Tuesday, August 31, 2004
Introduction to Being a One-Woman-Lean-Cuisine
As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I enjoy, during the academic year, cooking delicious meals that can be frozen so that on nights I don't feel like cooking I can have something delicious to eat that can just be heated up. Often, this project begins with a whole roasting chicken, as it did this past weekend.
Sunday: I had a taste for roasted chicken with mashed potatoes and asparagus. Now, I live alone. Unless I were to have a dinner party, there is no way that it makes sense to roast a whole chicken, right? Wrong! It's all about converting the chicken into an easily freezable meal after the roasting. Thus, on Sunday I made myself the delicious chicken (my favorite way is to clean the chicken, put an apple, a stalk of celery, and an onion with it, coat the chicken with a paste made of chopped parsley, salt, pepper, and about 2 tbsp of olive oil ) and mashed potatoes and steamed asparagus. When I'd had my delicious meal, I put the left-overs in the fridge.
Monday: I got home from school, I made chicken stock from what was left of the chicken. Yes, it takes like two hours, but it's mostly unattended. When the stock was done, I transferred it to a bowl and refridgerated so that the fat would rise to the top and congeal.
Wednesday: I will use my home-made stock, with fat removed, to make delicious chicken noodle soup, and I will freeze it in individual serving-sized containers.
Voila! One-woman-lean-cuisine!
(In other news, I found out that my tenure stuff is due like 2 weeks before I thought it was due, I just lied to Dr. E. about the context within which I hurt my eye, and I need to write my summary of my activities during my summer fellowship, the summary being due tomorrow. I also need to prep for my evening class and make some copies and grade. What have I been doing with my time? Oh, that's write, making home-made chicken stock instead of taking care of professional business.)
Sunday: I had a taste for roasted chicken with mashed potatoes and asparagus. Now, I live alone. Unless I were to have a dinner party, there is no way that it makes sense to roast a whole chicken, right? Wrong! It's all about converting the chicken into an easily freezable meal after the roasting. Thus, on Sunday I made myself the delicious chicken (my favorite way is to clean the chicken, put an apple, a stalk of celery, and an onion with it, coat the chicken with a paste made of chopped parsley, salt, pepper, and about 2 tbsp of olive oil ) and mashed potatoes and steamed asparagus. When I'd had my delicious meal, I put the left-overs in the fridge.
Monday: I got home from school, I made chicken stock from what was left of the chicken. Yes, it takes like two hours, but it's mostly unattended. When the stock was done, I transferred it to a bowl and refridgerated so that the fat would rise to the top and congeal.
Wednesday: I will use my home-made stock, with fat removed, to make delicious chicken noodle soup, and I will freeze it in individual serving-sized containers.
Voila! One-woman-lean-cuisine!
(In other news, I found out that my tenure stuff is due like 2 weeks before I thought it was due, I just lied to Dr. E. about the context within which I hurt my eye, and I need to write my summary of my activities during my summer fellowship, the summary being due tomorrow. I also need to prep for my evening class and make some copies and grade. What have I been doing with my time? Oh, that's write, making home-made chicken stock instead of taking care of professional business.)
