Carcass Stock

So my good friend Joselyn had us over for roast chicken a while ago. And if anyone knows how to roast a chicken it's Joselyn. It was yummy. In fact I was so enamored that when it came time to clean up I asked her if I could take the carcass home. She happily obliged and I went home happy with a dead bird (what really happened is that I forgot it at her house and she brought it over the next day).

In any case, I had my dead bird and I was going to to make stock with it. I got rid of as much flesh as possible and gave it to Maggie (except the skin cuz that has a ton of flavor). Then I put my whole bird in, covered it with cold water (starting a stock with cold water makes it so that more flavor is pulled from what you're cooking), and added a whole onion, a ton of crushed garlic and a little salt and let it simmer on medium low. After a bit a just let it simmer on low and covered it.

I started this process around 4pm and it wasn't until six 6:45 am the next morning that I remembered it was there. The result was the best chicken stock I have ever made. I drained all the bits of skin and vegetable and froze my stock for later. When it came time to remove the carcass it completely disintegrated. Like in a movie.

Great Stock
1 whole chicken carcass, picked at
1 whole onion,
5 crushed garlic cloves
some salt
a lot of water

1. Put everything together and let it simmer covered for 15 hrs.

Before I forget

Before I forget, I made up a great soup. Sort of.
Soup is my favorite creative medium - I think because it's so forgiving. And also, I must give credit to Jane and Michael Stern from the Road Food column in Gourmet Magazine. Jane and Michael are regulars on my favorite radio show, Splendid Table, and they were talking about the different types of clam chowder in the country and they mentioned a clear clam chowder, although I forget where that one is from. And as a plus it's virtually fat-free for those of you who care.
Here's my version:

Clear Clam Chowder
Serves 5-6ish

3-4 medium sized potatoes, chopped
1 celery stalk, chopped
3/4 of an onion, chopped
1 can of clams, drained
4 cups of chicken stock
about 1 tblsp of rosemary
about 4 tblsp of red wine vinegar
two cloves garlic, minced
chopped parsley
salt and pepper to taste

1. heat up a stock pot and put some oil in there (i like olive oil) then put all veggies and garlic in there and let them sweat. about 10 min, stirring often so nothing sticks.
2. add clams rosemary and vinegar. cook a little more and stir frequently.
3. add chicken broth and stir so you get any little brown bits from bottom of pan. let simmer on med. low for about 30 min.
4. add salt and pepper to taste, or more herbs if you want and let simmer just a bit longer.
5. take of heat and add chopped parsley as you're plating. Serve with yummy french bread. I don't think sourdough will work with this because of the vinegar.

This is ten times better if you just wait to eat it the next day.

Period.

Everyone knows that a woman's period is not a happy time for anyone. Except maybe Always. Thankfully there are people like the good women at SNL that can make it funny. Where can I get a pink axe?

A Day in the Life

Clearly I am a bad parent. I have not used this blog to publicly worship my child and if I can't even do it with my dog, where will my natural spawn get their self-esteem? This is why I'm posting about Maggie today. Her life if you will.
Maggie (or the Beast, as Brandon calls her) is: lazy, shaggy, sweet, stubborn, loving, shy and floppy. If you were sick she's the kind of dog that would lay next to you as if to say, "Don't worry, I'll lay here as long as you need me to."
To the pictures!

This is how Maggie spends her night and starts her day.


After the morning potty, Maggie hops on the bed ready for the morning nap.


Sometimes we go to the park in the mornings. This is about as much activity as I can get from Maggie.


Exhausted after the park. She'll lay like this for like an hour.


Maggie and her favorite toy. Thanks Veils! I caught her chewing on this and when she noticed I was looking she immediately stopped.


Not helping while I was trying to tidy the house.


Helping us plan our trip to England.


I love this picture and I love Maggie. It kind of reminds me of a picture of Pres. Kennedy where he's in the oval office thinking and his kids are playing on the ground.

Supper Time

If you were a fly on our wall during dinner time this is what you would see/hear:

At the Jacobsen dinner table. Soup and salad are being served. There are 4 accompaniments to the soup. Room-temperature water. Brandon is in shorts and black socks. Nat is in jeans and still wearing her apron as she eats. Maggie lays on couch.

Nat: How was your day?
Brandon: Good, and yours.
N: You know, same old. Maggie went pooh and pee today.
B: Cool.
N: Yeah... whaddaya wanna do tonight?
B: I dunno, you?
N: Hmm....we can go for a walk, or - what are you doing?

Brandon gets up off his chair and lays on the floor in between couch and dinner table. Table setting is still on table. Plate half empty.

B: My tummy hurts for some reason. I think it was the tacos I had at lunch.
N: That bites.
B: Come join me.

Nat gets up from table, lays on floor next to Brandon. Maggie lays on couch.

Exotic Veils

So 3 of my bff's in high school and I were dubbed the Veils. I remember sitting in the journalism room during lunch with my friends and Dennis, friend of a friend, came by and said something to the effect of, "You guys look exotic, I'm going to name you the Veils." And we have been called that ever since.

Key Players: Salpi, Armenian. Archana, Indian. Anuja, Indian. Natalia, Mexican.

It's true, we all look like we don't quite belong anywhere, but we like it that way. With our powers combined we make for a silly sexy time and what's better than that?

Recently three of the Veils and I (Salpi couldn't make it) went to the Shout House. Now that the Veils are reunited in California we try to get together every month and every month is a new adventure filled with sin and debauchery. If no one has ever been to the Shout House you should go. It was wicked fun. We yelled so much my voice was kind of hoarse, totally my kind of place.
Here is proof of the gallivanting.


Here are three Veils ready for a night of shouting. Left to right: Nuji, Me (in a borrowed shirt), and Archie.


Archie clearly unexcited about something.


Anuja highly offended by something I said.


Venue to the fun. I totally want to go back and yell some more.


Archie's drink. From this we learned to never mix alcohol with ice cream.


Anuja's drink. From this we learned nothing.


My drink. From this we learned I walk fast when my friends are buzzed, to protect us from being attacked downtown.


The Gaslamp District hopefully will host more Veil nights to come.

Veils! I miss you guys, what's going down next month?

Pesce

Foreword: Everyone got shop at Henry's. It's cheaper, better quality and you find more of the things you actually want to eat. And yes, it's smaller than a regular grocery store, but I've never felt the need to browse the Chef Boyardee aisle at Vons.

That being said let me share with you my new fish thing. I went to Henry's, my store of choice and bought two Tilapia fillets (very popular in Mexican cooking) for 3 bucks. Amazing? Yes. Then came the decision as to how they should be consumed. In ceviche, tacos, or in a buttery white wine sauce, the options were endless. Luckily for me, my Splendid Table weekly email series entitled, "Weeknight Kitchen," (subscribe to it at splendidtable.org) came the same day as the fish conundrum. In it Lynn Rosetto Kasper had sent a recipe for the way real Italians eat real fish. As opposed to someone with just dark hair eating fish sticks.


It goes something like this:
4 garlic cloves, crushed
8 branches parsley, chopped
1/4 tsp. salt, salty
water
fish, any white fish

1. Combine, parsley, garlic, salt and water in a kinda shallow pan. Water should be about 2 inches deep. Boil for 5 min.
2. Slide fish in pan and cook about 8-10min/inch. Make sure fish is opaque and flaky.

Tadah! You, my friend, have just made fabulous light fishy fish.
Serve with lemon wedges, extra parsley, really yummy olive oil, salt and pepper. Encourage those you are eating with to dress their own fish to taste.

This recipe is fabulous if you like fish. It's fresh, light and really let's the fish speak for itself. Buy super fresh fish so it's even better. Those of you who live in San Diego, try Pescadero's Fish Market. Those of you who don't I don't know what to tell you.