This Is How I Cook: Curry Chicken Salad Edition

So.  Cooking.  Some people like it, some people hate it.  I cook for a living every day, so honestly, I don't get super excited about making dinner for myself all the time…But when I do, I don't use recipes, or really measure anything.  Cooking for me means throwing things in a bowl/pot/pan/what have you, and mixing, tasting, adding, repeating, repeating, repeating.

Today, I was toddling around in the Whole Foods, and the idea of curry chicken salad got into my brain.  All I wanted, nay needed, was some curry chicken salad.  So I went over to the deli case: $10.99/lb.  Ugh.  I'm sorry, but that's absurd.

So I turned myself around and picked up a rotisserie chicken (ok, truth: I got two, but only because they were buy one get one half price, haha).  I could definitely take 20 minutes or so to pick a chicken, and save all that money on pre made chicken salad that would cost too much and be gone too soon.

Are you craving curry chicken salad yet??

Make it.  Bethy-style.

Ingredients:
1 rotisserie chicken, picked clean, and in smallish pieces
Mayo
Curry powder
Turmeric
Celery
Sliced Almonds
Raisins
Salt
Pepper

Instructions:
(this is where it gets pretty Thug Kitchen-esque)  What?!?  You don't know what Thug Kitchen is??  Oh dear me, that is sad if you don't.  This is perhaps the most amazing website/organization out there.  Love it.  And I think if all people listened to TK's instructions on life, the world would be a better place.  But I digress…

Put your chicken meat in a medium size bowl.  Add enough mayo to it so it mixes well.  Chop some celery into pieces that are as big as you want them (I mean, generally smallish is better in this case, but you do you…).  Add curry powder, turmeric, salt, and pepper to taste.  (Generally this means add a little and then taste it.  And then add some more and then taste it again, and so on and so forth).  Add the raisins and almonds.  I'm not going to tell you how much to add.  I don't know what you like, and I'm not going to assume that you'll like what I like.  So add a little, and then see if you feel moved by the spirit to add some more.

When the chicken salad seems right (and your tastes are super delicious!), it's right.  Eat it.  On a sandwich, or on a cracker, or, as it usually happens in my kitchen, straight off a spoon.  Yum.

Straight up modeling with the chicken salad :)

TL;DR
Put chicken, mayo, curry, turmeric, salt, pepper, celery, raisins, and almonds in a bowl.  Mix.  Eat.  Never pay $10.99/lb. for curry chicken salad again.

-Bethy

Epic Diamond Road Trip - Day 2 Part 2: An Afternoon in Montreal

 This post begins where the last dropped off - right before we left the country.  This is mostly pictures, with just a few spurts of exposition here and there...

Getting ready to leave the country

Everyone else wants to leave America too!

aaaaaand here we go into non-English land

lots of corn grown right across the border

The wonders of technology... I was charging my
additional camera battery while James was driving

The scenes were extremely pastoral

The road signs were all in French, but understandable
enough to my 10th grade French skills...mostly

The weather was overcast, actually not too bad for driving.  We ended up having great weather for most of the trip, and it was nice to have a day without sun beating down on us.  The first glimpse of Montreal was drizzly and foggy...and completely gorgeous.

More French

Chinatown gate

From the top of Mont Royal, a huge hill overlooking the city that is a massive park

From Mont Royal, we saw the 1976 Olympic Stadium - for the first time.  I'll post more details about it later with the close-up pics.  Pretty sweet architecture though.

The 1976 Summer Olympic Stadium from the top of Mont Royal

J and the raccoon sign...hilarious

We stopped so I could go to the bathroom.
I took about 2 steps out of the car, slipped, and bit it in the mud.  Excellent.

Cooler sammie.  Delish.

...and chips.  Because road trip.  America.

J and the city in black and white

They had a piano out on the plaza for anyone to play

The cross on top of Mont Royal

City under construction

This is a wonderful picture of Canada vs America right here

Across the street from our hotel

James and I stayed in the Holiday Inn Select Centre Ville (which is a fancy (i.e. French) way of saying Center City).  It was located at the edge of Chinatown, right across the street from the convention center, and just a block or two from the basilica.  James got an upgraded room that had not one, but TWO bathrooms in it.  (TWO?!?!  Say WHAT?!?!  What does anyone staying in one bedroom with one bed need two bathrooms for?  Anyway...I didn't hate it.)  So there's a massive bathroom, a living room area, and two bathrooms.  Baller.

Bathroom number 1 - normal for a hotel

Bathroom number 2 - possibly larger than my entire Boston apartment

Then we headed out to visit the basilica - it was just a few blocks from the hotel.  Incredible.

Notre-Dame Basilica

I know it's been a long time, but I'll try to keep getting these posts up soon...

The night out in Montreal and our delicious Polish dinner next!!

-Bethy

Too furious not to post

Ok.  So I tried to ignore this.  I tried to read this, and be silently a) disgusted and b) sad.  To chalk it up to someone who I don't know doing something I didn't want them to do because I didn't think it was good for them.  And it sat.  And marinated.

And I found myself coming back to this article, and becoming a) more incensed with every moment and b) so so SO sad.

When I was living in Alaska, I worked in a domestic violence and sexual assault shelter for a year.  Now, I don't know everything there is to know about abusive relationships, but I do know a lot.  Probably more than your average citizen.  I've attended trainings and classes about abusive relationships, as well as spending a lot of time being and speaking with women who have endured unbelievable experiences of abuse - both physical and emotional.  I have heard stories that made my blood run cold hearing about the power that someone can hold over another person.

Now, I know that you're wondering - where's the food connection?  Why are we talking about this?

Well, I'm sure that most of you have heard about the 300 sandwiches lady.  (If not - here's an article that should catch you right up.)

I have a few things to say about this.  No, scratch that - I have a few things to say to Stephanie Smith.

1.  If, in fact, you are serious about this - if you really do feel that a partner saying to you "you've been awake for 15 minutes and haven't made me a sandwich?" in a serious manner, like, he means it - for reals - is ok, then girl, please GET OUT NOW.  Relationships take many forms, and every one is different, but power dynamics like this have no place in a healthy relationship.  I repeat - this is not a healthy relationship.  It doesn't matter if your man cooks the rest of the time or not.  It's just. not. ok.

2.  If this is not serious - if you're joking about the whole thing, just doing this for a book or movie deal, or came up with this while you were bored one night sitting in front of the TV with your man, I'm sad that you're willing to claim your 15 minutes of fame with something that could be so hurtful as to normalize abusive behavior, and to put it on the internet in such a display.  According to the National Council Against Domestic Violence, 1 in 4 women in the United States will experience intimate partner violence in their lifetime.  Let that sink in for a second.  1 in 4.  If 1,000 people look at your website, that means that 250 have lived through violence by a partner, or are currently in a relationship with a skewed power dynamic.  Your insistence of normalizing the interactions that you have with your partner could be harmful on a HUGE scale.  You and your partner may think that this is all good and fun and casual, but there are so many women living in relationships where their partners say these things and mean them.

3.  I'm really upset that the kitchen is the place where these skewed gender relations are taking place.  I'm more upset that sandwiches are the object in question.  The phrase "make me a sandwich" is a charged one.  To many, it lies on the same plane as "women should be barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen."  It has become somewhat of a joke because of the obvious mysoginistic undertones.  Because now, in 2013, we assume that no one would say these things with any seed of seriousness.  It feels awful to see these words being acted upon seriously, even if they are not said in that way.

4.  I love to cook for others.  I love to make sandwiches.  When I was living with my ex-boyfriend, I cooked for him often.  And yes, sometimes he asked me to make him food.  But he never commanded me to do it.  And if he had ever put the development of our relationship on the table in exchange??  It's too far, it's offensive to women, it's offensive to people who have been abused, it's offensive to everyone in a relationship who cooks for their partner.


The internet has exploded with comments about this article.  Many people are angry.  Some just want to eat all the sandwiches that Ms. Smith is making.  I'm alright with being angry AND wanting to eat those sammies.  They do, in fact, look delicious.  But delicious enough to publicize and glamorize a relationship with an unhealthy power dynamic?

Ehh...no.


-Bethy

Epic Diamond Road Trip - Day 1: Boston, Concord, Montpelier, Waterbury

Hello from Waterbury, Vermont!!

I’m just going to say first that this place is GORGEOUS.  Surrounded by mountains, breathing the fresh air, trees everywhere I turn, this feels like heaven, and I absolutely can’t believe it’s only a few hours from Boston.  It feels like another planet. 

James and I picked up the rental car this morning – a trusty “mid-size SUV” that we promptly drove back to the house, and folded down the back seats to see if we would actually fit into.  Turns out, we do, though James is pretty tall, so I definitely have more stretch-out space than he does.  We loaded it up with our clothes, toiletries, sleeping bags, and the cooler that I packed with some food and water for the first few days.  It’s not going to stay cold for the whole trip, but we figured we’d buy ingredients for sandwiches for the first few days, and save some bucks on breakfasts and lunches.

Then – off!  We got onto I-93 North, and started the adventure. 

The two adventurers and our trusty steed/home for the next 5 days.

The Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge.
I LOVE taking pictures of this bridge, it's so easy for them to be gorgeous.

Our first stop was Concord, New Hampshire, where we stopped at an Eastern Mountain Supply for iodine tablets for the mountain climbing adventure that will take place on Wednesday.  I mean, we’re planning on carrying plenty of water, but I can get mighty thirsty when I’m NOT trying to scale a mountain, so I’m just not taking any chances with that one.  Better safe than sorry, and I’m also pretty stoked to feel majorly outdoorsy when I’m treating my stream water, haha. 

We followed that with a quick trip to Market Basket.  Now, that whole experience is worthy of another blog entry entirely.  I’d never been to one before, and all I have to say about it is CHEAP FOOD and tons of it.  Crazy cheap.  So we got a few things that we wanted for lunches, and blasted towards the state house.  (Now, just a point of clarification for my West coast friends: over here, people call their state capitols “state houses”.  Yeah, I know.  I don’t get it either.)  Concord’s had a gold dome, same as Boston’s, and we ate our picnic lunch outside, right next to it.  

James and the delicious spread

Sammiches!

Glory shot.  The rolls were from Clear Flour Bread - a bakery near my house
that I've blogged about before.  Incredible baked goods of all kinds. 

J and I at the capitol in Concord.

It was sunny, a perfect temperature, and I was in sandwich and chocolate cake heaven.  We packed up, took some pictures, had a short but polite conversation with a man who approached us on the street and tried to save our souls for Jesus, and blasted towards Montpelier, Vermont, and the third state capitol on our list for that day.

An Irish CAT?  ...only in New England, ladies and gents...

Montpelier, VT: small, beautiful, also has a state house with a gold dome.  We came, we saw, we took a few pictures (one that turned out to be an epic fail, trying to get a jumping picture, and having some user error issues with knowing when the timer was actually going off), and we moved on.  We had an appointment with a few men about some ice cream in Waterbury.

User error in the timing function of my camera.
This was going to be a cute leapfrog jumping picture.
Instead it is a little bit weird and a little bit awkward, and
so representative of James and me that I'm posting it on
here anyway.  

Montpelier, VT

That’s right.  We had to make the Ben and Jerry’s factory tour before it closed for the night.  We zoomed up to Waterbury, got immediately in to the 4:50pm tour, and were learning about the history of some pretty amazing ice cream within minutes.  

Deliciousness lies ahead!

In the bathrooms - Vermont granite.
Yes, I'm into food, but I think that it would be great to source
a lot of things more locally - food and otherwise.

Shameless selfie in the bathroom...or I guess I could just say
that I was trying to showcase the Vermont granite, hahaha...
we all know the truth.  :)

James is super stoked on this tour about to start...

...as was I.

Our tour guide.  He was enthusiastic as all get out.  It was great for  us,
but I simply couldn't imagine having that much energy every single day.

cows

cows

MORE COWS!  ALL COWS ALL DAY!

Production wasn’t happening when we got there, but we got to see a bird’s eye view of the floor anyway.  Then we moved on to the tasting room, where the first thing that caught my eye was the sign that said we’d be tasting Stephen Colbert’s signature flavor, AmeriCone Dream, which is already one of my favorites.  The second thing I noticed was the framed and prominently displayed kosher certification for the tasting room of the factory – not the scoop shop that was in the next room, not any of the ice cream anywhere else, just the scooped samples in that tasting room only. 

Basically, I freaked out when I saw this.  So cool.
(Enter this under things you just don't see very often on the West Coast.)

The tasting room is certified by KOF-K, one of the United States’ foremost kosher certifiers, located in Teaneck, NJ, and the certification expires in March of 2014, meaning that even if no processes change at the factory, a rabbi will have to come up to Waterbury to re-certify the tasting room in about 8 months.  There’s so much more to know about kosher certifications, but as soon as I was getting ramped up to tell James everything I knew, the tour was over, and we left the building to get some real sized ice cream scoops.

Then there was this - information about the Fair Trade USA fair trade
certified ingredients in the ice cream we were tasting.  In AmeriCone
Dream, the vanilla used in the recipe is Fair Trade Certified.

This look from James says several things:
1. Stop taking pictures of me.
2.  No, I don't care to hear about the particulars of kosher certification right now.
3.  There are screaming children and babies EVERYWHERE and I just want some ice cream.

I got Coffee Coffee Buzz Buzz Buzz (apparently because I never wanted to sleep again) and James selected the Salted Caramel.  I got a small, and it was two massive scoops – more ice cream than I thought I wanted, needed, or could possibly handle.  Well...yeah.  Took it down.  No problem.  J 

Post ice cream, so good.

This was behind the factory, pretty cool to have the labels on.

Then we climbed a little hill in back of the factory to their Flavor Cemetery – a little plot where retired/expired flavors have placards and rhyming couplets written about them.  It was cute – and there were lots of flavors there that I would have loved to taste that are no longer being made.

Believe me, after all that ice cream, the short walk wasn't unwelcome.

James thought he'd race me up the steps.

I couldn't even begin to imagine the Ben and Jerry's factory in a place as beautiful as this before I saw it with my own eyes - it was so peaceful.  

One thing Ben and Jerry’s is known for is their resistance to and advocacy against using milk from cows treated with rBGH, or recombinant bovine growth hormone.  (Also known as rBST or recombinant bovine somatotropin.)  Basically, it’s a hormone given to cows in order to increase their output of milk.  Now, I know that sounds wonderful – more milk, right?  Well, there are some serious issues.  Now without getting too graphic, let’s just make sure everyone is on the same page here.  Cows give milk through their udders.  Udders are, well, overworked and underpaid to begin with (just ask any new mother – all my friends are having babies, and I read enough baby blogs to know this even without firsthand experience.) 

So there’s the cow, already hooked up to milking machines or getting milked by hand a few times a day, which I’m sure isn’t barrels of fun, and you’re injecting hormones into the cow that will make her produce even more.  Suffice to say, there are plenty of gross things that can be introduced into milk from cows given this hormone besides the hormone itself (which is plenty controversial, as many hormones and antibiotics are).  Use of this hormones have been proven to correlate to more instances of mastitis in the cattle, and when your cow has mastitis, you have to give her antibiotics to clear the infection. 

There is a lot of controversy about rBGH, but it’s worth it to take a look at the labels on the dairy products in your fridge.  I’ll try to post about rBGH more in detail a little later, it’s pretty fascinating.  Ben and Jerry’s had a bunch of information about rBGH posted up all over the property, and it was awesome to see people stopping, looking, and educating themselves.

TEACH ALL THE WORLD ABOUT FOOD THINGS!!

After we left the factory, we drove into downtown Waterbury, and stopped in at the Prohibition Pig, an incredible place that deserves its own post for the crazy/amazing experience.  I came expecting pulled pork and beer, and left full of so many other things…that were so much better.

Day 1: Part Two coming up soon!

Until then, happy eating!

-Bethy