Cuckoo For Coq Au Vin.

So. Last night, I had a cooking adventure!

My brother-in-law Ben's girlfriend Sarah is a delightful woman and I'm thrilled to know her.  Last night Sarah came over, and the plan was to cook a traditional dish that is native to a particular region of France for her French class. We looked at the list and decided to attempt Coq Au Vin, which is a native dish in Burgandy.

I've seen the Good Eats episode about Coq Au Vin but I didn't pay very close attention because I figured I probably wouldn't be making it anytime soon.  Thankfully, I had my trusty (but shamefully, as-yet-barely-used) copy of Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking to walk me through.  Julia didn't let us down.

I know she would probably have found quite a few technical faults with our Coq Au Vin:

• I didn't have the proper cooking vessel (because I'm still technically a newlywed, and at the moment, rather poor).
• My knives aren't good enough to produce the ideal cuts, especially for the thyme. (Again, poor newlywed.)
• The bacon I used wasn't very lean at all, it was rather fatty, and I didn't cut the pieces small enough.  Also, they stuck together a lot because the bacon was sliced very thin and it was hard to pull apart.
• I didn't do a very good job cutting the chicken.  I probably used slightly less than she would have because of space limitations in my sub-par cooking vessel.
• Also, I didn't use a fryer, I used leg quarters because dark meat is more flavorful and cheaper. (This was actually a suggestion of Alton Brown's, so I don't feel bad about it at all.)
• We skipped the cognac because the liquor store was already closed by the time we got started.
• We used Pinot Noir, again, at Alton Brown's suggestion.
• I thought I had Bay Leaves at home, and (oops) I didn't.
• The Brown Braised Onions weren't technically braised, they were seared and baked.  (Still very good).
• My sauce was too thick.  I thinned it out with more wine and stock, which means the taste of the wine was a bit stronger than it would have been if I had used the proper flour.  I didn't realize that I was out of all purpose flour until I got to this step (my husband was making mischief in the kitchen a few nights ago and used up all the flour to make cookie dough, without me knowing about it)I had use self rising flour, which meant that the sauce thickened way more.  At first I thought I didn't use the correct proportion of wine/sauce reduction to beurre manie (which is basically an uncooked roux), but then I remembered the flour problem and it made sense.  The end product was still probably a bit too thick but I think it will work.

I know that sounds like a lot of problems, but really, very few of them turned out to be anything formidable.

I will say this, though:  If this Coq Au Vin was wrong, I don't want to be right.

It was so good.  So.  Good.

So.

Good.

I should have taken photos of it and posted them.  I didn't think of it until this very moment.  I'm definitely not cut out to be a food blogger.  I'll probably make it again soon and try to correct a few of the technical problems, for my own satisfaction.  Also, it was so dang good, and I only had a taste because I wanted for Sarah to be able to have it all to take to class and if there were leftovers, to enjoy herself.  And also, I didn't want to gain 50 pounds in one night.  I think I'll plan ahead and just eat that for dinner soon.

Also a plus: I had an amazing time with Sarah through it all.  She's so wonderful, and I love getting to know her better each time we see each other.

If you're interested, here are the recipes:

Julia Child's Coq Au Vin
Alton Brown's Coq Au Vin

Also, if you're interested, here is the link to the transcript for Alton Brown's Coq Au Vin episode:
Cuckoo For Coq Au Vin

Today, I Want:

(Be warned: this post probably won't make much sense.  And might not even be very fun to read.  It will probably not be logical or coherent.  Today, I'm okay with that.  But only today.)

Today, I want to do the following:

• Lay on my new couch all day.
• Lay under a cozy blanket without getting too hot.
• Sit outside and enjoy the nonexistent nice warm spring weather.
• Eat all the different kinds of pasta.
• Go to Washington, DC.
• Watch anything Will Arnett has ever done.
• Watch an America's Next Top Model marathon.
• Make friends with Amy Poehler.
• Get a massage and facial.
• Go buy a bulldog.
• Receive $10,000 and go buy a whole new wardrobe.
• Read my Charlotte Bronte novel all day.
• Sit in an art supply store and breathe in the smell of art supplies.
• Sit in a library or bookstore and breathe in the smell of books.
• Find the perfect nail polish color.
• Get a haircut.
• Move to the beach.
• Go to Scotland.  Ireland would be acceptable, too.

I want to do all those things today.

I will probably just continue to sit here at my desk sipping my green tea.

To My Family -

I love you.  Every one of you, related both by blood and by marriage.  You have all helped make me the person I am.  I thank God for each one of you.

In short,

The Reason.

By the way...

I feel I must explain the reason behind the openness in my previous post. I normally would never share about something like a miscarriage so openly, and probably not at all. However, God has been leading me, inexplicably, to be more open about it. I know that I was encouraged tremendously by several women who have shared with me that they have been there, too. If I can help anyone by being candid about my life, I think I should.

I hope that sufficiently explains it. This isn't to serve as a justification, as I need none. Just a simple explanation behind my reasoning.

Update - Fast Forward a Year

::Kristen logs in to blogger, looks sheepishly at the date at the top of last published post, grimaces.::

Apologies, people.

Life is crazy. You know it, I know it. Yet, most people still manage to keep a blog up-to-date within a year, at least. Oh well. Life goes on.

Well, life has changed a lot at the Learned house over the past year. We live in a different place now. We moved from our two-bedroom apartment into a three-bedroom townhouse over New Years' this year. It suits us well - definitely better than the apartment. We have room to live. Hopefully this will be the last place we live until we buy a house.

Last year was a good one for us.

This one, however, got off to a rough start.

In December, we discovered that I was pregnant. We were so excited - and it was really quite surreal. It seemed like no sooner did we find out and manage to absorb the news and get excited about it that I noticed that I wasn't feeling right. I wound up losing the baby at about 6 weeks. It was an early miscarriage, so it wasn't as painful as it might have been later. Physically, that is.

Emotionally, it was terrible.

The fear I experienced when I realized something wasn't right.

The dread I felt when I was going through what I thought it probably was.

The smallness I felt when I realized I couldn't do anything to stop it.

The emptiness I felt when I knew it was over.

The humiliation I felt when I had to tell the people that knew (there weren't many).

The grief I felt (and have continued to feel) for the little person I loved and lost, and for what could have been.

The minute amount of hope I had been holding onto until my doctor's appointment in the middle of the following week. I cherished a teeny tiny flicker of hope that I'd go to the doctor's office and they'd say, oh, Mrs. Learned, you ARE pregnant, and everything is fine, and it must have just been a scare. Here, let's do an ultrasound and prove it! However, that wasn't what happened. And I knew it wouldn't be. But it still was another crushing blow when, at the doctor's office, they confirmed that I wasn't pregnant.

The loneliness I felt. I only shared my body with the baby for a few weeks. But I felt very alone in my body all by myself when he (I feel like it was a boy, for some reason) wasn't there anymore.

The confusion. What went wrong? What should I do now? Should I keep the estimated due date on the calendar, or white it out and pretend it never happened? Should we try again, or wait? Should I even feel this way about a miscarriage that happened so early? Am I overreacting?

I can't wait to meet our little one in heaven. I never dreamed that I would be one of those women who had experienced something like this - the loss of a child. Some might scoff and say that I haven't experienced the loss of a child - and I know that compared to the loss of some I know who have lost babies during birth or the first few months of life, I have lost little. But it is a loss. My life is changed because of that experience, and earth has lost a little more appeal. I can't wait to get to heaven and meet my Lord, and also get to meet my baby.

But life is good, too!

I have been experiencing a revival of sorts in the past month or so. At church, Jeff and Jason have been teaching through a series on four attributes of God: God is Great, Good, Glorious, and Gracious. They were so timely for me. Each message was delivered, it seemed, right to my heart from God's. (If you want to hear them, I highly recommend. Download them at www.visiodei.org).

I'm not ready to describe in great detail what God's doing in my life right now to people en masse, but I will be. And until then, I will continue to try to keep up the posting here. For posterity, if nothing else.