Day 15 - Cleaning Out the Freezer

Spanish Chicken and Rice (from "Real Simple" magazine)

Seriously. About cleaning out the freezer. There are things in the freezer that we brought from the old house. Some of them went into the garbage can a few days ago (too much old bread saved for bread pudding). Some chicken breast meat became dinner tonight. From my box of saved recipes I brought out "Spanish chicken and rice" from the October 2007 issue of "Real Simple."

According to "Real Simple" this is an easy dinner and is heart-healthy. Basically it's a version of paella, of which there are jillions of variations. It's a one-skillet meal, which is good, and easy to cook, which is good, but the mis en place does take some time. With frozen peas and canned diced tomatoes, this recipe would not pass the Alice Waters test, but (as I've said before) I'm not a purist. I just want to learn to cook, which means I need to cook. And it's such fun! I have a notebook full of clipped recipes that are worth keeping. This one will go into it. It would feed 4-6, depending on what else was served. Guests could get involved with the mis en place. The flavors would appeal to most everyone, and the ingredients are familiar. And, it was a pretty tasty dinner -- Randy loved it. Sprinkle chopped parsley on top and anything looks upscale; that's my opinion.

Our old house is in escrow, but I'm not at all sure the deal won't fall through. I won't even publish my opinion of the buyer, but to say that he wants something for nothing and wants our 35 year old house to be in the pristine condition of new construction. It ain't gonna happen. I worry about these things and was wide awake from 4 a.m. to 7 a.m. At least I made good use of the time, hauling boxes of stuff upstairs from the foyer to my studio.

Our project manager was here this morning working on the weather stripping on our front door. It's an artisan-made door from Santa Fe, gorgeous, but something of a challenge. Fortunately, we love our project manager. And we all love the door.

This afternoon Randy and I had lattes at Randy's favorite coffee house, bought a few groceries at Trader Joe's, and finished emptying 1 of our 2 storage lockers. Yeah! The end is near. Er, maybe I should find a better way to phrase that.

I am reading Thomas McNamee's biography of Alice Waters. At the end of Chapter 3 he writes, "Alice decided to cook her way straight through Elizabeth David's 'French Provincial Cooking'." Julie Powell cooked her way through Julia Childs. Alice Waters cooked her way through Elizabeth David. Sally Knight is cooking her way through Alice Waters. Interesting. There really is nothing new under the sun.

I must also add that as I go along my own learning-to-cook path, I grow more and more in awe of Julie Powell. Regardless of Julie's motivation, what she did was remarkable. To make everything in Childs' book on top of working full-time, and to do it in 1 year, is astonishing.

I'm going to spend the rest of the evening relaxing, not worrying, and not hauling boxes of stuff around. The rest of you? Carry on.