Tag Archives: dry

December 25, 2017 · 7:13 pm

Who said breasts need to go up?

It has happened to me three times now.  I prepare and roast my chicken, it looks great, and then I put it on the table and hear the comments:

“You baked it upside down.”

“It has its butt in the air.”

“The breasts are round and go up, ass goes down.”

Now mind you the chicken tasted fine, it was golden brown, and the breast meat was nice and moist, but my having baked it upside down accidentally on three occasions still led to laughter.  That got me to thinking….who made the rule that the breasts must go up?

I did some research online and while tradition says to roast a chicken breast side up, what I found more often was that chefs recommend roasting breast side down for at least half the time to prevent drying out the breast meat.799257

Most of the fat is in the chicken’s back.  When you place the bird in a pan breast side up all the fatty juices run out of the back and into the pan, and the dryer white meat – the breast – gets even more dry during the roasting process.

If you roast the chicken breast side down, the fatty juices run out of the back meat and down into the breast, keeping it nice and moist.  Then flip the bird over to brown the skin on the breast before serving.  The time for flipping varied in the articles I read from  only 15 minutes prior to serving, 1/2 way through the roasting time, and two-thirds of the way through the roasting time.  The point is, flip the bird over, baste to encourage browning, and serve breast side up.

It was also noted that flipping might be easier if you truss your bird before roasting to prevent the legs and wings from flopping around during the process.  I have never trussed a chicken and will likely try the flipping without being trussed first.

My research did not provide an official answer my initial question of “Who said breasts need to go up?” but it did satisfy me to learn that my upside down chicken is actually the recommended roasting position for moist meat.

Now what do you do?  Easy, if you are roasting a chicken in the breast-down position and forget to flip it for a nice browned presentation with the breasts up, go ahead and serve it upside down.  If anyone comments simply tell them it contains a hidden message, as in kiss my ***.    Message by bird….and we thought it was just dinner!

 

 

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Filed under decisions, Discoveries, food, Kitchen, Life is a Melting Pot, lunch, Meals, nutrician

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February 15, 2017 · 12:33 am

Shedding Skin and Learning to Walk

Two steps forward, one step back.  The circle of life can make you feel as if you are repeating a vicious cycle and the only hope is that you will somehow break free of the rotation and get on the straight path to success.

Such is my life this past week, which I have spent shedding skin and learning to walk.  Sound strange doesn’t it?  On the 15th of November I had surgery, an ankle fusion.  It was a three-month, non-weight bearing recovery and when you are living alone that is enough of a challenge, not to mention isolation.  On the 10th of February I was told that my ankle is completely healed, I can’t hurt it.  The hard cast was removed and I am free to walk on it.walk-fly-crawl

I was warned that the foot would be very sensitive.  They weren’t kidding!  Walking is agony.  I am so glad I still have the medical cane from the original accident six  years ago…the kind that has four feet and stands on its own.  The ankle doesn’t hurt – the foot itself does.

How bad is the foot pain?  I hate shoes, they are generally the first thing I shed when I walk in the door.  However my tennis shoes provide padding, much needed padding.  I wore shoes inside my house all last weekend, and I am wearing tennis shoes to work this week.  Once I take the shoes off inside my house I haven’t been able to walk on the cane; I have had to use my knee cart.  Things are improving though.  This morning I was able to walk, barely, with my cane when barefoot.  Tonight barefoot meant the knee cart.  I am hoping by the weekend I will finally be able to make it up the stairs and into my own bed.

At least I have stopped leaving a dead-skin trail, sort of.  I had never been in a hard cast before, and after three months the leg and foot were extremely dry.  I felt like a crocodile that was shedding it’s skin.  I discovered moisturizing shaving cream was the best thing for washing it; better than a moisturizing soap.  I now treasure my 24-hour body cream more than I ever have.  I’m still slightly flaky, but not as bad — no comments from the peanut gallery please.

So I am now shedding my skin and learning to walk.  I haven’t bounced back as quickly as I had hoped, but I am seeing progress every day.  This morning I was able to walk out the front door and onto the porch by myself, but needed my bag carried.  I hope that after a few more days I’ll be able to carry my own things in and out of the house and start driving myself to work.  That is if they don’t kill me in physical therapy, which begins on Thursday.

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Filed under Coping, disabilities, handicapp, home, Life Changing, Life is a Melting Pot

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