What’s Cooking at the Friends House August 30, 2008
Posted by Ben Brown in Kitchen Confidential, Ritual Sacrifice.add a comment
Anyone hungry? At the Friends House we like food. I just whipped up some sautéed chicken breast with a pan gravy made with Leffe. It came out really well, so I thought I’d share.
Sautéed Chicken with Belgian Beer Gravy
Note: Gravy is delicious and pretty easy to make. The only problem is that it’s hard to give exact measurements for the ingredients. When I’ve made this dish before, it’s usually come out to about 2 tablespoons of fat, 2 tablespoons of flour and 1 cup of liquid, and these proportions should give you a pretty good idea of how much of each ingredient you’ll need. However the exact measurements are going to vary from cook to cook and from day to day: play it by ear with the sauce.
Ingredients:
- 1 medium white or yellow onion
- 1/2 tsp minced garlic
- Olive oil and butter (You can use just one or the other if you like, but in my opinion almost anything made in a pan is better if you use both.)
- Sage
- Rosemary
- Salt and pepper
- ~ 1 c flour
- 1-1.5 lb boneless chicken breast
- 1/2-1 c Belgian ale (A sweet, complex golden ale seems to work best: I used Leffe because it’s not too expensive and, more importantly, it’s what I had in my fridge.)
- 1/2-1 c chicken broth
How to do it:
- Put a skillet over low-medium heat and add equal parts oil and butter. Add the garlic and a healthy dash of rosemary and sage. Add salt and pepper to taste. Let the butter brown for a bit.
- Add the onions and adjust the heat so that they’ll soften and sweeten up but won’t burn. Let them cook until they’ve just started to soften.
- Cut the chicken into manageable pieces. If you’ve got a really thick piece, consider cutting it in half to reduce the cooking time. Take about half a cup of flour and mix in some salt, pepper and sage. Gently coat the chicken in this mixture and add it to the skillet.
- Sautée the chicken until it’s white but still juicy in the middle (about 5-10 minutes for medium-thickness pieces, longer for thicker cuts). You may want to turn the heat up to medium just as you put the chicken in, then turn it back down to low-medium once you’ve browned the outside of the meat. It may also be helpful to cover the skillet once the chicken is browned in order to conserve heat and juices.
- Once the chicken is done, remove it from the skillet, leaving behind the juices, fat and onions. Set it aside while you make the gravy.
- To make the pan gravy, judge how much fat is left in the pan. It will probably be around 2 tablespoons. Keeping the heat at low-medium, add an equal amount of flour and stir well. You want as close to a one-to-one ratio of fat to flour as you can get. Cook the roux for about five minutes.
- Combine 1/2 cup chicken stock and 1/2 cup beer. Assuming you have 4 tablespoons of roux (plus the onions) in the skillet, you will want to add around one cup of liquid to make your gravy. Begin by slowly pouring the stock-beer mixture over the roux, then stirring until the contents of the pan are well-combined. Pour the liquid in bit-by-bit until you have the consistency you want in your sauce. You may need to add more than one cup of liquid, which is fine so long as you continue to add the liquid slowly and mix well as you go.
- When you have the gravy at the consistency you like, let it simmer for a couple minutes, then remove it from the heat. Spoon some of it over the chicken and garnish with some crushed sage. Enjoy!
the games we play August 14, 2008
Posted by Sonia in Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, We don't have a cat.4 comments
When I was visiting Providence and the Friends House, I played three games of serious note. One, I learned from fellow farm worker Rachelle. Another, I have played for a very long time. The third, I’d never heard of before.
Game One: Surrealist Poetry
Scene: Cafe Nation, Brighton, MA
Players: Roxy, Amandeep, Nupur and myself
Rachelle went to a surrealist ceramics camp in North Carolina and told me about this game they played to “free their minds” and “knock down boundaries” and etc. Basically, you have a sheet of paper. You write a sentence, and then write its opposite (you define opposite). A simple example:
I like dogs.
I like cats.
Then you fold over the first sentence and hand it to the next person. They write the opposite of the sentence there.
[fold]
I like cats.
I hate cats.
Then they fold over the previous sentence and pass it on to the next person.
[fold]
I hate cats.
The next person writes that sentence’s opposite.
[fold]
I hate cats.
You like cats.
And then they fold over the previous sentence.
[fold]
You like cats.
And then they pass it on. Continue ad infinitum.
This is what we came up with.
Round 1: started by Sonia. The order is Sonia, Amandeep, Nupur, Roxy.
I lounge in a parched desert.
You live in a cold city.
I play in a hot field.
I lounge on cold concrete.
He jumps off the hot grass.
She floats in the ocean.
He sinks in the desert.
She floats in the ocean.
He dives into the earth.
She shoots into outer space!
He is imprisoned in the center of the earth.
She is freed by the whole of the universe.
He is chained to the worship of nothingness.
I have to say, I find this one pretty interesting, because it takes lounging and working and pushes them to their absolutes — freedom and slavery. It does the same with nature/city — makes it the universe and, well, nothingness. Anyway moving on
Round 2: started by Amandeep.
She loves the smell of grass.
He hates the odorlessness of the sky.
She adores the smell of the earth.
He abhors seeing the sky.
He sleeps out under the starry sky every night.
She is awake every day in the sunshine.
They both sleep when it pours.
I wake when the rain stops.
You sleep in a blanket of fog.
I awaken in a place of clarity.
You fall asleep in a state of confusion.
We drift awake to find our clarity.
They fall asleep, counting their illusions.
Round 3: started by Nupur.
His silence is unbearable.
Their noises are exactly what she needs.
Our silences satisfy his wants.
The din frightens the tyrant.
A silence comforts the downtrodden man.
The music irritates the driven woman.
A poem spurs the drowning man.
The mystic inspires the muse.
The plebe stifles the silencer.
A king appeases his supporters.
The queen scorns her enemies.
The whore adores her friends.
The librarian loathes his enemies.
The best part about the one above is that Amandeep thinks the opposite of “whore” is “librarian.”
Round 4: started by Roxanne.
In the quiet of my soul, I am invincible.
The voice of your body leaves you vulnerable.
My mind’s silence brings me strength.
My heart’s screaming rends the tenuous ground between my feet.
My mind’s calm draws bricks under my feet.
The turmoil of the heart smashes stones.
Star quality builds bridges.
The ordinary dust erodes our links.
The extraordinary smoke breathes life into me.
You accept death by fire.
I drown you.
You breathe life back into me.
I will suck your life away with a kiss.
Game Two: Word Association
Same as above
I like this game a lot. It makes you realize what your quickest assumptions and stereotypes are. Amazing how many times we tied together “Sex” and “red.” Basically, someone says a word, and then the next person says the first thing they think of, and then the next person says the first thing they think of based on the previous word. Progressions like “sex,” “red,” “Brian Boitano” are not uncommon. Amandeep was sitting next to me and didn’t know any of the pop culture references I was throwing out 
Game Three: Leah’s version of Peppercorn
Scene: The Friends House
Players: everyone who was over that night
The way this one works is there are lots of pieces of paper and lots of pencils. Everyone gets one of each. There are six rounds per game.
One: everyone writes down the name of a male person (it can be anyone you know or don’t know or even inanimate objects if you’re bored). eg: George Clooney. Then everyone folds over what they wrote and passes their papers to the left.
Two: everyone writes down the name of a female person (same as above). eg: Nupur Shridhar. fold over and pass left.
Three: a location. eg. Bulgaria. fold and pass left.
Four: an action, eg. painting easter eggs. fold and pass left.
Five: what person A says (basically, just any string of dialogue). “My, we’re having nice weather today.” fold and pass.
Six: what person B says. “Man, my pants are way too tight.” fold and pass.
At this point everyone is holding a very folded up piece of paper with an entire little scene on it. Unfold and read aloud to great delight. Roxy has all of them squirreled away somewhere, but some notable ones included:
Octavia and Ronald Reagan getting it on in a bathroom stall (sorry, Octavia)
Benjamin and Malka in Skip’s Pants saving Christmas
Leah’s Mom and Michael Wasserman doing…actually, I don’t even know what
Leah and Roxy and I deserve some credit for sitting in a row and managing to pull off some really hilarious scenes. This one is going to have to happen again somewhere.
Aren’t you glad I don’t bullet-point everything boringly like Ben Brown?
Massachusetts Round-Up August 12, 2008
Posted by Ben Brown in Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Some of this is true.1 comment so far
She may have almost apologized – though if you look at the transcript, it’s clear she didn’t – however I feel it necessary to list some fun facts about Massachusetts to counter Sonia’s vicious anti-Bostonianism. Here goes:
- Massachusetts is a Commonwealth, not a State. This is not a unique designation: Virginia, Pennsylvania and Kentucky are also Commonwealths.
- Massachusetts is the only state (or commonwealth) in the Union which doesn’t have an eponymous adjective for its residents. We’re called Bay Staters, though occasionally we go by the technically incorrect but entertaining name of Massachuttans. This is actually a legally defined term: take a look at the Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 2, Section 35.
- All schnauzers who hold dual U.S.-Canadian citizenship are legally required to reside in Massachusetts. Out-of-state residence permits may be issued if the dog has a “demonstrated, substantial need” to live in another state. Historically, enforcement of this statute has been lax but since 9/11, the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has been cracking down.
- A little bit about Boston’s Mayor Thomas Menino: A lifelong resident of Hyde Park, Mayor Menino is a graduate of St. Thomas Aquinas High School. In 1963, Mayor Menino earned an associate’s degree in business management and advertising and sales from Chamberlayne Junior College. In 1988, he earned a degree in community planning from the University of Massachusetts. Mayor Menino and his wife, the former Angela Faletra, have two children, Susan and Thomas, Jr., and six grandchildren.
- Some quaint Massachusetts laws: Tomatoes may not be used in the production of clam chowder. Quakers and witches are banned. At a wake, mourners may not eat more than three sandwiches.
- The post-apocalyptic erotic epic Sirloin: The Night that Ended after Day Began takes place in North Adams, Massachusetts. The film adaptation, starring Leonard Nimoy and Janel Maloney is one of only six films to have been banned in Nebraska by executive decree. The movie was filmed ouside of Amherst, much to the chagrin of the Williams College Film Club.
