Cooking Creatively! Part One - multiple meals with a roasted chicken

We're in our third year of a recession, and being in the arts hasn't made that any easier.  We have been having a great time, however, making really delicious food within a shrinking grocery budget!  As they say, "necessity is the mother of invention."  And I'd like to add that creativity is like a muscle; the more you use it, the stronger it becomes!  Our creativity has expanded into cooking because we enjoy good food a lot, but couldn't afford some of our favorite things anymore.  So we found ways to make some of those things ourselves!  And the more we expanded our creativity with cooking, the more creative and delicious our food became!  I'd like to share some of my tips with you.

One of our mainstays is finding affordable protein sources.  One of the best deals around are when whole chickens go on sale for 77 cents a pound.  And we're in luck!  It had been at least 6 weeks since such a sale nearby, and a few weeks ago, at our neighborhood's QFC, it was on!  We usually get two of them: one to use soon and one for the freezer.  A whole chicken can become a lot of meals if used to its fullest potential!

Here's a list of potential meals with just one chicken:
1. Roasted chicken, baked potatoes, salad
2. Roasted chicken breast sandwiches for lunch
3. Chicken flautas
4. 5-spice soup with chicken, shitakes, and napa cabbage (which ends up being about 6 meals)
5. Manya's Chicken Rice Soup (which also ends up being about 6 meals)

It all begins with a very fun meal of roasted chicken, baked potatoes, and a salad.  A while ago, I discovered a delicious trick for getting great flavor into the chicken meat when roasting it.

1. Choose your spice combination.  I usually start by thinking of a country whose flavors I want to invoke.  For example, if Mexican, I'll use cumin, coriander, garlic and chili powder.  If French, it becomes herbes de Provence mixed with honey and dijon.  If Chinese, maybe five spice powder.  This time, I used marjoram, thyme, oregano, basil, dijon mustard, and honey.

2. Mix the spices together using olive oil.

3. After washing the chicken and removing the innards (and setting them aside for later use in a broth), dry the chicken with paper towels.

4. Run your finger between the skin and the meat on the breast side, and then again on the thighs and legs.

5. Into this opening, rub your spice mix.

6. Rub the remaining amount on top of the chicken.

Basting a chicken

Put the chicken breast side down in a roasting pan.  Set the oven to 450 degrees (it should be preheated).  Roast the chicken for 15 minutes.  Then turn the oven down to 375 degrees.  Roast another 20 minutes.  At this point, take it out of the oven and baste it.  Do this by taking a brush, pick up the juices in the bottom of the pan, and rub the juice-filled brush over the chicken's skin.

Put it back in the oven for another 20 minutes.  Baste it again, and now turn it over so it is breast side UP.  Roast it for another 20 minutes, keeping an eye on it near the end to make sure it doesn't get overdone or underdone.

After the initial blast of 450 degree heat, put your bakers in the oven along with the chicken so they can roast for an hour.  They should then be done right at the same time.

Let the chicken rest for 10 minutes or so.  Some say to let it rest longer, but we can never wait any longer because it smells so darn good.  Then carve off your favorite parts, put your favorite things on your spud, and enjoy it all while it's good and hot. I love butter, cheddar, chives from our garden, and sour cream on mine.

While the chicken and potatoes were in the oven, you should've had time to put together a nice salad with your favorite things.  In a later post, I'll talk about salad dressings you can make from scratch for pennies, compared to store-bought versions.  And they're very fast too.  I can do it in 2 minutes!  And no chemicals to worry about.

Coming later: what to do with your leftover chicken meat, as well as the bones and those innards you removed when washing the chicken!  Yes indeed, SAVE THE BONES!  Keep them in the freezer to be put to good use later.

Be sure to let me know if you try this, and how you enjoyed the results!

Manya Vee
manyaveeselects.com

Manya's Fear of Hats

Manya in her aunt's Schiaparelli hat

I fell in love with hats at a young age. I had a great aunt who hailed from England, and she was one of those stylish women who never left the house in anything other than a dress with hose, matching shoes and handbag, and a hat. She had an awesome collection of hats from the 40s and 50s, and I managed to acquire many of them upon her death. These are truly wonderful hats, with little veils, and feathers with rhinestones on them, and stuff like that. Some were made of velvet. And there's even a quite amazing one from very famous hatmaker Elsa Schiaparelli, albeit one not as adventurous as ones that made her famous.

Manya's purple summer hat

Nevertheless, it took me many years to become comfortable wearing fun, contemporary hats. I think I associated them with an earlier age, and it felt sort of like putting on a costume to wear something other than a baseball cap (in summer to keep the sun from hurting my eyes) or a fleece hat (in winter to keep my head warm). But I never quite lost my admiration of a nice hat. About 8 years ago, I decided that a very pretty summer straw hat needed to replace my baseball cap. This was made by a local artist whose name I've now forgotten.

Pair of hats by Pandemonium

I confess that I really had to work up some courage to actually wear it as an all-day affair, as part of my outfit. I felt like I had a really big sign over my head saying “NOTICE ME!” Now, you all know that I enjoy wearing beautiful, yet comfortable clothing, so you may find it hard to believe that this was such a stretch for me. But it really was! When I finally did it, that's when the magic began. I got so many honest, heart-felt compliments all day long, that I began to get an insight into contemporary American culture. And the compliments came from both women and men equally, too. There was something in their voices that I can only describe as longing. Was it longing for a simpler age when everyone, both men and women, didn't leave the house without a hat? Or maybe it was a longing for just a touch of elegance to bring a ray of sunshine into their day. It could be a little of both.

Parkhurst's "Column Peak" hat
in moccachino

The thing is, I really enjoyed bringing some joy into the lives of perfect strangers. We all walk about in isolation so much of the time. No one notices anyone else, and if they do, it seems so much more likely that it's for a bad reason than a good one. What a magical thing it is, then, to have smiling strangers look you dead in the eye and tell you how lovely your hat is! You could be the only reason that person smiled the entire day long. Think about that!

Now I try to make hats a much bigger part of my everyday wardrobe. True, I don't wear a hat every single day. But I try to wear one at least once a week. This goal was a main motivator for me to find hat artists who made hats that were simple, yet interesting, and of a type you could really wear all day long. Also, not with a ridiculous price tag. It was a bit of a risk because I wasn't sure if they would really sell or not. After all, I don't see that many people walking around with fun hats on in Edmonds. Lots of bare heads out there.

Parkhurst's "Roz Topper" in Sandstone

To my joy and amazement, I found that the hats I chose were, indeed, exactly what many of you were looking for! My first foray into hats was the wonderful cotton knits from Parkhurst, a Toronto company. These all sell for between $25 and $40, and are quite simple, but with just a splash of style. Perfect for wearing all day long! And they can smash flat in the bottom of your suitcase to become perfect travel partners.

After that, I encountered Seattle designer Leigh Young and her Pandemonium Hats. These are a step up in both quality of materials, as well as style. But they are not so over-the-top as to feel like a costume. A person wearing these is destined to get even more compliments all day long.

"Katherine" hat by Pandemonium

Leigh will be here for a trunk show on Thursday, May 19, from 5 – 8 pm during our monthly Third Thursday Art Walk. It's an excellent opportunity to choose from a very wide selection of hats, and even order a special one. Her hats are all under $75, so it won't break your budget either. But if you can't make it that evening, you'll find a lovely selection at the gallery afterwards – just not nearly as many as will be available during Art Walk.

I hope you'll join us that evening – even if just to try on some hats and get a feel for what it might be like to wear one all day! Just think how amazing it will be to share a moment of beauty with complete strangers. I have to tell you, it is a very humbling and happy experience. I hope you'll try it!

Three hats by Leigh Young's Pandemonium Millinery

The Lore and Lure of Emeralds

Example of a raw emerald

The emerald is the traditional birthstone for May.    There are a lot of fun things to know about emeralds!  Since May heralds spring and lots of green stuff emerging, it is fitting that the stone commemorating births in this month is also green.


Another connection between emeralds, spring and new growth comes from the way emeralds form in the earth.  Within its depths are often tiny fractures or inclusions, which the french called “jardin”, which translates to “garden.”  The Egyptians engraved emeralds with foliage imagery to represent eternal youth, and buried them with their dead. 

Leaf carved into an emerald

Cleopatra is often associated with the emerald because it was her favorite stones.  Emeralds were found in Egypt up to 2000 years before Cleopatra's time.  She wore lavish emerald jewelry, and is said to bestow a gift of an emerald carved with her likeness to visiting dignitaries.

Cleopatra might have worn something spectacular like this.

On the technical side of things, emeralds belong to the beryl family of minerals, which have a particular chemical makeup that differs from other stones.  All beryl stones are relatively hard, which makes them more precious.  Pure beryl is clear.  The presence of various chemicals create colors.  For emerald, it is usually trace amounts of chromium that cause the beautiful green color.  Another popular beryl stone is aquamarine.  Others are less well-known.

A beautiful aquamarine

If you've got someone with a May birthday in your life, then please stop by Manya Vee Selects to check out our small but unusual selection of emerald jewelry.  We also have jewelry in the other categories for May including agate and sapphire, as well as options for each day of the week.

Birthstones for May – you mean there's more than one?

Yep, there's more than one. In fact, there are so many choices, you can really have some fun choosing which method to follow! But first, when did birthstones even get started, and why did they become popular?

Early references to the idea of 12 stones are from the Bible in Exodus 28:17-20, which talks about the 12 stones in Aaron's breastplate, the 12 months of the year and the 12 zodiac signs. And there's a more precise list in Revelation 21:19-20. But no one really thought about them much at that point.

According to George Frederick Kunz, the most often cited expert on gemstones, birthstones gained popularity in Poland in the 15^th century. The stones associated with each month were assigned at that time, giving us the “traditional” list of birthstones. May's “traditional” birthstone is the emerald.

According to Wikipedia, “a birthstone is a gift of a precious material that symbolizes the month of the birth in the Gregorian calendar.” There's even a poem to accompanies each birthstone! Here's the poem for May:

Who first beholds the light of day
In spring's sweet, flower month of May
And wears an emerald all her life
Shall be a loved and a loving wife.

However, a “modern” birthstone list was published by the American Jeweler's Association in 1912 in an effort to standardize things. Previously, it was a bit scattered and different jewelers had different lists, leading to a lot of confusion. For May, the modern birthstone is also an emerald.

But what if you're into the zodiac? Then you get other choices! If a person is a Taurus, the stone is a sapphire. But if you're a Gemini, then it's an agate.  The complete list is available on Wikipedia.

Or perhaps you want to celebrate the day of the week in which you were born (if you even know that!). Here's that list, also found in Wikipedia:

Monday: Pearl

Tuesday: Garnet

Wednesday: Emerald

Thursday: Topaz

Friday: Diamond

Saturday: Blue Sapphire

Sunday: Ruby

So have some fun with your options, and be sure that Manya Vee Selects has a great supply of gemstone jewelry that is much more fun and interesting than the traditional jewelry stores can offer. Check out some of our online options to whet your appetite! And stay tuned for a more in-depth look at emeralds in the near future.