I completely forgot to answer the question a bunch of you asked the other day – just what IS the average life expectancy of a chicken? I thought for sure I had heard somewhere that chickens can easily live to be twenty years old (!), but a Google search led me to this page which says that average life expectancy is eight years and extreme life expectancy is fifteen years.
Also, a couple asked about eggbound..ness (?). I think of it as being kinda like constipation, only instead of being unable to have a bowel movement, the chicken is unable to pass the egg. There are things you can do to try to help the chicken – putting it in warm water to relax the muscles is one thing, and there’s something else that involves lubricant and a latex glove, and I’ll just let you figure that one out on your own.
(Or read this and laugh your ass off.)
It appears that y’all think the double-bladed mezzaluna (or even the single-bladed) is not worth the space it takes up in the kitchen. See? I’m glad I asked instead of just ordering it and letting it sit in the drawer for a few years before I tossed it out (or put it on the giveaway page)!
Speaking of kitchen appliances, remember last week when I was all “Wah, tomatoes, I hate you! :whinewhinewhine: ?” and reader Michele emailed me and said “Buy this right now, whiny! It will change your life!” and because I am very obedient I was all “Okay, ordered!”
Well, it came Monday. Monday evening before bed I took my two and a half gallon ziplock bag full of ripe tomatoes out of the freezer and left it on the counter to thaw. Mid-morning yesterday I set that tomato strainer up and got started.
Twenty minutes later I had nine cups of tomato puree. Now, let’s compare that with the weekend before last when it took me TWO AND A HALF HOURS of peeling and chopping and foodmilling to come up with 5 1/2 cups of tomato puree.
I am totally a convert. That tomato strainer is MAGIC and Michele is the reader of the week, and since I promised to name a chicken after her if the tomato strainer was as awesome as she claimed….
Meet Michele the chicken!
Okay, Michele the chicken is actually a rooster (and I expect he will father many many pretty babies in his lifetime), but since Charlie and George are girls, I figured it would go along with the naming scheme if we gave the rooster a girl’s name, right?
I could have named one of the newborn chickens Michele, I suppose, but they kind of all look alike at that age, so at least this way I know which chicken we’ve named after her. We’ve been calling him “The tri-color rooster” and “The ‘hey guys’ rooster” (because he’s so curious and friendly), so it’ll be good to have a definite name to call him by.
So, to sum up: Reader Michele = Awesome. Tomato strainer = Awesome. Tri-color Rooster = Michele.
Now, y’all tell me – what is your number one, go-to, absolute favorite kitchen tool?
Fred suggested last week that I try making something with chicken and eggplant, and after MUCH discussion we decided I’d made this eggplant/ chicken parmesan dish consisting of a layer of baked eggplant slices on the bottom of a baking dish, topped with shredded chicken, a good amount of Ragu, another layer of baked eggplant, then shredded mozzarella on top.
So I measured out how much eggplant I’d need, and I baked it, and do you know what happens when you bake eggplant slices? Are you ready for this? It shrinks.
I KNOW. Imagine my shock.
So I didn’t have enough eggplant, and after thinking about it for a minute, I was all “Hey! I’ve got these slices of eggplant in the dehydrator, and they’re not dehydrated all that much! I’ll just use those as is!”
Fred tried to be the voice of reason, all “Shouldn’t you rehydrate them and maybe bake them a little?” and I was all “PSHAW, no! They’ll be fine!”
They were not fine. They tasted like I’d put slices of rubber in there. Also, apparently I don’t like the taste of shredded chicken and Ragu together, because I took one bite and was like “Um, no! I’ll be eating cherry tomatoes and mozzarella for dinner tonight instead!”
So I would call that there experiment a resounding flop.
I’m not cooking dinner tonight, because I have a dental appointment at noon (I’m having a filling removed and re-filled) and then I’m going to Sam’s and then I’m NOT going to come home and cook dinner, so I told Fred he’s on his own. I’ll probably pick up a salad somewhere – unless I still can’t feel my lip from the Novocaine, in which case I don’t suppose I’ll be eating anything for dinner.
Tomorrow night I believe I’m going to make chicken salad. Upon cleaning out the freezer in the kitchen over the weekend, I realized I had several packs of boneless skinless chicken breast halves left over from when I bought them in bulk from Sam’s some time ago, so I want to get them used up. Fred’s been wanting chicken salad (made with the sweet pickle relish I canned last year), so that’s what we’ll be having at least tomorrow night, if not for several nights.
And now I’ve gotta go vacuum the house. I want to get that done before I have to leave for my dental appointment and the Dyson don’t run itself!
(Yet.)
Living dangerously.
Kara is wily. She lays down so the kittens get excited about nursing, then she grooms them, and then she walks off and the kittens sit there like “Wait. I thought it was time to eat! Now I’m all hungry and CLEAN!”
There’s always someone around to jump into the picture and swish their tail by your face at any given moment.
Pretty Kaylee.
Pretty River.
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Joe Bob made himself a nest, and Inara came along to see what he was doing, and hissed at him. He was like “And your point is?”
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Previously
2007: (Miz Poo, upon seeing me pick up a fly swatter and walk toward her, whines and runs away. Like I beat her spoiled ass on a regular basis! I don’t, but I oughta. She deserves it.)
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
2004: The morning I wake up and find a cricket in bed with me is the day I start closing the cat door at night, believe you me.
2003: I HAVE THINGS TO DO THAT CANNOT BE ACCOMPLISHED WITH A PORTLY POO IN THE WAY.
2002: No entry.
2001: Yeah, like YOU don’t have a voice in your head that reads things to you…
2000: No entry.
My favorite kitchen tool is a large pair of stainless steel scissors. Yes, scissors. Perfect for cutting pizza into slices that are actually cut ALL THE WAY THROUGH, and for cutting up barbecue pork, and nearly anything else. They’re also there to grab when I need to cut open plastic packaging.
My favorite kitchen tool is my Pampered Chef food chopper. I love that thing, especially when it comes to chopping onions.
My favorite would have to be my kitchenaid mixer. I do a lot of baking and just love it!
Did you buy the plastic strainer or the heavy stainless steel one? I am wondering how sturdy the platic one is. I am going to be processing bushels soon!
*SnickerSnort* My favorite would be the Old Man. He likes to cook and he sure comes in handy. Then there is this small paring knife that I use all the time.
Naming a male with a female name is very “French”. Maybe he should have a full name of “Jean – Michelle”! Oh la la! :o)
My favorite kitchen tool/appliance is my electric steamer. It is the only way my family will eat vegetables. I use it several times a week and it is so easy to clean.
My favorite is my flat electric griddle. It has a moat that grease drips into which then goes into a handy dandy drawer reservoir. You can pull out the drawer and dump the grease in the trash or save it (if that’s your thing). I use it so much the teflon is starting to wear off.
OMG…that Egg bound Chicken story you linked to…I was totally picturing Fred. It just so sounds like something he would do (the TMI info at the store part).
And I agree with J..my fave item to reach for in the kitchen is my dear hubby. He loves to cook and who am I to turn that down????
Other than a very sharp knife, my favorite kitchen item is a microplane/zester thingy:
http://www.amazon.com/Microplane-40020-Grater-Zester/dp/B00004S7V8/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1218036854&sr=8-1
It works for a variety of things, mostly commonly around here it used for citrus zest, hard cheeses, and garlic. Awesome!
I agree with Lo. Scissors are my favorite kitchen tool. After I use them, I just toss them in the dishwaser with the silverware and they are good to go! I use them to cut meat, pizza, open packages (of course). It’s easier than using a knife on a lot of things.
Nothing fancy or gadgety, but I have one good knife that lays on the cutting board since I use it everyday.
OK, I have a question about tomato sauce. The kind I like at the grocery store is chunky–diced tomatoes in sauce. I like the texture in spaghetti, and chicken parmesan, and anything else. So last weekend, a friend brought me about a dozen tomatoes from her garden, and I thought, Hey! Robyn makes tomato sauce, why don’t I? I started to boil some water to drop the tomatoes into so I could peel ’em, then de-seed them and chunk them and so forth, and then I remembered Tyler Florence puts his tomatoes in the oven to roast. And my favorite canned tomatoes are fire-roasted! So I just chunked the tomatoes, put them on a baking sheet with garlic and fresh basil and oregano and salt and pepper and olive oil, and slid them into the oven. 30 minutes later, I slid the whole mass into my mesh colander over a bowl and pressed away until I had–umm, liquid tomato juice. No pulp. (Embarrassed to say that this caught me by surprise.) So I put sauteed some onions and garlic, added a couple cans of my favorite tomatoes (Glen Muir, if you’re wondering) into the saute pan, dumped in my juicy tomato sauce, added a little sugar and some more herbs and seasonings, and it was just wonderful, though a bit more work than if I’d just started with the cans.
So my questiion is: how do you get CHUNKY tomato sauce???? What’s the process, you gardeners/ home-canners and cooks?
About the chicken and eggplant…
PF Chang’s makes a sauteed chicken and eggplant in some kind of Chinese sauce – oyster sauce, maybe? – that’s totally awesome. If you ever come face to face with that particular combination again, I suggest going Asian. Just a thought…
And also – I LOVE my kitchen aid mixer. It was 20 years old when I inherited it from my mom and it works like a champ. I’m a mixing fiend.
Hey there, country filly friend! I see you’ve been making your own laundry detergent. Well, rock on with your bad self! I haven’t transferred that page over to the new site but if you have the link to the old one and want to link it to me — cool beans. You are just so sweet!
I’ll send you the new link just as soon as I can get off my hind end and create it!
Blessings!
Lacy
RazorFamilyFarms.com
My favorite is the Mandolin(sic)because it makes slicing and cutting so fast and easy for older people like me and disabled people. (Like Me)And the slices are nice and uniform.
Sammi
I have to cut up chicken breasts tonight, and thanks to some of these folks I’ll be using the scissors instead of a knife. My favorite kitchen tool is a foot-long tweezer(s)that I didn’t know I needed until I had. Something hard in the disposal? Foot-long tweezers! A chunk of food fell into the stove heating element? Foot-long tweezers! Kitty pushed something under the fridge? Foot-long tweezers! Piece of food somehow fell off into the back of the oven and I don’t want it to turn to charcoal? Foot-long tweezers! I could go on and on. They were very cheap at Ace Hardware.
I just told my husband tonight that the best thing we have bought in a long time is our George Foreman Grill- the one with the digital settings and removal plates. I use it at least 4 times a week. During the summer even more, because it doesn’t heat up the kitchen so badly that we can’t sit in there to eat. It’s greatness!!
I just came back from vacation and am catching up on your past week (daily reader in ordinary times, but very infrequent commenter)…
I just had to laugh when I saw this comic on the plane coming home – sooooo Crooked Acres!
http://www.creators.com/comics/the-other-coast/21684.html
Because I like to enjoy a nice salad with (or as) nearly every dinner, I tend to use my salad spinner every day. But I also could likely not live without my garlic press – I mean, who wants to mince garlic by hand? So it’s a tie for my favorite kitchen gadget.
My favorite appliance is my little mini black & decker chopper (like a miniature food processor). Awesome, quick, and the parts go right in the dishwasher. I also love my crockpot…great to come home from work and smell supper cooking.
Alice: I make homemade sauce and I like it chunky as well. The way I do it is to add a can or two of petite diced tomatoes..even if it’s fresh sauce from my garden tomatoes that’s the best way I’ve found to get the chunks.