If you ever cooked a large hunk of meat, say, pot roast, picnic pork, leg of lamb, the abominable Thanksgiving turkey, or chicken, you probably have experienced the big feast aftermath syndrome.  Doesn’t ring the bell?  Well… you cook that beautiful cut of meat, you feed everyone until their are full to the brim, and then… and then […]

Chakhokhbili. I can’t blame you if your first urge was to say Gesundheit when you read this.  Yes, sounds a lot like a sneeze, and for some people it is very hard to pronounce.  Khokhobi in Georgian means pheasant.  Traditionally this dish was made with pheasant, but chicken took its rightful place right next to pheasant because […]

There are dishes that appear to be very complicated, while they are not.  As it was the case with my last night’s dinner, whose labor-to-yum ratio is extremely favorable.  The whole meal start-to-finish took about 20 minutes to put together.  It’s robust, bright in both color and flavor and irresistibly good looking.  The secret is […]

First let’s get the formal intros out of the way — Chicken Tapaka is a simple dish from Republic of Georgia, a nice hospitable country in the heart of Caucasus Mountains.  It’s called tapaka after a skillet tapa, in which it’s prepared. Tapa is a close relative of our cast iron skillet with an addition of a very […]

I remember when those long titles were popular They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? or How to Win Friends and Influence People or How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying… You get the point, don’t you? Today is my turn for a short post with one of those long titles.

I like liver, and there is nothing you can do about it.  When I cut up a whole chicken, I always save the chicken belly fat and liver for later. Then I buy another small box of livers and make this quick pâté. It’s divine on a warm croissant, crusty toast, water cracker, or anything […]

Every time I make a batch of curative chicken stock, I end up with a pile of practically inedible chicken meat.  The main objective of stock making is the beautiful broth, so everything that goes into the pot becomes merely a source of the minerals and flavor.  Sadly, at the end of the process all […]