Disaster Missed, and Other Ramblings

Sunday I was browning a post roast when it slipped from my cooking fork and splashed hot oil in my face.  Ouch.  And.  Really OUCH, again.  I first got cold water on my fingers and applied them to the area around my eyes--where it burned the worst.  But I didn't want to ruin my pot roast, so I slid the pot it was in off the front burner to the back.  Then I grabbed my small rice bag from the freezer and put it on my face.  So essentially I was blind to do much else.  The cold bag was ever so welcomed as immediate relief but can't see with bag covering eyes!  Fortunately, and blessedly I had not been splashed in the eyes with the hot oil!  I am so grateful.


Now, I've been spattered with popping grease from frying bacon and tons of other foods in a frying pan or otherwise, but never like this particular incident.  I hollered for my daughter to please come take over the roast cooking operation.  She was alarmed when I explained what had happened and demanded that I let her see the damage--which I knew wasn't serious, it just hurt like burns do!  She told me to wash the grease off so it wouldn't continue to burn.  (It wasn't, but I was a dutiful Mom and washed--very gently-- around my eyes and patted my face dry and immediately went back to assuaging my discomfort with the cold rice bag.)

The damage upon later assessment was very minor and mostly around the outer edge of my right eye, less so under my left and one small blister under my nose.  (Wasn't able to get the rice bag over my nose while covering my eyes and frankly didn't feel the burn there until much later.)  I'm pretty confident that the cold rice bag inhibited the blistering around my eyes that could have occurred--like under my nose--without its application!

I will ever be grateful no hot oil got into my eyes!  (Do you think OSHA will now require me to wear safety eye gear while cooking?  Just kidding!)

I have been cooking now for . . . let's see . . . about 53 years without a disaster of this kind, though like I mentioned earlier I've been popped with hot grease/oil on many occasions.  The worst cooking disaster I can remember in all those years, however, was when I was canning fresh green beans from our garden some years ago.  A friend and I were co-oping our time and efforts in helping each other with the project.  Because we had several batches to process I got a little impatient and forced the pressure cooker lid off prematurely and got a very nasty steam burn on my fingers of one hand.  Burns are the pits.

I learned after another burn incident with a soldiering iron years before the pressure cooker incident that plunging your hand into a cup of ice water--and mostly keeping it there--numbs the pain and halts the burn.  Yes.  The ice water hurts, too.  You have to decide which hurt is greater or lesser.  I choose (and chose) the lesser of two evils, for me anyway, and that was:  keep the hand IN the ice water.  Numb from cold was more tolerable than hurt from burning.

Now on to more pleasant things.  When finished cooking, the post roast--involved in the near disaster--was WONDERFUL!  It was delicious, tender and wasn't burned up because of my mishap.  I cooked carrots and onions with it and added mashed potatoes, gravy and corn to the menu and we all seemed to enjoy it quite well.

Last night I took the remaining pound of roast and made an Italian roast beef stew.  I sauteed onions, garlic and sweet red bell pepper then added a jar of  tomato basil spaghetti sauce, a can of beef consume, a can of sliced mushrooms, the leftover beef roast gravy, the leftover beef cut into small cubes, some salt, and oregano and let it simmer.  We served it with spaghetti noodles and the leftover corn.  It was pretty good, if I do say so!

Saturday, we had about 8 pounds of chicken breasts (boneless/skinless) to grill--which I did with the very last of the propane in the tank.  (I did have another tank on hand--mostly because I wasn't sure there was enough in the one to finish the job.)  Now we ate some of the grilled chicken with our great salad of greens and fresh tomatoes with mozerella cheese chuncks and cibatta bread.  It was all good.  But the side benefit(s): of grilling all that chicken at once

1. only had to clean/fire-up the grill once
2. we now have 5 freezer bags of grilled chicken to use whenever we need to put a meal together quickly--and we've already anticipated more of those than we have grilled chicken to put into them!
3. thawing raw chicken and then having to cook it is NOT gonna be necessary
4. its much cheaper than buying pre-grilled frozen, or rotisserie chicken 
5. we're happy with this arrangement!

So, I've survived a near disaster, and I've grilled chicken, and I've rambled through it all.

Food for Thought

Just kidding! Well, maybe not . . .Chicken Cacciatore: It was "What's for Dinner" last night.

My daughter, Sarah, asked me to fix this dish a day or two ago. So, last night I did. It was very yummy and was based on a recipe she found online from "food network.com" courtesy of Giada De Laurentiis. I personally love to watch her show.

So, here's my version of her recipe. I didn't change much.

Chicken Cacciatore

1 whole chicken, cut up, (breasts cut in half crosswise, equalling 4 pieces)

salt

freshly ground black pepper

1/2 cup flour, for dredging

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 large red bell pepper, coarsely chopped

1 large onion, chopped

3 teaspoons garlic, finely chopped

2 large carrots, thinly sliced on the diagonal

3/4 cup white grape juice (Giada used white wine)

1 (28 oz) can diced tomatoes with juice

3/4 cup chicken stock (or broth)

3 tablespoons drained capers

2 tablespoons fresh oregano, chopped (can substitute 1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano)

1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh basil leaves

Sprinkle the chicken pieces with salt and pepper. Dredge the chicken pieces in the flour to coat lightly.

In a large heavy saute pan, heat the oil over medium to medium high heat. Add the chicken pieces and saute just until brown, about 5 minutes per side. Chicken WILL NOT be thoroughly cooked yet--so WAIT to eat it! Transfer chicken to paper towel on a plate and set aside.

Add bell pepper, onion, garlic, and carrot slices to the same pan and saute over medium/medium high heat until the onion is tender, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add the grape juice and simmer until reduced by half, about 3 minutes. Add the tomatoes with their juice, broth, capers and oregano. Return the chicken pieces to the pan and turn them to coat in the sauce. Bring the sauce to a simmer. Continue simmering over medium/medium low heat until the chicken is cooked through, about 30 minutes.

Transfer the chicken to a large serving dish (or 9 x 13 inch casserole). If necessary, boil the sauce until it thickens slightly, about 3 minutes. (I left this step out . . . so I had LOTS of sauce. But I liked it!) If you like, you can spoon off any excess fat from atop the sauce at this point. Spoon the sauce over the chicken, then sprinkle with the basil and serve.

The basil I retrieved from my huge plant just outside the back door was sooooo aromatic and wonderful and a nice addition to the dish. Yes, I also had fresh oregano growing back there. Can I just say how much I love my pots of herbs growing on the back patio? Well, I do. We served the chicken and sauce over spaghetti noodles and sprinkled it all with Parmesan cheese. We liked it. In fact, my husband said he'd like to eat it again. (Translation: he REALLY liked it!)

Sarah said, since I added the carrots (upon her request, I might add) it seemed sweeter than the time she fixed it for her Dad when I was off helping her sister Amy with the birth of her second child. (See the cute, smiling, blue-eyed wonder in the far left photo on Saturday's "Someone's Unhappy!" post. Oh, and as an aside, that little guy LOVES to cook! Has ever since he was big enough to drag a stool up to assist his Mom in cooking projects.)

So, go try this recipe. The seasoning is milder than I thought, but VERY nice and tasty! Enjoy! We did. And will again.

Do YOU have a favorite chicken recipe? A favorite Italian recipe? Care to share? Please! Come on! You know you want to!