Humility

The Chicken with Preserved Fruits that I cooked last night turned out well, even though I declined several parts of the recipe. I did not bake it in an airtight wrap of "grease proof" paper because I was not sure what Mrs. Bissell meant. Parchment paper perhaps? I opted for foil, and I think what came out of the oven was not far from what the recipe intended.I also tinkered by replacing "brown bread crumbs" with Panko crumbs lightly browned in the oven with butter. To reduce this recipe to its essence-

Brown 2 chicken breasts in oil using a stainless steel skillet. When they have browned enough, let them cool down so you can handle them. Cut a pocket in them length wise and stuff this with the panko crumb-mustard-apricot jam and garlic stuffing. Bake at 350 for 50 minutes or until your meat thermometer reaches 165 degrees. I used 1 cup of panko crumbs heavily buttered, 3 tablespoons of apricot jam, 3 tablespoons of Dijon mustard, and a clove of garlic I crushed through a garlic press. This stuffing was excellent, and I am already wondering what else I can do with it. How about chopping up cooked shrimp or crabmeat, adding it to the stuffing and baking it in a ramekin or in a big scallop shell? What about stuffing it into a roast chicken or a Cornish Hen?

I was proud this turned out so well especially since I have learned in the past two days that I have gaps-big ones-in my culinary knowledge. I am in fact quite ignorant. I have gotten by with good luck and some common sense. Humility is now the order of the day.

For several months now I have been thinking about taking cooking classes just to "polish up". I thought about culinary classes at The Art Institute. Impractical(I work nights) and expensive. The Viking Store in Franklin has classes but they are also expensive. I resigned myself to my books. If I could discipline myself I could read my way through Madeline Kamman and James Peterson and learn as much as I would in a class.

Two days ago I found an alternative. Online video cooking classes from The Northwest Culinary Institute of Vancouver. At $15 a month this seems a bargain. I waste $10 a week on Cafetorium Cuisine alone. Yesterday I took the class on selecting and storing fish. I thought it would be review. It was not. Humbled by this I took a class today on pan frying, and I will not embarrass myself by telling you how much I learned. I was a self-taught cook. My mother resorted too much to the crockpot to be a cooking model, and one of my grandmother once served chicken soup with the chicken heart floating in it. I was on my own. I learned from magazines, and books, and by watching Mario Batali. What hubris! That I was considering trying to switch careers at some future date and to become a food writer and a cooking teacher. And I have never mastered baking beyond making cornmeal muffins from a mix. I confess.

Tonight Nashville will be under a winter storm watch, and I will be creeping home from work in the morning. I am tired of winter, but today I saw a Yellow-rumped Warbler in the cedar outside my window. They winter in Mississippi and the Lower South. I have never seen them in Nashville this early-