Join the Club
Let's see. I'm a doctor, I love San Francisco, I adore Las Vegas and
I'm slowly getting addicted to American Idol. Maybe CDY and I should start
a club.
I failed to mention that I liked a couple of Beth Bachman's poems in the recent
APR. Here's the start of "Elegy": No shepherds. No nymphs.
Maybe just one: / the girl the fawn strips like a fisherman's rose."
We have a lot of work now, something like 6 active projects among the three
working engineers (including me). Every time this happens, I find I get up
earlier and earlier until I'm awake looking at the alarm clock and it's 3.45 AM
and I'm actually thinking about getting up. It doesn't help that my
office/lab is 12 steps downstairs, and I can be working 40 minutes after I get
up (25 minutes for walking in front of ancient TV Land programs or whatever's on
at that time, 5 minutes for Blue Monster and vitamins, 5 minutes to make the
coffee, 5 minutes to email a good morning to Sweet Junie). It's not so bad
in the summer, as the morning light lures me out of bed in the wee hours.
Anyway, there are times when we have a lot going on and I've answered a zillion
emails and at 6 PM I get a glass of wine and ask Dima "what have we learned
today", just like Stan or Kyle.
I read this fabulous recipe in my falling-apart-old-as-dirt copy of Joy of
Cooking called Chicken Campagne. You start by roasting a 5-pound
chicken (or whatever that is in kilos) and then remove the meat from the bones.
Then take the bones, skin and undesirable parts and "vegetable parings" and
throw it in the stock pot. Next, sauté one pound of button mushrooms.
Prepare a cup each of cooked carrots and white turnips
à la Parisienne (see page 251, which just
talks about salpicon, mirepoix, allumette, and other vegetable sizes, so I'm
thinking just chop them up any way you want), and a cup of cooked peas and 3
cups of artichoke hearts and arrange the ingredients in a 3-quart casserole (and
I don't know what exactly that is in liters). Alternate layers of chicken
and vegetables making sure the last layer is chicken. Now melt a half-cup
of butter, add and stir until smooth a half-cup of flour, and make a light roux.
Then, add in two cups of "strong chicken stock", a cup of dry white wine, a
half-cup of dry sherry, a cup of cream, and a half-cup of chopped parsley.
I LOVE this recipe. Season this sauce with salt, white pepper and/or (wait
for it . . .) MSG! Cook it over low heat for 10 minutes and pour it over
the casserole. Shake well and cover with Au Gratin (page 342, dried
breadcrumbs optionally mixed with good dry cheese like Parmesan or Romano).
Heat for 30-40 minutes at an unspecified temperature (which is odd for JOK).
Does that sound completely decadent or what?
More tomorrow. Gotta call my Sweet Junie.