Uniform of the Day: Book Tour

More book tour stuff. I've been wearing some version of this uniform during the more formal events: readings at the Pritzker Military Library in Chicago, at the Marines Memorial in San Francisco, and an appearance on PBS's The Tavis Smiley Show. I don't know why, but I've been drawn to very simple: grey suit, white shirt, solid tie in yellow or orange mostly. My best guess is that, subconsciously, I'm trying to make sure the take away is more of the verbal message and less the visual message.

Book Tour Hard Launch

There is a video of the first major event for the book tour. It took place on May 12th in New York at The Half King, Sebastian Junger's bar. I met Sebastian in Chad a few years ago and I've appeared in some of his articles anonymously -- because I was still serving at the time. He offered me a chance to read as part of the bar's regular reading series and we chose to do it as our hard launch. CSPAN Book TV was kind enough to come out and shoot this video. The uniform of the day was jeans, a pink OCBD with a green Sid Mashburne grenadine, and my most comfortable Burberry blue blazer. I'm not sure the open collar thing works. Here's a screen cap: the video was shot in a bar, so it's pretty dark.

Potato, Leek, and Tomato Soup

Winter's been dragging on this year, so we're still making thick and hearty soups. This one is really simple and really good.

What you'll need:

A couple of potatoes: two or three mid-sized spuds.
About half a pound of tomatoes.
Two leeks.
Half a cup of heavy cream.
Some chicken stock or water.
Parsley.
Butter.
Salt and Pepper.

Just getting started. The leeks are in the pan.

Slice up the leeks, only use the white and very light green parts. Put them in a pan (or use a soup pot) with some butter. Cook until they've sweated and are soft. While they're cooking, chop the tomatoes. Add them to the mix and cook until they've rendered their juices.

Leeks and tomatoes in the soup pot. (I'm using pictures from two different tests of this recipe.)

Skin and dice the potatoes, add them to the pot and stir to mix; leave these on the heat for a few minutes and then cover with the stock or water. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, cover and let simmer for about 25 minutes. Cut off the heat and let the soup cool. Blend the soup and then stir in 4 ounces of heavy cream. The consistency of the soup should be about equal to that of the cream when you're done. If it's thicker, OK, but if you want it thinner you can add some milk or water. Season with salt and pepper, sprinkle some chopped parsley over the soup and serve with crusty bread and a salad. 

This goes well with a light red like a Cotes du Rhone.  

Uniform of the Day: Writers' Conference, Seattle.

So, I'm off to Seattle this week for the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) 2014 conference. This is our (the Veterans Writing Project's) biggest event of the year in terms of exposure: about 12-15K people show up. We'll have a table display, sell some books and journals, and talk, talk, talk. Networking, they call it. I'm also sitting on a panel discussion with two colleagues discussing the work we do in creating a best practices regimen for working with veterans in the writing classroom.

The zeitgeist at the conferences is slightly Bohemian--these are writers after all--and slightly Burning Man. People dress; there is the occasional costume. My packing list will not reach the edges of the continuum.

Since it's Seattle, footwear and outerwear will be critical choices. I'll carry the Allen Edmonds Jefferson full brogues and the AE Amok chukkas. I'll likely wear the AE Ashbury Chelsea boots on the plane. I'll wear the Barbour Beaufort with a Burberry scarf as I'm heading out of DC -- still winter here folks. (I'll have the Barbour pile liner in the bag in case it's really cold when I get back.)

Here's the pile before packing: Two sport jackets, some jeans and cords, shirts, sweaters, shoes, ties, a liner for the Barbour, and a ball cap... just in case it rains. Add toiletries, a flask of Laphroiag, socks and underwear, and the bag is full.

Likely day one uniform is a pair of tan cords, RL Polo chambray shirt, Drakes wool Donegal tie, a black vest and a J. Press Harris Tweed sport coat and the Jefferson brogues. I'll be reading that evening from my new book at Kell's Irish Pub in Post Alley, near Pike Place Market.

Day two is a bit more laid back, so I'll probably wear this Brooks Bros yellow Oxford stripe OBCD under a wool crewneck and jeans with the Amok boots.

Day three features a panel discussion along side two university writing program directors. Olive jeans, a pink OCBD with a Sid Mashburn blue grenadine tie and the grey Harris Tweed with the Jeffersons--add a blue crewneck for the walk over to the site in the chilly morning. 

AWP is always a crap-shoot. Success muchly depends on how many people walk past your booth, so choosing a location is a critical skill. Last year in Boston, we sold enough books to pay for the table fee. Fingers crossed this year. 

Uniform of the Day: Teaching Weekend, Williamsburg.

I'm off for a two-day teaching weekend at the College of William & Mary. It's my second trip down to Billsburg to teach and there is a welcome break in the weather with predicted temps of 65F both Saturday and Sunday. So packing will be easier. And, I'll be driving the convertible.

Travel shoes will certainly be Top-Siders, but I'll likely wear the Allen Edmonds Black Hills oxfords in class -- they offer some welcome support that the Sperry's don't since I'll be standing on poured concrete floors for seven or eight hours a day. Classes are casual, so jeans, cords and OCBDs are in order. I'll carry a crew neck sweater, a cotton sweatshirt, and a Harrington jacket in case it's cool at night. Given the line of thunderstorms that are predicted to roll across the entire eastern part of the U.S. this afternoon, I'll have an umbrella to hand. And, of course, I'll pack a J. Press Harris Tweed blazer; well, just because. I'll likely wear the Submariner 5513, but the 1950 Waltham A-17 will be in the bag, too.

Rustic Tomato Soup

We're pretty much snowed in on the East Coast. The District of Columbia got hammered last night, and we had about a foot plus of snow at the house this morning when we woke up. It's a perfect day for tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches--after shoveling out the cars and the walk.

Out in the back yard. 

Here's what you need:

About one and one half pounds of fresh tomatoes or at least a 28oz can of chopped tomatoes

Two medium onions, thinly sliced
Basil

Stock (chicken or vegetable) or water

Salt and pepper

Rice

Olive oil

Heat a tablespoon of oil and a tablespoon of butter in the bottom of your soup pot. Add the onions and let them cook until they are very soft, about five minutes. Don't overcook.

While that's happening, if you're using whole tomatoes, you'll have to prepare them: score the bottoms with an X, drop each tomato into boiling water for about 15 seconds and remove promptly. The skins will just pull away. 

Then, chop the tomatoes roughly and add them to the soup pot with the onions, some chopped basil, salt and pepper--a little garlic can't hurt here either. 

Preparing the tomato and basil.

Let all of this cook for about ten minutes and prepare some chopped rice. (If you haven't done this before, it's pretty simple: put a couple ounces of rice into a dry pan over medium high heat, stirring regularly until the rice begins to brown a bit. Then either crush it with a mortar in a pestle or run it through the small food processor.

Chopped Rice

Once the tomatoes have cooked down a bit, add a pint of stock or water. I used chicken stock because it was handy. 

Just before I added the stock.

Stir well for a couple minutes, then add the chopped rice. Bring this all to a boil--stirring pretty regularly--reduce and let simmer for 15 minutes. It's ready to serve in a primitive or rustic fashion right now. You might want to give it a spin with the vertical blender to make it smooth. Some people add a bit of cream. 

Grilled cheese sandwiches (sharp NY cheddar 

on sourdough), and rustic tomato soup. I'm happy. 

A foot of snow in the back yard. Harry's happy.

Zuppa di Pesce

Somehow, and I'm not really sure how, food and women seem sexier in Italian. Let's not dwell on this for too long, but this is a fish soup, and it simply sounds more interesting as zuppa di pesce than as fish soup.

Here's what you need:

Fish
Scallops or squid (calamari, see....)
Mussels or clams
Tomatoes
Onion
Garlic
Seafood stock (or make your own, see below).
Celery
Olive oil
Fresh spices: basil, thyme or marjoram
Salt and Pepper

The seafood: I used some Sea Bass, Bay Scallops, and Mussels. The wine is an Orvieto. 

If you're using prepared fish stock, move along. If you're making your own stock, here's what you'll need: some fish heads, maybe some shrimp shells, water, crushed garlic, chopped parsley, olive oil, oregano, onion, vinegar, salt and pepper--a glass of nice white wine (subtract this amount from the water) can't hurt. Prepare the tomatoes by slicing an X on the bottom of each one, coring it to remove the base of the stem, and dropping it into boiling water for about 15 seconds. Remove promptly and remove the skin, then slice thinly. Now put the fish heads into a pan with the rest of the ingredients and heat. Add a quart of water. Once the fish heads and the tomatoes are cooked fully, sieve the broth and set aside.

For the soup, prepare two pounds of tomatoes as above. Cover the bottom of a soup pot with olive oil and warm. Add a thinly sliced onion. Once it begins to brown just a bit, add crushed garlic and a thinly sliced stalk of celery, plus the spice --dried or fresh, but fresh is best--I used marjoram, and some black pepper. Stir and let cook for a few minutes, then add the tomatoes. Stir and let this cook for a few minutes then add a glass of white wine -- I used a very nice Orvieto and later served the same wine with the soup. Let all of this cook for a while until the tomatoes are almost pulped. Next, add about a quart of your fish stock.

Not quite ready for the stock. 

You're ready now to complete the meal. Add the mussels first. Bring the soup back to a boil, then add the fish and scallops (or calamari....). Reduce the heat to simmer, cover and wait about five minutes. Once all the mussels have opened, you're set. Sprinkle some chopped parsley over the top and serve with bread, salad, and wine. We served with an Orvieto, but a lighter red would have served nicely, too.

Just before the parsley went on. 

Veal Piccata

Technically, this dish is Costolette al Marsala because we're using cutlets rather than scaloppine. But the technique we're using is for piccata, so we'll fudge the difference and call it Veal Piccata. Piccata is another relatively simple dish one can spend a long while perfecting. The challenge is in using flour and not letting it become gelatinous.

Here's what you need:

Veal cutlets
Salt and pepper
Lemon
Flour
Butter
Marsala

I served it with some shitake mushrooms and haricots verts with shallots and slivered almonds.

Ask your butcher for some very thin veal cutlets. Then, when you get home, pound them even thinner. To do so, wrap each cutlet in wax paper and pound it with an empty wine bottle. Why an empty wine bottle you ask? So you are careful not to break either the bottle nor the meat. Season the cutlets with salt, pepper, and lemon juice and dust them lightly with flour. Then start work on the other parts of the meal. You'll see why soon.

Just flattened and ready to season. 

Par-boil your haricots vert. Bring a pan of water to a boil, drop in the beans. When they change color to a bright green, pull them out and douse them in ice water to stop the cooking. Dry and set aside, nearby. Finely chop a shallot and thin slice (or use already sliced) almonds. Add these to a pan with some olive oil and maybe a little minced garlic. Let these cook until the shallots are translucent and the almonds are browning on the edges. Add the beans, cover and turn off the heat. The beans will come to the proper temperature and be ready to serve in a few minutes. 

Almonds, shallots, and garlic almost ready for the beans. 

While the almonds and shallots are cooking, put some butter in a pan and melt it. Add the mushrooms, salt and pepper them to taste, let them cook slowly -- about eight to ten minutes is sufficient -- cover and keep warm. 

Once these tasks are completed you can start the veal. Put a good sized pat of butter in the pan, enough that when it melts it will cover the entire pan, over medium heat. Add the cutlets and brown them on both sides -- this will happen quickly. Add a 1/4 cup or so of Marsala, let it bubble and dislodge any brown bits, mix it with the remaining butter. Then add about half that amount of chicken stock and stir these to form a nice pan sauce. When heated through, serve the cutlets with the sauce. 

This all happens quite quickly, so I didn't have a chance to take any photos of the process. Here's the end result. 

Served with a very nice Rossola. 

Shrimp and Grits

I grew up in the South, so grits are a part of my life in ways that only Southerners can understand. Shrimp and grits is a dish that is most associated with the low country of South Carolina, although it has now spread across the country. It's not a terribly complex dish, but it's also one that can take years to perfect. I'm still working on it.

Here's what you'll need to start:

Shrimp--I use the biggest ones I can find, mostly I suppose so I have to clean fewer.
Some andouille sausage
Stone ground grits
Chicken stock
Onion
Red capsicum pepper
Garlic
Scallions
Butter
Parsley
Salt and pepper

Some things you might want to add in future evolutions:

Some cheese for the grits -- try asiago.
Some additional spices to add with the shrimp -- cayenne pepper, cajun spices, other?
Bacon instead of the andouille.
Some cream to add to the grits.

Don't forget to wash and remove the sticker from the capsicum. 

You're going to cook the grits separately from everything else, so you'll need a pot for the grits and a skillet for the rest. But first do your prep work. Dice a medium onion, finely mince a clove of garlic, julienne a red capsicum pepper, chop a couple scallions (mostly just the green part) and finely chop some parsley to sprinkle over the entire dish at the end. Slice a couple sausages (a quarter to half a pound) into small half or quarter disks. Clean (shell and devein) your shrimp, leaving the tails on.

Start your grits. Most stone ground grits are prepared with the a very simple mix of four parts water to one part grits: I used a cup of grits, a big pinch of salt, and four cups of water. Bring the water to a boil, slowly stir in the grits, lower the heat to medium or medium low and keep stirring until the mix becomes slightly creamy, then cover and simmer for about ten minutes. Stir once or twice during that period. Add a quarter stick of butter at the end and stir well. If you're adding cheese, grate about four ounces, if you're adding cream measure out about two ounces, and stir it in about five minutes before you're ready to serve.

While the grits are cooking, add a little olive oil to a skillet (cast iron is best here) and when it's hot, add the sausage. Let it cook through and crisp the edges a bit. Once it's done, pull it out and set aside. Add the onion, garlic, and capsicum, cook until the onion is translucent. (If you're adding any additional spices, add them with the onions, &c.) Add a half cup of chicken stock, bring to a boil to dislodge any brown bits. Return the sausage to the pan to re-heat, add the shrimp and the scallions; stir to mix and then cover for three to five minutes until the shrimp are just cooked through.

Just before adding the shrimp. 

Put your grits in bowls and and the shrimp, sausage and sauce over the top. Sprinkle some parsley over the dish, salt and pepper to taste, and serve.

Almost ready, just need the parsley. The observant will note that I omitted the scallions. Yep, I simply forget it at the store. The dish suffered only a bit. 

It goes well with a crisp white. We often serve either with a Viognier or a Chardonnay.

Essentials: Maine Hunting Shoe

The Maine Hunting Shoe is the principal icon of perhaps the most iconic of trad clothing stores, L.L.Bean (yes, yes Brooks Brothers, J. Press, the Andover Shop, O'Connells..... I know....). Designed by Leon Leonwood Bean himself, it was L.L.Bean's original product. Although today it is likely more often worn out of the fields than in, the shoe is ubiquitous in New England, widespread in the rest of the northern half of the U.S., and well known in the South.

An ad from a mid-1980s L.L. Bean catalog. 

It seems to me that the shoe came to be part of the trad essentials pantheon as it spread out of its home in New England--much like the Bass Weejun and the Oxford Cloth Button Down shirt--as staples of the prep school wardrobe. 

Although Mr. Bean's original shoe was, at 16" tall, nearly knee high. Customers began asking for and ordering lower cut versions of the shoe. 

This is from the Fall 1969 catalog, just a few years before I got my first pair. (For winter wear the Cold Proof Arched Innersole is highly recommended.)

Today there are at least 50 different models including moccasins, 6", 8", 10", 12", 16", slip on boots, thinsulate lined, shearling lined, tops in tan, brown, red or bison leather, waxed canvas... the list goes on and on. 

There are, of course, two basic models: the Maine Hunting Shoe an the Bean Boot. I wear the Shoe because it's more trad(itional), I suppose, and because the Bean Boot didn't exist when I began purchasing this shoe. The differences are slight. L.L. Bean says the shoe's sole is somehow designed to help you feel the forest's floor better. Eh. Still, I wear the shoe rather than the boot. I have to admit there is something about the little tag on the back of the heel -- I like the font used on the Maine Hunting Shoe better than that on Bean Boot. Details. 

Fresh from a walk with the hounds in Rock Creek Park. 

Since I'm not a hunter, I wear my shoes mostly to walk the dogs or out and about when I'm in casual clothing. I own two pair: a tan pair of 10" shoes that are at least 20 years old (kept here at home in DC); and a brown pair of 10" that are only a couple years old (at home at the cottage in upstate NY). I always keep a pair of pile inserts in the boots for added warmth for they are NOT very warm. Thick socks help, too.

Often imitated, never duplicated. The Maine Hunting Shoe in its natural habitat--ice and mud.

Poule au Pot-ish (Dutch Oven Chicken)

We're still up at the cottage. It's bloody cold out and we're knackered from unpacking, cleaning, re-packing, moving furniture, cleaning, &c. So tonight's menu is comfort food: Chicken in a Dutch oven.

You'll need a Dutch oven, or something like it. I used a Le Creuset pot.

--A whole chicken
--Salt and pepper, garlic, thyme
--A lemon
--Some dry white wine
--Oil
--Vegetables: I used potatoes, onion and mushrooms, but celery and carrots, maybe a turnip, would have been excellent, I just didn't have any.

Put a tablespoon of oil into the pot and get it hot. Coat the chicken in a mixture of salt, pepper, thyme and garlic powder. Stuff a lemon into the cavity.

Plop the chicken, breast side down, into the pot for about five minutes to brown the skin. Chop your vegetables while it's browning. Turn the chicken and add the vegetables around it.

This is just after I've turned the chicken and just before I've added the vegetables. If you don't do this, the chicken comes out looking very peaked and sickly. 

We're now at the point where cooks differ on how to proceed. To add liquid or not? In point of fact the chicken doesn't need any additional liquid. You can cover it and walk away. It won't burn. Me, I add some white wine. You can choose. You'll see later why I add white wine.

Cover the chicken and go do something else -- evidently, as proven for the umpteenth time tonight, anything other than football will do -- for half an hour. Check the chicken at the 35 minute mark. Maybe it's ready; check the temperature. If not, give it ten more minutes or so. When it's ready let it stand for a few minutes (chicken isn't like beef that has to 'rest' but it's still good to let it stand for five minutes). Then carve and serve with the vegetables and sauce.

The sauce surrounding the vegetables is the result of adding a glass of white wine. That's why I do it. 

Once it's ready serve with a simple salad and bread. It's not precisely Poule au Pot like in France. But it works. And it's très simple. Serve with either the white wine you added to the pot -- I used a white wine from Saumur (In the Loire Valley and the home of the French Cavalry school), but a Pinot Noir from Bourgogne would do very well also.

Steak (not on the grill)

We Americans are obsessed with our grills. But rest of the world isn't. So this weekend at the cottage --with the temps hovering around 20F and four inches of fresh snow on the ground -- I decided to try steak, not on the grill. Alain Ducasse has what might be the most decadent steak (w/o sauce) recipe in history. Here's how it works:

--Pick out a nice Ribeye or T-Bone steak. I chose a T-bone.
--Salt and pepper
--Garlic-- a couple cloves minced.
--A sprig of fresh rosemary
--A sprig of fresh thyme
--Half a stick of butter

Season it with salt and pepper, let it sit at room temperature for 30 minutes. Put some oil -- use canola because you're cooking at high temperature -- into a cast iron skillet and get it hot. Once it's shimmering, add the steak and let it cook for about five minutes. The bottom side should be pretty crispy. Turn the steak and add the garlic, thyme, rosemary and butter. Once the butter has melted begin basting the steak with the mix of herd, garlic and butter. Keep it up for about 6 minutes until the steak is medium rare.

Take it out of the pan and let it sit for ten minutes. 

I served it with leeks and zucchini. Slice the leeks and zuke, put some oil in the pan and add salt, pepper and thyme. We also put some cannellini beans on. Cook the beans as usual, but add some pepper and rosemary. This helps tie everything together. 

After the ten minutes resting, cut the steak off the bone and slice against the grain of the meat. Serve with a big red like a cabernet or a malbec.

Uniform of the Day: A Long Weekend in the Country

We just bought a small place in the country. It's an old farm house, a cottage really, in Sullivan County, New York. We'll try to get up there as often as possible and this long weekend -- a bit expanded -- is a good chance.

The whole point of getting up there, and of having a place in the country at all, is to get away from the stresses of city life, right? So the dress code is bound to be pretty relaxed, but there will be one. In the winter, so far at least, it's mostly jeans and sweaters. (In point of fact, we've owned the place for precisely nine days as I am drafting this.... and I made the 5 1/2 hour each way drive four times in seven days.)

I've decided to keep some clothes up there as permanent party: a Gore-Tex shell and fleece, and a pair of warm boots that are all left-overs from my time in the Army. These are good for beating around the property and doing chores. Some house slippers (actually a pair of Birkenstock Bostons), a 'mad-bomber' hat in waxed cotton and rabbit, and a sizable portion of my rapidly-becoming-vintage L.L. Bean collection including a flannel robe, a down vest, a ragg wool sweater, some lined chinos, a river driver's shirt, and a pair of Maine Hunting Shoes and boot socks. Almost all of these all arrived in my duffle bag on the trip up to formally close on the house.

The traveling load varies with the weather. Last weekend, when we had owned the place for all of three days, we hit an ice storm on untreated roads in Wayne County, Pennsylvania. So we spent the entirety of Friday night on the side of the road waiting for the salt & sand truck to do its work, advancing slowly as each section of the road was sanded. The hilly, nine-mile trip to the Delaware River crossing took about nine hours--we should have arrived at the cottage at 1130pm, we did arrive at about 930am. Luckily, we were well prepared for the weather because we had extra blankets and quilts we needed for the house stuffed into the wagon. But still, sheesh.

The previous trip, another two-nighter (one of which was the day I closed on the place) included temps ranging from 45F to -6F thanks to the Polar Vortex. (You can look it up. Go ahead, I'll wait....) But I had also well prepared, packing inter alia outerwear for both cold and wet, two pair of boots, more next-to-the-skin pieces than should be necessary, and (unnecessarily) sunglasses.

So the packing for this trip -- the weather predictions include temps ranging from 15-35F and the rare snow flurry -- is pretty basic: plan for cold and mostly dry conditions.

A Baxter State parka, a pair of cotton rollnecks and a sweatshirt, a couple of  flannel shirts and an OCBD. 

A couple pairs of jeans, a Norwegian fisherman's sweater and an Irish fisherman's sweater--black sheep variety--(there must be a joke here somewhere) a cashmere roll neck and some tan cords in case we go out somewhere.

A lighter down jacket that will likely become permanent party and a pair of Aussie boots (mine are Rossi rather than Blundstone; Rossi are the preferred brand in Western Australia) for trips to the barn and the hardware store. And, of course, lots of next-to-the-skin clothes.

Uniform of the Day: Skull Session.

So today I'm off to the university to sit with my boss and strategize over how to proceed on a somewhat delicate task. Money and alumni are involved and I'll leave it at that.

It's pretty miserable weather outside: the T has just crested freezing for the first time in a week and, of course, it's raining. We started the morning with freezing rain, so just-plain-rain is an improvement except that the rain is melting the remaining snow and ice, so we've got streets full of slush.

No formalities involved today, so I went with warm and dry.

LL Bean Maine Hunting Shoes (I like the feel of these better than the "Bean Boots."), maroon J.Crew cords, white Brooks Bros. OCBD, O'Connell's Fair Isle sweater, the 5513, and the Barbour Beaufort.

Roasted Pork Loin with Wine and Herbs

Brutal cold on the East Coast this day. My instinct was to make a cassoulet, but I don't have the time nor the half-dozen friends present to make it worthwhile. Alas. I dove back into Elizabeth David's classic French Provincial Cooking and adapted one of her recipes for a roast pork loin.

Ms. David calls her dish Carré de Porc Provençal, which my feeble brain translates as a square of pork prepared in the style used in Provençal, but which can reliably be translated as a pork loin with wine and herbs.

To begin with, use a boneless pork loin. Salt and pepper the meat, slice up a few cloves of garlic and rub the loin with them. Put the loin and the garlic cloves into a ziploc bag and add a few sprigs of fresh thyme (from the porch, even in this weather) then add a glass of white wine (I used a French chardonnay), and stick it in the fridge for a couple of hours.

Ready to go into the bag and in the fridge. 

Preheat your oven to 350F. Put the loin and the marinade into a baking dish and cover with foil. Put the dish into the oven for about an hour to an hour and 15 minutes. Check it pretty regularly and if the marinade dries out, add some water or more white wine. You're trying to bring the temperature up to about 120F.

Going in.

Meanwhile, chop about half a cup of fresh parsley and mix that with an equal amount of breadcrumbs. When the loin reaches 120F, pull it out and rub it all over with the parsley and breadcrumbs mix. Lower the heat in the oven to about 300F and put the loin back in, uncovered, for probably 15-20 minutes.

Just added the breadcrumbs. The loin at this point, because it has been covered, looks unappetizing.

Baste the loin with its own juices (yes, over the breadcrumbs) every few minutes, this helps the crust form. You might have to add some wine or water because the bread crumbs that slide off the top will soak up lots of juice. Monitor the temperature pretty closely. When you get to 140F, pull it out and let stand covered for about 10 minutes.

Now it has great color and even better flavor. 

At some point during the baking, you might have started some Potatoes Lyonnaise and a salad.

Spanish Chicken

New Year's Day. A long walk with the dogs in Rock Creek Park, a visit with my niece, her husband, daughter, and their paternal grandmother, and a quiet dinner at home. Nice.

Tonight's dinner is Spanish Chicken, a dish I've adapted from practice and several recipes in the cupboard, the most influential of which is by Emalee Chapman.

So here's what you need:

--A whole chicken
--A ham slice
--A red capsicum pepper
--A medium onion
--Two tomatoes
--Dry Sherry
--Chicken Stock
--Red pepper flakes
--Garlic
--Salt and pepper
--Some asparagus
--Olive oil

I suggest you serve this with saffron rice and a salad. So gather what you'll need for that, too.

--Rice
--Saffron
--Chicken stock

and:

--Salad stuff.

So, cut the chicken into pieces (cut out the back and save for stock; then two breasts, leg/thigh combos, wings...). Put some oil in a large pan with high sides over medium heat; once it's hot add some peeled garlic cloves for a few minutes then pull them out and discard.

Add the chicken skin side down and let it brown, turn and do the same--about 8-10 minutes total. Pull out the chicken and set aside. While this is happening slice the ham into small pieces -- about the size or half the size of your pinky finger seems fine to me. Then dice the onion and cut the capsicum into pieces a little smaller than the ham. Dice the tomatoes.

Add the ham to the pan and stir once in a while for about five minutes. Add the onion, the capsicum and 1/8th teaspoon of red pepper flakes. Stir once or twice.

Once the onions have started to become translucent, add 1/2 cup of stock bring to a boil to deglaze the pan. Add the tomatoes. Let this cook together for about five minutes. Add another 1/2 cup of the stock and let this cook for five minutes.

Just added the second round of stock and ready to stir it up.

Put the chicken pieces back in the pan and add 1/2 cup of dry sherry.

All together now. Notice that the chicken isn't even close to being cooked. It will finish cooking in the pan and absorb the flavors of the sauce, the ham, and the vegetables. 

Let this cook together for about 30 minutes. About five minutes before it's done, through a handful of asparagus tops into pan.

Meanwhile, make the rice. Cook the rice as you usually would, except replace 1/2 of the water with chicken stock and add a big pinch of saffron threads.

Put the salad together.

Once it's all ready, lay out plates of rice.

A cup of chicken stock and a generous pinch of saffron add both color and flavor to the rice. 

Then, serve the chicken, vegetables, and sauce atop the rice. Even without the yellow band of color on our plates, this is very colorful dish--the red of the capsicum and tomato, the pink of the ham, the brown of the chicken and the green of the asparagus, all on the rich ocre of the saffron rice. 

This goes really well with a white Rioja but a crisp Chardonnay or even a lighter red like a Gamay will work, too.