the bottom of the roasting pan.  The next day I separate the white meat and the oysters (the little bits of meat from underneath the chicken) from the carcass and put them aside.  The carcass and any other bits, globs, or pieces go into a pot to boil with a few quarts of water, salt, peppercorns, some onion or shallot and whatever other aromatic vegetables I have, like celery, fennel, carrots, and/or parsley.   After it boils, I let it simmer for about 1/2 hour to 45 minutes, and then I strain out the solids, leaving me with a few quarts of really delicous stock.

I can now make one of the following two meals for two with minimal effort:

Chicken, Avocado and Walnut Salad with Spicy Pumpkin Soup
Hearty Sausage, White Bean and Kale Soup

Voila, dinner that no one will complain about.

Chicken, Avocado and Walnut Salad

1 clove garlic, smashed
2 tbsp aged balsamic vinegar
pinch of salt
4 tbsp walnut oil
4 cups salad greens, washed, carefully dried, and torn into bite sized-pieces
1/2 cup toasted walnuts
1 avocado, thinly sliced
2 leftover chicken breasts, diced

Put the garlic, vinegar, and salt in the bottom of a large bowl. Gradually whisk in the walnut oil. Add the salad greens and toss (I use my hands for this.) Top with avocado, walnuts, and chicken.

Spicy Pumpkin Soup

1/2 tbsp butter
2 cloves garlic
1 1/4 tsp hot smoked paprika
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 sweet potato, peeled and roughly chopped
2-3 quarts chicken stock
1 can pumpkin puree
salt and pepper to taste
cream for garnish

In a medium, heavy bottomed sauce pan, saute the garlic, paprika and cumin for a minute or two until the raw smell comes off the garlic. Add the stock and the sweet potato, bring to a boil, and simmer until the potato is cooked through. Add pumpkin puree and blend soup together with an immersion blender (or in small batches in a regular blender or food processor, but seriously, just do yourself a favor and get an immersion blender.) Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve with a small drizzle of heavy cream in each bowl.

Spicy Sausage, Kale, and White Bean Soup

2 fresh Andouille sausages
1 tbsp olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, diced
1 clove garlic, pressed
1 tbsp tomato paste (I buy it in a tube, so I don’t waste it when I just need small amounts.)
1 can white beans, strained and rinsed
2-3 quarts chicken stock
leftover chicken, diced
1 bunch kale
red pepper flakes to taste

Gently heat the olive oil over medium heat in a heavy-bottomed medium saucepan. Squeeze the sausages out of their casing into the pan, raise the heat to medium high, and saute until cooked through, breaking up with a wooden spoon as you go. Add garlic and tomato paste and saute for one more minute. Add white beans and chicken stock and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, add kale and red pepper flakes, and simmer until kale stems are cooked through, about five minutes. Adjust seasoning and serve. Slices of baguette or other bread grilled in the broiler and rubbed with garlic are a nice accompaniment.

Everyone should have a few dishes they can make just from things they keep stashed in their pantries.  Case in point, the night of the last presidential election, I was glued to the television all day long and hadn’t shopped for dinner.  I had some frozen shrimp, so I decided to check in with Mark Bittman, whose ingredient lists are usually pleasingly brief.  He has a recipe in his book How to Cook Everything, called “Shrimp My Way,” that he says people go nuts for, and which, besides the shrimp, only needed garlic, a few spices, and olive oil.  Being keen on things people go nuts for, I decided to try it out.  Needless to say, it is fantastic, especially on top of roasted Yukon Gold potatoes, or with a baguette, a nice green salad, an IPA or a nice Torrontes, and OBAMA!!!!

Bittman calls for hot paprika, but I like to use hot smoked paprika — it adds a little extra zazz, and who couldn’t use a little zazz? I buy frozen uncooked shrimp, peeled and cleaned but with the tails on, which is the only way to fly.  Most shrimp you buy will have been frozen previously anyway, so why not buy them that way and have them whenever you want them?  To defrost just put them in a colander and run them under cold water for about 10 minutes.

1/2 cup olive oil
3 or 4 large cloves garlic, sliced
1 1/2 to 2 lbs shrimp
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp ground cumin
1 1/2 tsp hot smoked paprika
minced fresh parsley or cilantro and lemon wedges to garnish

1. Preheat the broiler to its highest temperature, and adjust the rack so that it is as close as possible to the heat source.
2. Very gently warm the olive oil over low heat in a large, broad, ovenproof skillet or baking pan. My Le Crueset tarte tatin pan is perfect — heavy, and with 2 handles! A cast iron skillet would also be perfect. There should be enough olive oil to cover the bottom of the pan; don’t skimp. Put the garlic in the oil and cook for a few minutes still over low heat, until it turns golden.
3. Raise the heat to medium-high and add the shrimp, salt, pepper, cumin, and paprika. Stir to blend, and then place immediately under the broiler. Cook, shaking the pan once or twice and stirring if necessary, but generally leaving the shrimp undisturbed, until they are pink all over and the mixture is bubbly. This will take from 5 to 10 minute depending on the heat of your broiler. Garnish and serve immediately.

My husband and I recently had the pleasure of spending our Thanksgiving in Maine with my family and their neighbors. We had quite a few amazing food moments, few of which I can take credit for, including homemade pork sausage stuffing, homemade mozzarella cheese, oysters on the half-shell with homemade mignonette sauce, my mother’s inspired day-after-Thanksgiving Turkey Tetrazini Casserole, and traditional Ecuadorean Day of the Dead Bread Babies. We did manage to leave the state with a few pinchy crustacean souvenirs and one of my favorite breads in the world, a fougasse from the Beach Pea Bakery in Kittery, ME, which was a perfect meal after some nasty Connecticut traffic.

Cooking lobsters is one of those things that seems intimidating, but it’s actually barely more complicated than cooking pasta. The absolute most important step is the purchase of the lobsters.

The only truly delicious lobster is alive and has been caught within a day, preferably on the North American Atlantic coast. Supermarket lobsters have been stewing in their own waste digesting themselves for who knows how long (like, months), and it shows in the flavor and texture of the meat. Frozen lobster is so tough and stringy it’s not worth the price. Lobsters are sold by weight and sometimes by shell-hardness. The hardness of the shell depends on where the lobster is in its molt-cycle. Since lobsters grow about 20% during each molt, a soft-shell lobster which has just molted will fill up substantially less of the shell than a hard-shell lobster. Soft shell lobsters are generally about $2/lb less than hard shell lobsters for this reason. I seem to injure myself quite a bit less eating soft-shell lobsters — sometimes you’ll barely need a cracker — but some people feel gyped by finding space inside the shell. Either variety will taste amazing, so buy what you like.

Once you’ve purchased the lobsters, keep them in a wet, cool place until you cook them. Putting the lobsters in a paper bag inside a plastic bag covered with wet newspaper and ice is ideal. You should cook them the same day you buy them. I’m a fan of dumping them out in the sink to watch them flop around for a while, and/or “racing” them in the bathtub, or waving them around at squeamish guests, but maybe I’m not the nicest cook. In any case, you should remove the rubber bands from the claws. Use kitchen shears and watch out if you like your fingers!

To cook the lobsters, you will need a pot large enough to hold all the lobsters. A few small pots will work too. You’ll need about 2 inches of water in the bottom of the pot, heavily salted. The water should be as salty as sea water. Bring the water to a rolling boil, and in they go! To pick the lobsters up, make sure they’re right side up, and grab just behind the head. Again, watch out for claws. If you are a wuss, you can use tongs to pick them up. Place into the pot claws first, one atop the other, and cover tightly. Bring the water back to a boil, and boil about 12-20 minutes depending on the weight of the lobster. When the lobster is cooked, an antenna will pull off easily. When the lobsters are done, use tongs to grab them out of the pot and put them in a colander in the sink. Let them drain for a few minutes. If you like you can “start” the lobsters by snipping through the end of the claws and along the underside of the tail with kitchen shears.

Now is the fun part! I like to serve lobster with two dipping options — classic lemon butter, and a very easy Saffron Chipotle Aiolli.

Lemon Butter

3 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
juice of 1/2 lemon
pinch of salt
optional: chopped tarragon or chives

Combine ingredients in a small warmed bowl.

Saffron Chipotle Aiolli

pinch of saffron threads
4 tbsp Hellman’s mayonnaise
1 small clove of garlic, pressed
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/4 tsp chipotle powder

Toast saffron threads in a small sauté pan until fragrant. Combine remaining ingredients. Crush toasted saffron threads into mayonnaise and stir to combine. Taste and correct seasoning. Let sit for at least 1/2 hour (this allows the saffron to combine with the mayonnaise, turning it an awesome yellow color.)

I like to eat lobsters beginning with the small legs on either side, followed by the claws and then the tail, since the tail will stay warm the longest.

Growing up in Woodstock NY in the ’70s, I ate my fair share of tempeh, homemade yogurt, and stirfries heavily seasoned with any old spices or condiments that happened to be hanging around, particularly large doses of tamari (Japanese wheat-free soy sauce). In general, I’m not a huge fan of the whole Moosewood school of cooking, but every so often, I get a craving for something inauthentically Asian, by way of the health food store. My version here contains chicken (so there, vegetarians!) as well as bok choy, shitake mushrooms, and toasted almonds. You can be very creative with stirfries, but there are some key principles to follow:

• Remember that each of the ingredients has its own optimal cooking time. After you’ve finished your prep, come up with a game plan for adding (and in some cases, temporarily removing) ingredients so that nothing is over- or under-cooked.
• Just because it’s in your fridge doesn’t mean it belongs in your dish. Try to use ingredients that complement one another in flavor, sweetness, color, and texture.
• Watch how much soy sauce/tamari etc. you use! Rather than indiscriminately dumping in more of any condiment when you need to add moisture to the pan, I like to mix up a batch of sauce that tastes balanced to me, which I usually make somewhat diluted with either water or broth. Then I add that instead of a squirt of soy sauce. That way you don’t wind up with any one flavor dominating.

I like it with a sprinkle of nutritional yeast on top, proving that you can be nostalgic for anything.

For the rice:

Start the rice first, since it takes a while to cook.

1 cup brown rice
2 1/4 cups water
pinch of salt

Combine in a small saucepan with a tight-fitting lid (don’t cover just yet though.) Bring to a boil over high heat, cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer gently for 45 minutes.

For the stirfry:

2 boneless chicken breast, cut into 1/8 inch slices
1 lb baby bok choy, washed, ends removed, and sliced into 1/4 inch pieces
20 large shitake mushrooms, sliced
1 bunch scallions, washed and sliced into wedgy-julienne (long diagonal slices, turning the scallion after each cut so that the layers of each slice will separate )
1 small red jalapeno, cut into fine dice
1 tsp vegetable oil

1/2 cup toasted almond slivers

For sauce:

2 tbsp soy sauce or tamari
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp agave syrup
1/4 tsp toasted sesame oil
1/3 cup chicken broth

Combine all sauce ingredients except chicken broth, and taste. Should taste balanced, a little sweet, a little sour, a little salty. Add half the sauce to a bowl with the sliced raw chicken to marinate, and then add the chicken broth to the remaining sauce to use during cooking.

Heat a large saute pan or a wok over high heat. Add vegetable oil, then the chicken, and brown lightly on all sides until chicken is cooked through. Remove from the pan and reserve. Add mushrooms and bok choy and saute for several minutes, until bok choy leaves wilt and their stems turn bright green and soften. Add sauce as needed to prevent sticking or the bottom of the pan getting brown & crusty. Add jalapeno and scallions, and saute for two more minutes, until the scallions soften. Add toasted almonds and serve with brown rice.

Serves 4.

If you have leftovers, combine the stirfry and rice, and saute in a little extra vegetable oil with an egg for some tasty fried rice.

Julia Child was on to something with this recipe for Chicken Broiled with Mustard, Herbs, and Breadcrumbs, although the multi-step broiling process seems too complicated for what could just be a tasty thing to cook after work on a weeknight. We like it with sauteed kale or a green salad and mashed sweet potatoes, although when I made it the other night I had half a loaf of olive bread from Bouley Bakery left over and going stale which I turned into a panzanella with olives, tomatoes, some creamy Israeli feta, basil, and pine nuts. It’s great either with homemade breadcrumbs or panko, and, as Julia suggests, the perfect wine to drink is a rosé.

8 chicken thighs, boneless or with bones
4 tbsp melted butter
1/3 cup dijon mustard (not the grainy kind)
2-4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 cup panko or homemade breadcrumbs
1 tsp dried thyme or tarragon
1 tsp kosher salt
freshly ground pepper

Preheat oven to 375°. In a small bowl, combine butter , mustard, and garlic. In another small bowl, combine panko, dried thyme or tarragon, salt, and pepper. Coat the chicken pieces thoroughly but lightly with the mustard-butter combination, then with the panko-or-breadcrumb mixture. Place in a baking dish that is big enough so that none of the pieces are touching, and bake until done. This should be about 25-30 minutes for boneless pieces and about 10 minutes longer with bones.

Lately, I’ve been making pan sauces for just about everything. It takes just a few seconds to throw some chopped shallots, butter, herbs, and wine into a pan in which you’ve just fried up some steak or fish or whatever. You can use white, rosé or red (whatever you’re drinking,) any herbs you like, and any other ingredients you find appealing. I like a pan sauce with shallots, white wine, lemon pulp, and capers (and/or sea beans) for fish, and just a simple red wine-shallot-tarragon sauce is killer on a rib eye. I’d love to try something with fruit for pork chops or duck breast, maybe plums and cherries. The one at right is a hanger steak with the most basic of all pan sauces — just a little butter, shallot, and red wine.

Basic Pan Sauce (with variations)

1 tbsp butter
1/2 cup wine (a goodly slosh)
1/2 cup finely chopped shallots
(fresh or dried herbs to taste)
(sliced mushrooms)
(capers or sliced olives)
(sea beans)
(chopped fruit)
(etc.)

Pan fry, sauté, etc, whatever it is you want to sauce. When cooked, move from pan to a plate and keep in a warm oven until ready to serve. Return the empty pan to medium-high heat, and add 1 tbsp butter. Swirl around the pan to melt, and then add shallots. Add any other ingredients you like, though if you’re using fresh herbs, it’s best to wait to add them until the shallots are wilted. More substantial additions like mushrooms can go right in with the shallots. When shallots are nice and wilted, add wine and swirl around the pan until it’s almost entirely reduced and the sauce has a somewhat thickened consistency. Plate up your delicious oven-warmed food items, and top with your pan sauce creation.

Easy, inexpensive, and highly delicious, roast chicken is the preferred Sunday night supper around our house. The basic recipe I use is a slight variation on the one my mother has made since I was little. Between the two of us, my mother and I have roasted a hundreds of chickens, and here in print for the very first time are our tried-and-true methods. Roast chicken is great with any number of accompaniments, but my favorites are mashed Yukon Gold potatoes or yams, roasted Cipollini onions, and a simple green salad.

Chicken Procurement

The first step is selecting a chicken. It’s easy to see the difference between naturally-raised chickens and their factory-farmed counterparts – factory farmed chickens are unappealingly yellow, unsavory and fatty looking, and ooze gross liquid from their packaging, where natural chickens have creamy skin and a much more firm, dry, and plump appearance. I prefer Bell and Evans chickens. They’re air-chilled, raised on natural feed, and allowed to roam freely. Also tasty are Whole Foods chickens. Don’t shy away from spending a few extra dollars for a high-quality chicken. It’s simply not worth wasting your time with inferior ingredients, and even spending up, you’ll still be paying $7-8 for a whole bird, which will easily feed four normal appetites. I usually buy a 3.5-4 lb chicken.

Salt Cure (optional)

If you have 12-24 hours before you need to cook the bird, I recommend a simple salt-and-pepper cure to improve the chicken’s flavor. I only started curing chickens about a year ago, and it certainly is not a requirement, although it definitely has a positive impact on the outcome. To cure the chicken, combine 2 tablespoons of coarsely flaked sea salt (Maldon is my favorite) with about ½ tablespoon of freshly ground black pepper. Remove the chicken from its packaging, and remove the neck and any other extras from inside its body cavity. (Note on the odd bits: I throw the neck in the pan to generate more tasty chicken juice, but you could also use it to make a quick stock. You can reduce this further and combine with pan drippings later to make really fantastic gravy, see recipe below.) Place the chicken in a small roasting pan. A Pyrex pie pan, an All-Clad sauté pan, or a cast iron skillet will all do nicely. Fold the wing tips under the body. Using your fingers, detach the skin from the chicken breasts and thighs. Trim any large pieces of fat away from the neck and cavity areas. Rub the chicken inside the cavity and under the skin with the salt and pepper mixture. Cover loosely with waxed paper and refrigerate until you’re ready to roast. DO NOT salt-cure unless you have at least 12 hours before cooking, or the salt will not have time to adequately disperse through the chicken and you will have a salty bird.

Preparation

When you’re ready to cook the bird, preheat the oven to 500°. Slice 4-5 cloves of garlic and quarter 1 organic lemon, and place inside the cavity. I used to truss chickens (to the delight of more perverse acquaintances, I often trussed them in their own skin, making a slit in the lower breast skin on one side and slipping the opposite drumstick into the hole) but I find that you can roast in less time with more even results by leaving the legs be. You’ll also be rewarded with more crispy skin. Next, and it is helpful to have an assistant at this juncture, pour 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil into your hands and rub it all over the chicken. Shake about 1½ teaspoons of paprika over the top of the chicken for an even dusting, followed by 1-2 tablespoons dried thyme. If you did not cure the chicken, season well with salt and pepper.

You’ll notice this recipe does not call for stuffing the bird with bread-based stuffing; as a matter of fact, I’m fairly opposed to this practice as it means longer cooking times and drier birds. I love stuffing just as much as the next person, I just prefer to bake it in its own dish, as opposed to up a chicken’s butt.

Before you pop the chicken into the oven, press down on one of the back legs and note the texture of its motion as it returns to its original position. Make a mental note of this, as this is what “raw” feels like. As you become more practiced, you may be able to use this as a method for determining when your chicken is done.

Roasting

Place the chicken in the oven with the rack set so the bird is right in the middle. Roast for about 15 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 350°. Roast for another hour or so. For your first few chickens, I recommend checking for doneness by piercing the spot where the thigh joins the body. Clear juice indicates that the bird is done, whereas pinkish or bloody juice means back to the oven. Keep up with the “pressing the back leg down” test to see how the motion and feeling changes as the chicken approaches done-ness. Resist the urge to open the oven door where possible, however, as you’ll lose heat very quickly.

Once the chicken is done, remove from the oven and cover with a tent of aluminum foil. Allow it to rest for at least 15 minutes.

Carving

To carve, place the chicken on a cutting board. If you have one with a gutter around the edges for catching juice, use that one, otherwise be prepared to waste tasty juice and paper towels. Using a sharp kitchen knife, slice away the skin between the leg and the breast until you can tell where the connecting joint is. There’s a “sweet spot” where you can easily slice through the joint, separating the leg from the body. Angle the knife toward the body and rotate the leg a bit to get the best access. Once you’ve removed both legs, slice diagonally between the drumstick and the thigh to separate. Place on a a warmed platter, and keep covered with aluminum foil. Next, slice away the wings with a small piece of breast meat. Again, there’s a sweet spot, be patient and poke away with the knife until you find it. Next, slice from the top of the breast along the bones of the rib cage to remove the breast in one whole large piece. Slice across the breast into 1/2 inch slices. Repeat with the other breast. This is as far as the civilized usually go, but the truly enlightened know that the best bits of all are hidden on the back — flip the carcass over and feel around for the juicy “oysters.” These are best removed and consumed kitchen-side.

Now pour the carving-juice back into the pan, and use it and a whisk to loosen tasty drippings from the bottom of the pan. If there is a lot of fat, tilt the pan so that the juices accumulate in one corner. The fat will rise to the top, where you can skim it off with a spoon. Pour the pan juices over the carved chicken, and serve immediately.

Fancy Gravy

In a small sauce-pan, combine the chicken neck, a stalk of celery sliced into pieces, a small sliced onion, a sliced carrot, a few sprigs of flat-leaf parsley, 3-4 cups of water, and a few peppercorns. Bring to a boil, and reduce heat to medium. Simmer for 45 minutes, then strain out the solids. Continue to simmer until volume is reduced by half.

When the chicken is done, pour carving juices back into the pan and place over medium heat. Add 1/2 cup white wine and whisk the sticky drippings up from the bottom of the pan. Add 1-2 tablespoons flour and whisk for a few minutes more. Add wine or stock gradually until you achieve desired volume (about 1 cup usually), whisking continually. Gravy is done when it thickens, after 3-4 minutes. Taste and correct seasonings.

I have invented health food store Hamburger Helper. You can make it in about 1/2 an hour using only one large pan. My health food store has packages of natural lean hamburger for about $7/lb, and the other ingredients are readily available. I don’t know that this is actually all that much better for you than real Hamburger Helper, but at least there are fewer preservatives and the tomatoes are real. Also, I guarantee it is superior in tastiness.

1 tbsp olive oil
1 lb lean organic ground beef
salt and pepper
1 onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, pressed
splash of white or red wine
1 can Muir Glen whole peeled tomatoes
the same can full of water
1 tbsp thyme
2 bay leaves
2 boxes Annie’s Shells and Cheese
1 tbsp butter
1/2 cup grated parmeggiano-reggiano (optional)

Heat olive oil over medium-high heat in a large heavy-bottomed sauté pan with a lid. Add ground beef and brown, breaking up large pieces with a wooden spoon. Add salt and pepper to taste. Transfer to a bowl, and add diced onions to pan. Sauté until softened, splashing the pan with wine if the bottom gets to dry or crusty. Add garlic and sauté for one minute. Add the meat back in, and add the tomatoes, crushing them with your hand (poke a hole in them with your thumb first to avoid the dreaded tomato squirt). Add thyme, bay leaves, water and pasta from both boxes of Annie’s and cover. Go away and do something else for 15-20 minutes. When you come back, check the pasta for done-ness. Assuming it’s cooked to your desired al dentation, add the Annie’s cheese packages and stir. If it’s too wet, turn the heat to high and stir like heck for a few minutes. If it’s too dry, add more water and cook a few minutes more. Add butter and stir. Correct seasonings. Enjoy. For even more enjoyment, pour into a 9×12 casserole, top with grated cheese, and bake at 375 for about 20 minutes.

Makes about 8 normal person servings or 4 really hungry person servings.