All the Parts Left Over (ATK #12-b)

Inspirational song: What Shall We Do With a Drunken Sailor? (Sea Shanty)

I had a small window of opportunity to accomplish anything on the deck project this morning. I didn't get to lie about and be lazy on a Sunday. While the man pried more moldy, gray boards off of the remainder of the deck, breaking one, I raced through the bleaching of a dozen that were waiting in my to-do pile. And before we could make any more progress than that, the rains came. Again. Me, I like a nice drizzly day, and I have a healthy appreciation for a wild thunderstorm. But when it rains every day for a week, when I'm trying to hold my own on a big restoration outside in the Park, this whole rain thing loses its charm.

After I bragged heavily about last night's spiced chicken, and gave instructions on how to make it for yourself, I felt I should give suggestions on what to do with the parts left over. I mentioned that I'd seen a soup recipe with the same Ras el Hanout spices, so off I went to buy root vegetables to make it. It was incredibly easy. I peeled and chopped up butternut squash, potato, carrot, red onion, garlic (unchopped), and in place of the parsnip the recipe called for and I couldn't find at my local store, I used a little celery that was barely hanging on to its prime in my fridge. They were drizzled with olive oil, sprinkled with salt and more Ras el Hanout, and roasted at 400F for about 45 minutes, stirred and flipped halfway through. I used the sauce in the pot from the chicken yesterday plus a few cups of chicken stock and water, and while that heated in the pot, I cut up all the dark meat left on the half chicken we didn't eat last night. I put the veggies in the stock, and then used a wand blender to puree it as well as I could. (Big hunks of red onion do not puree well with a wand blender. It was messy and just a bit comical trying to do this.) I stirred the cut up chicken into the soup, added just a little more water to make it thinner, and served it with Greek yogurt stirred in and a little fresh mint as a garnish. It was terrific and easy. The hardest part was chopping the butternut squash.

That's enough for tonight. Going to be a busy week and I need my beauty sleep. I have to go sell real estate in a few days, god willing and the creeks don't rise. Consider trying one of my recipes from today or yesterday. But if you don't want to think about a thick, exotically spicy root vegetable soup in April, file this one away for next autumn. You'll be glad you did.