Ramblings of a Wife

Our weekend consisted of finishing our holiday shopping (YEAH!) and work on the farm. Since I can't show (obviously) what we bought or seeing hubby rake leaves is not really exciting....here are a few things that occured over the weekend.

1) We saw AVATAR!!!! I was skeptical about it but it was really cool. I would love to see a movie on how they could possibly spend $300 million dollars on this movie. Don't get me wrong the images were neat. I also came across an underlying message of saving our Mother Earth. I wonder if that is intentional or not. I guess the media will let us know.

2)

Happy 10th month Birthday

Remington!!!

3) I did not do a post on our Christmas decorations but I have seen The Nester and her Christmas tour. I was surprised on how people display their Christmas cards. I wanted to show a picture of how we display ours.

It is a rustic goldern Christmas tree that I can slide cards into. I love being able to look at all of the cards at one time. I found it at a home decorating shop called Laurie's near our town.


4) Not to brag, but I consider myself knowledgable of wines. So why in the world would I listen to others and buy this.....YUCK!!!

To each his own, if this is your fav but trust me when I say there are better wines out there. What is a girl to do???? Cook with it!!! I made Coq au Vi courtesy of the Food Network's Sunny Anderson on Cooking for Real.

Ingredients
4 chicken legs, thighs and drumsticks kept attached, skin removed
1 bottle red wine
4 cloves garlic, smashed
2 sprigs thyme
1 bay leaf
1 bunch fresh parsley, half whole, half chopped
1/4 cup olive oil
1 Vidalia onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 tablespoons tomato paste
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 cups chicken stock
1/2 pound thick-cut bacon, cut in fours
1 pound button mushrooms, halved
8 ounces frozen pearl onions, thawed
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 pound pappardelle noodles, cooked al dente, warm
3 tablespoons butter

Directions
In a large bowl, add chicken with wine, garlic, thyme, bay leaf and the whole parsley stems. Cover and marinate for 24 hours in the refrigerator. Remove chicken from marinade and pat dry, reserving marinade. Season chicken with salt and pepper. In a large Dutch oven, sear chicken on all sides in 2 tablespoons oil over medium heat until golden brown.

Remove to a plate.

In the same pot add more oil, if needed, and saute the onions, carrot and celery until tender. Add cayenne pepper and tomato paste and cook until tomatoes turn a deep reddish brown color. Add flour and stir until incorporated then pour in reserved marinade. Stir and simmer until thickened about 10 minutes. Add chicken back to the pot and pour in enough stock to just come up the sides of the chicken but not cover it completely. Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer and cook covered for about 1 hour or until the chicken falls off the bone.

Gently remove legs from pot and strain liquid from the solids, discarding the solids. Return chicken and strained liquid back to the Dutch oven and bring to a simmer. Heat a large saute pan with remaining 2 tablespoons oil over medium-high heat and add bacon. Cook until crispy then add mushrooms and pearl onions. Continue to cook until tender and browned. Add mixture back to the pot with the chicken. Toss the noodles with butter. Place the noodles on a serving platter or individual plates and top with the chicken.

Garnish with chopped parsley and serve.

Thank you for reading my ramblings. Now I am off to clean my closet and get our home ready for guests this weekend. Tomorrow I get to visit with my Aggie Gals plus 3 1/2 babies. I can't wait!!