househusband updates

Now that I'm a big celebrity, I feel a certain responsibility to my fans, especially those of you who follow my endorsements, recipes, and general advice.

househusband update #1: cleaning toilets

In my second LRC article "House Husbandry" I wrote the following:

My favorite cleaning products:

1. Swiffer Duster

2. Swiffer WetJet

3. Clorox ToiletWand -- "No more dirty brush!"

They store easily, work extremely well, and I take satisfaction in throwing away the dirty end afterward.

I must withdraw my endorsement of the Clorox TioletWand^®. While it's definitely better than the traditional toilet brush, I didn't like the fact that I had to throw away the dirty end -- I'd rather just flush it.

Scrubbing Bubbles^® to the rescue!

Now take a moment to remove the preceding images from your mind before I move onto ...


househusband update #2: wrapped chicken

One of our favorite home-cooked meals this past year has been stuffed chicken breast. I brine the breasts, butterfly-cut them before they're fully thawed, stuff with baby spinach, mozzarella, and prosciutto, wrap in butcher's string, and bake.

Three problems:

1. I overbrine;
2. butterflying and tying are kind of a pain in the ass;
3. untying is yet more hassle and also quite messy.

The solution to problem #1 is to let the chicken breasts thaw in cooking wine instead of home-made brine. In Pennsylvania you have to buy wine at a state store. Fascisti. Cooking wine you can buy in any supermarket or grocers. To keep you away from the temptation to drink the cooking wine, it turns out that they salt the hell out of it. It's important to keep this in mind if you're ever stuck with only cooking wine -- tone down any other salt there might be in your recipe! I prefer to cook with real wine, but it occurred to me that salty cooking wine might be just the thing to soak the chicken in before baking.

(By the way, I've been buying chicken breasts about the size of my hand, but recently I found a different brand that must use the Dolly Parton of poultry! Bigger breasts turn out to make moister and more delicious meals.)

The solution to problems #2 and #3 is to wrap the prosciutto around the chicken rather than vice versa. I end up using twice as much spinach and twice as much prosciutto, and I can pin the whole thing down with toothpicks rather than tying it up with butcher's string. The toothpicks come out easily when the whole thing is baked, and the prosciutto is nice and crispy. Much easier to make, and more delicious.