Wednesday, August 25, 2010

A Chicken In Every Pot - Part I

What do you really know about the food you eat?  Not much.  Sometimes I feel it's better that I don't know what happened to the cow or chicken or tomato before it graced my plate.  Some really terrible stuff is going on with the food we eat and ignorance really isn't bliss in this case.  I recommend you spend some time reading Michael Pollan.  Skinny Bitch was a gateway for me; it's so fun and informative that I return to it often.  Bottom line: I know that I can't ignore the food I feed my family.

Tonight will be different.  Tonight when I roast a chicken and lay it down in front of the people I love the most, I will know where that sweet bird came from.  The chicken lived a few miles from us.  It ran in a field (do chickens run?  I'm sure this one did.  And smiled too.), moved freely, and had a healthy life.  Until Tuesday. But I digress.

By now you know that I am loving this process of exploring the foods produced at our local TerraVita Farms.  So when they offered to deliver a fresh, never frozen, free-range chicken from their farm, I couldn't resist.  My only experience with chicken involved grocery stores, factory, pumped up breasts (not in a good way), and uncertain living conditions.  I had a lot of questions, and you might too.  For example:

Q. Will it be whole or in parts?  (Please say parts, please say parts, please say parts....)
A. It is whole.  That's ok; I've been working being brave anyway.

Q. Will there be bits and pieces? (I'm thinking about gizzards and other unmentionables.)
A. No.  *Sigh of relief*

A question I should have asked, but didn't: How long will the neck be?
Hmmm...wasn't ready to see that one.  At least the turkey people have the decency to detach it and shove it in the cavity.  Luckily, my husband knows me and loves me.  After I went to bed, he removed the chicken from the brine, "took care" of the neck, and returned the chicken to the refrigerator.  That's why I married that man.

Ok, so the chicken is resting comfortably in my refrigerator and I am getting ready to make a great dinner for my family...one that can make us all feel good.

Stay tuned for more about our feathered friend...

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