It's My SITS Day!

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Welcome!  I'm Susan in the Boonies, and I'm delighted to welcome you today to my Wild Life in the Woods!

My husband snapped this shot of me on a date night.
He calls it "I Heart Sooze". I think it's pretty clear I  heart him back.

I couldn't be more thrilled to be putting out my welcome mat for you. I'm delighted to see my regular readers here, whom I cherish, and I'm especially excited  to welcome some new guests who are stopping by for your very first time.  I hope you'll like what you see, and come back often!

 Why are so many new folks flocking to the Boonies today, you might ask?

 Because today is my SITS Day!

 "But why are you taking a SITS-bath in front of God and everybody?" you might ask. "Is this some sort of bizarre Boonie-Ritual?"

You're so funny!

We do have plenty of odd rituals in the Boonies, but public SITS-baths are not among them. (Yes, I know it's actually spelled "sitz bath", but go along with me on this one. Puns are how I roll.) Today, I'll be taking a virtual "SITS-bath" in Bloggy Love.

I am a member of an online community of bloggers, 15,000 strong, known as the SITS Girls, who believe that The Secret to Success is Support. My SITStahs show each other Bloggy Love on a daily basis, by visiting and commenting on each other's blogs. I've learned so much by visiting the SITS Girls website each week. They have online courses that are designed to help you improve your blog, and they even sponsor a blogging conference several times each year in various locations around the country called Bloggy Boot Camp. I attended Bloggy Boot Camp in Atlanta this past October, and not only did I have a blast and learn a ton, but I also made invaluable connections with other bloggers whom I absolutely adore.



Can you tell I am a huge fan of The SITS Girls?

But enough about them.

Let's talk About Me:  :-D

I'm a wife who is deeply in love with her husband. I call him the Big Bison because that's actually the name of his music production company. Being married to a self-employed (and Emmy nominated) musician is part of what makes our life a little wild.  The out-of-the-blue heart attack he had in May only added to the wildness of our ride. We're both grateful that he was able to survive that event, and continue making a living doing music professionally. He's also taken quite a few of the photographs that you'll see here, especially the food photographs. He's a master at cooking on the grill, and even roasts our coffee beans for us. He's truly a renaissance man.

He's also not hard to look at.

I'm a mom of two pretty fine human beings, one male, one female. It happens that I homeschool, but I worked in the public schools for seven years before I had kids. I'm crazy about my kids, but I try to keep my bragging to a minimum.

Faith:

I'm a child of God, and a believer in Jesus, and my faith is at the core of who I am. I've studied the Bible quite a bit over the years, and I love to share the things I'm thinking about, and the things I'm still learning. so you can find quite a few posts that pertain to spiritual matters. You'll find those posts on the tab labeled "Faith". Here's one that still chokes me up a bit.

Food:
I have a passion for good food: I love to cook, and I love to find the very best recipes. If I share a recipe with you, it's because I've tried it and found it to be not just good, but excellent. If every calorie counts, why not make your calories completely delicious? Because I'm a teacher at heart, I love to share whatever I learn in my own research, whether it's from my online reading, or through the mistakes I've made as I prepare the recipes myself. So not only will you find great recipes on my blog, you might just learn a thing or two from reading my food posts. That's my goal, anyway. You'll find my recipes collected and categorized under my "Food" tab.

I'm especially proud of a 4 part series I wrote that's a Whole Wheat Bread Tutorial. This series of posts will take you from grinding your own grain, to  knowing what kind of wheat berries to buy,  to storing the wheat and flour,  down to the very best whole wheat bread recipe I've ever found. (Freshly ground flour is not required to make that recipe, either.)

Another exceptionally popular post has been Slow Cooker Tortilla Soup. People love the idea of using their slow cookers, but slow cookers tend to produce food that is overcooked and bland: this soup is anything but!

Slow Cooker Tortilla Soup is my most popular post ever.

For some reason, I've posted quite a few dessert recipes over the years. I'm pretty skilled in the pie-making department: whether apple, peach, blueberry, pumpkin or pecan, I've won every pie making contest I've entered. I've also won two cookie contests, and the story around those makes for a good laugh. Whenever I take one of my cheesecakes to a party, (like this bourbon pumpkin cheesecake) people try to hire me to make a cheesecake for them. I feel funny tooting my own horn, but I guess it ain't bragging if it's the truth.

Fun:

I'm a natural born story teller, with a well developed skill at spotting the ironies of life. I love laughing at myself, and laughing in general:

Exhibit A of "I Love To Laugh": Me and my pal, Chloe, yukking it up at Blissdom.

Check out the "Fun" page to read some of my more favorite, funnier posts. Don't miss the day I went dress shopping with my daughter for my dress for the Emmy ceremonies, especially if you enjoy a good laugh at someone else's expense. Vanity Fair is sure to make you feel a little better about your own less happy shopping experiences.


I have two dogs, a Yellow Labrador named Deacon D. Dawg, and a German Shepherd named Pilgrim Pee Dog,  who are fine sources of entertainment and amusement. Do you love a good dog tale? I don't have any of those. All my stories are about bad dogs, whom I love anyway. Because they love ME anyway, even when I'm bad. Dogs are great like that. Mine make me laugh. And I love to share that kind of stuff with you. So there you go.

Deacon D. Dawg, the Paper Boy, in summer.

Pilgrim Pee Dog in winter.

Deacon and Pilgrim engaging in their favorite pastime: Retaliatory Peeing.
 Bonus points for Deacon, who is also engaged in his second favorite activity, newspaper retrieval.
Deacon lifts his leg, while Pilgrim squats behind him.
Pity the poor sapling pine tree that is the recipient of their rivalry!

Thanks SO MUCH for stopping by my little corner of the Boonies. Look around as much as you'd like, and leave me a comment if you're so inclined. Comments are like CRACK to bloggers, as most of you know very well yourselves, and I'd love to hear from you about anything you might have enjoyed!

If you like what you see, please, subscribe to my feed, or follow me on Google Friend Connect, or Networked Blogs. You'll see links for these in the right margin.

(Wild) White Turkey Chili

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Wild White Turkey Chili

I love white chili, don't you? While we've still got a little bit of potential winter weather left in this sorry excuse for a winter we've had this year, I thought I'd share with you a recipe that really warms us up here in the Boonies, during the colder months of the year. I've seen recipes for white chili with chicken, but a few years ago, I saw a recipe in Cooks Illustrated for White Turkey chili, and decided I wanted to give their recipe a try.

THE RECIPE DIRECTIONS THAT I AM GOING TO GIVE YOU ARE PRETTY CLOSE TO THEIR ORIGINAL DIRECTIONS, which call for using A STORE BOUGHT TURKEY BREAST. I am doing this because I suspect that this is what most people reading this will have access to. However, I want you to know that when I made this recipe, I used the wild turkey breast that my husband brought home from one of his hunting trips.


If you are using a wild turkey breast: Wild turkey is very, very lean, and so it's important to be very careful in the cooking process, because if cooked too long, it can toughen up quickly. A wild turkey breast will also, in general, be smaller than the store bought turkey breast this recipe calls for, so this is another reason to pay careful attention to the length of time you cook it.  Less than 2 1/2 lbs. of meat means that your cooking time would be less. My wild turkey breast had no bone, and no skin. Again, this reduced the cooking time necessary. If you attempt this recipe using a wild turkey breast, my main suggestion would be that you check the temperature of the turkey breast at the thickest part, early, periodically, and carefully. You want to cook it to the FDA's recommended temperature for cooking poultry, which is 165º. That said, once you remove a piece of meat from the heat, the temperature will continue to rise for a few minutes, so taking it out at 160º is a good rule of thumb. Where this recipe calls for you to return the meat to the chili to continue cooking it, do not, if it has already reached the desired temperature of 165º.

Tip #1: Use gloves to initially cut and seed your chile peppers. Either those yellow latex gloves or the clear latex or non-latex disposable gloves will save your fingers from post-chile pepper cutting burn. I've had this before, and you don't want it. My fingers burned for several hours once after chopping chile peppers. So don't go there: wear gloves.


Tip #2:  Cooks Illustrated recommended that I use a food processor to prepare the onions and chili peppers. I doubted them. Silly me. My experience in the past with chopping onions using a food processor is that food processors turn onions into mush. Well, they do, if you process the onions too long. So follow the directions and PULSE the onions and chili peppers until they look like salsa. It was about 10 pulses with my food processor. Many tears went UNshed using this method. Big time-saver, too.  I highly recommend it.


Tip #3: The only thing I am really changing seriously in this recipe is the amount of heat/chile peppers. We are not stout of heart when it comes to heat in food. So, if you like your chili HOT, adjust the amount of chile peppers accordingly. I cut the amount the original recipe called for: I used one third the amount of peppers they used. (In general, one pepper where they called for 3 peppers.)  If you REALLY like it hot, don't remove the ribs or seeds from your chile peppers. That's where the REAL heat comes in.

Tip #4: I cooked my white (cannelini) beans from scratch, with garlic, thyme and a bay leaf. You could easily substitute Great Northern beans, or even Navy Beans in a pinch. I like the cannelini because they are large. Canned beans are fine, if that's what you've got, and it's easier for you. Beans you cook yourself are tastier, cheaper, and better, in general, because you know what's in there. That's my opinion.


Tip #5: I use my own homemade chicken stock. Again, it's tastier, and you know what's in there. But you don't have to. But it WILL bump the quality and taste up a notch. Someday, I should post a recipe for how I make that. And I will! I promise!

White Turkey Chili

Ingredients:

1 bone-in, skin-on split turkey breast (about 2 1/2 pounds), trimmed of excess fat and skin
salt and ground black pepper
1 T. vegetable oil
1 medium jalapeño chile
1 poblano chile (medium) stemmed, seeded, and cut into large pieces
1 medium Anaheim chile pepper (medium), stemmed, seeded, and cut into large pieces
2 medium onions, cut into large pieces (2 c.)
6 medium cloves garlic, minced
1 T. ground cumin
1 1/ t. ground coriander
4 c. cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
3 c. chicken broth
3 T. fresh lime juice (from a couple of limes)
1/4 c. fresh chopped cilantro leaves
4 scallions, white and light green parts sliced thin


Instructions: 


1. Season turkey liberally with salt and pepper. Heat oil in large Dutch oven over medium-high heat until just smoking. Add turkey, skin-side down, and cook without moving until skin is golden brown, 6 to 8 minutes. (If cooking wild turkey, check turkey's temperature after 6 minutes). Using tongs, turn turkey and lightly brown on other side, about 2 minutes. Transfer turkey to plate; remove and discard skin.

2. While turkey is browning, remove and discard ribs and seeds from the jalapeño; mince flesh. In food processor, process half of poblano chile pieces, Anaheim chile pieces, and onions until consistency of
chunky salsa, 10 to 12 1-second pulses, scraping down sides of workbowl halfway through. Transfer mixture to medium bowl. Repeat with remaining poblano chiles, Anaheim chiles, and onions; combine with first batch (do not wash food processor blade or workbowl).

3. Pour off all but 1 T. fat from Dutch oven adding more vegetable oil if necessary) and reduce heat to medium. Add minced jalapeños, chile-onion mixture, garlic, cumin, coriander, and 1/4 t. salt. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables soften, about 10 minutes. Remove pot from heat.

4. Transfer 1 cup cooked vegetable mixture to now-empty food processor workbowl. Add 1 c. broth and process until smooth, about 20 seconds. Add vegetable-bean mixture, remaining 2 c. broth, and turkey breast* (bone-side down) to Dutch oven and bring to boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, covered, stirring occasionally, until turkey registers 160º on an instant-read thermometer, 30 to 35 minutes.


(*If you are using a wild turkey breast, the last simmering of the turkey breast may NOT be necessary. In fact, it will only cause an already cooked turkey breast to draw up and get tough if the breast has already reached 165º. So don't do this step if the turkey has already come to the desired temperature. If that is the case, just simmer the turkey breast enough to warm it back up.)

5. Using tongs, transfer turkey to large plate. Stir in remaining beans and continue to simmer, uncovered, until beans are heated through and chili has thickened slightly, about 10 minutes.

6. Mince any remaining jalapeño and set aside. (I omitted adding additional jalapeño. We don't need the extra heat around here.) When cool enough to handle, shred turkey into bite-sized pieces, discarding bones. Stir shredded turkey, lime juice, cilantro, scallions, and remaining minced jalapeño into chili and return to simmer. Adjust seasonings with salt and pepper and serve.

I top my chili with sour cream, avocado chunks, and tortilla chips.

Have you ever had white chili? What do you use in yours?

Birthday Boy Busted in the Boonies

Pin It February 14 may have been Valentine's day to YOU, but to those of us in the Boonies, it is also known as Deakie Boy's Birthday. Deacon D. Dawg turned TWELVE this year.

That's twelve in human years.

But that's eight thousand and seventy-two in doggie years. Or 84. It's one of those.

And we're proud as can be of our Old Man of the Boonies, the rare White Chocolate Labrador.

Deakie Boy is a scientist, in every sense of the word. How do we know this? Because he always walks around wearing his Lab coat. (Insert Three Stooges Laughter here: nyuck, nyuck, nyuck.)

But even though Old Iron Tum, the Plastivore, is older than Methuselah (if you go with the older estimate I gave you earlier), he's a puppy at heart.

What's that? You want PROOF?

I gotcher proof, right here, Baybay.

Because in honor of his birthday, following his breakfast and his glucosamine chondroitin supplement, he retired to my bedroom, upstairs, seeking the solace of a sunbeam to warm his arthritic joints. Apparently, he was also seeking the satisfaction of a good, mouthful of a little sumpin'-sumpin' to chew.

Because maybe YOU thought, and I CERTAINLY thought, that as a senior citizen, despite his silky smooth and soft puppy fur, Deaky Boy had outgrown his childish ways? Au contraire, mon cher.

Deaky's philosophy is: if you can't find something to chew, chew the one you're with.

So, I went upstairs for some reason, and found the GUILTY party, up to his old puppy tricks. He hadn't chewed up anything in months   weeks days, but in honor of the day, and his own personal quest to forever drink from the Doggie Fountain of Eternal Youth: here's the offending canine, up to no good, and fully cognizant he's been caught red handed. Red pawed? Pink nosed?

The Perp:

"Oh, say, SoozieGirl, I feel so ashamed...so very, very, very ashamed."

"No, really, I'm inconsolable.
How could I do such a thing AGAIN???"

"But...ya know...we Senior Citizens need our fiber....
I hope my sweet pink nose and sad brown eyes help you want to forgive me, SoozieGirl.
I love you so."

Eh... no worries, Deak. What's a paltry purple colored pencil among pals?

My Old Man is still kickin'. 

His body may be moving a lot slower, but there's a lot of puppy in the old feller yet.

Long live my boyboy. 

Old Iron Tum: may your fiber never falter.

What's your pet destroyed lately? :-D (This could be fun!!!)

Reverse Bucket List (or the Top Ten Things I Never Want To Do Again)

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Can you smell the green stuff from here? I still can.

1. Give my used-to-be white, yet now, strangely splotchily mint-green, turkeypoop covered dog a bath. The aroma? My dear, you have NO idea.
2. Be stuck as an adult suffering from a lack of voice that has been stolen by a wickedly evil cough, seated in the back of a school bus, while all the OTHER teachers have gotten OFF the bus "to see about tickets", entombed in this unbelievably noisily confined space FILLED with over-the-top excited, SHRIEKING second graders on a field trip, inhaling exhaust fumes with every feeble breath, but with no voice with which to tell the little buggars: "YOUTH OF AMERICA, PIPE DOWN!!!"
3. Go with those same 2nd graders to Chuck E. Cheese. God in Heaven: what have I ever done to displease you so???????????
   
   
4. Go with ANYONE to Chuck E. Cheese. My kids are no longer toddlers. The mouse creeps me out, and so do the rest of the gargantuan creatures. And lets not even TALK about the odor of urine that rises up from that ball pit.
5.  (And while we're on the topic of eating) Eat a White Castle or Krystal: Death Burger/Gut Bomb/Gut Grenade, as my friend Gina calls them.
6. Sleep in a non-airconditioned concrete hut on a swelteringly hot summer night, on a concrete floor on a plastic/vinyl covered mattress that makes my skin sticky with sweat, and squeaks in my ear every time I shift my horribly uncomfortable self, all. night. long. It seemed like the dawn would NEVER come that night.
7. Change the full-to-the-brim-and-overflowing-out-the-top-of-the-backside of the diaper of a baby who has been constipated for 4 days, and who has recently enjoyed a sulfurous meal of eggs and spinach. Lots and lots of greeeeeeeen spinach. In a public place. Like leaning over to change the baby who is lying on the back seat of my car.
8. Clean out the toilet/powder room of your friend's gazillion dollar home, where my once again constipated child (who by this time has graduated on into toddlerhood) has taken himself to "go potty" before I end my visit to said mansion, where I discover the child has unraveled and dropped an entire roll of toilet paper into the poopiefied murkiness of the toilet, which has now overflowed onto the floor of the gazillion dollar home.
9. Eat fried oysters. (See this post for further details.)
10. Give myself a DIY Bioré strip facial. (That link will tell you more than you ever wanted to know about why NOT.) 

Life is good. Truly, truly a gift. But there are SOME things, that when they're all over, who can but say:

"Wow. Well, thank goodness we never have to do THAT again."

QUESTION; So... what's on YOUR Reverse Bucket List for something you never ever want to have to do?

This post was written in response to a writing prompt I found here, where you can find links to a whole lot more really great posts:

We have a winnah!!!

Pin It Ladies and Gentlemen: We have a WINNAH!!!

A winner of the $25.00 gift card for the Centrum and Nutrition Possible giveaway.

Chosen by the Random Number Generator:

The winner of the Am Ex Gift Card for $25,00  is the person who left Comment #28.

Congratulations, Christine!!! I contacted Christine this morning, and hopefully, she'll be receiving her gift card very soon.

Yay!!!!

Ginger Roast Chicken and Elbow Macaroni with Tomatoes and Pan Sauce

Pin It Remember that WONDERFUL steak I dry aged and salted last week? The one that offered you steak house taste for a fraction of the price? And how, in that post, I told you I was going to come back and talk some more about salting meat, and the wonderful things it does to that meat? This is that post.

Ginger Roast Chicken and Elbow Macaroni with Tomatoes and Pan Sauce

Talk about a dish that is so much more than the sum of its parts!!! I heard the creator of this dish, Molly Stevens, describing it to Lynne Rosetto Kasper on The Splendid Table. ("The show for people who love to eat", on NPR). That's where I got the recipe, and honestly, I don't believe I altered it very much at all. Just added a full pound of macaroni to use up the box! So this recipe actually became the catalyst for me to do my research into the process of salting meat, and it's also what led to that steak post in the first place. Molly's description sounded so EASY, but her brags were pretty extraordinary.

Molly promised that this recipe would give me the most flavorful roast chicken I had ever had in my life.

REALLY???

I thought I already HAD the most flavorful roast chicken recipe that I had ever had in my life. Could she REALLY one-up me? In the name of science, I had to know.

Molly also promised that this chicken would have a wonderful, crispy skin. Now, my roast chicken is indeed wonderful, but, the skin is not particularly crispy. And I love rotisserie chicken that you get where the skin has that wonderful little crisp thing going on. So, the promise of crispy skin AND flavorful meat pushed me over the edge, and I caved. This one, I would try.

There is some kind of strange and wonderful alchemy that goes on between the chicken, the ginger, the tomato, the wine, the pan juices and the pasta. I used macaroni, because I had some in the pantry. You could probably use something else. But I am telling you that, surprisingly to me, plain old macaroni was the perfect vehicle, in terms of size and texture, to hold the delicious sauce that was produced via the tomatoes, the ginger, and the pan drippings. It reminds me a bit of the aromatic sauce that goes with tikka masala. The pan drippings have a lovely depth of flavor because not only do they contain the giblets, but since the chicken is roasting on a rack above them,  they are more exposed to the heat, thus have an opportunity to caramelize in the shallow pan.

You may remember from my previous post on salting beef, that salting needs to be done in advance to allow the salt to do it's thing. Remember, INITIALLY, it does draw the juices out of the meat, but given enough time, it dissolves, and then gets drawn back INTO the meat, penetrating way down deep, so the juices and the flavor go way back in, giving you just what you want: meat that is flavorful AND juicy.

While we only let the steaks sit for an hour and a half following being salted (they had dry aged prior to that for 4 days), a whole chicken will provide the best flavor given a minimum of 8 hours, and for better flavor, 24 hours. (Molly stated that she had, at times, kept a salted chicken in the fridge up to 48hrs.)

Don't know if you can tell it by looking, but that skin really was CRISPY!!! Mmmm!

So, here's the recipe:

Ginger Roast Chicken and Elbow Macaroni with Tomatoes and Pan Sauce

Ingredients:

1 T. plus 2 t. peeled and grated fresh ginger, divided
2 T. extra-virgin olive oil
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 3 1/2 to 4 lb. chicken, preferably with giblets
Juice of 1 lemon
3/4 c. dry vermouth or dry white wine (I used white wine)
1 lb. elbow macaroni
2 to 3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 14 1/2 oz can diced tomatoes, with juice (I used the fire-roasted variety, because I really like the flavor)
1/4 c. chopped flat leaf parsley, or fresh basil


Preparation:

1. Season the chicken: in a small bowl, combine 1 T. of the ginger, 2 t. of the olive oil, 1 t. salt, and 3/4 t. pepper. This will have the consistency of a paste.
   
   Over the sink, remove the giblets from the chicken, which are usually tucked into the cavity. Discard the liver. Set the giblets aside. Rinse the chicken thoroughly with cold running water and then blot dry with wads of paper towels. With your fingers or a knife, remove all large blobs of fat from the neck or body cavity opening. Starting at the cavity opening, gently slide your fingers between the skin and the muscle tissue, loosening the skin at the bottom of the breast and around the thighs. (This is where you will be putting the spice paste you made: you're just making an opening place for it to go.) Do this at the neck end as well, loosening the skin that covers the top of the breast. Now rub about 3/4 of the ginger paste under the skin, in the areas you have loosened. Rub the remaining 1/4 of the ginger paste inside the cavity of the bird. Next, smear the exterior surface of the bird's skin with about 1 t. of olive oil, giving the chicken a nice massage. Then season the exterior of the bird liberally with more salt and pepper.  Tuck the wing tips back so they are secure under the neck bone. Refrigerate the bird and the giblets for at least 8 hours, and up to 48 hours. (I salted my bird 24 hours in advance.)
   
   
2. Preheat the oven: When it's time to cook the bird, preheat the oven to 400º, positioning the rack in the center of the oven.
   
   
3. Roast the chicken: If you have giblets, put them on a low-sided roasting pan (I used a jellyroll baking sheet) and set a roasting rack over the giblets. Put the chicken breast side up on the rack. Squeeze the lemon juice over the chicken, and put the chicken in the oven with the legs facing the rear wall. After 25 minutes, open the oven door and pour the wine over the chicken. If at any time the liquid in the pan appears to dry up, add 1/4 c. water to the pan. (I never had to do this.) Continue roasting, basting the breast, until the juices run clear with only a trace of pink when you prick the thing and an instant-read thermometer inserted in the thickest part of the thigh (without touching the bone) registers 170º, another 35 to 55 minutes, depending on your oven and the size of your bird.
   
   Lift the chicken out of the pan, using a fork or tongs to steady it, and carefully tilt it to pour the juices from the cavity into the roasting pan. Transfer the chicken to a carving board (preferably one with a trough). Discard the giblets, but reserve all the juices in the pan.
   
   
4. Cook the macaroni: About 10 minutes before the chicken is done, bring a large pot of well-salted water to a boil. While the chicken rests, warm a wide, shallow serving dish or bowl big enough for the cooked macaroni. Cook the macaroni until tender but not mushy, per the package directions.
   
   
5. Make the sauce: While the macaroni is cooking, in a medium (10") skillet,  heat the remaining 1T. olive oil over medium heat. Add the garlic, the remaining 2 t. ginger, and a pinch of salt. Cook, stirring, until fragrant and just golden, about 1 minute. Add the tomatoes and increase the heat to high. Cook, stirring often, evaporating some of the juice, until the tomatoes begin to brown in spots, about 8 minutes, scraping up any caramelized bits. Taste for seasoning. Remove from heat and immediately stir in the parsley or basil.
   
   
6. Sauce the macaroni, carve the chicken and serve: Drain the macaroni and transfer it to the warmed serving dish. Add the sauce along with all the juices form the roasting pan, (Don't skim the fat from the roasting pan juices: you need it to enrich the pasta.)Toss well, taste, and season as needed with salt and pepper. Carve the chicken, add any carving juices to the macaroni, and serve the chicken alongside the macaroni. Garnish with herb sprigs, if desired.

We served ours with roasted broccoli. I intend to give you that recipe, soon.

How was it? Spectacular! Will I be making it again? Oh, yeah. I'm even thinking that I could do a hybrid of this recipe and my other recipe, in which rather than a ginger paste, I just do a garlic paste, and salt the chicken as well, roasting my veggies on that jellyroll pan, but with the chicken up on a rack to encourage better crispness on the underside of the bird.

Have you ever tried salting your meat and letting it rest in the fridge for a day?

GIVEAWAY! $25.00 AmEx Gift Card from Centrum and Nutrition Possible

Pin It Greetings, fellow sojourners!

I call you fellow sojourners, because, while each person who reads this is distinctly different, each of us is on our own little journey through space and time.

It's been over a month now since the New Year arrived, with such a sense of promise. It's been a month now since many of us made those little resolutions that some of us are wont to make.

And even if we never formalized them out loud,  perhaps in our hearts, we promised ourselves, that this year we'd do better. This year, we'd make some changes that would improve our quality of life. That would, perhaps, even improve our health.

I've screwed up.

How 'bout you?

I wish I could take a pill that would magically give me vibrant health.

Don't we all?

I sometimes watch Dr. Oz, in hopes of learning what his promos interminably promise will give me the secret to health. And if you've watched his show a few times, I bet you picked up on the fact that on nearly every show, he is offering some new scientific breakthrough in regard to a vitamin or herb, or supplement that will add years to your life/give you heart health/cushion your aching joints/aid you in weight loss/fight cancer and on and on and on it goes.

In my quest to enjoy good health, so as to better enjoy the life I've been given, I'm totally willing to take a little vitamin or a little supplement. My own doctor recommends it: he says that a multivitamin is a good idea. And that there are some supplements that can help my particular health concerns. But which ones? What does a person of my age with my issues need to take to give herself her best chance at enjoying good health?

Have you ever wondered what YOU should be doing to keep yourself running at your own peak efficiency?

So when I walk into my local health food store and take a look at the dizzying array of vitamins and supplements (and this is just ONE aisle of about four aisles at my local Whole Foods/Whole Body store) and see this:

A bit overwhelming, yes? And remember: this is ONE aisle of four more aisles just like it.

before you know it, it starts to feel like I'm seeing this:

I don't feel so good anymore...

What's a body to do?

I read about a site sponsored by Centrum Vitamins and WebMD called Nutrition Possible.  It offers  trusted information from health sources, nutrition experts AND guided information through a unique self-assessment tool – for free! I created an account, and completed an assessment: quick and easy! 

The results of my assessment make it easier for me to choose the vitamins and supplements that fit my nutritional needs, based on the health concerns and goals that I selected. Based on the information I provided, this site made great recommendations for foods I should add to my diet, that provide the nutrients that my present diet lacks. And finally, they offer suggestions for exercises that will help me to achieve my health goals.

One more thing to be aware of: once you complete the assessment, you'll have access to a $10.00 off coupon for any of Centrum's ProNutrient Supplements, if you purchase one of Centrum's Multivitamins. And if you've been vitamin/supplement shopping lately, you know that $10.00 off is a GOOD thing.

What was already good, is about to get better.

I've got a GIVEAWAY for you!!!

I'll be giving away one $25.00 American Express Gift Card!!!

To enter the giveaway, take the assessment on Nutrition Possible , and then come back here and  leave a comment, sharing something you didn't know you were lacking.

Here is a  link to the rules for the giveaway on this post.

The deadline for entries on this post will be 9:00, CST, Monday, February 13th, and the winner will be chosen through Random Number Generator. I will announce the winner on the 14th. Your odds of winning might be pretty favorable, so jump in, take the assessment, and then come on back and share what you've learned.

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THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED.

Expensive Steak House Taste at a Fraction of the Price

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We had the best steak we've ever eaten in our own home the other night! The flavor was fantastic! And all it took was a few secrets: secrets that you, too, can use to produce the best steak you've ever grilled! Because, I'm going to share with you what I've learned. And if you're wondering just what those secrets are, they have to do with: dry-aging, salting, and compound butter. My birthday beef: dry-aged, salted, and served with compound butter. Have you ever eaten out at a fancy steak house, and wondered why the steak you grill at home never tastes quite as magnificent as the one you got at that expensive restaurant? The first thing you need to know is that the grade of beef that is served in expensive steak houses is different than what we buy in our local grocery stores. Most of the finer steak houses and hotels offer Prime beef, which is not , for the most part, available in most grocery stores. You CAN find it, but only 2% of all beef produced in this country is designated as Prime.  Mostly, you find Choice beef, not Prime, for sale at your local grocery store. There are two things that set Prime Beef apart from Choice: marbling and maturity. Prime beef is more heavily marbled, and, more fat = more flavor. Secondly, Prime beef comes from younger animals. Less maturity = more tenderness. Prime beef is more expensive than Choice. Much more expensive. But it honestly is worth the money! Unfortunately, my husband and I have champagne tastes and a malt liquor budget. So, we decided to see what we could do to a Choice cut of beef that would give it its best hope of tasting like a Prime steak. What else do steak houses do that makes their steaks taste so great? Other than using prime beef, expensive steak houses will typically use beef that has been dry aged. Here's what we learned about dry-aging. Dry-aging steaks gives them a better flavor and texture. When moisture evaporates from the beef through the process of dry-aging, the fat becomes more concentrated. We also learned that dry-aging triggers the breakdown of muscle proteins in the beef, giving the steak a dense, more tender texture. The peptides and amino acids that form as the muscle proteins are breaking down impart a smokier flavor to the steak. Because of an article we read in Cooks Illustrated, we wanted to try dry aging our beef at home. We bought 3 really thick T-bone steaks, Choice grade,  from Costco. When I say really thick, I'd estimate they were about 1  1/2" in thickness. We wrapped the steaks in cheesecloth to prevent excessive dehydration, and put them on a rack (for air circulation) that had been placed inside a jelly roll pan, placing them in the bottom of the fridge, which is the coldest part. (Yes, one challenge you might find - it was a challenge for me, at least - is cleaning out the real estate in your fridge to make room for a cookie sheet filled with a single layer of moo. So, that could be something to plan/work around.) Next, we left them there for 4 days. Not a quick fix meal. So...something else to plan around. But, hey, it gave me all week to look forward to eating them. The next step we took was called "salting". Which is exactly what it sounds like. Why do this? Well, when salt is applied to meat, it draws the juices from the meat to the surface, initially, but then, the briny solution that forms from the meat juices + the salt itself gets drawn back deep down into the meat. This imparts that wonderful flavor all the way down into the depths of the steak. The steak surface benefits as well, as a nice crust is formed while the steak is cooking. As you will see, we sprinkled our steaks liberally with kosher salt. Steaks need to be salted about 1 hour prior to cooking. About 3/4 of a teaspoon of salt per 8 ounces of meat will do nicely. Take the steaks out of the fridge, remove and discard the cheesecloth, and apply the salt evenly over the surface, and let rest at room temperature for an hour before grilling it. Immediately before grilling our steaks, my husband rinsed the salt off the surface, and then patted them completely dry with paper towels. We grilled those steaks to a temperature of around 133º, and then took them off the grill. This produced the steak you see here, which we would call medium rare. The temperature of the meat rose to 140º after coming off the grill. The third thing we did was use a compound butter. Compound butters are nothing new: James Beard was recommending them back in the day. My Mom used to make a garlic butter for the steaks we ate nearly every summer Saturday night when I was growing up. (Those steaks that on their own tasted of lighter fluid, but when doctored with Mom's garlic butter? Mmmmm!) And you can make one as simply as smashing up a garlic clove, and putting it in a half a stick of melted butter, the way my Mom did it. And that will be fabulous. Or you can try something like what I did last night, which was sautéeing a minced shallot with some thyme and pepper and a minced clove of garlic thrown in at the last minute, in a bit of butter. Let that cool to room temp, and then mix it in with a half a stick of softened butter, and put a blop of that on each steak. It's not an exact science. I'd encourage you to try whatever you think your family might enjoy, in terms of which herb you like. Parsley would be fantastic, too. Or chives. Or rosemary. Picture time! Day One of dry aging. Note the cheesecloth. Day 3 of Dry-Aging. Day Four of Dry-Aging, before salting. Salted: one hour and a half before grilling. Salted: One hour and a half after salting. Note that quite a bit of the salt has been drawn in. The end result: crusty on the outside, juicy and like buttah on the inside. If you think this is share-worthy, tweet-worthy, or stumble-worthy, share on, tweet your heart out, or stumble away! I'd be ever so grateful! How do you like your steak? How about the perfect bottle of wine to accompany these succulent steaks? I have the very thing! A wine tutorial for choosing the perfect bottle for this very recipe.