Roasted Chicken, Corn, and Asparagus

This here is a little quarter chicken combo deal with corn, and asparagus. It's one of the few dishes I took prep shots of before I broke my beloved camera! I'm not sure if calling this a quarter of a chicken is accurate. It's more like a third, but what-ev's it's good shit. I seasoned it with the usual suspects, lemon-pepper, salt, garlic, and a dash of Louisiana hot-sauce. Sliced up some onions, poured on a little white wine, and wrapped her up in some tin foil. Set in the oven for about forty minutes maybe a little less, then open her up and add in the asp. While that's  going on open up a can of corn and pour some of the water off then put it in a pan. The corn not the can dummy! In a bout twenty minutes you should have supper ready!

Chicken and Gravy

Still reeling from Thanksgiving, it’s been over a week since I posted, sorry about that to anyone who actually tunes in to this blog. We haven’t developed any followers yet, but thanks to all the spammers out there who give me something to delete when I check the message box. Since my good camera is broken I can’t take any decent pictures of what I’m currently cooking. I’ve decided I will try to sit down and type out some stuff for all the pictures I took before I started this blog. I know I’ve promised to deliver before, but this time I mean it! It’s raining here in San Fran, and I’ve gotten to 100% on Grand Theft Auto: TLAD& BoGT! If you know what I’m talking about give yourself a prize for being as big of nerd as me!

I’m gonna try to break these up into individual blogs and recall how I made what as best as I can, but if I drift off topic from time to time bare with me. And if you have a blogger account or even a Google, please follow Monkee Chow, heck you can even RSS to appear on your home page thingie, you know the one nobody ever uses because we all just briefly check our mail before heading straight t Facebook for a false since of community. Alrighty then, with that let’s talk about fried chicken and gravy!

This one is really simple (that’s why I’m starting with it). For the fried chicken I used a mix that was more akin to country fried steak. Of course flour, with a lot of pepper and salt, some cayenne, and touch of cornmeal. The gravy is the real star of this dish. Just start with some grease. By grease I don’t mean some synthetic jar of lard, or vegetable oil. To make really good gravy you will have to start by saving the grease every time you use your frying pan. I like to keep mine in a coffee can by the stove. After some time you will develop this gelled culture along with some still chunky liquid. For real gravy like grand-ma used to make you gotta take the gross gelled parts and slap’em in back in the pan. Just a bit now you want more gravy later right? Then you wanna add milk and a tiny bit of flour. If you have heavy cream handy use that instead of milk, but milk works fine. Add your own touch of spices, whatever you want the gravy to taste like. I chose bear and black pepper with a little salt and hot sauce. The French cut green beans fresh out of the can, and baked potato with tons of butter to fill out the plate. You should also have a big wooden spoon-even if you don’t have kids-and use that to stir your mixture. Keep the burner on medium to low setting or you’ll have burnt tasting gravy. Add some water or more milk depending on how thick you like your gravy and move on to eating this delicious masterpiece! 

Welcome to the Monkee House!

Welcome, 

I've been debating this idea for some time, trying to figure out if it was safe to publish my ideas and techniques safely without them being stolen or co-opted by some unimaginative celebrity chef! Finally I came to the conclusion that if I don't start sharing what I can do, then it won't matter anyway. So this is my food blog. I write several other blogs, but I earn a living as a cook. Right now I am currently employed at a small bakery in San Francisco. I won't say the name here, but if you really want to know I might tell you-and just YOU! Anyway, my other blogs have nothing to do with food so they won't be mentioned here, if you're curious you can click this link. 

I have been a professional cook for many years, I got my first kitchen job in the fast-food industry at age 14 as part of a summer program, I have stayed in the business every sense with a few detours here and there, yet I always come back to cooking. I tried to attend culinary school but I could not afford it, as I am ineligible for student loans do to the fact that I didn't want to sign up for the draft at 18. I am not regretful of that decision, but I do regret that I am unable to receive student loans even though I pay taxes, simply because I cannot fight for the government. But those are the breaks no crying over spilled milk, now the lack of formal education means I won't be working for any high-end five-star restaurants anytime soon, and but one day I will own one.

In this blog I will not be giving away any of my most prized recipes. My BBQ sauce is top secret and so is the "magic" rub, but everything else is pretty much up for grabs. Seeing as how I do this on a daily basis for a pay check I probably won't be posting everyday. I simply don't have the time or desire to whip up a full meal at home each day. At first I will load up the post with meals I have already prepared int he past and then I'll work up to what ever I am currently fixing in the kitchen. Sometimes it will be photos and descriptions, sometimes it will be full recipes, sometimes I might just make a video of me in action, it will just depend on my mood.

I drink pretty much constantly, and indulge in a little medicinal from time to time, my language will be coarse and if you are offended by any of that then you should probably stick to a safer more family friendly food blog. I will not be reviewing other peoples restaurants, food, or recipes, I don't care what you are doing so don't waste my time. I also feel pretty confident that my work is the best and all others are merely pretenders to the throne or children clambering for a bit. What will do is give you a glimpse of my genius and allow you to bask in the afterglow. Just kidding (Not really), but yeah I'm just gonna show-off, so sit back and dream of how cool it would be if you had a guy like me living in your house cooking up the bomb-ass flavor and smoking all your weed while playing X-Box 12 hour a day!

Yours Truly,

The  (Indispensable) L