Chicken Hearts and Weather Forecasts
I currently work out of the home where my wife's grandmother lives. Her name is Beatrice. That's her pictured here quilting. (I remember her saying, "Are you taking a picture of the back of my head?") Anyway, during the daytime Beatrice and I are, for the most part, the only ones in this house. She continually makes me lunch almost everyday. It is always cooked on a wood stove, even though I had a perfectly good electric one installed right next to it.
Because of her upbringing, she tends to have a taste for cuts of meat not normally consumed by the average North American family these days (she could probably stump a few people in the know your cuts of meat on Letterman). She's fed me ox tail, pig leg, cow's tongue, and chicken gizzards. Today I had yet a new experience. She served me fried chicken hearts. They didn't have a strong flavor and all-in-all were as good as any other part of the chicken.
Lunch is often accompanied with interesting wisdom from the past, like "when your potatoes boil dry (which apparently they did today) it means it's going to rain." (yes it is actually raining) In talking about the previously consumed gizzards, she told me of the lining that is removed when the chicken is cleaned. Apparently the gizzard is an organ that works to digest the chicken's food through the use of gravel, which apparently is removed with the lining (thank goodness). This then led to the conversation of, if you don't remove the stomach lining of a porcupine before you eat it, it will taste like spruce trees (from which they eat the bark). Additional information volunteered was that baked porcupine was supposed to taste like chicken.
As many times before, I thought, 'I need to write some of this stuff down before it is forgotten forever', so this blog post is in honor of that thought.
Bon appétit!
Because of her upbringing, she tends to have a taste for cuts of meat not normally consumed by the average North American family these days (she could probably stump a few people in the know your cuts of meat on Letterman). She's fed me ox tail, pig leg, cow's tongue, and chicken gizzards. Today I had yet a new experience. She served me fried chicken hearts. They didn't have a strong flavor and all-in-all were as good as any other part of the chicken.
Lunch is often accompanied with interesting wisdom from the past, like "when your potatoes boil dry (which apparently they did today) it means it's going to rain." (yes it is actually raining) In talking about the previously consumed gizzards, she told me of the lining that is removed when the chicken is cleaned. Apparently the gizzard is an organ that works to digest the chicken's food through the use of gravel, which apparently is removed with the lining (thank goodness). This then led to the conversation of, if you don't remove the stomach lining of a porcupine before you eat it, it will taste like spruce trees (from which they eat the bark). Additional information volunteered was that baked porcupine was supposed to taste like chicken.
As many times before, I thought, 'I need to write some of this stuff down before it is forgotten forever', so this blog post is in honor of that thought.
Bon appétit!
Comments