On the Nose

Since the Thanksgiving feast,I've mostly been relying on frozen dinners (interspersed with cold cereal and various sandwiches). This week, though, I decided to cook something myself, and not a slow-cooker dish either. Slow-cooker dishes are great, but they don't give the olfactory pleasure of cooking up a mixed dish in a big pan.

So, today, I made "Chicken Pilaff with Mixed Fruits". Dumping chopped onions and green peppers into the pan to fry, stirring occasionally and inhaling the odors; adding the spices, the dried apricots and currants, stirring constantly; then the rice, stirring and waiting for the chicken stock to boil; pouring it in and letting it all simmer; and finally tossing in the slivered almonds.

I decided not to eat any of it tonight; I'll let the Law of Casseroles do its work first. It's sitting in the fridge, and the ingredients are getting to know each other better. Tomorrow, we feast!