Here
is an interesting twist on the old Shepherds Pie meal featuring a
BBQed chicken and Mac & Cheese! It is to honor one of the
greatest LGBT writers of the early 20th
century Alexander Wollcott. Read about him after the recipe.
Here
is also a lesson on how to carve a rotisserie chicken! Also the best
way to harvest the pulled meat for any and all recipes. Remember that
3 oz of rotisserie chicken breast meat contains 279 mg of sodium or
19% of daily recommendations. Thigh meat is 318 mg of sodium!
About
one-third of the fresh chicken found in supermarket meat cases has
been synthetically saturated with a mix of water, salt, and other
additives via needle injections and high-pressure vacuum tumbling.
READ
the fine print on the package!
Ingredients:
1
rotisserie chicken (directions on how to harvest the meat follows)
1
can Sloppy Joe mix
1
small can peas & carrots
1
onion chopped
Directions:
Here
is how to carve a rotisserie chicken and harvest the pulled meat for
recipes. It can be messy but not difficult. Forgive the internet
pictures but slave just can't take pictures on his phone with hands
covered with chicken! Wear gloves!
Place
a cutting board in a sheet pan to catch any drippings and Use a good
sharp knife.
A
well cooked chicken may be tender enough to just pull apart with your
fingers, wearing gloves of course! First remove the string.
Cut
or pry between the breast and the leg & thigh, pry it open and
the joint will pop, then cut on right through.
Hold
the leg by the “foot” and run the knife right down cutting the
drumstick free from the thigh. You will find a thin line of fat to
show you where to cut.
Peel
off the skin,
watch out for gristle and the tiny bone that runs down the side of
the leg. There is a short piece of gristle on each leg, pull or cut
that off.
REMEMBER
you
want NO
BONE or
Bone fragments, gristle or any thing your guest could bite down on!
Roll
your fingers around the thigh bone and again the meat will just pull
away.
Repeat
on other side
Pull
the wings away from the bird and cut through the joint, repeat for
other side.
Turn
the cavity toward you.
Peel
off the skin to show the breast meat. You will see the breast bone.
Pull out the “wish bones” over the cavity opening.
Sometimes
the meat is so tender you can run your fingers right down the side as
you pull the meat away. OR
Cut
right down one side of the breast bone, pulling the meat away as you
cut. Cut as close to the bone as possible, your knife will ride the
ribs down. Cut down to one side of the back bone and cut right
through.
On
the other side of the breastbone just cut down through to the other
side of the back bone.
Again
you can just pull the meat apart in about ½ to 1 inch pieces. OR you
can pull it apart with two forks!
ON
the back, where the thigh was connected, you will find a small piece,
about the size of the end of your thumb. It is called the “oyster”.
The best piece on the whole chicken. (cut this out and eat it
yourself! This is your reward for dissecting the bird)!
Once
again check through the pile of chicken pieces for any bone or
gristle.
Chop
the onion and any pieces of chicken that are too large.
Bag
and freeze any meat you don't need for later use.
Clean
up the mess and wash your hands!
Pre-heat
the oven to 350
degrees
and spray an 8 x 8 baking dish and set aside.
Start
the water for pasta and fix the box of Mac & Cheese according to
package directions.
Once
that is done. Heat some oil in the skillet. Add the chopped onion
and stir occasionally until it starts to turn transparent. Add 2 cups
of pulled chicken and stir in the drained ½ can of peas and carrots.
Pour
in the sloppy joe mix stirring from time to time to heat and blend
flavors.
Spoon
the chicken into a layer on the bottom of the 8 x 8 baking dish.
Now
stir the cup of shredded
Cheddar Cheese into the prepared mac & cheese. You want it to be
thick with cheese, otherwise the pasta will just soak up the sauce.
Spoon
this on top making a thick layer over the chicken. Place in oven for
35
– 45 minutes.
Everything is already cooked, this just “sets” the dish and
melts the cheese.
When
finished, remove from oven and let rest while you microwave a green
vegetable side.
What
an unexpected twist on the ole “Shepherds Pie”!
For
our music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhdtSDDay6I
socialslave
To
satisfy and restore.
To
nourish, support and maintain.
To
gratify, spoil, comfort and please,
to
nurture, assist, and sustain
…..I
cook!
Please
buy slave's cookbook:
The
Little Black Book of Indiscreet Recipes by Dan White
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00F315Y4I/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_vAT4sb0934RTM
via @amazon
===========================
Alexander
Woollcott
Alexander
Woollcott (January 19, 1887 – January 23, 1943) was an American
critic and commentator for The New Yorker magazine, a member of the
Algonquin Round Table, an occasional actor and playwright, and a
prominent radio personality. Woollcott was one of the most quoted men
of his generation.
Reportedly, in his early twenties he contracted the mumps that left him sterile, but not impotent; in any case, his sexual confusion began much earlier. During his teens, he regularly cross-dressed, signed his letters “Alicia,” and was nicknamed “Cream Puff.” In college, Cream Puff became “Putt”, the jocks beat him up regularly, and he contemplated suicide. He got through it all by reading Krafft-Ebing, Havelock Ellis, and Oscar Wilde on “inversion,” and decided to accept himself.
With the help of a family friend, he made his way through college, graduating from Hamilton College, in 1909.
Woollcott
joined the staff of The New York Times as a cub reporter in 1909. In
April 1917, the day after war was declared, Woollcott volunteered as
a private in the medical corps. He soon became a sergeant when the
intelligence section of the American Expeditionary Forces selected
him and a half-dozen other newspaper men to create the
Stars and Stripes, an
official newspaper to bolster troop morale. As chief reporter,
Woollcott was a member of the team that formed its editorial board.
Using humor, he reported the horrors of the Great War from the point
of view of the common soldier.
After
the war he returned to The New York Times.
From
1929 to 1934, he wrote a column called "Shouts and Murmurs"
for The New Yorker. His book, While
Rome Burns, published
by Grosset & Dunlap in 1934, was named twenty years later as one
of the 52 "Best Loved Books of the Twentieth Century."
Among
Woollcott's classic one liners is his description of the Los Angeles
area as "Seven suburbs in search of a city". Describing The
New Yorker editor Harold Ross, he said: "He looks like a
dishonest Abe Lincoln."
Woollcott
was renowned for his savage tongue. He dismissed Oscar Levant, the
notable wit and pianist, by observing, "There is absolutely
nothing wrong with Oscar Levant that a miracle can't fix."
Dorothy Parker
once said: "I remember hearing Woollcott say reading Proust is
like lying in someone else's dirty bath water.”
He
long claimed the Brandy Alexander cocktail was named for him.
Some
of his best known quotes:
- "All the things I really like to do are either immoral, illegal, or fattening."
- "Many of us spend half of our time wishing for things we could have if we didn't spend half our time wishing."
- "There is no such thing in anyone's life as an unimportant day."
- "His huff arrived and he departed in it."
- "A hick town is one where there is no place to go where you shouldn't go."
- "The English have an extraordinary ability for flying into a great calm."
- "At 83, George Bernard Shaw's mind was perhaps not quite as good as it used to be, but it was still better than anyone else's."
- "I have no need of your God-damned sympathy. I only wish to be entertained by some of your grosser reminiscences."
Alexander
Woollcott fell in love with Harpo Marx the first time he saw him. The
Marx Brothers were making their Broadway debut in the musical comedy
I’ll
Say She Is.
Woollcott was there, reluctantly, to review it for the Sun.
It was an
evening of chaos, double entendres, and gender confusion, especially
during the show’s centerpiece—a takeoff on the Napoleon and
Josephine story in which Napoleon (Groucho) is forced back to Paris
again and again to thwart the not unwelcome advances Josephine
receives from his three ministers, Gaston (Harpo), François (Chico),
and Alphonse (Zeppo). Everyone ends up groping everyone else.
Woollcott loved it all, but was especially transported by Harpo, as
the title of his review the next day testifies: “Harpo Marx and
Some Brothers Hilarious Antics Spread Good Cheer at the
Casino.” We should be grateful, he said, for these four “talented
cutups,” but especially for the “silent brother, that sly,
unexpected, magnificent comic among the Marxes.”
Harpo
The
review was more than a rave, it was a mash note, for Woollcott was
gay and suddenly smitten. Like a nervous stagedoor Johnny, he called
Harpo the next day and wrangled an invitation backstage, using his
review as a calling card.
Their
meeting was rocky at first. But Harpo liked the way Woollcott laughed
and decided to accept an invitation to a poker game at the Algonquin.
Here
already was the tug-of-war, the teasing and the battle of
wits that would characterize their relationship for the next two
decades. From that first night until his death in 1943,
Woollcott
focused most of his considerable desire on Harpo.
Harpo’s
own characterization of their friendship was tender: “I could never
figure Aleck out completely, nor he me. He was too complicated and I
was too simple. Our friendship was a lifelong game of ‘Who Am I?’
It was frustrating, exasperating, and sometimes downright silly, but
it was a good, rewarding game…. He was a true friend.” Harpo was
not, however, so simple, and the game they played was as much “Do
You Want Me?” as “Who Am I?”
The
two men formed an odd couple in the constellation of oddballs that
was the Algonquin Round Table. Woollcott was pudgy, fastidious, and
bookish, a dandy with an acidic, modern wit. James Thurber called him
“Old Vitriol and Violets.” Harpo, on the other hand, was Harpo, a
real-life version of his goofy, horn-honking self. He was
all libido, always “on,” seemingly up for anything. The affection
the two men shared was real. They were the “Odd Couple,” Felix
and Oscar, locked in a long flirtation. Woollcott scolded, Harpo
teased.
For
years they vacationed together and exchanged notes on the anniversary
of their meeting.
Alexander
and Harpo
One
day, while on a trip to France, Woollcott took him to meet Somerset
Maugham at Maugham’s villa, lecturing him all the way about good
behavior. When they arrived, Harpo was surprised to find Maugham
younger looking and less swishy and stuffy than he’d expected. He
greeted them, Harpo recalled, looking “lean and brown” in “only
shorts and sandals,” and “sizzling with energy and good cheer.”
Maugham
showed them the master bedroom, positioned so he could dive from its
window straight into his pool. While Woollcott and Maugham were
turned away discussing a painting, Harpo stripped and made the dive.
Woollcott acted appalled, but the Englishman quickly shed his shorts
and sandals, and followed Harpo through the window!
Another
afternoon, Woollcott invited Mr. and Mrs. George Bernard Shaw for
lunch. He fussed over arrangements all morning (“jittery as a girl
on her first date,” said Harpo) Harpo said “to hell with the
whole affair” and went for a nude swim. As he dozed in the sun, the
Shaws pulled up.
They
missed Woollcott in town and hired their own driver out to the villa.
Harpo just managed to get a towel around himself as the guests came
up the walk, Shaw yelling “Where the devil’s Woollcott? Who the
devil are you?” As Harpo introduced himself, Shaw reached down and
yanked the towel away, laughed, and nonchalantly introduced himself.
By the time Woollcott arrived, Harpo and the Shaws were fast friends.
The three of them spent the next month palling around —much to
Woollcott’s apparent chagrin. “Harpo Marx and Bernard Shaw!” he
sniffed. “Corned beef and roses!”
Harpo knew it was an act, noting that Woollcott “loved playing the game of Strange Bedfellows.” Harpo didn’t mind that game, but he “didn’t exactly care for the type of dog Aleck put on, on the Riviera” and his escapades were designed to bring Woollcott back down to earth. According to Harpo (in Harpo Speaks!), Woollcott admitted that “every man as pretentious as old Alexander” needs such friends “to remind him of what really makes the world go round, and that everything else is just pretending.”
Thurber
in The Years With Ross
also reports Woollcott describing himself as "the best writer in
America," but with nothing in particular to say; Woollcott was
primarily a storyteller, a retailer of anecdotes and superior gossip,
as many of his personal letters reveal. His letters also reveal a
warm and generous heart and a self-effacing manner distinct from his
waspish public persona, and his many lasting and close friendships
with the theatrical and literary elite of his day.
Woollcott
appeared on his last radio broadcast in 1943,
as a participant on the CBS Radio program The
People's Platform.
Marking the tenth anniversary of Adolf Hitler's rise to power, the
topic was "Is Germany Incurable?"
"The
German people are just as responsible for Hitler as the people of
Chicago are for the Chicago Tribune," Woollcott stated
emphatically, and the panelists noted Woollcott's physical distress.
Ten minutes into the broadcast, Woollcott commented that he was
feeling ill, but continued his remarks. "It's a fallacy to think
that Hitler was the cause of the world's present woes," he said.
Woollcott continued, adding "Germany was the cause of Hitler."
He said nothing further, but reportedly took a notepad and wrote the
words, "I am sick." The radio audience was unaware that
Woollcott had suffered a heart attack. He died at New York's
Roosevelt Hospital a few hours later, aged 56, of a cerebral
hemorrhage.
Woollcott
is remembered almost exclusively as “The Man Who Came to Dinner.”
His friends George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart patterned their play’s
central character, Sheridan Whiteside, an annoying New York critic
and radio celebrity, after him. Forgotten now is the fact that
Woollcott was one of America’s most popular writers during the
1920s and 1930s. He published screenplays, biographies, and
collections of essays, wrote numerous profiles and the “Shouts and
Murmurs” page for The New Yorker, and hosted a popular CBS radio
show, “The Town Crier.” If he is remembered more today as a
personality than as a writer, it is because his great talent.
“Nothing Woollcott did or thought escaped notice,” said E.B.
White. “He saw to that.” The persona that Woollcott created and
promoted was the quintessential version of a certain modern gay
style, a style that fends off sadness with wit and uses double
entendres to hint at the double life. It is the mix of sentiment and
bitterness, of nostalgia and high camp, that one finds in the lyrics
of Cole Porter and Noel Coward.
He
was buried in Clinton, New York, at his alma mater, Hamilton College,
but not without some confusion. By mistake, his ashes were sent to
Colgate University in Hamilton, New York. When the error was
corrected and the ashes were forwarded to Hamilton College, they
arrived with 67¢ postage due.
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