I’m off to tape a television segment today for Channel 3-  Your Life A to Z.  It will air tomorrow, Friday, October 14th, at 10:100 AM.  So, instead of posting a recipe I have some miscellaneous, fun, and important items tell you about. 

The last couple of days I’ve been sharing with you items from my weekend shopping extravaganza with Peggy. Both of us are in love with birdcages and we found the perfect one for Peggy’s house. She had an open corner in her dining room and we decided the birdcage would fit perfectly there. She will change it out throughout the year and create holiday and casual vignettes, using the cage as the canvass.  Above you can see what we did for her Halloween Birdcage Vignette and below is a closeup. Doesn’t that look great?!

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OK, you know how I am constantly talking about cleaning out my freezers? It’s not like I don’t try, I do! But this time, it is really happening. I have been cooking only from the freezer for the past 2+ weeks. Now, when I say that, it doesn’t mean I’m not using any fresh food or that I’m not grocery shopping at all, for shame! That would be impossible for me, BUT it does mean that the main dishes, the big stuff, is coming from the freezer.  Examples you ask? Let see, the duck, rib eye steaks, puff pastry, more puff pastry, Kobe beef, ground turkey, shrimp… and today, this exotic chicken.

The chicken I’m talking about is a Silkie that I purchased frozen some time ago at an Asian market.  Here is was a 2007 New York Times article has to say about Silkies.

Pet a Silkie chicken and you understand how it got its name. The feathers are fine and flutter in wisps in the breeze.

… it’s a striking-looking bird that’s often raised for show. Breeders also like them because they will hatch other birds’ eggs.

 ”They are such good moms,” said Frank R. Reese Jr., the founder of Good Shepherd Turkey Ranch in Lindsborg, Kan., who breeds Silkies for show. “They’ll sit on anything and hatch anything. They’ll hatch ducks, turkeys, chickens.”

…They have bluish-gray skin, pitch-black bones and dark beige flesh (they’re sometimes called black-skinned chickens). They’re a scrawny pound or two, plucked, and are usually sold with the head and feet attached (with five toes, not the usual four).

“It’s a scary-looking creature,” said Patricia Yeo, of Sapa in Chelsea. She said she has her staff describe it as a deeply flavored, lean, free-range chicken.

I agree, it is kinda scary-looking without its beautiful white feathers.  And just as described above, it comes packaged completely intact, with head and feet. That is one reason I was excited to try it, chicken feet make the richest and most gelatinous stock. And the flavor of the roasted chicken was wonderful, so much richer than your average  chicken. Before you see the pictures of the naked chicken below, you absolutely have to go to THIS LINK and check out a Silkie or two in the most gorgeous and mind-blowing chicken coop you’ll ever see. (BTW, I was directed to this blog by my absolute favorite blog of all blogs, Vignette Design, of course, everything wonderful can be found at Vignette Design!) I find this coop so inspiring that I am actually tempted to raise chickens again!

Wow, right? OK, back to the chicken at hand – I took a photo of the packaged naked bird from the Asian grocery all spread out, but I’m fearful that some of you might be seriously disturbed by the image…. so if you want to see the picture, leave a comment saying so, and I’ll send the image directly to you in an email. For the rest of you, do not fear, the forthcoming photos feature the chicken after I cut off the head and the really (and I mean REALLY) ugly five toed feet!

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For far too long, I have been discarding fennel fronds.  You know, those pretty dill-like leaves attached to the stalks of a funnel bulb.  Sure, I’d pick off a few fronds and use to garnish a dish, but then I’d toss out the remaining fronds still attached to the tough and inedible stalks. What a shame! I decided to see if the fronds could be made into a pesto, and sure enough, delicious! Use this vibrant pesto in a pasta, as a dip with crudités, or drizzled on a fennel salad.  Salad recipe to follow tomorrow. If the fennel you purchase does not have a full 2 cups of fronds, cut the recipe in half and use only 1 cup of fronds.

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When deciding what to serve for an appetizer party, it is important to think of all the various components:

hot and cold
meat and vegetarian
rich and mild
complex and easy-breezy
color on the table (you need to be careful that everything is not dark and brown)

I put out only four items for the Blog Anniversary Party, which is at least 3 less than I normally do. Taking into consideration all the above factors was especially important. Here is what I offered and what purpose each served for the buffet:

Italian Guacamole with Cibatta Chips – cold, vegetarian,  mild, colorful, easy-breezy, and diet friendly

Bacon Lollipops – hot, meat, rich, complex, although lacking in color

Lamb Merguez Flatbread – hot, meat, rich, colorful, complex

Prosciutto, Melon, and Bocconcini Picks – cold, meat, mild, colorful, and exceptionally easy-breezy

(can be made vegetarian – substitute an heirloom cherry tomato for the prosciutto on half,  or all, of the picks)

The importance of having easy-breezy recipes included on a party buffet can not be overemphasized.  As the hostess, you need to know that there is at least one recipe that is no fail, no cook, and if all else falls apart, you could get your kid or spouse to complete it for you without too much direction.  This recipe is exactly that, keep it in your repertoire!

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I thought I’d had good homemade hummus before, but then I had hummus made from dried chickpeas, instead of canned, and now I know what good hummus is!

Nick Malgieri, former Executive Pastry Chef at Windows on the World and cookbook author, is a frequent teacher at Les Gourmettes.  Last session he made this recipe by another teacher and author, Paula Wolfert, who has three fabulous Mediterranean cuisine cookbooks.  The difference between hummus made from canned chickpeas and the hummus made from dried is incredible. It’s not hard to do, it just takes a little more forethought, since the beans need to soak overnight.

You can find dried chickpeas in bulk at Whole Foods and health food stores and I get the tahini at Smart and Final, but it too can be found at health food and Mediterranean stores.

Bonus:  There is a food processor tip at the bottom of the recipe.

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Remember last weekend when I told you we’d been to a graduation party for Megan, who is my BFF Laura’s daughter? What I didn’t tell you is that Laura’s husband and Megan’s dad, Jack, is a fabulous cook, especially when it comes to BBQ and smoked meats.  Jack made the most delicious smoked brisket and sausages for the party. But there was something that actually rivaled Jack’s main course – Megan’s appetizer.  She put out these “out of this world” jalapeno poppers. Turns out the recipe is from The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl by Ree Drummond. I had heard of Ree before, and of the cookbook, but I hadn’t made anything of hers. Big mistake!  After tasting and now making those poppers and looking over her blog, I am a fan!  And I’m not the only one, Gourmet Live (the recently shuttered Gourmet Magazine’s reincarnation) just named Ree as one of the “50 Women Game-Changers” of the food world. She is #21, well ahead of some big names you will recognize (Paula Deen, Ina Garten, Cat Cora, and Nigella Lawson).

So, thank you Megan, for turning me on to the Pioneer Woman and these poppers!

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Happy Birthday to my handsome, talented, kind, caring, loving, and wonderful son, Connor! I am so proud to be your mom and I absolutely adore you! (this sweet picture was taken last month at my Dad’s 80th birthday party by Sloane’s friend, professional photographer Robert Westerman.)

I woke up early to make Connor his birthday breakfast and thought, “My baby is no longer a teenager, I feel so old!”  But then I realized that I really don’t feel old at all, that is just something people say and then for some stupid reason you automatically say to yourself.  What I actually feel is happy and proud to have raised two cute and innocent little children into such amazing adults – that doesn’t make me feel old – it makes me feel privileged and lucky.

Instead of the traditional homemade birthday dinner of his choice, Connor requested a birthday breakfast, specifically, waffles.  So I made two waffle varieties and served them with bacon, melon, and juice. Waffle #1 is red velvet, the recipe is below…  #2, banana waffles, will be posted tomorrow.

Before we get to the recipe, I want to share some “waffle tips” with you. This applies to waffles of all flavors, not just red velvet and banana.

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One of the countless benefits of working at a world-class cooking school is the goodies I get to bring home. Not only delicious leftovers, but in most cases, what I even appreciate more are the by-products of the food made there.  The chicken, beef, and veal bones; extra produce that was purchased but not used; even homemade puff pastry that a chef made as a demo and then left behind. Earlier this week was the last class of the season and I hit the mother load; lobster shells and duck skin.  Today we will use the duck skin and in the following days I will show you how to make priceless lobster stock and lobster oil, and then use those to make lobster risotto, YUM!

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Unfortunately, no time to post a recipe today. I’ll be on Valley Dish today at 3:30… not cooking this time, but instead showing how to set up a Mardi Gras tablescape. Tune in if you get a chance.

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Today’s recipe is another one of the many scrumptious creations we made during our week long stay at La Pitchoune. It is adapted from Simon Beck’s Marmites of Seafood with Creamy Leeks from her cookbook, Simca’s Cuisine.  A marmite is a French covered crock, by the way.

Simon Beck was Julia Child’s friend and co-author of Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Simon (also known by her nickname, Simca) and her husband, Jean Fischbacher, owned the property that Julia and Paul built their Provençal home on in 1963, near the town of Plascassier, in the hills above Cannes. Julia and Paul named it La Pitchoune – affectionately know as La Peetch. Pitchoune is a Provençal word meaning “the little one” which is apt since it is a small house, just up a small hill from Simca’s larger home.

You can read all about those wonderful years in Julia’s final book, the autobiographical My Life in France, published posthumously in 2006 and written with Paul Child’s nephew, Alex Prud’homme. The book recounts Julia’s  life with Paul in post-World War II France.

The film, Julie & Julia, directed by Nora Ephron, was adapted from Julia’s memoir My Life in France and from Julie Powell’s memoir, Julie & Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously, the film was released in the summer of 2009.

If you would like to learn more about possibly taking the week long cooking classes at La Pitchoune, you can visit Kathie Alex’s website, Cooking with Friends in France, and download the brochure to get all the details. Above is a pretty little watercolor picture I found of the La Peetch, on the site… great memories, good times!

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