FIVE FINGERS

 

Five finger sandwiches are traditionally served for afternoon tea in England: ham and mustard, cucumber, egg and cress, smoked salmon and coronation chicken.  I have substituted parsley for watercress, which is impossible to find here in Memphis. Here are the recipes:

TASTES LIKE CHICKEN (COSTCO ROTISSERIE CHICKEN)

I am obsessed with Costco's ubiquitous rotisserie chicken.  This $5.00 carrot gets millions in the door of the big box leader so they can buy giant jars of trail mix and ten lb bags of chicken nuggets that will permanently occupy desperately needed freezer space.  So why am I obsessed?  One, it's a ridiculously cheap, I mean a raw whole chicken will cost between $6.00 & $7.00.  Two, it's way bigger than your regular grocery offerings. Three, it's a straight up, tastes like chicken, chicken.  Not lemon-pepper, or five spice or rosemary-mustard.  Just chicken. 

When you get the chicken home, before you stash it the fridge, debone it.  Check out this How to Debone a Chicken to see how easy it is.  I chop the legs, thighs, and wings into a easy to eat size (they can be chopped finer as you use the meat.  The breasts are left whole for optional slicing or cubing.  Take the carcass and make bone broth.   Here are some of my favorite ways to use the harvested meat:

LET'S START AT THE BEGINNING

I am obsessed with breakfast.  If I don't have a well prepared meal to start my day, I am miserable all day.  I am not a morning person, so I appreciate a breakfast that is easy to prepare and easy to cleanup after.  I am very anal about my eggs.  My wife makes perfect scrambled eggs, but eggs in any other form she leaves to me because I am an absolute tyrant about both presentation and taste.  

• After many years I have mastered the two egg omelet in two languages, the rolled French omelette and the folded Japanese tomagoyaki. 
• Perfectly poached eggs can be mastered freehand in a saucepan of rapidly swirling water, in a dedicated pan, or 4.5 minutes in shell (soft boiled),
• Fried over easy are actually no flip over easily accomplished by adding two tbsp water and cooking the eggs covered over medium heat for 4 minutes. 

BENTO BOX BINGE

 

Freezer meals have become the essential culinary tool for time constrained households.  this is nothing new...Swanson introduced TV dinners in 1953.  Today's grocery stores are likely to offer at least two aisles of freezer meals in for every palate and occasion. Unfortunately most are expensive or boring or both.  The solution is to prepare your own.  A few hours on a weekend can produce heat and eat meals that will please your tastebuds and your schedule.

SEXY AT 67

BLACK FOREST PUDDING CAKE 

I'm not sure who convinced women that chocolate is sexy, but I, on behalf of all men, thank him.  Now if you want to convince the male partner that food is sexy, just set it on fire.  And if you want to gain the gratitude of all seniors, make it  only take a few minutes. However this approach is tailor made for the younger set.  If microwaves had been around when I was in college, I would have included it on all first dates. 

Hercule Poirot, Survivalist

The Fleur 75 

Equal parts gin, champagne, & crème de violette 

Tonight I spent a good amount of time indulging some of my favorite Francophile fantasies. I set the stage with one of the most glorious cocktails ever invented, the Fleur 75, a champagne/gin concoction the exact color of Elisabeth Taylor’s eyes, followed by a peasant dish immortalized by Hercule Poirot (yes, I know he was Belgian, but his palate was distinctly French), Lapin a la Moutard, a luxurious, leisurely fricassee of rabbit and mustard. 

Rolling Right Along

When I get bored I tend to get creative with my food.  When I was younger, and more energetic, I would debone a whole chicken.  Today I am more efficient and confine myself to a roulade, a piece of meat pounded to a malleable thickness spread with something tasty, and then rolled up into a tidy, tasty package.