A Quick Post Note for Chicken Fricassee

First let me say how thrilling it is to be able to spell "fricassee." Of course don't ask me how to spell it tomorrow because I'll probably have forgotten.

Second, I want to tell you that I re-heated the left over Chicken Fricassee for dinner tonight and (if I do say so myself) - it was MAGNIFIQUE!!!!! That old saw about things tasting better the next day (or the next or the next...) is SO TRUE!

Now. I'd hinted I would make a few changes to the recipe, first among them that I would use skinned but still on the bone chicken next time because of the "ookey" quality of the cooked-in-liquid-chicken-skin. Changed my mind on that. Why not cook it with the skin on (all that chicken fat flavor, don't ya know) - BUT then remove it before serving??

Third, never, never, never, never and I mean NEVER cook a saucy dish like Chicken Fricassee and serve immediately. What happens when those flavors mingle a couple of days? Ohhhh, Mama! It was SO much better reheated. Ms. Julia suggests reheating the dish slowly by simmering it gently in a covered pan, basting the chicken pieces with the sauce occasionally, for a total reheating time of 6-8 minutes. And you know what? The old girl sure knew her way around a chicken. Because that was it! That's all the time it took. Really.

So if you choose to go this route as I certainly will, something you'll need to know is that La Julia recommends letting the whole dish come to room temperature (after cooking) before refrigerating. Saves all that condensation from smothering the lovely sauce. So - seal it up in the fridge and be happy in the knowledge that a couple of days from now you are going to have THE BEST kind of dinner! Toodle for now :)

The Julia Project - Chicken Fricassee

Last week, still in a blogging-cooking daze after seeing the movie "Julie and Julia," I mentioned, oh...just in passing mind you....that I thought I was ready to tackle my big fat Julia Child cookbook from where it had been languishing on the bookshelf some 30-odd years. Always intimidated by the great chef of French cuisine, I just assumed my meager experience with cooking up tacos and the like (and hey - I make a pretty mean fish taco), that the thought of tackling one of Chef Julia's recipes of the two-plus page per recipe persuasion was just way - WAY - out there in terms of my readiness to prepare a decent rendition of any one of her creations.

But thanks, in large part, to further education by way of the many acclaimed television chefs gracing the airwaves (cable waves? satellite beams? Oh, heck - I can't keep up with the technology) of the Food Network, I have seen demos of some pretty fantastic dishes. So between the Food Network and now the movie I thought - well, shoot. You only live once, right? Right!

So I bought butter...lots and lots of butter...and a few other ingredients and decided to go for it. I thought a chicken dish was a safe entry into La Cuisine de Julia so I picked up some nice free-range, organic "parts" as well as the other ingredients. Well, almost.

Julia's recipe called for tarragon. But she didn't say fresh or dried in the bottle tarragon. Aha!! Enter my chance to show off a bit and buy FRESH tarragon. Which I did. Or so I thought. Until the moment I was to add this fragrant herb into the pan and realized I'd bought fresh...thyme. Oh,oh. Well now this was quite a little pickle. Do I go with the fresh ingredient and change Ms. Child's recipe - perhaps irreparably? - or pull out the dried tarragon from the spice drawer. In the end I went with the dried. Dang!

But I am getting ahead of myself here. First things first: my nice chicken wouldn't fit into any of my pans, so I did it in batches. Here is about a third of the chicken browning away in about half a stick of butter...yes - REAL butter...hence the nice gleam and bubbly goodness simmering away below.....yeah, I know, this dude had three legs - go figure!
Now...once the chicken was browned, there is a little more cooking needed and at this point the "10 or 20" small fresh onions were added. And although Julia said I could, I chose fresh onions over the frozen ones. I was proud of myself, peeling all those itty-bitty onions - 21 of them, in fact; ok, I can't count, either.

And then, of course, the dad-gummed dried tarragon! But you gotta admit it - tarragon and chicken go together like Angelina and whats-his-face.

Also into the pool went a couple of cups of chicken stock (ok, this was the kind in a box - but hey! it was organic!) as well as a nice French Vermouth and eventually some quartered fresh mushrooms.

Now. Man does not live by chicken alone, so I halved some fresh figs, added a bit of creme fraiche and a pecan and voila! Now, I do not take credit for this lovely little side dish. My good friend Greta served this to our other good friend Rosie and I at her "slumber party" last week - which I haven't blogged about because I am SOOOOO way behind. Whatever. The figs were nummy!

Finally the chicken was done...I spooned it over fragrant Jasmine rice and headed for the dinner table. Ralph said it was "delicious" and I agreed - except there were a couple of minor modifications I'd make if I was to do the dish again. And I mean NO disrespect to the master, Ms. Child.

First, I'm just not a big fan of browning chicken in a pan with its skin all brown and getting crispy only to pour on the liquids, which then makes the skin sort of ookey...Which is a highly technical cooking term. So I think next time I'd choose skinned chicken pieces - but not boned because cooking chicken on the bone does impart the nice flavor and keeps the chicken juicy.

Second, I would definitely reduce the sauce. By removing the chicken when it's done and keeping it warm under a nice tent of foil, I could turn that flame up to the Smokin' Hot setting on the dial and reduce the sauce down by half - at least. You know how those sauce reductions taste...Yes, three little words describe a reduction perfectly: Fab. U. Lous!

THEN, once the sauce is reduced down, the chicken, mushrooms and those beautiful oniony pearls can go back into the pool for a little re-introduction to the sauce before pouring it over - or serving alongside that nice bed of rice. I chose the beautifully fragrant Jasmine.

So the chicken fricassee? All in all: a successful dish. Especially for the first trip out of the chute on the Julia Child Hot Tamale Train :)

Yep - I'd give it a solid...B :)

And if you've made it all the way to the end of this post - Merci! And stay tuned for more "Cooking with Julia" right here in Mushroom City....Au Revoir for now :)

(Not so pretty) in yellow jacket and BIG HAIR

When writer-director John Hughes died suddenly last week, I recalled the "coming of age" movies that

became so popular with our kids. I don't know about your house, but with Ashley coming into her teens and Alyssa into her tweens - we must have watched a few of those films at least a billion times. How about "Pretty in Pink?" "Sixteen Candles?" Or Ferris Bueller? Shoot - I wanted to be Ferris Bueller!

And what is one of the defining icons of the '80's? Nope - not polyster pants or leisure suits...those fashion disasters were prevalent in the 70's when everybody had had enough of hippie attire. So in the 80's, it was....

It was...that's right! BIG HAIR! Therefore, as a tribute to John Huges, the 80's and BIG HAIR, I dragged out my 20-something year old "official" real estate photo. Yes, friends, this was on my business card. On real estate flyers. In the newspaper for pete's sake. But dang it - I had the 80's hair, all right.

Was I ever that young? Was I ever that skinny? Yep. For a little while.......

The Julie-Julia Connection

Yesterday my good friend Macey, her mom, Kay,

and I saw the movie, Julie and Julia. This has been on the radar of many of my gal pals (and myself) for a long, long time. Who doesn't remember the uproariously fun and ultra-talented Julia Child? The PBS station that carried her show for years - the first cooking show of its time. But the blogging about Julia's monstrous tome, "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" was something I'd not heard about yet. Who knew?! Meryl Streep did a marvelous job as Julia - whatever piece of acting work that woman tackles is a slam dunk. Meryl, as Julia, was funny, determined and vulnerable. All the perfect components for a great chick-flick but I've gotta tell you - there were a few men taking up space in the theater, too, and they seemed to enjoy it about as much as we girls!

So this got me to thinking.

Here was Julie Powell determined to take on this Julia Child masterpiece of French cooking by preparing at least one recipe a day (and often more) in a year's time. Sadly, once Ms. Powell completed her project successfully, the real Julia Child was unimpressed by her Herculean efforts because she didn't feel Julie Powell gave the book the "respect" it deserved.

Of course

the great Ms. Child was well up in years by the time this project came to her attention and she was probably feeling a little, well...cranky. If not just downright envious that the physical limitations brought on by her advanced age prevented her from going out into the world and simply starting her amazing life all over again.

Now. Let me tell you something about respect.

I have SO much respect for Julia Child that when I purchased my one and only cookbook by the great chef, way back in the mid 70s when the book ("From Julia Child's Kitchen") was originally published, that I never prepared a single recipe. To look at my book today, one would think I'd have prepared hundreds of the recipes contained inside. It's worn cover and dog-eared pages seem to suggest otherwise. But no. Instead, over the years I have looked and looked and looked - and looked some more at the recipes - most of which cover at least a couple of pages of cookbook real estate.

The recipes are amazing.

And the recipes are long. They contain, sometimes, strange ingredients. And the recipes are long. Sometimes the preparation calls for actions way beyond my comfort zone. Oh - and did I mention the recipes are long?

But Julia compiled the book in her folksy way - the way that only Julia could achieve. And she did, after all, set out to create cookbooks on French cooking that were for the American cook who didn't (sniffle) have "help" - i.e. their own servants - in the kitchen. Well, that sure would be me.

So I thought, "Why not?"

After owning the book for over 30 years, perhaps it's time to take the plunge. Like Julie Powell, why not venture into this exciting realm of Extreme Cooking? Although, unlike Ms. Powell, I have my limits.

Glancing through the pages of "Kitchen,"

I came upon a picture of a rabbit (lapin)on page 203, all skinned and layed out on the chopping block. It's feet were intact because that's the way they are (or were) sold in Europe - so that one would know one is truly buying a rabbit. Ummm..ok. As opposed to what, exactly? Cat? Guinea pig? Oh, never mind!

So the delights (?)

of rabbit (tastes just like chicken) or tripe or live lobster may go unexplored at Maison Hammond. I think I prefer my lobster the way nature intended - the tail served up attraceively on a plate with a small bowl of drawn butter.

Here's the plan:

prepare once a week a recipe from my old Julia Child cookbook. Purchase the ingredients on my weekly trip (Mondays) to San Jose - stopping off in Los Gatos at Whole Foods, possibly, for the freshest ingredients I can find to pay rightful tribute to the work of Ms. Child. For the meat or fish or poultry, nothing beats our local fish monger, Michael, owner of Poppy's here in Morgan Hill.

Starting with one of two classic chicken dishes,

Coq au vin or perhaps Chicken fricassee (one with red wine, the other with white) I will take the plunge next week. No shortcuts. No "Quick" anything. It'll be the real deal. And I'll let you know how it goes.

Stay tuned -

I have lots to catch up on. But for now, in the words of the immortal Ms. Julia Child -

"Bon Appetit!"

The New Look!

Here it is - Ta-DA!!! At last the home of my blog has a brand new face. I asked for a "Happy" design in my favorite colors - with polka-dots, if you please - so this is it - the Brand New Look. Now. Time for some BRAND NEW POSTS! Coming soon.........I promise...

Chaos!

Did you know that there are actual symbols for "Chaos?" Neither did I! :) Well, it appears that there are, and as I am a very visual person, I decided to kick off my return to my sorely languishing blog with a visual explanation of exactly why it has been approximately 6 weeks since my last post.

Above is one of the many symbols I found online for "Chaos" - and this is one of the calmer ones!! It appealed to me because the red symbol inside - lines shooting off in numerous directions - pretty much sums things up around here for the past one-plus month. What I like about the image is that this Chaos symbol is surrounded by a group of hand-holding souls - friends and family I'm sure, which is why this suits me. Remembering that out of the madness, there is love and happiness!

This is another, more free-form symbol of Chaos with the lines shooting about here and there and some mad splotches of color - symbolizing again the harried nature of life when it careens out of control. This is a pictorial image of things going wrong, routines being carried out in a rush, special events whizzing by in a blurred image, life out of control. A reminder to - SLOW IT ALL DOWN!

But finally - let's look to the opposite images of Chaos. Of Calm. And Harmony.

It's no accident that both of these images utilized the "Yin and Yang" symbol in the Harmony and Calm depictions because without balance - there is, yep, Chaos.

So I begin my blog with a promise to myself, with you as my witness, that I'm going to calm it down, learn to harmonize my world - to live in Balance. Can I do it? Well - I certainly must hope so!

Pretty soon my blog will take on a new design...if you notice above another author is listed on my blog - Hannah of Sherbet Designs has taken me on as a project. I hope that you will soon see here her creation for my blog design. I'm looking forward to its launch. In the meantime, visit Hannah's blog. You'll be happy you did...Simply click on her name.

And the "way behind on my blogging?" Well, the best way to begin the recapture of that is to begin where it makes the most sense - at the beginning. Slowly but surely I hope to journal here the events of the past few weeks - the extraordinary, the mundane, whatever seems worthy of putting down here "on the record."

My column - way behind - missing in action, although it's been present in each issue that I'm committed to with the three local papers carrying my columns. I'll bring them back here, too.

I've missed writing the "Flashback Fridays" and the Monday "Mimi's Monologues" - I'll bring them back too. I promise!

Oh, Baby!!

Yes, it has been WAY too long since I did a post, but where do I start?? So much is happening, and I will fill in the rest another time. But -first things first...therefore, I will begin right HERE:

This, my friends, was not my creation. And I'm not talking about sauce here. My sweet Daughter #2 posted this image on her Facebook profile because...well, she just is.

"Prego" that is. Yep, thus was Alyssa's announcement made to the world at large. Is she a nut or what?

We are overjoyed that Alyssa and Rob are going to be parents. They will make it fun and fabulous and happening and crazy like nobody's business. And I can't wait until a few months from now, after the arrival of little Baby Wagner, sometime in late December or thereabouts, when I can look into my daughter's eyes and see that --- yeah! She gets it.

Because Parenthood (capital "P" by gosh!!) is something that can't be explained. It has to be experienced to be fully understood, am I right?? Because up until that final push, when that brand new life careens onto Planet Earth, we think we know. We've got it covered. We've been happy before. And tired. Exhausted, even. Seen no end in sight. We've loved, protected, catered to and nurtured before. But not like this. Never like this. It's quite a club, this Parenthood thing.

And the neat part is - I know Rob and Alyssa (like I discovered Jim and Ashley to be) are gonna be SIMPLY GREAT as the newest Members of the Club.

And Mr. H. and I? We are deliriously happy. With Granddaughter #1, Gracie, who is about to turn two years, Granddaughter #2, Emily, who just turned two months, and now another on the way, I am reminded of what Rob's dad and our good friend, Lou Wagner said when we first discussed the news; Lou and Corinne's first grandchild, baby Carla Corinne, was just a few weeks old.

"My cup runneth over!" were his words. You sure got that one right, Lou :)