Sunday Dinner

A meditation on - and an appreciation of - food, glorious food!

We aren't always able, during the work week, to cook and eat the way we wish we could. There isn't always time, and I have to admit that when I get home from a day at work, my first thought is not to whip up something fantastic in the kitchen.

On the weekends, though, there is a little bit more time to live our lives the way we wish we could. We try to do a nice mix of things we know we have to do and things we actually want to do. The long list of things we like to do includes cooking and baking and playing with the cat, not necessarily in that order!

First, let me say this about eating meat: we are not the meat eaters we once were. We are inclined, these days, to eat meat somewhat more sparingly, to use it more for flavoring in dishes, to spend more time and effort on the side dishes.

But I had been so hungry for chicken: and to be specific, for a beautiful chicken dinner with all the trimmings. The last time we had a nice baked chicken meal may actually have been Christmas. My mom, age 83 and in good health, makes one of the best chicken dinners I know of. And a photo of one of my Mom's famous chicken dinners was in fact one of my earliest postings on Blip. There is perhaps no other meal that signifies home and family and happiness and love to me more than this one.

What can I say? I love to photograph food, glorious food! I could quite happily post food pictures on Blip every single day. I love to eat. I love to look at beautiful things. And among the beauties of this Earth, there are few that can compare with a plate of food that is both delicious to eat and lovely to look at.

I usually do the weekly grocery shopping, but last week, my husband was the one who went to the store. Before he went, we talked through a short list of necessities: among them, shredded mozzarella so that I could make the manicotti that we ended up having on Saturday as a late lunch; and I suggested a chicken. To my delight, he did indeed bring home a small chicken from the store.

We went hiking on Sunday morning. Or rather, I walked, he jogged. The gamelands are trying to decide if it is winter or spring. The vernal pools have been melting, and freezing, and melting, and freezing. March is that time when it's spring one day and winter again the next.

Exercise can help build up a powerful appetite. We arrived home hungry, and we put the chicken in the oven shortly after noon. We set upon making the sides as well: mashed potatoes made with milk and butter and shredded cheddar cheese and ranch dressing and eventually topped with chicken gravy, broccoli with butter and parmesan cheese, buttered Italian bread.

All afternoon, the smell of the roasting chicken nearly drove me crazy. And then finally, around mid-afternoon, the meal was done cooking and we fell upon it like ravening wolves. When my husband pulled the golden chicken out of the oven and I saw how beautiful it was, I just had to take this picture. Voilà! The pièce de résistance! A chicken!

We ate as much as we wanted: dark meat for me, white meat for my husband, a few nibbles for the cat. And then I deboned the chicken, carefully removed all the meat, and stored it - along with the other leftovers - in containers for later use, washed all the dishes, and tidied up the kitchen.

As we cruised into Sunday evening and the ending of our weekend, it was a pleasure to open up the fridge to get something else, and see a half-dozen neat, stacked, matching containers, each full of good stuff: leftover chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy. (The broccoli was totally gone. What can I say? We love our veggies.)

And to the week ahead, I look forward with happiness. I foresee several more wonderful dinners that involve this chicken. First, we will have at least another chicken dinner or two. And then around mid-week, it will be time for chicken soup, or maybe chicken salads, or both! And of course there will be more chicken for the cat, who adores such things. Not a single smidge of it shall go to waste!

The song to accompany this photo is a classic MTV video from 1987. It is the only video I know that features dancing naked chickens. If you know of others, please feel free to suggest them! Peter Gabriel, Sledgehammer. (Chicken dancing begins around 3:23.)