Day 25 and recipe 24

I am discovering that I really love cooking and I have missed it (I don't count my heating up Bertolli frozen, bag dinners as cooking). Taking on the challenge of cooking all the recipes in Bill Irwin's vegan cookbook has brought cooking up to a new priority level and I am enjoying it rather than dreading it. I think the movie Julie and Julia has renewed an interest in the culinary arts for many women.



Tonight, we watched another fine dining movie, "No Reservations". In the beginning, they were talking about the proper way to cook quail. I wish I had known that 27 years ago when we were "living off the land". I vividly remember being down to our last 2 nickles and wondering what I was going to serve for dinner, when a pheasant crashed into our window and fell, dead, on our deck. Well, there is my answer, I thought, but now, what do I do with it?



Sam agreed to remove the head and the feet but the rest was up to me. As luck would have it, my friend Emily drove in, right on time. She had goats and chickens and knew how to clean a bird or two. She whipped out her jackknife and had that thing plucked and gutted in no time. I was beginning to lose my appetite, but forged on. Now, this bird without the innards and the feathers was getting smaller and smaller. When I finally pulled it out of the oven, it was about the size of a man's fist. I can still see the little drumstick (the size of my thumb) as I placed it on my two year old's highchair tray! You know, vegan cooking is not so bad after all!



Sam loved the soup I cooked tonight, Ginger Carrot Soup (pg 37). It made a great meal with salad and Bill's drop biscuits on the side. So have some fun in the kitchen. Cook it up!