Chicken. With 40 Cloves of Garlic.

I find this post hilarious, because despite the name of the dish, I took no time to take pictures of the garlic.
All 40 cloves I painstakingly cleaned and peeled.

I told my mother, "Mother, do they not sell pre-peeled garlic at the super market?"
To which she replied, "My dear daughter, those have a "bad garlic" smell to them; it's much better to peel your own,"

So it took me an extra 5 minutes to prep.

Woe to my world.

A even bigger woe, as I had to cut a whole chicken into ten pieces. By "I", I mean I cut the drumsticks and then couldn't figure out how to amputate/dislocate/lacerate the rest of the poultry, so my mom did it.

Here is the recipe, courtesy of Smitten Kitchen:
Chicken with Forty Cloves of Garlic

Yield: 4 servings.
1 3- to 4-pound chicken, cut into 8 pieces, at room temperature
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
About 40 large garlic cloves
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup chicken stock or canned broth.
1. Season chicken liberally with salt and pepper. Place a deep, nonreactive skillet or Dutch oven over high heat, and add oil and butter. When fats are hot but not smoking, add chicken pieces skin side down and cook until skin turns an even, golden brown, about 5 minutes. Work in batches, if necessary, and carefully regulate heat to avoid scorching skin. Turn pieces and brown them on other side for an additional 5 minutes.
2. Reduce heat to medium. Bury garlic cloves under chicken to make sure they settle in one layer at bottom of skillet. Saute, shaking or stirring pan frequently, until garlic is lightly browned on all sides, about 10 minutes. Add wine and stock, scraping bottom of pan.
3. Cover and continue cooking until juices run clear when a thigh is pricked, 10 to 15 minutes more. Serve chicken with garlic and pan juices and, if desired, rice or sauteed potatoes.

I only have reds and riesling in storage, so I ended up using vermouth, which is a FAR CRY from a dry white. I don't even know why we have vermouth.
I find the darnest things in my pantry sometimes!
But the fact I used vermouth makes me want to cry thinking of it. It's like when a recipe calls for panko crumbs but you decide to save $3 and make your own by toasting white bread crusts and putting them through the food processor...except maybe worse.

Next time I would DEFINITELY use a dry white though; the vermouth wasn't overpowering, but I have a feeling following the recipe would have led to a simpler dish.

Where are the pictures you ask? Not here...yet.

P.S. Vermouth is quite good if used with shrimp, a little garlic, and fettuccine.

Eat well,
Steph

Monday Night

Mother dipped some strawberries into chocolate.
Unfortunately, the strawberries were kind of ugly.

Still yum.

All I wanted was cassava balls...

And they didn't have any.

For winter break our family trekked down to Cancun; with a little urging from me to Poppa Lee (lamenting my rejection from WashU and the inevitable fragility of my mental health), the trip was booked.

I'm only half joking.

In any case, the last time I visited a warm weather destination, I discovered the wonders of cassava balls, and fell in love.

So obviously on this trip, I was planning on stuffing myself silly with some quality cassava balls: deep fried, sweet, and sticky. The innards somewhat resembling freshly made rice cakes, but better. And Cancun did not have any.

:(

I was so sad that I whipped out my euro textbook on the beach and cried while Sufjan Stevens sang to me:


And I felt a little better afterwards.

HI KRISTI!

Here's Margo, Allyson, Kristi, and Chelsea.

You can tell they're all really excited.

That was because we had squash ravioli's and veal/chicken mess (?) and Caesar salad for dinner with yellow cake with chocolate frosting and ice cream and Crunch bars and Kit Kat bars and Hershey's kisses and we played Just Dance and got our fortunes told and the fortune teller said I'll meet Sufjan and it made me really happy oh and Kristi was also extremely surprised and shocked and it was great and this is such a run-on sentence it's not even funny.

Oh god, but the squash ravioli was SO good. I can't describe how delicious it was. It was just so much yumminess.
Who's a good writer now?

Happy early 18th Kristi!

I shall be back posting posts circa December/January in the next few days.

Keep eating,
Steph