Today was an epic cooking day, even by my standards. I spent about 6 hours in the kitchen. Here’s what I accomplished:
- Broke down last night’s chicken carcass and turned it into chicken stock. I made about 5 quarts.
- Made chicken salad with toasted slivered almonds.
- Trimmed and ground 5 pounds of chicken breast. Dumplings in vast quantities coming soon to a freezer near me!
- Made two jars of refrigerator dilly beans.
- Toasted walnuts for tomorrow’s lunch. As a special birthday treat I’m making a pear, walnut, blue cheese salad. Can’t wait!
- Made green curry paste. If you think ginger is tough, try working with fresh galangal (Thailand’s answer to ginger). I actually broke a sweat peeling and slicing it. I also used fresh lemongrass. Yum!
- Currently in progress: lime-basil granita with a cup of freshly-squeezed lime juice and basil from the garden.
Admittedly, much of that time in the kitchen was spent cleaning up after myself. Soon it will be time to make dinner. It shouldn’t take long – the curry paste was the tough part!
Sounds like a wonderful day to me! That is my kind of fun.