Chicken Dinner!
I can’t keep up — I’ve started lots of aborted posts that got overwhelmed by the sewage-tsunami that is the Republican Party, its boils and carbuncles (yeah, really bad mixed metaphor. Sue me.) — but none get finished before another outrage occurs and…
Hell. We all know the drill. Folks with more stamina (and intestinal fortitude) than I can muster are doing the FSM’s work to keep this blog ably supplied with insight and rage.
Still, every now and then something comes along and doesn’t serve so much as an antidote as an alternative to wallowing in the muck.
For me, that almost always includes roast chicken. So, because it’s not just misery that loves company, here are two new preparations to share in the latest in my extremely occasional fowl series.
First up, this, from one of the remaining redoubts of more-or-less useful New York Times resources, the recipe section. I’ve found Melissa Clark to be a very solid kitchen guide (I have one of her cookbooks in addition to paying attn. to her at the Grey Lady’s Food section).
I tried this for the first time a couple of days ago, using 6 thighs rather than a whole (split) bird. It came out great. A couple of notes: I didn’t have the Peruvian hots in hand, so I used sambal, as suggested, and aleppo pepper instead of pasillo chile powder. It would be better (much) w. a good new-world chile flavor instead of my Levantine improv., but it was still just fine. I dialed back a little on the heat, using one jalapeño, instead of the 2-3 recommended; next time out I’ll go to two — and any chile powder I use will pack more kick than the Aleppo spice. Also, I only had time to marinate for about 90 minutes. Next time I’ll try to get to about 3 hours at room temperature.
But even with those notes, this really was good eating, and was at least as good or better the next day. The cilantro sauce Clark outlines is really lovely, a variation on chimichurri that is worth doing. For our second time around, my wife and I shredded the thigh meat to make simple tacos with more of the cilantro sauce and some avocado. Didn’t need anything more.
All that’s well and good, but merely a tease for the peak chicken experience we had recently. As y’all know, I’ve been mostly absent here for a while. Lots of reasons for that, from paralyzing political despair to the pressure of a book well past deadline, but probably the largest urge to silence is that it has been a tough year for losing the previous generation, both on my spouse’s side and mine. Too many, folks who shaped who we are and how we think, gone in that hurry that can sometimes happen when you’re in later middle age and foolish enough to care for people about a decade or two ahead of you. So (my point, and I do have one), one Sunday a couple of weeks ago, I was in a deeper-than-usual funk of melancholy, and my wife took it on herself to take care of me.
Her gift? Roast chicken in its most echt form. We got this from a friend who made it for us a while back, and then again from this TV episode.
It couldn’t be more simple. Take a chicken. Grab some goose fat, melt it in the microwave (just melt it — don’t get it really hot). Spoon a couple of tablespoons (or three, or four) under the skin, breasts and legs alike. Spread some more on the outside of the bird. Cut a lemon in half. Squeeze what you like of one half over the top of the chicken, and (having forked it a bit) put the other half in the cavity, along with a couple of sprigs of thyme and marjoram or whatever herbs you like. Chop up some more of the herbs, scatter it over the bird, along with salt and little pepper.
Put the chicken breast side down in a heavy pot — a cast iron skillet, an enameled cast iron dutch over, whatever you ahve — in a hot over. I’ve seen variations of the recipe call for as hot as 450 degrees, but we’ve got a pretty efficient convection oven and set that for 400, and it worked fine. About twenty to twenty five minutes in for our fairly small chicken (3.5 pounds) we flipped it. Another 10-15 and it was done.
It was spectacular. The essence of fowl.
There are only a couple of keys here. As there is no spice or sauce that masks the chicken itself, this calls for a really good bird; the best you can find.
The other is the fat. Duck fat is available in jars and that works great. We actually were able to use goose fat, though, and that lifted the recipe a notch. I and a couple of friends have a tradition of cooking one goose most years around the holidays. We render all the fat and save it, and give it as gifts. It happens I didn’t do my goose (with Cumberland sauce!) last winter, but one of my old teachers did, and gifted me a quart of the fat. It went into the freezer and we’ve been titrating it out over the year — and it really is the reason to do that big holiday bird.
But really any good fat will do. Render off some chicken fat over a couple of dinners. Cook a duck. Buy a jar of fat. Bacon grease would be a different accent, but would probably be grand. It doesn’t matter. This may be the cardiologist-full-employment recipe, but every now and then it is worth it to enjoy a bird in full.
So that’s how I’m dealing with the end of the American century. You?
Image: James T. Eglington, The Poultry Seller, 1839
TenguPhule
Checking off the list of things I want to enjoy while there’s still time.
Making good progress on it.
Feebog
The Missus is baking chicken thighs for dinner right now. We use garlic garni as a rub, gets right into the taste of the meat.
?BillinGlendaleCA
I’d be careful about saying “sue me”; there’s quite a few lawyers commenting here.
TenguPhule
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
The solution is to incorporate and have mandatory arbitration clauses for the blog.
NotMax
Everything’s better with schmaltz.
Gin & Tonic
The one certainty about cilantro is it turns anything you put it in or on into inedible garbage.
Gin & Tonic
Duck fat, on the other hand…
There’s a restaurant in Portland, Maine, called Duckfat. They fry their french fries in it. Goddamn, they’re good.
Manyakitty
Made a pot roast with ruby port gravy and 30-minute dinner rolls tonight. Drinking a tasty small batch hard cider alongside it.
I finally moved through enough despair to get some things done. Catching up from the near-paralysis that descended in November–just got up to my June documents at work, starting and finishing a few small knit and crochet projects.
Otherwise, watching stupid tv and petting my furry little physicists.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Gin & Tonic: We love cilantro.
Elizabelle
Lovely post. The chicken dishes sound divine.
My condolences on losing the elderly loved ones. It has been a tough year, all around.
oatler.
You had me at ‘carbuncle’. Let’s bring ‘catarrh’ back too!
Elizabelle
@Gin & Tonic: Some people cannot tolerate cilantro. Ina Garten is one of them, too.
I kind of like it, in moderation. Have had some delicious cilantro sauces, but have never made one.
Elizabelle
@Manyakitty: The pot roast sounds delish. And my sympathies on the paralysis. I feel the same way.
encephalopath
Oh, actual chicken dinner not Battlegrounds.
NotMax
@BillinGlendaleCA
Might as well shave some Ivory soap onto/into food.
Cheaper than that vile green stuff.
JPL
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Now we are going to start a war about whether or not it tastes like soap, aren’t we?
BTW Does anyone have recommendations for an instant pot?
SiubhanDuinne
@oatler.:
And the vapors!
Gin & Tonic
@JPL: My daughter has one of these and likes it quite a bit.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@JPL:
Seems to be where NotMax is taking it…
Manyakitty
@Elizabelle: Yeah, it was just right. The carrots and potatoes got a little crispy from the blast of heat at the end (from 325 to 400, so I could bake the rolls).
It’s finally cooling off here in NEOhio, so I can bring out the cozy recipes.
JPL
@Gin & Tonic: So instant pot is actually the name? hmm Thanks.. That is now on my list for gift ideas.
I saw a review for Melissa Clark’s recipe book for instant pots and assumed there were several types.
TenguPhule
@JPL:
Don’t you go bringing perfectly innocent soap into this.
Gin & Tonic
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I’m not in the habit of eating soap, so I can’t provide an educated comparison, but I can say that the flavor is so totally revolting that I can’t eat anything that contains it. Or parsley. I’d rather put dog shit on my food.
NotMax
@BillinGlendaleCA
Not at all.
Soap tastes better.
;)
Gin & Tonic
@JPL: There might be others, I don’t know. She got this one, and given her schedule and limited time for cooking finds it invaluable.
JPL
@?BillinGlendaleCA: funny.. I had not seen his comment.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Gin & Tonic: Interesting, I’ll sometimes eat the parsley they put on as a garnish. Both cilantro and parsley do have a bitter taste, but work well in the right types of food.
Barbara
I’ve been reading Shakespeare’s sonnets and playing word games. Reading and puzzles got me through childhood with a mentally ill father, I guess it will get me through adulthood with a mentally ill president.
TenguPhule
@Gin & Tonic:
Chinese parsley is a perfectly good garnish.
Of course, it helps if you cook it first.
Catherine D.
Melissa Clark contributes to the Splendid Table podcast, which covers odd corners of the food world. I haven’t made up my mind about the new host yet, but I’ll keep listening for the bits’n’bobs.
Mnemosyne
I’m currently sitting under the dryer at the hairdresser’s while my color sets. After that, the cutting, and figuring out what the nearby dinner options are that won’t be a pain in the ass with crutches (sprained knee).
This weekend is all about writing, first at the Writers Digest conference, and then at the NaNoWriMo kickoff party. I’m hoping to be able to write “The End” on my novel by November 30. ??
Barbara
@TenguPhule: Italian parsley has a better flavor than curly parsley. IMO.
Gin & Tonic
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I have no problem with bitter – chicory, radicchio, escarole, broccoli rabe, collards. There’s something about cilantro, though.
SiubhanDuinne
Tom, I’m sorry you and your wife have both suffered losses this year. Even though it’s ‘normal,’ it is still tough. I’m feeling it myself today, my mother’s 42nd Yahrzeit. Never quite come to terms with it. Anyhow, glad to see you posting again.
Major Major Major Major
I’m allergic to chicken, you monster.
Shana
This is my new favorite roast chicken dish:
Sumac Roast Chicken with Carrots and Chickpeas
Sumac paste: Mix together 2 T ground sumac, 1/2 t. ground cumin, 1/2 t. ground coriander, 1/2 t. red pepper flakes, 2 T. olive oil, salt and pepper, 2 cloves minced garlic, juice of 1/2 lemon.
Mix together 1 bag baby carrots, 1 can chickpeas, drained, 1 t. sweet paprika or ground aleppo pepper, 2 t. honey. Place in the bottom of your roasting pan, drizzle a little olive oil over veggies. Slather the sumac paste all over the chicken, place on top of veggies. Roast at 400 degrees for 1 1/2 hours or until chicken is done.
It’s from the Washington Post Food section of a couple of months ago. So good.
Omnes Omnibus
@Major Major Major Major: I am allergic to monsters, you chicken.
Major Major Major Major
@Mnemosyne: you can do it! Break a leg, knock em dead?
Pete Mack
If you like roast chicken, I strongly recommend the cookbook “A Bird in the Oven, and Then Some.” It has excellent recipes, including an elaborate one brining the bird for 24 hours in strong Lapsang tea with Chinese 5-spice. It’s utterly delicious. On the other end of the spectrum there’s a dead easy suggestion to put a mix of garlic and rosemary under the skin. (I make that rather more often.)
Feebog
@Gin & Tonic:
Cilantro is essential for a good ceviche. Also a Pacifico.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Omnes Omnibus: And clowns.
Mnemosyne
@Major Major Major Major:
And I thought it was weird that my co-worker is allergic to oatmeal.
Actually, she’s severely allergic to grass, and oatmeal is in that family. It turns out that sorghum flour is even worse — she had to use her EpiPen after she ate a gluten-free something that was made with sorghum flour.
Omnes Omnibus
@?BillinGlendaleCA: No, I am not allergic to clowns. I am scared of them.
TenguPhule
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Clowns are a subclass of monsters.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Omnes Omnibus:
Point taken.
As are all rational people.
TenguPhule
@Barbara: Only if you like strong bitter flavors.
For fried rice and soup, Chinese Parsley works better.
Betty Cracker
Mmmm, fooooood! Some great ideas in the post and thread. As my contribution, I’ll pass along my favorite roast chicken recipe, which is from my husband’s grandma.
GRANDMA F’S CINNAMON ROAST CHICKEN
INGREDIENTS:
1 5-lb. or so roasting chicken
5 medium potatoes, peeled and quartered
5 carrots, peeled and cut into large-ish pieces
1 head of garlic, roughly peeled with top cut off
5 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
Stick of butter, softened
Olive oil
Kosher salt
Freshly ground pepper
Cinnamon
INSTRUCTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350. Wash chicken and pat dry. Put garlic head in cavity, and place chicken in a large roasting pan (rack not necessary).
Place potatoes and carrots in a large bowl. Add all the butter save two tablespoons, pour in a few glugs of olive oil and add half the minced garlic. Salt and pepper generously, sprinkle lightly with cinnamon, then toss with your hands to coat. Turn potato and carrot mixture into roasting pan, arranging veggies around chicken.
Add a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, the rest of the butter and the rest of the garlic to the bowl that until recently held the veggies. Mix together with your hands, and rub mixture all over chicken. Work your fingers under skin on chicken breast and add some of the mixture there as well. Generously salt and pepper chicken, lightly sprinkle with cinnamon and place in oven.
Roast until done (usually about 2 hours for a 5-lb chicken), basting chicken and veggies every 20 minutes with pan juices. If the pan goes dry, drizzle chicken and veggies with olive oil.
When the chicken is done and golden brown, remove to serving plate and tent with foil. Allow to rest for 20 minutes or so. If the veggies are brown around the edges, they’re ready for serving. If not, give them a stir, turn up the heat in the oven and roast them until caramelized.
TenguPhule
@Mnemosyne:
As always, your optimism is so refreshing.
Major Major Major Major
@Mnemosyne: you just doubled the number of things I know about sorghum.
@TenguPhule: you’re thinking of chickens. Fuckin dinosaurs.
Omnes Omnibus
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I just saw a clown on the episode of Midsomer Murders that I am watching. I am going forward under the assumption that it will be the clown who commits the murder.
Major Major Major Major
@TenguPhule: don’t be a dick.
jl
Thanks for thoughts on chicken.
Thanksgiving is coming up, and given the state of the US government, time to move on to turkey.
Manyakitty
@Betty Cracker: Sounds delicious! Also makes me think of the cinnamon chicken incident from Little House on the Prairie.
Also, too, cinnamon is one of those spices that add a lot to savory dishes. Yum!
MomSense
@Gin & Tonic:
It’s so good. I broke my veggie habit temporarily for the poutine. Oh my but that is tasty.
Crap. Now I’m craving poutine and all I have in the house is some brown rice and broccoli.
Jeffro
I printed that recipe and can’t wait until next week to try it Tom
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Omnes Omnibus: Fair assumption.
debbie
@Gin & Tonic:
Easier to just grab a bar of soap.
TenguPhule
@Major Major Major Major:
Which makes it more enjoyable to eat them.
65 million years of karmic payback.
TenguPhule
@Major Major Major Major: I was being sincere.
If I was being a dick I would have used sarcasm tags.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
How the hell is Kiko Alonso still in this game?
debbie
@Betty Cracker:
Huh, never heard of cinnamon on chicken. I use cinnamon to take the tin taste out of canned tuna.
Gravenstone
@JPL: Sorry, but a percentage of the population lacks the enzyme required to be able to ‘enjoy’ the taste of cilantro. That percentage seems well represented here (myself included). No point arguing over biochemistry.
Major Major Major Major
@Gravenstone: apparently the influence of genetics in it is quite overstated.
JPL
@Gravenstone: So do they appreciate the smell of fresh cilantro? My guess would be no.
debbie
@JPL:
I can’t distinguish it from flat leaf parsley by smell unfortunately. I have to taste it and try not to spit it out on the store floor.
Betty Cracker
@Manyakitty: I missed that episode of Little House.
Steeplejack
@JPL:
I bought the eponymous Instant Pot when it was on a deep discount, and, though I have used it only a handful of times, I like it a lot. From my experience, it does what it’s supposed to do, and there are a lot of Web-based resources and hacks to support it.
When I went to Amazon to get the link for this I saw that there is now a three-quart version, which is interesting. I might have bought that if it was available before. It might be more useful for one or two people who don’t have to do big “family” cooking.
Elizabelle
@debbie: I never heard of that. How do you prepare the canned tuna, after the cinnamon? Interesting trick.
@Shana: That sounds delicious. Will give it a try.
And Betty’s cinnamon chicken. Maybe it will turn out tasting vaguely Middle Eastern. Mexico uses cinnamon too …
Major Major Major Major
Aliens time!
Omnes Omnibus
@?BillinGlendaleCA: If it’s not the clown, it just means that the clown was off to kill someone else in a different show.
schrodingers_cat
@Major Major Major Major: I used to hate cilantro when I was growing up but now I love it. It has many more uses than just as a garnish.
Pluky
@Gin & Tonic: depends on ones genetics. I forget which (and am too lazy now to google/wiki), but there is a gene with an allele that makes cilantro taste like soap to those carrying such. Similar to (but different receptor gene) the way some people cannot abide cruciferous vegetables.
schrodingers_cat
@Omnes Omnibus: You can’t talk about clowns this late at night. It will give me nightmares. Stop.
Omnes Omnibus
@schrodingers_cat: I can, but I won’t.
RAM
Lilly Tomlin: “I tried to be cynical, but I just couldn’t keep up.”
Steeplejack
@Steeplejack:
ETA: I bought mine mostly as an upgrade/replacement for my old slow cooker and thought the other functions might be nice to have. I was pleasantly surprised at what all it can do.
Manyakitty
@Betty Cracker: Laura and Nellie are fighting over Almanzo. Caroline was working at the restaurant and somehow switched cayenne for the cinnamon. Mua ha ha
normal liberal
@JPL:
There are many versions-Instant Pot is one brand, which makes a very popular and fairly inexpensive version of an electric pressure cooker, most of which can also do slow cooking like a crockpot. Several cooking appliance companies make them, and there are several sold under the brands of high-end cookware.
Last Christmas, like an idiot, I bought a snazzy version which worked just fine, until the LCD panel on which all of the programming is done, including powers levels and such, died. I now have a very bulky and expensive doorstop. In short, buy something with a track record.
I now have a stovetop pressure cooker.
Millard Filmore
@TenguPhule:
And a thick layer of shell corporations.
J R in WV
@Shana:
Some people are violently allergic to sumac.
We’re trying to live the good life, drinking sparkling white wines, prosecco, cava, even some champaign when I feel extravagant. We have a good fish shop in town, I sometimes pick up 1 trout and 1/2 a pint of oysters, trout for Mrs J and oysters for me, fried mostly.
Trying to make arrangements to go out to AZ for a couple of months come January, then drive back via national parks and maybe the pacific coast, weather, fire and earthquakes allowing. Travel, avoid Trumpistas, enjoy our retirement.
We have lost a close acquaintance, an organizer for environmental causes, who fought cancer (Yes, FUCK cancer!) for several years, worked through it until lately. So I know how sad it is for contemporaries to vanish suddenly. But you have to go on, live life to its fullest, that’s how we live up to the expectations of our deceased friends.
None of them want us to be sad forever, to stop living well. None of my friends, anyway.
Hang in there everyone!!!
normal liberal
@Steeplejack:
My temporary version (Breville, which apparently got a bad batch of displays, as I have a microwave with the same issue) is a 6 quart, which seemed like the minimum for things like pot roast or a bird of some kind. Smaller would be fine for stew, soup and stock, plus rice and other grains.
While it worked, mine did fantastic pot roast with vegetables tossed in. I’ve read that it is unbeatable for cooking eggs.
schrodingers_cat
@Manyakitty: Cinnamon, cloves and black pepper are key ingredients of garam masala.
debbie
@Elizabelle:
I just add it after the mayo (Hellmans of course). The tinniness varies from can to can, so I start with a quarter teaspoon. Sometimes I need to add a bit more mayo. It totally neutralizes the tinny taste.
dmsilev
I’m in the middle of my annual Operation Cake, trialing new recipes for use at Thanksgiving. I use my coworkers as test animals, and hence am very popular this time of year. Last week was a chocolate coconut cake, also courtesy of the NYT Cooking section (via their iPad app, so can’t link directly, but search on that name should get the link), and that apparently hit the sweet spot for some of my guinea pigs. When a fairly petite grad student comes up to you a couple of days later and says that she ate four pieces in an afternoon, that probably counts as an ‘I liked it’ review….
Next week, I’m vacillating between doing a babka recipe vs. a mousse cake. The former looks interesting and tasty, but needs so much time for dough rising etc. that it might not be a great choice for a busy Thanksgiving prep day.
Omnes Omnibus
@dmsilev: Trialing?
Manyakitty
@schrodingers_cat: Ooh, feeling inspired for the weekend, now! Thank you!
dmsilev
@jl:
Now taking bets on just how Trump will manage to fuck up the traditional pardoning of the turkey. Not whether he’ll fuck it up, that’s a given, but in what way.
dmsilev
@Omnes Omnibus: Well, with new recipes I want to know whether they’re any good before serving them to family at a holiday meal. So, test versions get brought into the office. Its ok, students will eat just about anything, even the less-successful recipes.
NotMax
@debbie
Switched a while back to Italian canned tuna. Superior to American brands by any metric. Costs just a little more but worth it. Brand sold at the local Costco is Genova.
Have also gotten into the habit of adding a touch of wasabi to the mayo.
Omnes Omnibus
@dmsilev: I understood what you were saying. I was just appalled by the newly invented verb.
Mike in NC
I have asthma and eating salsa with cilantro seems to bring it on.
dmsilev
@Omnes Omnibus: Hate to break it to you, but that word has been around for the last half-century or so. Not my fault.
Amir Khalid
@Omnes Omnibus:
That verb has been around for a while among people who do the kind of trials not taking place in a courtroom.
Sandia Blanca
@Gravenstone: href=”https://flavourjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/2044-7248-1-22″>It’s SCIENCE, people!
Some of us are fortunate enough to taste the cilantro-y goodness.
Omnes Omnibus
@dmsilev: Cite?
Omnes Omnibus
@Amir Khalid: I call abomination.
dmsilev
@Omnes Omnibus: Google Trends, which had usage going back to the 1970s. Mostly in a business context, introducing new products and the like.
Gin & Tonic
@Omnes Omnibus: Used as a verb for (at least) a form of motorcycle and bicycle riding.
Sandia Blanca
Let’s try this link again.
Omnes Omnibus
@dmsilev: Jebus. Don’t give in to the marketing people.
@Gin & Tonic: I will accept that.
Elizabelle
@debbie: I’m going to try that. Thank you. First time I’ve ever heard your cinnamon trick.
And interested in NotMax’s Costco Italian tuna too. Love canned tuna.
normal liberal
@dmsilev:
What’s wrong with “testing,” or even the humble “trying?” Do all nouns require conversion to a verb form?
I for one refuse to surrender the language to the whims of the MBA class.
Mike in NC
@NotMax: Kikkoman Wasabi Sauce. Yum.
Omnes Omnibus
@normal liberal: Thank you. That is my point. Also, why say utilize when the word use is available?
debbie
@NotMax:
Sometimes I use soy sauce and lime juice instead of mayo.
debbie
@normal liberal:
Thanks for unpacking that. ?
Mike J
I thought this was going to be a pubg post.
normal liberal
@Omnes Omnibus:
My profession is awash in quasi-techno jargon, and it’s a constant struggle to quash it, even (okay, especially) in my own writing. It’s made me a bit militant.
Steeplejack
@Omnes Omnibus, @normal liberal:
Thank you for manning the usage ramparts while I sulk like Achilles in my tent.
Omnes Omnibus
@normal liberal: Hey, I am a lawyer.
Mnemosyne
@TenguPhule:
That’s it, you’re off the beta reader list.
dww44
@Catherine D.: I didn’t know there was a new host? Who is it? I don’t listen as much these days as am not on the road as much traveling as formerly. i so enjoyed the couple that went all over discovering good food in unlikely places.
joel hanes
@Gin & Tonic:
[hates on cilantro]
I understand that your response w/r/t cilantro is probably genetic
I am so sorry. Seems like a profound disability to me.
How are you with anchovies?
Blue cheeses ?
joel hanes
losing the elderly loved ones.
A sister in law, 71 years old, and a couple weeks later, a brother in law, age 59
September sucked.
joel hanes
@Major Major Major Major:
chickens. Fuckin dinosaurs.
Yes. Outside of the seaducks and fish ducks and raptors, the archosaurs we know are mostly delicious.
So we can truly say that some descendants of dinosaurs are very tasty.
Origuy
If we’re very lucky, Trump will have nothing to do with pardoning a turkey, and we can dispense with this stupid tradition.
MattF
@joel hanes: Love blue cheese– in fact, any stinky cheese. Try Cowgirl Creamery’s Red Hawk, sometimes available at your local Whole Foods. But beware– it will get soft and slimy and then will attempt to take over your refrigerator.
Cilantro, no thanks. Julia Child characterized the taste of cilantro as ‘dirt’.
Catherine D.
@dww44:
The new host is Francis Lam. Lynn retired.
workworkwork
@JPL: I got one, too, on the advice of a nutritionist.
It was a bit intimidating to start with, but once I tried a few simple recipes, I really love it.