I woke up late on Sunday. Apparently, the cup of coffee I
made at 9:00 p.m. on Saturday night was a mistake!
So, I had to rush a bit. I needed to get the drumsticks into
their marinade. I was using a Michael Ruhlman recipe, BTW. He’s never steered
me wrong yet!
I put a small onion, thinly sliced, four cloves of garlic
(smashed) and a teaspoon of vegetable oil into a medium sized pot. I sautéed
that for about three minutes. Then I added some kosher salt, a handful of dried
Rosemary (the recipe calls for 4-6 stalks of fresh rosemary, but neither I nor
the little grocery store had any), 4 1/2 cups of water and the juice of one
fresh lemon. I let that come to a boil and then turned it to simmer, until the
salt dissolved. I let it cool and then refrigerated it until it was cold. I put
all the drumsticks into a baggie and added the brine. Then I set the baggie
into a bowl (in case of leaks) and into the fridge. It needed to marinate at
least eight hours.
I also made another bag of shredded cabbage and carrots into
coleslaw, for a side dish. I tossed it about in the store-bought dressing and
stuck that in the fridge to cool as well. Now, you may be wondering about this
seemingly obsessive interest I have developed with coleslaw. Not really. I
realize I need to eat something green and fresh in these winter months. But, I
buy lettuce all the time, forget to make a salad and then end up throwing away
the rotting heads. So, this is a nice alternative. Plus, I like coleslaw…
Next, I ran through the myriad of Sunday morning chores,
culminating in doing the last load of laundry.
It was 25 degrees F. at noon, so I went out to spray
polyurethane on my Brother Carl’s bar stool seat in the garage. But, I found a
veritable lake in the garage from the snow that melted off the truck. So, I got
the keys and pulled the truck outside. Then I swept all the water out into the
driveway.
Sidebar: In pulling the truck outside and then getting out,
I discovered the rain from yesterday had melted the snow a bit and then froze
overnight. So everything was treacherous! I was glad I didn’t have to drive
anywhere today!
Sidebar #2: My neighbor, Rick, was out there, plowing his
driveway with his ATV. But, for a change, he didn’t come over and plow mine as
well. I suspect he knows I don’t need it, now…
So, I sprayed the first coat of polyurethane on the seat,
pulled the truck back inside and set the stove timer for one hour and 45
minutes. You have to recoat the polyurethane within two hours or wait 72 hours,
sand it and then spray it again, you see.
I hung up or folded all the laundry from the dryer. Then I
took a break and watched a DIY show.
When the timer went off, I went back in the garage and gave
the bar stool seat another coat of polyurethane.
Then I took a nice long nap.
When I woke up, it was already after 5:00 p.m., so I got
started on my fried chicken legs. First I made the coating. I put three cups of
A/P flour in a bowl. Then I added three tablespoons of black pepper, two
tablespoons of paprika, two tablespoons of fine sea salt, two teaspoons of
cayenne pepper and two tablespoons of baking powder. I mixed that with a whisk
and divided it into two bowls. In a third bowl I put two cups of buttermilk.
I set a rack on one of my half sheet pans. I took the
chicken drumsticks out of the fridge, rinsed off the marinade in cold water and
pated each one dry with paper towels. Then I dredged them in the flour mixture,
shook off the excess flour and dipped them in the buttermilk. Then I dredged
them again in the second bowl. I shook that off and put them back on the rack.
I got out my Dutch oven and a candy thermometer and filled
it about 1/3 full of canola oil. I heated that up to 350 degrees F. and put
three chicken legs in it. I had some problems with keeping the temperature at
350 degrees, (it went too high) so the first three were a bit dark. I let each
batch go for about 15 minutes, turning them occasionally, and then put them on
another rack on a half sheet pan covered with paper towels.
When I was done with all 10 chicken legs, I let them rest
for 10 minutes and then dug in. Now, I will admit, I had grease splatters all
over my new stove and the whole house smelled like fried chicken, but they were
awesome!
I ate four and a healthy amount of coleslaw for my Sunday
supper.
I was waiting for the new “Sherlock” on PBS and there was
nothing much on TV, so I started watching the Super Bowl. I’m not that big a
fan of football, but the commercials were great and the halftime show, with Bruno
Mars and the Red Hot Chili Peppers was excellent.
Finally, it was 10:00 p.m. and Sherlock was on. I watched
that and then went to bed.
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