get my groove on

Once again I have let my blogging fall to the way side but that is now going to change. First let me tell you that I have a calendar available and if you would be oh so kind as to purchase one I would be forever in your gratitude. Its less than 2o bucks but the joy and beauty that it brings is priceless - plus you get to have a little bit of me hanging around your house for a whole year! Buy a few and make wallpaper or use them to line the bird cage or whatever your hearts desire. I know it isnt a cookbook and believe me when I tell you that I have finally succumbed to the powers that be and I am working on one so if there is some special something that you would like to see included in this cooking tome please let me know - if I dont include things that people actually want to make then what good is it anyway?



Recently I was asked to make something that not only had I never had before I also had never even heard of and this almost sent me into a tail spin of glee and delight. Sopa de Gallina or Old Hen Soup is apparently popular in many cultures, I found out. Each culture prepares it a little different but the foundation is an old hen and the eggs that come with it, you heard that right, unlaid eggs. Rather than go to a chicken slaughter house and hope that they had what I wanted I decided to simply get the eggs separate and an old hen, or stew chicken as I have heard them called, and merge them in the pot.



I went for a Caribbean/Hispanic approach with yucca, yautia and batata rounding out the starch.



Celery, onions, garlic, carrots and red chile sauted with some collard greens, a bay leaf and the cut up hen until everything was golden and delicious - add water then this bad boy, or more correctly this old hen, simmered for about 4 hours. Tough old bird that she was, this chicken didnt fall apart that easily.



I readied a bowl to photograph and the rest was delivered to its owner. This soup had more flavor and oompf than any chicken soup I have ever had and the addition of the unlaid eggs made this one action packed bowlful.



I removed the outer membrane of the other half of these immature eggs, you can see it here.



With the membrane removed they were then salt cured because I read about something like this.



These eggs turned out great after a 24 hour salt cure, dense but ooey gooey creamy inside.




Equally good on and english muffin with butter as they are with melted cheese in a corn tortilla, I have a new friend and this friend is the unlaid egg. Anyone have any ideas on how to make these little gems into something spectacular?

makin' whoopie

Remember last year when I made moonpies? Well try and think back, I know it seems like a long time ago but it was really only a couple of weeks. As it turns out moonpies and whoopie pies are basically the same thing, is that a synonym, homonym or antonym? Since I am basically never quelled with the run of the mill I thought I would reverse the whole deal and, quite frankly, I think these are more of a 'moon' pie.



Make a little blonde cookie/cake batter.



Bake the blonde batter.



Let the blonde cookies cool.



Fill the blonde cookies with a nutella, chocolate, cream cheese frosting and stand guard unless you want to see them disappear in seconds.



You would think I was done with all of this festive baking after the holidays but here at ChezWhat the cooking, baking, shopping is never done and cross my heart and hope to die I hope it never ends!

bloginess

Look at this creamy potato soup, nothing special but the flavor. People are often talking about the 'blog worthiness' of some of their posts or lack there of. I too have often fallen in that category but for me its different I have to choose NOT to post something since I think EVERYTHING is blog worthy. If you read back on my posts over the years it is obvious that until I decided to focus more on food my blog was all over the place. I didnt care then and I dont care now. Where am I going with this, you might be wondering. I will tell you where, all the way to cholesterol heaven thats where.



Way too many potatoes fried first in bacon fat then finished off with butter, a side of crispy bacon and not one, not two, but three fried eggs and two pieces of buttery toast. Wash it all down with a pint of ice coffee and pull up the couch for a nap. Put this in your diet plan!

greasy kids stuff

When the weather outside is frightful I turn to things delightful and nothing sounds better than fried starch. I know, when you say it like that there isnt much to look forward to so how about some shoestring potatoes instead.



Crack out your sharpest knife or be lazy like me and use a mandoline.

No not a mandoline with strings, a cutter kind of mandoline - with blades.



Rinse the potatoes well and fry in 350 F oil until golden and crispy. Serve with burgers, a sandwich, or even your morning eggs. Trust me they will warm you right up and if not, no matter at least you got to eat some fried potatoes.

long life

Noodles represent longevity in Asian cultures so I did my twist on this ancient custom - I made 4 foot long noodles!



Each one of these discs is a four foot noodle.



Excellent with butter, olive oil, cracked pepper and asiago cheese.



While I did not follow the typical 'longevity noodle' process or result I definitely had a really long noodle! Here's to you and may you all have long and fruitful lives.