Do you really not use ground ginger and cinnamon? I keep cinnamon sticks around, but I’ve never had success grinding them up. I prefer the ground stuff when it’s called for. I’ve also not had much luck we unground ginger.

Besides those two; I keep mustard powder, garlic powder, and onion powder around.

Those persons who suffer from indigestion, or who become drunk, are utterly ignorant of the true principles of eating and drinking.

First of all, if you are wasting any part of a chicken, you are simply doing it wrong. Bones and trimmings should be going in your stock pot.

Second of all, I’d be awfully worried about where by $1.79/lb chicken breast was coming from. To get it that cheap, they’re obviously going to be cutting corners on cage space and feed.

Third, how many pounds of breast do you have to buy to get that price? I know from experience at Costco, that I have to buy 5+ lbs to get that price on the breasts. While chicken breasts freeze OK in a home freezer, they do lose quite a bit of quality, and when the quality isn’t that good to begin with, you can simply forget about it.

Kosher Salt and lemon juice/vinegar will kill most every bad thing living on a cutting board. But what I like to do is spray the board down with vinegar, and then spray it down with hydrogen peroxide. A nice oxidation reaction that will kill anything.

Chop the poultry skin into manageable pieces. put it into a small pot with a cup or so of water. Turn the heat to low. All the fat will render out, and the water will boil off. Soon you are left with the skin cooking in the fat. When the skin is golden brown take it out and eat it!

I thought that was weird too. At least render the fat out of it.

I’ve always wanted a honesuki. But there are only so many knives my wife will let me own!

I did something similar with a duck this weekend. For around $10 I bought a whole duck at a local Asian market. It was $1.99 a pound. Out of that I got two leg and thigh quarters for confit; two breasts for a roast; wings, feet, head and carcass for stock; neck skin for sausage casing; and about a cup of duck fat. A very good deal indeed!

And if you don’t want to do it yourself, ask the people at the meat counter. They’ll cut up the bird to spec if you ask them.

Vegan_Noodle,

Just because someone is an omnivore doesn’t mean that they don’t pick from just as large a group of fruits, vegetables and grains. I have spent time as a vegetarian and cooking for vegans and there is no way to argue that it isn’t restrictive. Instead of the 5 available stocks (chicken, beef, vegetable, veal, shrimp) I have around, I can only use one for flavoring. I’m limited to the olive oil or vegetable oil as my only lipid; when I normally choose from duck fat, lard, butter, or olive oil. There are tons of tricks that I normally use to make things tastier that are off limits (no more teaspoon of demiglace in that sauce, no more cream or milk in soups, no more bacon!).

I’m not saying that you can’t make delicious food and still have it be vegan. It can be done, and I’ve had great vegan meals. It can’t be argued that it is not restrictive though. Being an omnivore doesn’t mean you can’t eat all the things that a vegan would. Being a vegan though does knock out a lot of variety.