I have a bunch of things I've been meaning to post, but time gets away so easily. In the meantime, a photo of the sunrise over Lake Michigan on Easter morning (April 8, 2012):

Chicken Chickpea Stew and Escargot

I took the suggestion from squawkfox to see what I could do with a whole roasted organic chicken. I haven't gotten 22 meals from mine, but 1) my chicken was a bit smaller and 2) I ended up freezing about 6 cups of broth and maybe 1/2 lb of cooked chicken meat that I haven't used yet. As I'm just one person, I can only do so much. I would say that I should very easily get 22 meals for one out of this 3-4 lb chicken. I originally roasted it a-la Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking- amazing what a constant basting with butter and olive oil will do for a chicken skin. And then I used the crockpot to make broth. I love my crockpot. I cooked chickpeas and they turned out beautifully, which is great considering that canned chickpeas cost more than dried but cooking dried chickpeas has always been more effort than it's worth. I cooked mine on high heat for about 3-4 hrs and they were perfect (after an overnight soaking, of course).

I then made this delicious stew (or is it more of a soup? hard to tell, but it's not very liquidy, so I'm calling it stew) with some of the leftover chicken. I've been calling it Chicken Chickpea Stew, but there's quite a bit more than just chicken and chickpeas.

I based this roughly on the recipe from squawkfox, but pretty much added whatever I happened to have on hand:

3 small potatoes, peeled and cubed

2 tbsp olive oil

2 small onions, diced

3 cloves of garlic, diced

8 oz mushrooms, sliced

2 c cooked chickpeas

1 c dried lentils, washed and drained

10 oz package frozen spinach (thawed, but straight from the freezer worked fine too)

1 can tomato sauce

cumin, chili powder, salt, pepper

~1.5 c cooked, shredded chicken

4 c chicken broth

1. pre-cook potatoes in the microwave- about 3 min on high, covered. (I find this prevents the soup from getting too starchy)

2. Saute onions, garlic, and mushrooms in olive oil in large pot on med heat, until onions are cooked through and translucent

3. Add potatoes chickpeas, lentils, spinach, tomato sauce, chicken, and broth. Add spices to taste. Cook for about 30 min, or until lentils are cooked and soft. Serve with a nice crusty bread.

Next time I would amp up the tomatoes, maybe adding chopped fresh tomatoes as in the original recipe. The chicken, chickpeas, and lentils make this for a very hearty meal. I've also been eating it spooned over roasted cauliflower. Why did I not realize how delicious roasted cauliflower was before? I'm really not a fan of raw cauliflower on the veggie trays, but roasting things brings out the lovely caramelization and of couse that's delicious in any vegetable.

I also finished my Escargot hat!! I love this hat, and it makes me slightly sad that the weather here has been unseasonably warm for February so I don't have much excuse to wear it. I did wear it into work on Thursday, and my coworker was like, "you know it's supposed to be 40 F today, right?"

I hold out hopes for continuing to wear this this year, as it's only February and knowing the weather it will snow in late March.

I think if you wanted to be super geeky it would be fairly simple to modify the pattern to have two swirls, one on each side of the hat, to give a pseudo-Princess Leia look. With brown yarn (maybe no contrast). However, I will refrain from such things, not least because my project list is already way too long considering all the 'real' work that I should be doing (operative word is 'should').

Pattern is from the Winter 2011 issue of knitty.

I had vague ideas of entering the amateur cooking contest for baconfest 2012, but again, that involves time to actually develop a dish and test it. I do have some ideas, but no time to do test runs. So, unless some time miraculously falls into my lap, I may have to wait for baconfest 2013. Unless someone takes my brilliant idea, in which case I will need to further brainstorm what one could do with bacon.