The ABC's of Cooking: A Is for Attitude or "Smooth Cooking"

Just as going on vacation with a two-year-old really isn’t a vacation, cooking for enjoyment and cooking for hungry kids/spouse are not the same experience. Having ravenous loved ones breathing down your neck does not make for especially enjoyable cooking. 

With this thought in mind, I would like to do a series  on cooking for enjoyment, the ABC’s of culinary arts if you like. Key points include the fact that I am retired and that I have access to HappyDayFarms, which covers a broad range of ingredients for meals. These include freshly harvested seasonal veggies, spices, herbs, farm-grown chickens, pork, lamb and turkey, and locally-grown beef.

These spring days I get regular infusions of fresh eggs, farm-produced lard, garlic, green garlic, onions, shallots, leeks, scallions, kale, boy choy, baby turnips, salad greens, radishes, baby carrots, beets, cabbage, potatoes and whatever else is being harvested from both farm and greenhouses (which survived the snow). I have old-growth rosemary, sage, thyme and oregano plants, and get seasonal infusions of basil, cilantro and parsley from the farm.

With access to whole chickens, ground turkey, lamb roasts, locally grown beef from Meadow and bacon, I have the basis for a multitude of lunch possibilities. All are tried and true meals which have received two thumbs up from farm staff, which means they were tasty and everyone went back to work on full stomachs.

Using the 35 years I served as Annie’s sous chef, I have become as comfortable in the kitchen as I used to feel in the classroom. The avenues I choose to follow in the kitchen do not lead me into unknown neighborhoods, so my level of comfort is sky high, not to be confused with my bong.

This is turkey broth

I like defrosting two chickens over twenty-four hours, cutting them up, cooking the breasts in water separately for the broth, and then cooking the bones in water for twelve hours afterwards. I get chicken and bone broth, two essential ingredients in a number of dishes. 

There is also an amazing amount of boneless dog food to be had from cooking a chicken carcass for twelve hours. Both the bone broth and the undesirable parts of the chicken that remain when we are finished eating what we like, are then jarred up and refrigerated for use over the next couple of weeks. 

I use broth in countless dishes, including stews, soups, chili, casseroles, shepherd’s pie, chicken cacciatore, pots of pinto beans, rice, including Spanish rice, cooking greens in my wok, scalloped potatoes and any number of other dishes which use a liquid base. Substituting broth for oil when cooking veggies is a tasty and healthy alternative.

So in reading any of the following pieces, beginning with B Is for Bacon, bear in mind that the scenario I will paint is one of a leisurely process, with time always on my side. Cooking with time constraints is the worst, so I don’t. 

I have an unorthodox sleep schedule, which I am endeavoring to correct, but it still means I am up before the roosters have even had their coffee. I therefore have the time and the inclination to cook at a pace that befits a man who keeps a bong within easy reach.

Just not close enough to have to worry about errant elbows…