They had a one page article on fish chowder. They wanted to get a fresher, cleaner flavor from the 18th century classic and it looked not only really good, but very easy as well. And since Cook’s Illustrated is seldom easy, we decided to give it a try.

You start by melting two tablespoons of butter in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Add to that two small diced onions, 4 ounces of salt pork cut into two pieces, one and a half teaspoons of fresh thyme, one bay leaf and three quarters of a teaspoon of salt.

Cook, stirring, until the onions are soft, but not brown. That should take about five minutes.  Then add five cups of water and bring to a simmer.

Once the water is simmering, turn the heat off and add two pounds of cod fillets or other flaky white fish that has been cut into six roughly equal pieces. We used Alaskan whitefish that we got on sale.

Cover the pan and let the it stand until the fish is almost cooked through, about five minutes.

Remove the fish with a spatula and place in a bowl. Bring the pan back on the heat and add one and a half pounds of Yukon Gold potates that have been peeled and cut into a half inch dice.

Simmer potatoes until they’re tender, about twenty minutes.

While the potatoes are cooking, in a small bowl or large mixing cup, whisk together 2 cups of milk, one tablespoon of cornstarch and half a teaspoon of pepper.

Once the potatoes are done, add the milk mixture to the pot and bring back to a simmer. The add the fish along with any juices the fish gave off back into the pot.

Cover the pot and remove from heat and let stand for five minutes. Then remove the bay leaf and the salt pork from the pot and gently stir to break the fish into smaller pieces. Season to taste and serve with oyster crackers.

Start to finish, this took about an hour. And it was wonderful! It had a very clean, fresh flavor and the taste of the fish was not hidden at all. And since the recipe makes a bunch of soup, we were glad to find out that it reheats beautifully.

Even if you’re not a huge fan of fish, like my wife, this is well worth making. You might want to divide the recipe by half if you have a small household, or don’t want to be eating the leftovers for a few days. But definitely, give it a try.  It’s worth an hour of your time.

I’m going to warn you now.

This may be one of the most disgusting things you’ve ever seen.

It’s certainly one of the most disgusting things I’ve ever done – and I lived on a farm.  And cooked in a restaurant.

The only person who’s not grossed out by this is the dog.  Which, I guess, is a good thing, since this is an experiment in a dog treat.

See, here’s the thing.

The Jar has had some . . . issues in his obedience class.  He’s taken a dislike to any other dog, to the point where all these people with their adorable little puppies are afraid of him.  It’s bad enough that he will be repeating the Basic class yet again  - because he can’t be trusted off-leash in the Advanced class.

Third time’s the charm, right?

Anyway.

One thing that we need (NEED!) for these classes is a treat that will be so irresistible that The Jar won’t care that there might be other dogs in the room.

You know what dogs like, maybe better than almost anything else in the world?

More than barbecue?

More than roasty pork?

Even more than chicken that’s been cooked all day?

Liver.

They like liver.  They might even like it better than dead woodchucks, but I’ve never done a side-by-side comparison, and I hope I never do.

So my thought was to take some liver and lighten it up with some whipped egg whites.

Maybe it wouldn’t be so disgusting that way.

So while I was processing half a pound of liver in the Cuisinart, Peeps was whipping egg whites – four of them – to stiff peaks.

He got the better end of the deal, let me tell you.

Me, I put the food processor parts in the dishwasher when I was done.  Processed liver is beyond disgusting.

Since I’ve never made, um, liver meringues before (how gross is THAT?), I thought to lighten up the liver with a bit of egg white – kind of the way you would for chocolate mousse.

Only it’s liver.

Eeeeew.

But anyway, we folded the liver into the beaten egg whites, and stirred just until it was combined.

Then I treated the mixture like drop cookies (again, eeew) and dropped balls (sort of) onto lined sheets.

I kind of think of it as puppy cookies.

I even let him lick the bowl, as you saw above.

What, I want to wash that stuff out of the bowl?  Let the dog earn his keep, that’s what I say.

And so, I stuck a couple of trays of liver cookies into a heated oven – about 350 degrees.

And let them cook for maybe 10 minutes or so.  Then shut the oven off and let the cookies continue to cook until the oven has cooled – think “liver meringue cookies.’

And yes, I know, it’s kind of gross.

The dog stood guard over the oven, because apparently it smelled THAT GOOD.

I just didn’t see it.

In fact, I’d caution against opening the oven door at all until, say, the next morning.

At which point you’ll find chewy little disks of livery goodness that will have every dog in obedience class wishing they were coming home with you.

And, with a little luck, The Jar will care more about the liver meringue  cookies than about that little yellow lab puppy that’s hopping around and being a general nuisance, but is too cute for words.

Here’s hoping, anyway – his next Basic class starts in a couple of weeks.

This was a stock weekend.

All year, when I roast a chicken or when I bone fresh chicken, I stash the bones in the freezer.  Then, once the weather gets cold enough to stick the stockpot outside overnight, I make stock.  I use a couple of bags of chicken, um, parts, any stray vegetables I may have stashed with them, a couple of onions, celery ribs, and carrots.

That simmers for the better part of the day, then I strain it (you would not BELIEVE how much the dog loves those chicken-y carrots!), cool it overnight, and skim any remaining fat in the morning.

Once you start making homemade chicken broth, you’ll never go back to store-bought!

One of Sunday’s chores is to clear stuff out of the refrigerator – to make room for the coming week’s stuff, I guess.  Often, that means a creative breakfast – lunch – for Peeps and me.

Like. . . how about a breakfast Mongolian quesadilla?

Yeah, I know know what to call it.  I took a tortilla, sprayed it with Pam, and browned one side in a large skillet. Then I flipped it over, spread some leftover Mongolian beef on top of it, poured a couple of scrambled eggs over that, then dotted it with a bit of cream cheese.  Cover the pan and let it cook on very low heat until the eggs are set and the fillings are hot.

It was . . . interesting.  Not so sure about using Chinese takeout again, but we were happy with the tortilla-filling-egg idea.

While the pup’s away, the kitty will play!

Literally the MINUTE the door closes behind Peeps and The Jar when they go for their Sunday afternoon walk, the kitty comes and starts pestering me.

Now I know it’s too early for her dinner (though I’m not sure if she knows that I know), so I often get out either a little ball, another toy, or the laser pointer.  She likes the laser pointer.

Though when she’s done, she’s done.  Then she just sort of hangs around waiting for the dog to get home.

Oh, don’t worry, though – she always makes sure she can make a quick getaway as soon as she hears the pitter-patter of giant doggy feet on the porch!

I knew, when I started stock Saturday, that we’d have lots.  After all, I had added about 9 quarts of water to the pot, along with all the frozen bird parts and veggies!

So we hauled out a case of quart jars went to work washing and sterilizing them.

Seven jars for the canner.

A couple more jars for leftover stock.

And one Jar to rule them all.

And once again, it’s time for the weekly menu plan.  And we are STILL sorting through the freezers – it’s hard to believe how much stuff just . . . migrates to the bottom of a chest freezer, you know?  In addition, we have a list of “winter foods” we want to enjoy before the weather gets warm – braised and roasted meats, things that are warm and comforting.

Monday - One of our must-have winter dinners is this slow-roasted pork shoulder.  Peeps is home Monday (except when he takes his Mom to her doctor’s appointment) so he’ll be able to shove it in the oven and let it, well, roast slowly.  There are just the two (or three) of us, and yes, there will be lots of leftovers, but honestly?  You can use leftover pork the same way you’d use leftover chicken or turkey – pretty much anywhere.

Tuesday - Our most recent issue of Cook’s Country featured, in its 30-Minute Supper feature, a recipe of Spanish Chicken Cutlets with Yogurt Sauce.  We have chicken cutlets and we always have yogurt, so this certainly sounded good!  I’ve never been disappointed by Cook’s Country yet.  We’ll serve with some rice and a tossed salad.

Wednesday - Wednesday has become, for whatever reason, soup night.  This week, we had plenty of chicken stock and some leftover roasted butternut squash (that’s what happens when you buy a 6-pound squash!), so we put together a squash soup, seasoned with fennel and cinnamon.  It’ll be fantastic with fresh bread.  Really.

Thursday - We made Boeuf à la Bourguignonne a few weeks ago, and half of it got frozen.  That’s what happens when there are only two (or three) of you – you make a lovely dinner, and you have to decide between eating it as leftovers for the next week or enjoying it again later on.  We opted to enjoy it again.  With the Boeuf, we’ll toss a salad and Peeps is going to make Potatoes Hashed in Cream, also from this current issue of Cook’s Country.  (You really should just go pick up this issue – it’s got a LOT of good stuff in it!)

Friday - Again, it’s pizza night - I don’t know quite what I’ll use on my pie this week – maybe some of Monday’s leftover pork, or maybe I’ll just be plain-Jane and go with plain old cheese.  Not that there’s anything wrong with plain old cheese. . .

Be sure to click on over to The Organizing Junkie’s Monday Menu Plan post for loads and loads of other ideas.

Did you ever see a recipe and think “that’s almost perfect”?

Like it just needs to be a little bit . . . not exactly but close?

So yeah.  I get several emails a week with various recipes – some of them, honestly, I don’t know who they are or why they send them.  I must have signed up for something, sometime.  I guess.  But others – well, I know exactly why I get them – like the Fine Cooking weekly e-newsletter.

First, let me say that I don’t subscribe to Fine Cooking, and no, I’m not quite sure why not.  However, once the Bon Appetit subscription expires . . .

And so it was that one day a couple of months ago, I opened my email and saw a recipe for Burnished Chicken Thighs with Sweet Potatoes & Parsnips.

I definitely like sweet potatoes – and parsnips! – but I’m not such a fan of chicken thighs.  I’ll eat them, if it’s unavoidable, but they’ve got to be boneless.  If I’m going to eat chicken on the bone, it’s got to be white meat, otherwise, I just . . . can’t.

I know, weird.

So I saw this recipe, and I thought to myself that there was no reason it couldn’t work just as well with a spatchcocked chicken.

A whole chicken.

One with its breasts intact.

Spatchcocked.

I’ll admit – I feel kinda strange talking about “breasts” and “spatchcock.”  Like I’m in a middle school boys’ locker room.  So from here on out, it’ll be “butterflied,” rather than “spatchcocked.”  Thank you.

So you basically know how to do this butterflying thing, right?  It’s been all over the Internet for a few years now.   I do it in the sink so any chicken slime is fairly confined.

You take a pair of kitchen scissors and CUT up the back of the bird along each side of the spine (the backbone goes in your stock-stash in the freezer, right?), then flip it over onto what’s left of its back and press REALLY REALLY hard on the breastbone until you hear it crack.

Barbaric, no?

So you take the now-flat lying chicken, and the funky-looking marinade (balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and mustard) and stash it in the fridge for a few hours.

I suspect, if I wanted to, I could freeze the bird right in the marinade, then defrost and cook.  I just may try that next time I buy a whole chicken.

While I had plenty of parsnips in the fridge, and a couple of shallots in the onion-and-garlic basket, what I didn’t have was any more sweet potatoes.

Can you believe we used ALL those sweet potatoes  that I bought at Thanksgiving?  What was it?  20 pounds?  Yeah, I can’t believe it either.

What I did have was a giant butternut squash.

Eh, close enough.  They’re both orange.  So we cut the parsnips and the butternut squash into (about) 1/2-inch cubes, salt and peppered them, and spread them right on the same pan with the chicken.

I was a little concerned about the lack of lubrication in the veggies, so I tossed them with about a teaspoon of oil.  I may or may not do that again – the chicken gave off enough fat to keep everything from sticking.

And speaking of the chicken.

About halfway through the cooking time (which, in total, was just an hour), the recipe directed me to “baste the chicken with the pan juices) – I guess that’s where the “burnished” part comes from, huh?  That fat from the pan, brushed back onto the skin, just browned and made for a deep, almost mahogany, color.

All in all, this was a delightful chicken.  It was, truly, a roasted chicken, with everything that goes along with it – the crisp skin, the moist meat and melting tenderness, and, of course, the warm, comfort-food vegetables.  The full-of-flavor marinade – mustard and balsamic vinegar – was just enough to nudge this otherwise very traditional dish just over into “wow” territory.  And the best part (well, maybe not the BEST part, but a pretty good thing, all the same) is that there was just enough left over for a couple of sandwiches for the next day’s lunch.  What more could you ask for?

Printable version RIGHT HERE.

I started with the crust. Mix half a cup of sour cream and one large beaten egg in a bowl and set aside. 2 and a half cups of flour and a teaspoon and a half of salt went into the food processor and got spun briefly to get combined. Then 12 tablespoons of butter cut into small pieces go in and pulsed until the butter was completely incorporated. It should look like biscuit dough just before the liquid goes in. Then half of the sour cream mixture goes into the food processor and gets pulsed five or six times. Then the rest of the mixtures goes in and pules until a dough begins to form.

Lightly flour a board or counter and knead the dough until it comes together. Cut the dough in half and form each half into a four inch disk, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least an hour.

When you’re ready to roll out the dough, let it sit out for a few minutes to warm up slightly. On a lightly floured counter roll it out into about a 12 inch circle. The first half of the dough goes into a 9 inch pie plate, leaving about half an inch of overhang all around. The second half of the dough goes onto a parchment covered baking sheet. Both halves get covered in plastic and returned to the fridge.

Now, I need to admit something here. I’m lazy. Seriously lazy. And if I ever can manage to cheat to save myself some effort, I’m all for it.

The actual recipe has you brown chicken parts then poach them in chicken broth so that you end up with both cooked chicken and “fortified” broth for the filling and gravy. And ordinarily I would have done all that. But they did it that way because they used commercial chicken broth. We don’t. My wife makes awesomely flavorful chicken broth that didn’t need any help. So, I bought a rotisserie chicken from the supermarket and once I’d taken all the meat off the bones, I had all the cooked chicken I needed.

Moving on. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees with one of the racks on the lowest possible position.

In a saucepan heat four tablespoons of butter until melted and whisk in a quarter cup of flour to make a roux, cooking for a couple minutes. Add two cups of chicken broth and a quarter cup of half and half and simmer until thickened, about ten minutes.

Season with salt and pepper to taste. Take one cup of the gravy and combine with the cooked chicken. Reserve remaining gravy.

The chicken mixture goes into the dough lined pie pan and spread into an even layer.

Place the top layer of dough onto the pie. Fold the dough under itself so that the edge of the fold is flush with the outer rim of the pie pan. Cut four slits in the top crust for venting and brush with beaten egg.

Bake the pie for 18 to 20 minutes then reduce the oven heat to 375 and bake another 10 to 15 minutes until it’s a deep golden brown.

Let the pie cool on a baking rack for at least 45 minutes before serving.

When you’re ready to serve, heat the reserved gravy along with three quarters of a cup of chicken broth to a simmer for about five minutes. Check for seasoning and serve with the pie.

We simply served it with some steamed broccoli. We are so making this again! It was incredibly wonderful. And the pie dough was a joy to work with. The leftovers, if you have any, even reheat well. This is something worth trying. Or doing again and again.

RIGHT HERE is the printable version.