Sunday 27 April 2008

Joints

Mine, and those of a chicken.

Today we went shopping (noting that there were long queues at the petrol station at the supermarket, not a good sign), and bought a chicken. Not just a chicken, other stuff too, I mean. But the chicken is the star of today's show.

We got home, Mr WithaY carefully placed rat poison in the garden to hopefully see off the latest incursion of vermin, refilled the bird feeders to encourage a better class of wildlife, and then went into the garage to do terrible things.

While he was in there, I looked at the chicken and thought I'd tandoorify it. And then I thought, ahahahahaaaaaaa*, if I cut it up, it will fit better in the bowl to soak in the tandoori mixture. So I took it apart.

Properly.

All nicely jointed and sectioned, with the legs and wings in the marinade and a few lovely fillets in the fridge for another day. Then I boiled up the carcase for stock with celery, onion, bay leaves and pepper. And once that was all boiled up, I picked off all the nicely poached bits of meat from the carcase and put them in another bowl to use in soup.

It was like an episode of Little House on the Prairie. But with no moral at the end. And fewer horses.

We went for a stroll this afternoon to return some loppers to a neighbour, who very kindly invited us in for a cup of tea. Then we sauntered through the village, scaled a fence** and went for a walk along the river, watching various ducks, swans, coots and a buzzard all going about their business. We found a trail of eggs, probably pheasant, all broken and emptied out, stolen from a nest by (I bet) a rat.

They really are bastards.

And then it was time to go and have a cream tea. They have a kind of open house thing every few weeks in the summer to raise money for charity. All very pleasant apart from the overwhelming stench of cowshit as we sat outside enjoying our scones and cream.


*I really did think that.

**A small one.

6 comments:

Caro said...

I tried to cut up a chicken once. It was a total disaster. Kudos on your skill.

Slyde said...

i have no comment on the chicken, since i can barely boil water, but now you made me think about little house on the prarie....

god i loved that show as a kid...

BEAST said...

I am more impressed with the not eating the whole chicken in one go AND making stock.
Ah Little House on the Prarie , that brings back some memories.

Now all you gotta do is think of some tasty recipes for rat and your quids in :-)

livesbythewoods said...

Caro, I was a bit nervous but once I just went for it, everything fell into place. Well, out of place, but you know what I mean.

Slyde, it was great, wasn't it? I loved the books when I was little.

Beast, the WithaY household is a model of restraint.

Rat recipes. Hmmm.....

Slyde said...

the books i must say that i have never read, but i DO remember back in high school going to the school library and considering taking one of them out...

then i rememberd that i'd probably get my ass beat by the other boys and thought better of it..

livesbythewoods said...

Slyde, Mr WithaY resolutely refuses to read them for much the same reason.

*tch* Blokes.