Happy Birthday, Princess Diana aka Wonder Woman

Basic Crepes

Ingredients

Original recipe makes 8 crepes

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup milk

• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted

Directions

1. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour and the eggs. Gradually add in the milk and water, stirring to combine. Add the salt and butter; beat until smooth.
2. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each crepe. Tilt the pan with a circular motion so that the batter coats the surface evenly.
3. Cook the crepe for about 2 minutes, until the bottom is light brown. Loosen with a spatula, turn and cook the other side. Serve hot.

Source

Coq au Vin; Recipe courtesy of Alton Brown

Coq au Vin
Recipe courtesy of Alton Brown
Show: Good Eats

Total Time: 13 hr
Prep: 1 hr
Inactive: 8 hr
Cook: 4 hr

Yield: 4 to 6 servings
Level: Intermediate

Ingredients:

24 to 30 pearl onions

4 chicken thighs and legs, or 1 (5 to 7-pound) stewing chicken, cut into serving pieces

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

1/4 to 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons water

6 ounces salt pork, slab bacon, or lardon, cubed

8 ounces button mushrooms, quartered

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

2 (750-ml) bottles red wine, preferably pinot noir

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1 medium onion, quartered

2 stalks celery, quartered

2 medium carrots, quartered

3 cloves garlic, crushed

6 to 8 sprigs fresh thyme

1 bay leaf

2 cups chicken stock or broth

Directions:

Cut off the root end of each pearl onion and make an “x” with your knife in its place. Bring 2 to 3 cups of water to a boil and drop in the onions for 1 minute. Remove the onions from the pot, allow them to cool, and then peel. You should be able to slide the onions right out of their skin. Set aside.

Sprinkle the chicken on all sides with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. Place the chicken pieces, a few at a time, into a large (1 or 2-gallon) sealable plastic bag along with the flour. Shake to coat all of the pieces of the chicken. Remove the chicken from the bag to a metal rack.

Add the 2 tablespoons of water to a large, 12-inch saute pan over medium heat along with the salt pork. Cover and cook until the water is gone, and then continue to cook until the salt pork cubes are golden brown and crispy, approximately 8 to 10 minutes. Remove the salt pork from the pan and set aside.

In the same pan, using the remaining fat, add the pearl onions, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and saute until lightly brown, approximately 8 to 10 minutes. Remove the onions from the pan and set aside. Next, brown the chicken pieces on each side until golden brown, working in batches if necessary to not overcrowd the pan. Transfer the chicken into a 7 to 8-quart enameled cast iron Dutch oven.

Add the mushrooms to the same 12-inch saute pan, adding the 1 tablespoon of butter if needed, and saute until they give up their liquid, approximately 5 minutes. Store the onions, mushrooms and pork in an airtight container in the refrigerator until ready to use.

Pour off any remaining fat and deglaze the pan with approximately 1 cup of the wine. Pour this into the Dutch oven along with the chicken stock, tomato paste, quartered onion, carrots, celery, garlic, thyme, and bay leaf. Add all of the remaining wine. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

The next day, preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Place the chicken in the oven and cook for 2 to 2 1/2 hours, or until the chicken is tender. Maintain a very gentle simmer and stir occasionally.

Once the chicken is done, remove it to a heatproof container, cover, and place it in the oven to keep warm. Strain the sauce in a colander and remove the carrots, onion, celery, thyme, garlic, and bay leaf. Return the sauce to the pot, place over medium heat, and reduce by 1/3. Depending on how much liquid you actually began with, this should take 20 to 45 minutes.

Once the sauce has thickened, add the pearl onions, mushrooms, and pork and cook for another 15 minutes or until the heated through. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary, remove from the heat, add the chicken and serve. Serve over egg noodles, if desired.

Cook’s Note: If the sauce is not thick enough at the end of reducing, you may add a mixture of equal parts butter and flour kneaded together. Start with 1 tablespoon of each. Whisk this into the sauce for 4 to 5 minutes and repeat, if necessary.

Recipe courtesy Alton Brown

Thank you, Skeen! xoxo

IOTD-goof off edition lol

It’s Goof off day! WoooHOOO! 

Calendar day; March 22, 2015

Sunday, the 22nd of March, 2015 is the 81st day in 2015 and in the 12th calendar week.

General Events:

National Goof Off Day
March 22, 2015 in the USA

National Goof Off Day is observed on March 22, 2015. It’s a day for everybody to relax and enjoy. Goofing off is a slang term in the United States for engaging in recreation or an idle pastime while obligations of work or society are neglected. Common obligations neglected in the course of goofing off include school work, paid employment, social courtesies and the expectations of relations.

Where is the event?
Nationwide USA

World Water Day
March 22, 2015 in the World

The World Water Day 2015 ist on March 22. The day was first observed in 1993 when the United Nations General Assembly declared March 22 as World Day for Water. This day was first formally proposed in Agenda 21 of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Observance began in 1993 and has grown significantly ever since.

The UN and its member nations devote this day to implementing UN recommendations and promoting concrete activities within their countries regarding the world’s water resources. Each year, one of various UN agencies involved in water issues takes the lead in promoting and coordinating international activities for World Water Day. Since its inception in 2003, UN-Water has been responsible for selecting the theme, messages and lead UN agency for the World Day for Water.

In addition to the UN member states, a number of NGOs promoting clean water and sustainable aquatic habitats have used World Day for Water as a time to focus public attention on the critical water issues of our era. Participating agencies and NGOs have highlighted issues such as a billion people being without access to safe water for drinking and the role of gender in family access to safe water.

http://www.unwater.org/worldwaterday

Where is the event?
Worldwide

International Day of the Seal
March 22, 2015 in the World

International Day of the Seal was declared, on this day in 1982, by Congress to draw attention to the cruelty of seal hunts and the virtual inevitability extinction of different seal populations around the world.

These marine mammals are related to sea lions and walrus and their babies are called pups. Most seals live in Antarctica and the Arctic Circle, eat fish and are prey to sharks, polar bears, orca whales and humans. Humans often hunt seals for their meat, oil, and pelts.

Even before the International Day Of The Seals became a special day, seals have been depicted as important parts of various cultures. Ancient Greek coins have an image of a seal, seals were mentioned by Aristotle and Homer, Moche people of Peru have seals in the artwork, and Celts have myths about seals that could walk.

Note: International Day of Action for Seals is typically on March 15th; however, some groups choose other dates.

Where is the event?
Worldwide

International Coq Au Vin Day
March 22, 2015 in the World

Today is International Coq Au Vin Day! Coq Au Vin is French for “rooster with wine.” It is a popular dish made with braised chicken that is slowly cooked with red wine, mushrooms, pork fat, and various spices. According to some legends, Coq Au Vin has ties to Julius Caesar or Napoleon, but most historians agree that the dish has more humble roots. Roosters are only butchered when they are quite old and rather inedible. Peasant families most likely invented the Coq Au Vin recipe to avoid wasting the meat.

Coq Au Vin became popular in the United States thanks to Julia Child, who featured the dish in her cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Today, it is a popular dish in many French restaurants, but it is also a fabulous dish to cook at home.

To celebrate International Coq Au Vin Day, embrace your inner chef and plan a French-inspired dinner party. Bon Appétit!

Where is the event?
Worldwide

National Bavarian Crepes Day
March 22, 2015 in the USA

March 22nd annually celebrates a food holiday honoring Bavarian Crepes, it is National Bavarian Crepes Day.

Crepes are a delicious, very thin pancake-like dessert, typically made from wheat flour or buckwheat flour, then filled, rolled and then often topped with a glaze, fruit, chocolate or whipped cream.

Where is the event?
Nationwide USA

Historical Events on 22nd March:

871 – Battle at Marton: Ethelred van Wessex beats Danish invasion army

1349 – Townspeople of Fulda, Germany massacre Jews, blaming them for the Black Death

1638 – Religious dissident Anne Hutchinson expelled from Massachusetts Bay Colony

1765 – Stamp Act passed; 1st direct British tax on colonists

1784 – The Emerald Buddha is moved with great ceremony to its current place in Wat Phra Kaew, Thailand

1829 – The three protecting powers (Britain, France and Russia) establish the borders of Greece

1873 – Slavery is abolished in Puerto Rico

1882 – Edmunds Act adopted by the US to suppress polygamy, 1300 men later imprisoned under the act

1903 – Niagera Falls runs out of water because of a drought

1907 – The new Boer government in the Transvaal passes an Asiatic Registration Bill, that restricts immigration from India

1922 – The Rand Rebellion in Southern Africa, which started as a strike by white mineworkers and became an armed rebellion against the state, is brought to a brutal end by the police

1934 – Fire destroys Hakodate Japan (kills 1,500, injures 1,000)

1943 – Obligatory work for woman ends in Belgium

1945 – Arab League forms with adoption of a charter in Cairo Egypt

1946 – Britain signs treaty granting independence to Jordan

1960 – 1st patent for lasers, granted to Arthur Schawlow & Charles Townes

1965 – US confirms its troops used chemical warfare against the Vietcong

1972 – Congress approves Equal Rights Amendment (never ratified)

1975 – A fire at the Browns Ferry Nuclear Power Plant in Decatur, Alabama causes dangerous lowering of cooling water levels

1979 – Israeli parliament approves peace treaty with Egypt

1988 – Congress overrides Reagan’s veto of sweeping civil rights bill

1990 – Anchorage jury finds Capt Hazelwood innocent of Valdez oil spill

1994 – South African government/ANC take power in Ciskei homeland

And in Geek news: Happy Birthday, William Shatner!