Spending Time in the Kitchen

It's been a busy few weeks for me ... I still spend time in the kitchen, but not nearly enough and when there is little time to go around, I skip writing about it in favor or more time in the kitchen! But yesterday found me with some free time, cool enough weather to use my oven and inspiration!

I finally paid my library fines and checked out a few cook books to get some new ideas and perspectives. The first is an old favorite that I have borrowed several times - Harumi's Japanese Home Cooking - I like to revisit it as I get more and more facile with my Japanese cooking. I also picked up Tom Colicchio's Think Like a Chef and Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics - these are two of my favorite chefs and it is always a treat to spend some time learning how they think about food and create incredible meals.

Scott had a busy weekend - he was working an extra shift on Saturday and needed to spend some time doing some yard work at his place on Sunday. Usually we have incredibly lazy weekends that involve sleeping unreasonably late and taking the day at a snail's pace - this weekend was the exception that made me miss the rule! So, to make up for the lack of lazy and to make good use of time to myself in my apartment, I decided a full chicken dinner was in order.

Recently a friend confided that she would never attempt to make a roast chicken because she heard it was really hard and that you had to - gasp - remove the giblets from the cavity. Without leaving time for my filter to engage, I answered back "Roast chicken is what I make when I am too lazy to call for take out." Snotty, but true. Roast chicken is ridiculously easy, but so incredibly satisfying - I happened to have 1 more left in my freezer and figured that this brief break in the temperature is my last shot at slow-roasting a bird until temperatures become reasonable once again in the late fall! This chicken was very basic - salt, pepper, Montreal Steak Seasoning and olive oil - but the skin was crispy and it tasted incredible! I also made mashed potatoes and green beans - old favorites that always go well with roast chicken!

New to the menu were a dish each from Tom and Ina. Scott loves breads and baked goods, so when I saw Ina's Buttermilk Cheddar Biccuits, I knew that these were exactly what I wanted to make for him after a lot of hard work in the yard! They came out perfectly! (Well, perfect considering that I forgot to brush them with egg wash and top them with sea salt!) They were flaky but moist and even the nest morning, there was a subtle crispness to the crusts - fantastic! They remind me a lot of the Cheddar Bay biscuits you get at Red Lobster (I spent some time working there - they are burned in my memory!) - if I were to bake them as drop biscuits instead and brush them with garlic butter as soon as they come out of the oven, I think I would have a dead ringer!

Tom's Onion Confit grabbed my attention when I read the recipe and stayed with me - couldn't stop thinking about it and knew I had to try it! I love carmelized onions, but these are something very different! The white wine vinegar makes them so flavorful and the stock/broth makes the onions soft and buttery feeling! I made these to go along with the mashed potatoes as a sort of condiment, but I know these will now make an appearance alongside pork chops and as early as tonight will serve as the onion component of a quiche. These are unbelievably good and if you like onions at all, you are going to go insane for these!

All told, I was in my kitchen working steadily for a little more than 2 hours - time well spent in my opinion! I watched a movie and listened to some music while I sliced onions, massaged seasoning into the chicken, chopped potatoes and kneaded dough - I honestly can't think of a more enjoyable way I could have spent the time and the true rewards came when it was time to eat and I got Scott's wonderful reaction to all of my creations. For me, cooking is not a means to an end or a chore, but an enjoyable process - it's easy to create incredible and involved menus when your heart is truly in the kitchen.