Ten Fathoms Deep

Ingredients:

10-20 Chicken boneless Thighs
1 small block of Irish Cheddar

Stuffing (all Rough Chop):
4 Links – Hot Italian Sausage
4 oz Mushrooms (Mix of Oyster, Shitake, Baby Bell)
1 med Yellow Onion,
3 Cloves Garlic
3 Springs Fresh Thyme Leaves,
1 Bunch Cilantro leaves
1 Bunch flat-leaf parsley leaves
4 Chipotle Peppers in Adobo
2 Serrano Peppers seeded

Salt & Pepper to Taste

Procedure:

Stuffing:
1) Remove Casing from Sausages, separate into chunks and brown.

2) Once the Sausage is browned, remove from pan to bowl of food processor. Reserve fat in pan. Add remaining stuffing ingredients to food processor. Pulse until ingredients are finely chopped, and well mixed together.

3) Return mixture to hot pan. (with reserved sausage fat) Cook until sausage is cooked through. (approx: 5 minutes) Stirring regularly. Season to Taste.

Assembly:

1) Slice Cheese into slices about 3″x1″, and approximately 1/4th – 1/8th” thick. (one for each chicken thigh)

2) Spoon 1 Tbsp of stuffing on to chicken thigh, top with slice of cheese, fold thigh around stuffing.

3) Bake at 350 for approx 20 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through.

Notes:

The stuffing recipe as written will make a lot of stuffing, more than enough for 10-20 chicken thighs.

You can stuff boneless chicken breasts with the same stuffing, I chose thighs because they have more flavor.

This recipe is pretty spicy. If you want to tone down the heat, vary the amount of Serrano Peppers, and use sweet Italian sausage.

So, I made the drive 20 drive from NYC to Atlanta with Herbert as my Co-Pilot.

Forgive me if I get a little personal here.  There’s a lot going on.

When I moved to NYC, there was a plan.  For my readers who need to be brought up to speed, let me provide a basic history lesson.

I grew up in a suburb of Kansas City.  I lived there, and grew to be extremely familiar with suburban life.  Let’s just say that in this instance for me, the saying “Familiarity breeds contempt.” held true.  I learned to hate suburban life, and promptly moved into the city as soon as age and opportunity would allow.  I settled in the city, bought a house with a picket fence, a dog, a great job, great friends, relationship, etc…etc…  I wasn’t happy.

I realized that things I found interesting and valuable in other people where not the things I was cultivating in myself.  So, I started to look at my life, and realized that I needed a change.  I started looking for a change, over the course of a couple years an opportunity to make that change came up.

And that brings us up to today.  I live in NYC.  You can’t get get much more of change than a house in Kansas City, to an apartment in Harlem, and then to Roosevelt Island.

So back to “The Plan”… The Plan was to see the world as a resident, and not as a tourist.  The Plan was to change my focus from “having” to “doing”.   To make new friends, see new places.  To work to live, not live to work.

Looking back, with some notable exceptions, the plan is working.  Not textbook perfect, but I suppose it’s really more of a set of guidelines than a 13 step program.

Recently, another opportunity presented itself.  This one in Atlanta.  A city that has never been on my list of places to live for a number of reasons.  This opportunity fits The Plan.  It’s a new location, new people, vastly different than anywhere else I’ve lived.  Like all things, this doesn’t match perfectly.  The job opportunity will be similar to my old job, which means that I’ll be back in my career, which means I will need to pay special attention to my “work/life balance“.

All in all, I’m looking forward to the new opportunity… and let’s face it.  Plans change.

Okay.

During my daily commute, I notice things.  Today, I watch as a woman almost caused a pile up of commuting bodies while exiting the train with her rollerbag briefcase.  You know what these are, they are those laptop bags that have wheels, and a long handle.  I can understand on a 50lbs. suitcase, wheeling it behind you makes sense.  However on a 10 lbs briefcase?  How lazy do you have to be to pickup and carry your  laptop case?  Swing it over your shoulder? Most days I just want to take a short run, and punt those stupid roller bags through the uprights… or at least onto the third rail.

The stereo in my Truck… HAS A REMOTE CONTROL!  What kind of lazy fuck, said.. “You know what really gets me? Having to reach all the way to the dashboard to work the controls while in my car.”

I firmly believe that we, as creatures on these wonderful earth, need to do things in order to survive.  How bodies are made to work.  We grow stronger with exertion, we are healthier when we sweat out the bad stuff.  I’m okay with this, I will admit to having the potential to be one of the laziest creatures on the planet.  I have no qualms about laying around like a walrus for days on end, leaving my bed only to visit the bathroom and the kitchen, which is probably why I have the body of a walrus, but there are limits…

I wonder sometimes how much our need to mechanize and economize our movements and effort really helps us.  We want more of everything, our food has high caloric density, so we have to eat less.  We’ve moved into the “information age”, which means most of us sit on our asses all day, so we burn less calories.   Yet, on average portion size have grown to ridiculous sizes.  ( Burger King, sells a Triple Whopper… eat that in a “King Sized” meal and it’s 1990 calories. According to BK’s website anyway. Now when McDonalds opened in 1940, it’s “Burger Meal”, was what is now a “Happy Meal”, a regular burger, small fries and a small coke… 630 Calories. )

Even the other jobs have gotten sedentary.  Farming used to entail plowing, and planting, and even with the use of the machines, it was hard work.  Now, most farming is done while riding in a huge specialized machinea… sitting on their asses.

So the ultimate paradox, we spend our lives finding ways to reduce our work, and billions of dollars on the Fitness industry.  Gyms, Films, Equipment all guaranteed to make us look like we work for a living.

Hrm… I really should get out of bed…  I’m getting hungry….

I need a place for my thoughts, for my outlets…  This will be it.

I need a playground, a sandbox if you will… This will be it.

I need a place where I am King… This will be it.

—- Evolving, along with other projects.