May 17, 2011

This morning I slept in. Well, maybe I was just catching up because I spent a couple of hours up in the middle of the night. Nonetheless, I didn’t peal myself out of bed until 6:40 am. Yikes, at least I was up before 7! Today is a good walking day. We did the normal routine…coconut, dog running, and dog walking. When we went to Whole Foods yesterday, I was at the meat counter and ordered 12 slices of bacon. When I got home and put the food away, there were not 12 slices of bacon but instead, only 4. I guess we should just have the bacon and be done with it. In addition to the bacon, we had steamed spinach with a poached egg. Oh we added a couple of slices of cheese to the mix.

Today, Randy and I are working with a business colleague on a new art idea. So the rest of the morning was spent on that. Our colleague said that he would like to bless us (aka bless me) by not allowing me to cook and taking us out to the restaurant of our choice. He had mentioned the Kula Lodge, but we suggested Haliimaile General Store. Well, it was decided that this is where we will Lunch. When we arrived, we realized that we had not called ahead for reservations. What’s up with that? You never used to have to get reservations for lunch. It turns out that there was a tour company that arrived before us and had taken up half the restaurant. It was a twenty minute wait and the weather was pleasant so we waited. After all, it would take 20 minutes to get anywhere else, so we may as well stay.I don’t know if it was a full 20 minutes or not, the company we were keeping made it seem like a mere moment, but we were soon seated. The food was over the top as usual, and we were not a bit disappointed.

Back up to the house and a little afternoon work. The five o’clock work whistle whined (aka the jacuzzi starting its filtering cycle) so I knew it was time to quit “work” and start  “working” on dinner, that is. We had purchased a pasture raised whole chicken yesterday and I wanted to rotisserie it on the barbee. This morning I made a brine that the chicken has been swimming in all day. The brine was made up of 1/4 C sea salt, 1/4 C of Raw Sugar, a couple of bay leaves, some pepper corns, fennel seeds, 3 cloves, some garlic and the juice of 2 tangerines along with enough water to fill my stock pot about 1/2 full. I boil this together for about 30 minutes and then let it cool. I usually end up putting ice in it to get it to cool faster. This is a great time to clean out the bottom of the automatic ice maker – you know that part that starts getting stuck on the bottom. After it cools to room temperature, or at least not hot to the touch (you should be able to put your hand in the solution without it burning you), it’s time to dunk the bird. If there is not enough liquid to cover the bird go ahead and add more water. The brining is an important part of this process as it helps the final product to be moist and delicious. All those subtle flavors will come out in the meat.

Randy started up the grill while I finished prepping the bird. This basically entailed getting it all skewered up, securing the wings and legs with twine so they won’t flap all over the place and then slathering some ghee all over the outside. This makes for a beautiful golden crispy skin. After the grill heated up we threw is a few wood chips, turned the heat all the way down and started that bad boy turning. After about an hour, when the chicken juices are running clear, it is time to take it off the heat and let her rest. While the resting period was going on it was time to fix the asparagus. A quick steam and then chill down is all it needs. We cut up the chicken and sat down to a feast. Melissa’s friend, Sam, that works on the same YWAM base with her in Australia, joined us for dinner. If you click on the YWAM link you can see Sam – he’s the 3rd guy from the right in the green Tshirt.