#57 - Kitchen Therapy

Today I decided I needed some simple kitchen therapy. There is simple pleasure in taking ingredients and turning them into an amazing meal. The chopping of vegetables and herbs, putting them together and creating something healthy and tasty has such a rewarding outcome.  So much better than shopping therapy, for me anyway.  Not to say that shopping therapy doesn't have its positives.

On today's menu was a day of mass cooking.  My first meal though was just breakfast.  Fried a couple slices of bacon and set them aside.  After removing most of the bacon grease, I put into the same pan 3 sliced button mushrooms, some sun-dried tomatoes in oil, half a clove of garlic sliced paper thin, and 2 handfuls of baby spinach.  Once cooked down, I moved it to the top of the pan and added an egg, frying it then chopping it up and mixing it all together.  A sun-dried tomato tortilla with some thin slices of tomato basil cheese that will melt under the warm goodness.  Talk about a fantabulous way to start a day.  That and 3 cups of coffee.

Later in the day was the big cooking experience.  I setup the Pampered Chef Quick Cooker pressure cooker and prepared to see how it handled a whole 5 pound chicken.  Along side of the chicken I put a lemon sliced thin, added thyme and rosemary.  Closed the lid and made sure all the arrows were going all the right way.  Set it to 30 minutes on the Chicken/Poultry setting and hit start.  Less than an hour later I was pulling out the tongs to retrieve the chicken, so good it was falling off the bone.  Once the chicken was out, I strained the remains into a large bowl to save all the broth.  So good and so easy. 

Cleanup was a breeze, then I was ready for round 2.  Next in line for the Quick Cooker was a turkey breast, bone-in.  Cleaned and prepped, in it went with a cup of the broth from the chicken cooked earlier.  With salt and pepper and a little spray butter on top, I closed the lid, set to Chicken/Poultry setting, clock at 45 minutes and hit start.  The smell in my house was like Thanksgiving.  Clock ticking, watching the time pass and wishing it would hurry because the smell is making me want to eat.  Once it was done and the steam released, I opened the cooker and used my turkey picker utensils (bought them last year but never even opened them) to retrieve the yumminess.  Looked and smelled amazing.  Photos taken because it was just too pretty not to shoot, then sliced in.  WOW.  So moist, just like my gramma's holiday bird. 

Today was an amazing outlet, a therapeutic release of love into food.  Looking forward to another day of new recipes tomorrow and a new kitchen gadget to start saving them a little more uniform.  Tomorrow I purchase a vacuum sealer.