I am just back from Fred Myer's Food Superstore, not because of any shortage of food here in the RE Digs, but due to a lack of
BOOZE. I have been
"off the wagon" for a while here, since before the Last Great Alaskan Bucket List Adventure, although my consumption of the stuff is vastly reduced from what it used to be. These days, if I knock back 2 glasses of wine in a day this is a lot for me. Used to be I would finish off 2 bottles in a day or a 12-pack of beer while I penned my tomes on the Collapse of Industrial Civilization here on the pages of the Doomstead Diner. You can trace the drop in my output of essays by the drop in the input of alcohol to fuel the writing muse over these last months.
Despite having more than enough Gourmet Foods supplies to last me more than a week of high class eating, guess what I did? I bought
ANOTHER big package of Chicken Wings, because they were
ON SALE for $1.79/lb in the 5 lb family size pack. All last week I was looking for Chicken Wings to make Teriyaki Wings and Buffalo Wings as Snacks for the LGABLA, which if I had made might have saved me from dreaming of that Cookie for the drive from Seward to Anchorage on Sunday evening. On the other hand, I wouldn't have been able to get the wings out of the fridge whilst under way either.
Anyhow, this is such a ridiculously low price for Animal Protein it's not even funny, and actually I like Chicken Wings just about as much as I like Fillet Mignon, and they cost me 1/10th the price. This means I can throw out 9/10ths of them and it will cost me almost nothing to do that. In more normal times, a package of wings like this got additional use besides originally eating the wings as an appetizer for whatever meal I was BBQing up on my Cast Iron Hibachi for mom & friends & relatives behind
MY HOUSE in Flushing, where I cut my teeth as a BBQ expert in my pre-teen years after returning from Brasil. I collected everybody's bones along with the first section of nearly meatless wing I cut off to make the Party Wings and would simmer all that for a few hours afterward to make a nice rich Chicken Soup broth to go with a Matzoh Ball or Won Ton Soup I would make to go with dinner the next day. This has it all over just cracking a can of condensed Chicken broth to make your soup from.
Anyhow, the Chicken Wings will go in the fridge for tonight; on schedule for Gourmet Cooking tonight is the large Silver Salmon fillet, which I intended to "Plank" smoke on the grill on the LGABLA. In plank smoking you place your steak or fish on a solid wood plank which as it heats up over the coals emits whatever flavors and odors that type of wood has, much more so than just wood chips in your smoker and more directly into the meat. This of course adds about $4 to the cost of whatever piece of meat or fish it was you were BBQing up, a typical plank being good for about 1.5 lbs of any given cut of meat. They're not re-usable. I had a nice Cedar Plank along for the ride on the LGABLA, but cooking the Salmon fillet was another meal I did not get to cook on this trip and Eddie did not get to eat. So the Plank is back here home with me, but I am
NOT going to waste it on this Salmon fillet which will only go to feed me and mostly will end up in the trash I am sure. A regular grilling with some lemon,garlic butter and dill will suffice quite well for this piece of fish tonight.
Tomorrow for Breakfast I will go with Teriyaki Wings as my Breakfast Meat and do an Egg Scramble with some Onions and Tomatoes to go with that as the morning meal. Then I will see if I have enough room in the freezer for all the rest of the wings, to dribble out over the winter months whilst I recall why I never will again go on a camping vacation with anyone I expect to retain a friendship with.
RE
Grilled & Planked Salmon