sis. boom. [blog!]: January 2012

Saturday, January 21, 2012

"Big Red" Chili
with Brisket and Pinto Beans

There are days when you wake up feeling like a true, creative original. When they strike, nothing you do will seem derivative or reek of cliché. You are inspired! You wake up to start your day by putting together an outfit for yourself that has that certain je nes c'est quoi communicating the one-of-a-kind energy you radiate. That fantastic tune you hum while shaving won't even be anything you have heard before. Your making it up as you go! Could a Grammy be in my future? And, as you post away on Facebook and Twitter you won't even have to rely on Rumi or Oscar Wilde for the oh-so-clever yet drippingly poignant bon mots. There will be no retweeting for you today!

Best of all, if you are lucky enough to be at the farmer's market on one of these electric mornings you can't help it but but be inspired to create all manner of unique flavor combinations when you discover some new and obtuse vegetable nobody else has even heard of yet. Watermelon radishes? Fingerlimes? Can I put bacon on or in it? You won't even see the man selling Kale and you certainly won't be tempted to dump everything you find onto an artisan pizza or toss it with some variety of infant lettuce picked before it has a chance at a full life. That would be just too cliché for you and jumping on food fads isn't for you. Not today anyway.

Today, as you can see, I wasn't having one of these days.

No sirree. Instead I awoke this cold rainy morning and the first thing I thought was "today is a good day to make some chili." (Did I hear you hipsters groan?)

I blog about it even though understand that the internet needs another chili recipe like Youtube needs another cute cat video or my kitchen needs another piece of All Clad. (That casserole/brasier does looks pretty cool however!) If you Google "chili recipe" you will get over 30 million hits. Take your pick as I will bet you most of them are quite good and more than few of them could even be considered great. Some may even be unique although this is an adjective I am not really looking for when I set out to make chili and this one isn't, even if I have to say it is pretty damn good and it certainly does the trick this rainy day. Even if making it on one is cliché.

No matter. All of the adjectives I had set out to use to describe this chili sound cliché once I put them into sentances anyway. Yeah, it is spicy, but not too spicy. Its multiple ingredients all simmer for hours to become one mighty fine entree serving up both a discernible complexity and a singular depth. (Ha!) This is, after all, what a good chili is supposed to do, right? All while being tomatoey. And yes, the house does smell amazing while it cooks on the stove for hours. Just seeing it here on the blog I could lick my screen.

I was thinking of titling this post "Texas Red Chili with Beans" because I do think it fun to see Texans foam at the mouth when you deign to suggest that chili should have beans in it. I giggled with glee reading the fallout from The Barefoot Contessa featuring Devon Frederick's "award winning" Tex Mex Chili containing not only 2 cans of kidney beans but, gasp, basil instead of cilantro. Where does Ina go from here? Manhattan Clam Chowder with cream?

Nonetheless, Texans inflicted Rick Perry on us for a few months recently so I think it only deserved that we get to question their judgement on other matters as well. We can put some beans in our chili if we want to Rick! So, reluctantly I decided not to go there with this post as even now,this discussion seems, yes, cliché. (Thanks Ina. )

Whatever it is, this chili is fantastic and all this dish's many clichés will apply to it. The recipe comes from my most recent cookbook acquisition "Two Dudes One Pan" which was recommended to me by my good blogger-friend Nathan Hazard. (He of The Table Set podcast fame which is a good listen by the way if you are not already a fan.) The book itself is not new but its recipes are timeless (this means cliché but in a good way) and their preparation, being limited to one pan, is certainly appealing. It's very rare that I thumb through a cookbook where just about every recipe calls out to my personal cooking aesthetic so you will be seeing more from it here soon.

Or maybe I'll just be inspired by it...when I'm having one of those days.

Big Red Chili w/Brisket and Pinto Beans
Adapted from Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo's "Two Dudes One Pan"

Read the recipe and more »

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Haiku: M. Jacques' Armagnac Chicken

Chicken in a pot

A meal everyone should know.

Dorie does many.

As far as they go,

"Les paresseux" is better.

Still, this was tasty.

Skin needed broiling.

"Admire the brown chicken!"

(Who was she kidding?)

M. Jacques' Armagnac Chicken
Recipe found here at New York Times

I never feel more like a cook than when I'm preparing a simple roasted chicken. Its a good thing as have never made a roasted chicken that I didn't like. Some are better than others but all of them are good. So, I was not surprised to find that this one was quite tasty even though I wished it looked a bit better. A quick trip under the broiler saved the day as far as its 'curb appeal' goes otherwise I would not have brought it to the table. (Did Dorie test this recipe? )

The armagnac is certainly a beguiling ingredient. It gives this informal dish a somewhat curious elegant flavor.

Leave your comments in haiku for extra love!

Friday, January 13, 2012

Bourbon Time! The Horse's Neck Cocktail.

Am I too late to post a New Year's Resolution?

I am going to do it but please don't hold my tardiness against me -- Its not like I resolved to be more timely in 2012, did I? No, I certainly wouldn't do something as futile as that. No, when it comes to resolutions I am much more sensible.

I never used to be a NewYear's Resolution type. I find it much too depressing when I can't hang onto them very long. Why do we find the need to make them so challenging?

My attitude changed a couple of years ago when I finaly learned the secret to resolution success: just make easier resolutions. From now on there will be none of these impossible "lose 20 pounds" resolutions or "don't spend any more than $100 a month on clothes" resolutions for me.

Why should we resolve to "run a mile on the treadmill every night after work for an entire year "when we can just as easily resolve to "eat one cupcake a week during 2012"?

Clearly, a high success rate is all about setting realistic, easy to achieve goals. If Tony Robbins is right and we have all the personal power to be a successful goal-smashing machines then I'm quite certain the one key factor affecting our success rate is simply to choose realistic goals.

You're welcome. Do you think I should be a motivational speaker? It is so damn obvious I feel sort of foolish that it took me decades to figure it out.

You must be thinking, "Hey, Sis Boom, so what did you resolve for yourself this New Year?"

Fair enough:

I resolve to drink more cocktails in 2012.

There. See how easy it that is? I bet you are filling silly for resolving in 2112 to save more money. I'm quite sure I can handle this one. You should feel free to use it if you have not yet thought of anything for yourself.

Yes, I am resolving to practice more mixology in 2012. What? Were you assuming I was pledging to consume a higher quantity of alcohol? Nope. I'm talking quality, people. 2011 was a lazy year for me when it came to getting creative at the bar and mixing up the drinks. Unfortunately, more often than not when I felt the desire (um, need) to imbibe I would simply pop the cork off a bottle of chardonnay and call it a night. What a waste.

It is pretty damn easy to bust out the mixing glass and conjure up a decent cocktail so there is no good excuse for defaulting to a glass of wine every night. This cocktail, The Horse's Neck, is as easy it as it gets. In fact, you have probably been drinking it for years. Or something close to it. Sort of.

There is no better marriage between liquor and mixer than there is when bourbon weds a good ginger ale. Yeah, gin and tonic is god but if you have ever had a bourbon and ginger you know what I am saying. And if you have experienced this mixture you nearly had a Horse's Neck for all you have to do to take the ordinary mixed drink and elevate it to cocktail status is add bitters and a distinctive garnish.

The long, winding coil of a garnish is what supposedly gives this cocktail its name. Originally intended to be a non alcoholic drink akin to a Shirley Temple, someone finally came to their senses around 1910 and poured some bourbon in it. Perhaps they resolved in 1910 to drink more bourbon?