I had hoped to do a post on shirt collars or hats, but am having difficulty with the photos. Stay tuned, I’ll get my act in gear soon.

In the meantime, with the weekend fast approaching and everyone a bit spent with election aftermath, I thought I’d post a slow-cooker recipe. As Dean Martin would say “this is from that wonderful picture, ‘Sit Back and Read’.” Let the crock pot work away while you play.

This is an incredibly easy meal to make and seems far more extravagant and impressive than it actually is when served at a dinner party. That’s the beauty of braising, tougher cuts of meat melt and become fork tender, flavours intensify and the recipes require very little extra fat or oil and no real effort. All glory will be lauded on the chef! The recipe is just left of a tangine, really. I imagine you could add some cinnamon or all-spice and nudge it a little closer with no ill effect.

I usually braise the meat on high for 4 hours or, if I have the time, 6-8 on low.

The Easy and Elegant Life’s Chicken and Peach Dish.

1 small tin of tomato sauce
2-3 Roma tomatoes
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced or pressed
2 tablespoons of fresh oregano or 1 tablespoon of dried.
1/2 a large sweet onion, sliced thinly
1 small green pepper, sliced and seeded
1 large can of peaches, rinsed and crushed
2 small boxes of raisins
salt and pepper to taste
8 chicken thighs.

Salt and pepper the chicken. Heat a skillet over medium high to high flame and brown the chicken thighs, meat/skin side down (about 4 minutes) flip and repeat. Remove to slow cooker, skin/meat side up.

Pour out all but a tablespoon of the fat. Add the onions, peppers and garlic to the skillet and sauté for four minutes, or until the vegetables are soft.

Add the vegetables to the slow cooker. You are finished with the skillet.

Pour the tomato sauce into the cooker, crush the Roma tomatoes and add them as well. Crush the oregano (or chop it up) and add to the slow cooker with the raisins and peaches.

That’s about it. You could garnish with some fresh parsley if you want to go through the last minute effort of chopping it up. Enjoy the day. Serves 4. I had some sweet potato biscuits and a salad to accompany the dish. Sauvignon Blanc or a dry Riesling would drink well with the fruit sauce.

(image: seasonalchef.com)

Beans, it turns out, are awfully good for you. Packed full of protein with no fat, they are filling and muscle building power houses. Which is good news, because we’re going to be consuming a lot of them if this economic thing keeps on keepin’ on.

The other night, I fixed some “pole beans” as as side dish. At least that’s what the cashier at Kroger called them. I called them fava beans. Mrs. E. pronounced them delicious.

This recipe should work for any sort of bean at all.

The Easy and Elegant Life Bean Dish

A few handfuls of fava beans or any other bean shelled and rinsed. (Fava beans require you to shell them twice unless they are very young. Once to get them out of the pod, and again to get rid of the tough outer skin covering the more tender bean.)

Olive oil (3 tsp?)

1- 2 clove(s) of garlic, chopped.

salt and pepper to taste.

Chicken broth to almost cover the whole mess. (I like College Inn brand if you don’t make your own!)

1 onion, halved or chopped as you like.

Sprinkling of oregano, parsley or something else green.

1 thick slice of ham, bacon or salt pork.

(Crushed tomato optional.)

Route 1: Place beans, olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper, optional tomato and herbs in the pot. Layer the onion over them. Layer the slice of ham/bacon/pork over top of that. Pour over the chicken broth and simmer for thirty minutes or until the beans are fork tender.

OR

Route 2: Heat olive oil in the pot. Sauté the onion, garlic and pork (if using salt pork you could render the fat from it and omit the olive oil. But olive oil is very good for you!) Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer as before.

You could even serve this as a luncheon main course by adjusting the serving amount and accompanying it with crusty bread, a hunk of cheddar cheese and a light red wine.

We had a houseful this weekend. Dinner guests, family, kids, etc. . I cooked a lot and made a lot of drinks. As I silently cursed my ice machine for going up on me, I started to reflect on what, in the best of all possible worlds, would constitute my ideal bar trappings. I’m pretty close.

I have a good silver tray, a cutting board and a sharp knife. I have a few sterling shakers, a couple of pitchers, a mixing spoon, a good corkscrew, a silver jigger, copies of “American Bar” and “The Savoy Cocktail Book“, a Boston Shaker and a strainer.

I don’t have a muddler or a pair of sterling tongs. More importantly, I don’t have an insulated ice bucket.

I have a glass ice bucket — several in fact. But I don’t have an insulated ice bucket. I noticed this because, with the ice maker on the fritz, I was keeping a close eye on the cube consumption. I dislike having to run to the market in the middle of a party.

So, as much as I would love to own a cut crystal
Century Ice Bucket in Sterling Silver by Tiffany, like the one pictured above, these would really be far more useful to me:

Double Wall Insulated Ice Bucket in Red Leatherette by Metrokane (also available in black from those responsible for the Rabbit corkscrew.)

The K + T Bucket via Vivre

A Mirrored Double Wall Insulated Ice Bucket by Michael Anastassiades via Vivre

Now if I could only find a sterling silver, insulated bucket with a hinged lid… well ladies and gentlemen the bar would be set very high indeed.

Just a thought in case you need to find a wedding, Christmas or anniversary gift.