how domestic

hi my name is Jennifer and i'm a can-a-holic. i've been clean for 10 days (literally, i think every surface of the house has become well acquainted with lysol).



recently, a friend taught me to bottle chicken. i must admit that i was both a little apprehensive and skeptical in the beginning. but, after a few batches i caught the bug and am now a canning addict.
as luck would have it, there was a awesome sell on chicken last week, and after buying 30lbs and realizing it wouldn't all fit in the freezer i decided drastic measures would have to be taken. so, with bags of chicken unthawing and dripping all over the kitchen, i decided it was as good a time as ever to embrace the inner domestic goddess...

the canner reminded me of a time capsule that you would bury and forget about for 40-50 years; only to dig up later, look inside and think, "why on earth would i care to remember all this junk?"
thankfully, unlike the time capsule the canner didn't take 40 years to do it's job. the process starts with raw chicken. after cleaning the chicken up a bit by cutting off any fat etc, you next jam as much chicken into bottles as you can fit. put lids on tightly and lock the bottles in the canner.



2 hours later, if you manage to not blow up the house in the process, voila! perfectly cooked and preserved chicken. it was SO much fun! i even decided to get adventurous and flavor some of the batches - i figure you can't go wrong with roasted garlic and bbq flavored chicken, right? after a few days i think david saw the writing on the wall - i was getting hooked - and he decided cut me off. after 3 trips to the store for more and more chicken, he lost his enthusiasm. okay, by the 6th batch - which means after about 80-90lbs of chicken - the excitement had tarnish for me a bit too, but it was still cool.



we decided to open one bottle and test it to make sure it was worthwhile to have 80 bottles laying around. it was SO easy to use - I mean, open the bottle and dinner is ready, easy! that is definitely my idea of cooking most nights.

and now, i line up all the bottles on the table just to gaze at them... david has the silly notion that he actually gets to open the bottles and eat the chicken; foolish! i think i'm going to save them forever as a reminder that i can be domestic... but only when i really really have to be... look out martha!