A Rather Eclectic Meal. But My Boys Liked It.

After butterflying and grilling the hen the other night, I still had the neck and giblets left over. So I'm doing a quick giblet gravy for the boys.

First, I melted my butter with a bit of oil and browned the neck on all sides.

Next, I added in some sliced mushrooms. Rosie's Tip #241: Never salt the mushrooms when you're sauteeing them. If you salt first, then the salt brings out the water in the shrooms and they'll end up steaming and not browning. Always wait until the mushrooms are cooked before adding any salt.

When the shrooms were browned ...

... I added in the trimmed and diced giblets. (I always trim off the tough silverskin.)

Stir and cook for a few minutes until giblets are cooked through.

Next, I deglazed the pan with a little sherry.

Here, I'm separating the giblets and sherry and cooking a bit of the sherry off.

And this is what I cook around. Here's Giada just a little too close to Dixie's comfort zone, but Dixie is tolerant.

Here's lil Junior, chilling.

Junior and Dixie, regrouping.

Then Beau, not wanting to miss out on anything, gets in the kitchen too.

And Giada waits.

And Beau waits.

Dixie and Junior wait in their corner.

I thought this was a nice family shot of all the puppies, except for the vacuum cleaner in the background, but that's par for the course here, since the vacuum cleaner is never put away and is used to suck up dog hairs about 6-10 times a day. Yes, you read that correctly.

And Little Buster from next door always drops by in the evening for a treat. And Junior is checking out his business. Here are all the dogs paying attention as best they can. Giada, as you'll see, is extremely vocal. Here are Giada and Beau. Giada's still trying to talk and Beau is looking at me like I'm an idiot. (I guess that's not too much of a stretch.) Immona have her saying "Mama" by the end of the summer.

Now where was I? I was cooking something I think.

Oh yeah. Giblet gravy. Just sprinkle in some flour. I used about 1/4 cup.

Then cook the flour to get rid of the raw, flour taste.

I slowly added in about 1/2 can of low-sodium chicken stock, stirring until thickened.

Then a little bit of milk for richness.

What to do with a leftover can of chicken stock?

Pour it over the leftover rice for extra moisture and extra flavor.

Beau has moved back to Mr. Hawthorne's lap ...

... and has gone to sleep.

Mr. Hawthorne's legs are quite shapely.

This is where the meal gets weird. A friend had gone deep-sea fishing and brought us some cobia.

I had put the cobia in my bastardized version of the Alinea marinade for an overnight bath.

I sliced the cobia in half ...

... and added it to my hot iron skillet with extra light olive oil and butter. And I got a little flare up there. You know how I love my pyrotechnics.

I seared the cobia all over.

Then heated the marinade to a boil

and spooned it over the cobia.

That's a pretty fish.

Ta daaaaaa. Here's dinner. And yes, it is weird and a bit eclectic. We have the seared cobia with the citrusy marinade flavor; we have buttered corn on the cob; we have celery and carrots and asparagus; and we have rice. Half of the rice has the marinade over it. The other half has ... giblet gravy. Hey, I had to cook the giblets that night, so don't squawk about it.