This 'n That,

Life is not being kind to me lately. Today I have a raging sore throat. I hope that doesn't presage a cold, I haven't had a cold in many a long year, nor has Matt.

Talking of Matt, I do hope he (Matthew) doesn't visit the east coast. Nasty things and I have seen reports of evacuations which is a good idea if you live on the coast.

Today I dragged myself out of bed early, once again, and went shopping with my hubby. I found ducks on sale for about $14. Couldn't believe it, they are normally horrendously expensive here. I snapped one up and plan to cook it on Saturday for our Thanksgiving celebration.

Tech guy called this morning to change my modem because I have been having problems with my wifi. Guess what, nothing's changed. Damned thing keeps dropping and coming back and dropping again. Doesn't stay long enough to use my laptop for blogging or much of anything else at the moment. Once I have written this, I plan to phone them once again.

I spent part of this morning making tomato soup. Not the kind I posted the other day, to me that is a vegetable soup. Mine has onions, garlic and tomatoes in it and that's it. It's good stuff too.

This recipe looked very easy to do and if it ends up anything like paella, it should be good. It came from the New York Times.

Chicken With Rice, The Easy Way

You can easily vary this dish by using any stock instead of water; by substituting another grain, like pearled barley, for the rice; by sautéing or roasting the chicken separately and combining it with the rice at the last minute; by adding sausage or shellfish, like shrimp, along with the chicken, or, most excitingly, by adding strips of red pepper, pitted olives, capers, chopped tomatoes or shelled peas to

the initial onion mix.

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 medium onions, about 8 ounces, peeled and sliced
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 chicken, cut up into serving pieces
• 1 ½ cups white rice
• Pinch saffron, optional
• Freshly minced parsley or cilantro for garnish
• Lemon or lime wedges

Preparation

1. Set 3 cups of water to boil. Place olive oil in a large skillet that can be covered, and turn heat to medium-high. Add onions and a sprinkling of salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until onions soften and become translucent, 5 to 10 minutes. Remove skin from chicken.
2. Add rice to onions; stir until each grain glistens; sprinkle with saffron, and stir. Nestle chicken in rice, add a little more salt and pepper and pour in the boiling water. Turn heat to medium-low, and cover.
3. Cook 20 minutes, until all water is absorbed and chicken is cooked through. (You can keep this warm over a very low flame for another 15 minutes; it will retain its heat for 15 minutes beyond that.) Garnish and serve with lemon or lime.

Have a great day