And It Doesn't Help to Know That You're So Far Away

Chicken Cacciatore - An easy recipe for you 

Cooking can be healing because there is a purpose and a start and finish to a dish.  You can perform each of the steps with care and in doing so, it becomes ritualistic.  When it's finished, you can look upon it and decide if it is good.  Then you get to eat it!  

There was so much heartbreak on my trip to Arizona to bury my father recently that it is only now (in June) that I can even begin to think back on any of it.  One of the hardest things is to see people you love at a terrible point in time.  To be your best when so weakened and sad.  I hope that I was able to express to family how much I love them.  Then, coming back to a life where both parents have left this earth, leaves a giant gap.  One I haven't even allowed myself to truly walk around in, until now. I know they are in a better place, I do believe that and so happy they are finally without pain, physically and emotionally.  They both lived incredibly long lives.  But today, I miss them both so much.  I miss the space they filled in my world and their presence cannot be replaced.  

I See a Red Sauce and I Want to Paint it Brown

Now that we made short work of that huge pot of chili, I've been dreamin' of that Hunter's Chicken but I remember when I was making it last time, the thought of 'Mexicanizing' it came to mind.  So, I braved the hipster market Green Grape on the corner that I know sells what I need. They'll have it, it'll be fresh and good.  It didn't kill me to be honest and they did have it.  The girl did sort of give a look for taking a bag.  Why is it so hard to remember those darn canvas bags?

I spiced up the chicken with my special cayenne habanero rub and fresh cilantro instead of the thyme.  Instead of roma tomatoes and bell peppers, I'm using green tomatillos, chipotle and jalapeno peppers.  Instead of red wine, I'm using Negra Modelo dark beer.

The wild card is cranberries.  At the end of cacciatore, you throw in a couple of tablespoons of capers and I was thinking of pickled jalapenos but I've really wanted to do something with cranberries lately and I found some so...I threw in just a handful to see what they'd bring to the table.  They brought color, a nice flavor kick and they're welcome to come to more savory dishes in the future.

Guess what does NOT suck?!  What I'm calling God's gift to Thursday, Mexican Hunter's Chicken.  I've broiled tomatillos a lot for sauces and salsas but I've never slow roasted them.  When you bite into these, all the flavors just burst in your mouth, the tartness, the acidity that cuts through the slight heat of the peppers, the fruity flavor. Wow.  I'm so proud of these chicken legs! 

Try to Understand,... He's a Magic Man

This week, inspiration snuck in the back door to my subconscious and started kick boxing my piss poor attitude. Its winter, GET OVER IT! It said like a true New Yorker. So I did. I'm over it. I am embracing winter and vow not to complain again until the bitter end when you just have to honestly.

My focus is back to cooking. I began with a fantasy of eating a deep rich sauce...it was chicken cacciatore, Hunter's chicken. I could taste the sauce in my mind. I needed to make it reality. My intention was to work off a real recipe and try to follow it as much as I could. I'm doing okay with that, but I just can't seem to help myself. I gotta do what I feel inside. What works for me is to read through all the top recipes first and then do a mash-up version of all of them.

Some of the great recipes used bell peppers, some mushrooms. Why not have both? The more vegetables in a dish the better. The roasted vegetables burst with aromas. All the ingredients feel so rustic. I do feel like a hunter.





After roasting the bell peppers, roma tomatoes, red onions and bella mushrooms you sear the chicken and then make the sauce of red wine, chicken broth and canned whole tomatoes. The wine picks up the bits and pieces on the bottom of the pan, reduces down and becomes very full-bodied. Then the chicken and added garlic braises in that amazing broth for 45 minutes only to come out and join forces with those vegetables along with fresh basil, rosemary and capers. Holy Good Lord this is something out of Lydia's Italian kitchen! I couldn't figure my way out of a paper sack this week and yet I made this??? Unbelievable.





This dish is the perfect winter warmer. Braised meats are consoling and soothing. Winter is something to celebrate! Winter is male for sure. I'd say he's kinda magical. He says 'You don't have to love me yet, let's get high awhile'. Then you relax and start to get it. The holing up, the quiet on the streets, the time to just chill your ass out and just be for a couple of months without that big 'ole sun making you feel inadequate because you're not out in the park enjoying yourself or throwing some stupid ball around. The bitter cold sort of making your apartment feel like a birds nest. It's revitalizing and its like this dish and old man winter.







The part where I let my hick show is I didn't have any freshly made pasta so I had to serve it over elbow macaroni. You can take the girl out the trailer park....