Chick-Fil-A at home!

Several months ago, I saw an article about making your own Chick-Fil-A copycat sandwiches.  

http://www.seriouseats.com/2012/07/the-food-lab-how-to-make-a-chick-fil-a-sandwich-at-home.html

Whether for political reasons, financial reasons, or because there just isn't a Chick-Fil-A in your part of the country, this is a tasty copy cat.  And really really close to the real deal.

Jake generally has to help me with all deep frying and I did leave out the MSG.  All in all, I say if you want ChickFilA and you're willing to put in a little effort, this is not unattainable. 

Bonus, since you're cooking at home, you can make delicious homemade fries! (Jake's fries are the best on the planet. Seriously. Even better than ChickFilA.)

Don't Walk Away from the Bacon

For my second foray into French cooking, I decided to make a beef stew.  Mostly because I had beef stew meat.  (Yes, that's what it said on the package...)


It's not Beef Bourguignon, it was a couple pages after that one.  I won't bore you with all the french details.  Basically, this was tender tender beef chunks that fell apart when touched with a fork, and melted in your mouth, cooked with carrots, onions, tomatoes, and mushrooms, and in a gravy like sauce.

Oh man it was delicious.

Julia gives a nice description about the differences between stews and other similar dishes. I didn't quite grasp it. The important part is that after several days of prepping ingredients, 6 hours of marinading, and 3 hours in the oven, I had something amazing!  The picture doesn't begin to do it justice.

Key points learned this time:
1. Making beef stock is a little more involved than originally anticipated. Hopefully I'll have a post about that soon, but for now, Julia's estimated 3-4 hours turned into...... 10?
2. Making beef stock is DELICIOUS.
3. If, say, you are trying to rush to finally assemble a dish at 7am while simultaneously getting ready for work, because your husband has to stick this thing in the oven at 3pm so you can eat at a reasonable hour, and say, you hypothetically forgot to boil the bacon (Something I had never done before), probably don't walk away from the bacon.

Ah yes. The Bacon.

So, to me, this was the strangest, most complicated, almost disaster causing part of the recipe.  You were supposed to boil 1 inch bacon pieces in water, then line the bottom of the pan with them when assembling and top it off with the rest.

Boiled bacon tastes... kinda like I thought I would. Which is to say, not that crispy.

But also. I almost burned my house down, and I scared my poor dogs half to death.

Since the beef stock took me several days longer than originally anticipated, I had sorta been dragging my feet on finishing this recipe.  But Wednesday morning I KNEW I had to get this thing assembled and leave instructions for Jake or we were not going to get to eat it.

So while getting dressed in the other room, I started boiling the bacon.  Yeah. It boiled over. And the grease caught on fire. And the smoke poured out of the kitchen. And stopping the minor grease fire was pretty easy, but I couldn't get the smoke to leave the house or the smoke detectors to stop screaming.

After what seemed like an ETERNITY, everything stopped making loud noises and the smoke had mostly dissipated, I ran to check on the dogs. I knew Tolpel is TERRIFIED of smoke. And as it turns out, Jazz is even more terrified of loud smoke detectors. I had to pry her out from underneath the bed and hold her for a good 20 minutes before she stopped shaking and crying.

So, general cooking rule. Don't walk away from bacon.  This is probably a good rule for life, actually.


Anyway, dinner was delicious.  Lest you think everything just turns out though, my risotto was just... pathetic.  Ah well. Something to strive for in the future. ;)

Mastering the Art of French Cooking

Maybe it's being finally able to keep down something other than french fries.  Maybe it's feeling like this baby is going to change my life in ways I can't even imagine. Maybe it's those lofty dreams from watching Julia and Julia. Maybe it's pure insanity.  But whatever the reason... I picked up a copy of Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking at the library this week.  And tonight, I went for it.

Well, actually, there was a considerable amount of planning.  Monday night, after dumping some cans into a crockpot to make soup (a variation on Catherine's Spicy Chicken Soup using... whatever similar ingredients I have in the house...) I prepped for my first ever big french meal.

Parsley was washed and chopped.
Fresh lemons were squeezed.
Green beans were trimmed.
Butter was clarified.

Butter was clarified!?!!? For the record, I had NO idea what this meant until 2 nights ago.  Lucky for me, this Mastering the Art of French Cooking book is serious business... and she tells you step by step how to do these crazy things. Like clarifying butter.

Tonight was when the truly crazy parts happened.  I made... eh hem... *pinches nose* Suprêmes de Volaille a Brun avec Beurre Noisette et Haricots Verts à la Maître d'Hôtel.

So yeah. In English (and yes, the cookbook translates all of these crazy french foods for you...) I made Chicken Breasts Sauteed in Butter with Brown Butter Sauce and Buttered Green Beans with Lemon Juice and Parsley.

This actually went much better than I expected.  Things I learned.  

• Make sure you actually remember to thaw the chicken. Or else have a wonderful husband who can make last minute trips to the grocery store. (Thanks Jake, you're the best!)
• How to blanch green beans. (Another thing the book taught me.)
• Read all of your recipes all the way through before you start.  This is the only reason I wasn't drowning in a buttered grease fire... both recipes were pretty simple, but I needed the general idea in my head before I started.
• Have high heat utensils. This has been a major problem in the past, but those awesome new red utensils were a Christmas gift from my sister in law. They can stand up to 600 degrees F. Thanks Melissa!
• When Julia Child says, "cook chicken breast for 3 minutes, then flip, then 2 minutes..." her chicken must've been smaller than mine.  Because it took much much much longer.
• If you're going to eat french, you MUST take a french after dinner walk. To clear out the arteries.  From the stick of butter you just ate. No really. I think there was a whole stick of butter in my half of this meal.

But it was so delicious.