In Which Monday Menu Mayhem Cheats! CHEATS, I Tell You!

First of all, I write this post to the most epic Buffy ep "Once More, With Feeling," possibly one of the best episodes of television ever.  It's at least in the top 20.  "Every single day/ The same arrangement/ I go out and fight the fight..."

Second of all, I have to confess that I was not at Scout Camp this weekend, and therefore was nowhere near the Nigella cookbook that is requisite for this column.

HOWEVER.  Due to the birthday of one Wendy Pan (Happy Birthday, Momma!), I did some serious cooking tonight, but from a different cookbook.  So I'm cheating, but not really.

Ladies and gentleman, I give you Coq au Vin via the Barefoot Contessa:

(insert your own coq joke here... don't be afraid, we've all been doing it for about two weeks now...)

I'm supposed to offer the following analogy at this point in time: Nigella : Kate Jones :: Barefoot Contessa : Boy Scout.  I'm really sorry if that's wrong.  I was a French major, and I haven't thought about math on purpose in at least seven years.  The point is that Boy Scout seems to be working through the Contessa tome (Back to Basics) the way I'm working through Nigella, and boy does he rock my world.

But let's not get in to that now.  I just ate, after all.

However, this is the one recipe that I have made from the book, and I'm a fan in a qualified sense.  There's absolutely nothing wrong with starting with bacon (my favorite starter ingredient!) and then adding a bottle of wine to braise a whole chicken you've carved up yourself (Aside from being in constant danger of dismembering myself, I am a hugely huge fan of this step.  Sorry vegetarian readers) (Oh!  And have I mentioned you get to try and light the kitchen on fire as a step in the recipe?  Awesomesauce, crispy-fried on a stick).

It doesn't look like it, but this is a labor intensive recipe, and I don't necessarily recommend it for formal dinners.  However for my two purposes (casual friend dinner and casual family celebration), it worked like a charm.  And both times the chicken came out fork-tender and full of flavor.

As time goes on, I would love to play with this recipe and make it more "mine."  It's delicious, but I do feel that it could use some "making it my own."

Here's a vid to finish off the mayhem... For the record, I did cook barefoot this evening.  (That noise?  My esthetician weeping...)