Ready, Set, Go: One Chicken Makes 3 Meals

Living in a coronavirus world means that markets are stressed by shoppers who need more supplies since they are cooking at home and because people are buying extra. Finding a whole chicken may take a bit of work, but the results are well-worth the effort. 

Restaurants are closed. The home kitchen is now more important than ever. What's needed are easy-to-make recipes that yield not just one but several meals.

A roasted whole chicken is a great way to go.

After you have enjoyed the hot-from-the-oven chicken, by using the bones and pan drippings, you can make a stock, which in turn can be used to make soups and sauces.

My mother and grandmother taught me that to waste food is a sin. In this case, that means always reserving the pan drippings, giblets, neck, heart, bones and carcass of the chicken to make a best-ever stock that you can use to make a delicious chicken-vegetable-rice soup or chicken and dumplings.

If a liver came with the chicken, use it to make a tasty mushroom-chicken liver pate for an amuse bouche.

Serve the whole chicken with sides or make the one chicken serve up several meals by combining a leg, wing or part of the breast with steamed rice and a chopped parsley salad.

Easy to Make, No Fuss Whole Roast Chicken

I have a friend who doesn't cook. For her, a roasted chicken is the ideal dish because it has only a few simple steps. 

As with anything in life, begin with good ingredients to achieve better results. That is especially true in cooking. Buy a good plump, pale-pink chicken, preferably one that was raised without hormones. 

Check the expiration date to confirm it is fresh. 

One chicken 3 1/2 - 4 pounds feeds 4 people. If you are feeding fewer people, the chicken will provide you with even more meals. 

If you aren't going to eat all the meat and stock within 2 days, use plastic wrap to wrap the cooked chicken, place the pieces inside a sealed plastic bag and freeze. 

To freeze the stock, place the liquid in sealable containers, preferably 8 or 16 oz for easy use. 

Only use Diamond Crystal kosher salt. All the other brands I've seen add chemical preservatives. Diamond Crystal does not.

Use a roasting sheet tray larger than the chicken, with 1" sides.  A sheet tray with sides lower than a roasting pan facilitates browning on the sides of the chicken. 

Line the bottom with aluminum foil and, if available, a Silpat sheet. 

If a Silpat (non-stick) sheet is not available, lining the pan with aluminum foil is sufficient for easy-clean up. The advantage of a Silpat sheet is that all the delicious drippings slide off easily and can be added to the stock. 

Silpat sheets are widely available in many supermarkets, at all cooking supply stores and online. Use a Silpat sheet that fits the dimensions of your pan.

Truss the chicken with kitchen twine if you want. 

As an option, place Yukon Gold potatoes, brown mushrooms and yellow onions on the bottom of the roasting pan when you turn over the chicken. They will acquire flavor from the drippings. Serve the vegetables with the chicken or use in a soup.

 Serves 4

Time to prep: 15 minutes

Time to cook: 60 - 90 minutes depending on size of chicken

Time to rest before serving: 5 minutes

Special Cooking Tools 

Roasting sheet tray (with a 1" rim)

Aluminum foil and Silpat sheet (optional) to fit the roasting sheet tray

12"-14" kitchen tongs

Roasting rack (optional)

Cooking twine (optional)

Ingredients for roasting

1 whole 3 1/2 - 4 pound chicken, washed, liver, giblets, neck and heart if included, removed, washed and reserved separately

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

4 medium sized Yukon Gold potatoes, washed, quartered (optional)

1 large yellow onion, washed, peeled, root end and top removed, quartered (optional)

6 brown mushrooms, washed, stem end removed, leave whole (optional)

Directions

First, wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water (remember the 20 second drill), then wash the chicken inside and out with water (no soap). Dry off the outside of the chicken.

Preheat the oven to 400F.

Prepare a roasting pan by lining the bottom with aluminum foil. Place a Silpat sheet on top of the foil and, if available, a roasting rack on top of the Silpat sheet and aluminum foil.

Drizzle olive oil inside and outside the whole chicken and season with sea salt and freshly ground pepper.

Place the chicken breast-side down on a roasting rack, if available. If one is not available, place the chicken breast-side down directly on the aluminum foil/Silpat sheet lined roasting pan and place into the oven.

Cook 30 minutes.

Using oven mitts, remove the chicken from the oven. Place on stove top and use tongs to turn over the chicken so now it is breast-side up.

Add vegetables to the bottom of the roasting pan (optional).

Cook another 30 minutes or until the legs move easily.

Remove from the oven. Place a sheet of aluminum foil on the top. Allow the chicken to rest, to release its juices.

That's it.

To make chicken stock from the bones and pan drippings, please look below to the directions for Making Chicken Stock.

Feta-Brined Roasted Whole Chicken

My favorite roast chicken takes a bit more effort (not that much!) and seven additional ingredients.

To make the roast chicken more festive, I add feta and onions on top. Neither are essential but they add delicious flavors.

Brining the whole chicken for two hours or overnight makes the meat more tender and moist. That extra step is well worth it, but can be omitted.

One chicken 3 1/2 - 4 pounds feeds 4 people. If you are feeding fewer people, the chicken will provide you with even more meals. If you aren't going to eat all the meat and stock within 2 days, wrap the chicken in plastic wrap inside a sealed plastic bag and freeze. To freeze the stock, place the liquid in a sealable container, preferably 8 or 16 oz for easy use. 

My mother and grandmother taught me that to waste food is a sin. In this case, that means always reserving the pan drippings, giblets, neck, heart, bones and carcass of the chicken to make a best-ever stock that you can use to make delicious chicken-vegetable-rice soup or chicken and dumplings.

If a liver came with the chicken, use it to make a tasty mushroom-chicken liver pate to serve as an amuse bouche.

Only use Diamond Crystal kosher salt. All the other brands I've seen put in chemical additives. Diamond Crystal does not.

Use a roasting pan with 1" sides to facilitate browning on the sides of the chicken. 

Line the roasting pan first with aluminum foil and then with a Silpat sheet. If a Silpat (non-stick) sheet is not available, lining the pan with aluminum foil is sufficient for easy-clean up. The advantage of a Silpat sheet is that all the delicious drippings slide off easily and can be added to the stock. Silpat sheets are widely available in many supermarkets, at all cooking supply stores and online. Use a Silpat sheet that fits the dimensions of your pan.

You do not have to truss the chicken with kitchen twine. 

Before beginning, carefully wash the inside and outside of the chicken with fresh water. If brining, place the washed chicken into the liquid. If not, pat dry and season with olive oil, sea salt and freshly ground black pepper on the inside and outside.

 Serves 4

Time to brine: at least two hours or overnight

Time to prep: 15 minutes

Time to cook: 60 - 90 minutes depending on size of chicken

Time to rest before serving: 5 minutes

Special Cooking Tools 

Roasting sheet tray (with a 1" rim)

Aluminum foil and Silpat sheet to fit the roasting sheet tray

12"-14" kitchen tongs

Roasting rack (optional)

Cooking Twine (optional)

Ingredients for roasting

1 whole 3 1/2 - 4 pound chicken, washed, liver, giblets, neck and heart if included, removed, washed and reserved separately

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Ingredients for the brine

1/4 cup fresh feta, preferably Bulgarian (because it is less expensive), crumbled

2 tablespoons kosher salt

1 tablespoon white sugar

4 bay leaves, whole

1/4 teaspoon whole black peppercorns

Ingredients for the topping

1 medium onion, washed, top and root end removed, peeled, sliced thin from the top to the bottom

1/2 cup Italian parsley, stems and leaves, washed, drained, finely chopped

1/4 cup fresh feta, Bulgarian, crumbled

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Small bowl of flake salt (optional) on the table

Directions for brining

Use twine to tie together the legs and wings (optional)

Place the chicken, salt, sugar and aromatics into a large heavy plastic bag or a container with a lid. Fill with cold water until the chicken is submerged. Seal. If using a plastic bag, place in a large bowl so the water doesn't leak.

Refrigerate at least two hours or overnight.

Directions for Roasting

Preheat oven to 400F.  Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and a Silpat sheet on top of the foil for easier cleanup. Place a roasting rack on top of the lined baking sheet. If no roasting rack is available, place the chicken directly on the lined baking sheet, breast side down.

Remove the chicken from the brine. Rinse, pat dry and allow to rest uncovered for 10 minutes.

Pour the brine through a colander to capture the feta. Discard the brining aromatics. Remove the feta and reserve.

In a bowl, mix together the feta from the brine, the additional feta, onion, parsley, sea salt and black pepper.

Rub olive oil over the chicken. Add remaining olive oil to the feta-onion-parlsey topping and mix well. Set aside.

Place chicken onto the roasting rack if one is available, breast down and put into the preheated oven. Roast for thirty minutes or until the skin is brown and crisp to the touch.

Reduce oven to 350F.

Using tongs, turn over the chicken, being careful not to tear the skin. Place the chicken breast-side up on the roasting rack.

Cover the breast-side up chicken with the feta-onion-parlsey topping.  The mound of onions will seem large, but will greatly reduce during cooking. If any bits fall onto the bottom of the baking tray, no worries, you can scoop them up later.

Return to the oven. After 30 minutes, check for doneness. Wiggle a chicken leg. If there is resistance, the chicken needs more time. If the topping is getting too brown, place a sheet of aluminum over the top like a tent. Roast another 15 minutes and check for doneness. Continue roasting until the leg moves freely.

Remove from the oven and place a sheet of aluminum foil over the top so the chicken rests for 5 minutes.

Remove aluminum foil. Carve in the kitchen or at the table. Use a recently sharpened knife or kitchen sheers. Plate the chicken with the charred onion-feta-parsley mix on top.

Serve hot with sides of roasted potatoes, squash or salt boiled spinach.

Place a small bowl of flake salt on the table. The crunch of the salt will add to the pleasures of the dish.

Making chicken stock

Once the chicken has been carved, reserve all the bones and pan drippings. If there isn't time to make stock that night, refrigerate and make the next day.

I prefer to make my chicken stock without aromatics or seasoning beyond the flavors provided during roasting. That way, when you use the stock to make soup or a sauce, you can add whatever flavors you want.

To make the stock, add the bones, pan drippings, reserved neck, heart and gizzard to a 3-4 quart pot and add fresh water to cover by 2".

Place on the stove on a medium-high flame, bring to a low boil and simmer 60 minutes or until the liquid has reduced by 1/3. Taste and continue simmering until the flavor is to your liking.

Allow to cool. Strain the liquid into a bowl.  Remove the bones, neck, heart and gizzard. Pick the meat off the bones and reserve the gizzard. The meat and gizzard can be used in a salad, to make chicken and dumplings or to add to a chicken-vegetable soup.

Place stock into containers with lids. 8 and 16 oz containers are useful. An 8 oz container will make a sauce. A 16 oz container will make soup for one.

The soup can be kept frozen for 3-4 months without hurting the quality. When you remove the frozen stock from the freezer, use fresh water to rinse off any ice crystals that might have formed on the top of the stock.

To make a soup, sauté cut up vegetables in olive oil until lightly browned, add chicken stock and parts of the chicken like the gizzard, a leg or wing. Simmer covered until vegetables soften. Serve hot.

Have a Picnic for Super Bowl Sunday - Kimchi Chicken Wings, Salads & So Much More

A week to go for Super Bowl Sunday and I have my menu planned. No chips or dips. No ordering in (although a sausage pizza with mushrooms, onions and extra cheese would be nice). A great game deserves great food.

I'm making favorite dishes, ones designed to share at a picnic or at buffet-style Super Bowl watching party.

I love my kimchi chicken wings (see below), sticky sweet with heat, moist and tender. Nothing is better except fried chicken the way chef Wes Whitsell showed me for a cooking video we did when he was at Manuela DTLA. His fried chicken is crispy and moist. For the cooking demonstration he made wings, thighs and legs. He doesn't like breasts because they don't have enough flavor. I pretty much agree. For my pot luck contribution, I'm making cut apart wings and legs, the easiest parts to eat at a picnic.

I'm also making carrot salad with golden raisins soaked in lemon juice & seasoned with black pepper, Yukon gold potato salad with charred corn & parsley, a charred corn & vegetable salad, roasted beet salad, garbanzo bean salad with charred onions & Lacinato (purple) kale, salt boiled broccoli florets and a buttermilk custard pie I saw Martha Stewart demonstrate on her PBS show.

I'll also make an Italian parsley salad with chopped vegetables and pitted olives and a Little Gem lettuce salad with carrot rounds and feta cheese, served with whole wheat lavash.

Only recently did I discover Little Gem lettuce. First, at Glatt, a kosher market, on Pico east of Robertson and then at the Wednesday Santa Monica Farmers Market at the Garden of Organic stand. At first I thought they were "baby" romaine lettuces. They have a cleaner, crisper flavor, with less water and more crunch. Wrapped in a damp kitchen towel and placed into a plastic bag, the heads will keep fresh in the refrigerator for three weeks.

Here's the recipe I'll use for the Super Bowl (which is exactly the recipe I use when I make the salad at home except sometimes I'll trade out the feta for blue cheese).

Crispy Little Gem Lettuce Salad

When making the salad, leave the leaves whole so they don't wilt.

For the olives, use any kind you enjoy. We like Castelvetrano Green olives, which can be found pitted for easy use, although olives taste best when not pitted.

Serves 4

Time to prepare: 20 minutes

Ingredients

2 heads Little Gem Lettuce, leaves removed whole, washed, pat dried

1 large carrot, washed, ends removed, peeled, cut into thin rounds

1 large tomato, stem end removed, washed, pat dried, cut into dime size pieces

1 cup pitted olives, roughly chopped

1 scallion, ends removed, washed, brown leaves discarded, cut into paper thin rounds (optional)

1/2 cup feta, pat dried, crumbled

1 medium avocado, washed, peeled, pit and any brown spots removed, cut into dime sized pieces

1/2 cup homemade croutons (optional)

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar, reduced over a low flame to 2 teaspoons, cooled

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Directions

Lay the Little Gem leaves in the bottom of a serving bowl. Sprinkle on the carrots, tomatoes, olives, scallions (optional), feta, avocado and croutons (optional).

Just before serving, season with sea salt and black pepper, drizzle on olive oil and reduced balsamic vinegar.

Serve with a knife and fork.

Kimchi Chicken Wings

Chicken wings are sold whole, the drumstick only or the two-bone part. If you prefer one part of the wing over another, buy only those. The whole chicken wing will be less expensive and the wing tips can be roasted and used to create stock.

Do not use the whole chicken wing, which is too difficult to eat. 

I prefer preservative-free kimchi. I have been enjoying Mommy Boss napa cabbage kimchi. Read the label carefully because there are different kinds of kimchi, I would recommend only using cabbage kimchi without dried shrimp.

Serves 4

Time to prepare: Marinate overnight, prep 20 minutes, bake 60 minutes

Ingredients

2 pounds chicken wings

1 cup kimchi, without preservatives

1/2-3/4 cup brown sugar, depending on taste

1 medium yellow onion, washed, pat dried, peeled, root and stem removed, thin sliced from root to stem

1/4 cup kimchi liquid

1 tablespoon olive oil

Directions

Thinly slice kimchi and mix together with onion slices, brown sugar, kimchi liquid and olive oil.

Add chicken wing parts to marinade. Mix well. Place in a covered bowl or sealed plastic bag. Refrigerate over night.

Preheat oven to 350F.

Prepare a roasting pan. Line the bottom with aluminum foil. Because the drippings are sticky (and delicious!) I place a Silpat sheet on top of the aluminum foil so I can easily retrieve the bits of caramelized onions and kimchi. Place a wire on top of the aluminum foil and Silpat sheet.

Place the chicken wings on top of the wire rack, allowing space between each part to allow for even cooking. Reserve the liquid marinade with the onions and kimchi.

Place wings into preheated oven.

While the wings are roasting, place the reserved marinade into a small sauce pan and reduce the liquid by 1/2 over a low heat.

Remove wings from the oven after 30 minutes.

Turn wings over and baste with reduced marinade, placing onion and kimchi slices on each wing.

Return to oven.

After 30 minutes, remove and check for doneness. The onions and kimchi slices should be lightly browned and beginning to crisp. The wings should be tender. If not, return to oven and continue baking. Check every 10 minutes for doneness.

Serve hot as an appetizer or on top of steamed rice. The wings are delicious at room temperature, perfect for a picnic. However they are served, have a good supply of napkins available.

New York City Restaurant Recommendations for an LA Friend Who Is Visiting the City

Ever since I was a babe-in-arms, I have visited New York every year from my home in Los Angeles.  I grew up visiting New York City because my grandmother lived on 110th close to Amsterdam, with a view of St. John the Divine. 

For several years I taught at RIC in Providence, R.I., so I visited more frequently. Since I am now LA-based, on average I visit the city at least twice a year. 

When I visit, it's only for a few days, which means I walk a lot (LA is a city-for-cars-only) and I revisit my favorites. 

New York City has thousands of restaurants and millions of residents and visitors. Everyone has their favorite restaurants. These are mine.

Downtown

Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese (you can see posts on Instagram - mr.manmade):

Nha Trang One Restaurant

87 Baxter Street, NYC 10013

212) 233-5948

#18 salt/pepper shrimp + order a plate of steamed rice

The shrimp arrive on a mountain of shredded lettuce. Delicious. Add shrimp, lettuce and rice together for a tasty treat. The menu has all the Vietnamese favorites (pho, vermicelli noodle dishes and rice with bbq meats) as well as some Chinese dishes. Be careful about the steps from the sidewalk into the restaurant. 

88 Lan Zhou Handmade Noodle & Dumpling

40 Bowery south of Canal Street,  NY 10013,  (646) 683-0939

Great noodles and pork filled dumplings. I always get the ground pork in sauce with bok chow with noodles. So delicious. And a side order of pork filled dumplings (steamed). Frozen dumplings (meat and vegetarian) can be purchased to bring home. I always bring freezer packs so I can carry him a package of frozen dumplings in my suitcase.

Tasty Hand-Pulled Noodles 

1 Doyers Street NYC 10013

212/791-1817

I like the pork soup with #1 noodles and pork dumplings. The soup is to-die-for delicious.  I’ve had rice with vegetables and meat and also noodles with the same combination. Dishes featuring soup, rice or noodles are all good. It just depends what you're in the mood for. The plates are large so come with a friend. 

The street level dining room is tiny. When they are busy, which they are often, there is a “cozy” dining room downstairs that is more comfortable than you would expect as you descend the narrow staircase lined with boxes.

Tasty Hand-Pulled Noodles is on the same tiny street as Nom Wah Tea Parlor, a tourist favorite, which I think is pricey for the dim sum you get, but the interior is fun. 13–15 Doyers Street, NYC 10013, (212) 392-6800.

Goemon Curry - Japanese curry in Nolita

29 Kenmare Street (at Mott) west of Bowery, south of Houston, 212/226-1262, Cash only. Close to Subway J & Z (Bowery) or B & D (Grand)

Large portions of well made curry. The Yakuzen soup curry with chicken and vegetables and Mama's curry with chicken, potato, carrot and steamed rice are very good. 

Szechuan Mountain House 19-23 St Mark’s Place near Cooper’s Union and NYU, (917) 388-3866.

Upscale but affordable. You can order dishes as spicy or not as spicy as you like. It’s on the 2nd floor of a building that seems to be undergoing perpetual construction.

Doughnut Plant

Located around the city. I go to the branch in the Hotel Chelsea, 220 W 23rd Street bt 7th & 8th

212/675-9100

Great cake donuts. 

Long Island City

Adda Indian Canteen is an amazingly good Indian restaurant that is easy to get to by subway, recommended by Barbara Chenitz who eats out as often as she attends theater. Babs is my go-to-person for both. She convinced me that Long Island City was easy to get to so we had a fabulous lunch at Adda Indian Canteen, 31-31 Thompson Avenue, Long Island City, NY 11101, 718/433-3888, @Addanyc, email: hello@addanyc.com

Los Angeles Restaurant Recommendations for a Friend who Lives in New York

Sometimes out of town friends ask for restaurant recommendations. The restaurants I love in Los Angeles are spread all over town and they usually aren't ones that are famous. 

I thought I'd share the list with you.

Adana Restaurant

6918 San Fernando Road, Glendale 91201 818/843-6237

Delicious food. Written about by me, Mark Bittman and Jonathan Gold. We all love it. The chef, Edward Khechemyan, is a hard working, inventive man. The food is freshly made. Affordable. Delicious.

Here are links to reviews:

Mark Bittman

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/28/magazine/this-armenian-life.html?_r=0

Jonathan Gold

http://www.latimes.com/food/la-fo-0307-gold-adana-restaurant-20150307-story.html

David Latt

http://menwholiketocook.blogspot.com/search/label/Adana%20Restaurant

Yabu 

11820 W. Pico Blvd

LA CA 90064

 (310) 473-9757

The best affordable sushi, tempura, udon and soba in LA. An intimate, cozy, friendly space. 

Here is my review:

http://menwholiketocook.blogspot.com/2011/08/yabu-in-west-los-angeles-authentic.html

La Fiesta Brava

259b Hampton Drive, Venice, CA 90291
310/399-8005, open 7 days a week 10:30am-9:00pm

A hole in the wall restaurant owned by a family. When I first visited in their original location on Rose Avenue, the restaurant was actually in a house that had been converted into a cafe. Their new location on Hampton Drive is more cafe-traditional, but this is as close as you’ll get to eating in a Mexican family’s home without going to a Mexican family’s home. The chicken mole is fantastic. Michelle loves the pepper shrimp in the shell with beans and rice. The fish taco is actually a whole grilled fish filet on a handmade tortilla topped with creamy salsa. The food is really good. 

My review:

http://menwholiketocook.blogspot.com/2014/09/la-fiesta-brava-delights-with-old.html

Ready, Set, Go. Sharpen Your Knives for Thanksgiving and Holiday Entertaining

I enjoy cooking the most when I've taken the time to plan what I'm cooking. I made a recipe list and finished the shopping. The kitchen is cleared of clutter. The ingredients are organized and my knives are sharpened.

That preparation is most important when we're having a dinner party or a seasonal celebration. Right now, that means Thanksgiving.

In reviewing the recipes we want to use, we culled out ones that weren't as good last year as we hoped and searched for dishes that take us in new directions. We confirmed our standby favorites like roasted Brussel sprouts, cornbread stuffing with apricots and shiitake mushrooms, kosher and Moroccan style pickles, whole roasted tomatoes, made-from-scratch cranberry sauce and so many more.

We're organizing all the kitchen implements we need. Roasting pans, turkey baster, oven thermometer and, most importantly, that our knives are sharp.

A Good Knife is a Sharp Knife

If you enjoy cooking, you know the value of a good knife. There is nothing so unsatisfying as using dull knives to prepare a big meal like Thanksgiving dinner. The chopping and carving that should be a delight become a tedious, unhappy chore.

Over the years, I have put together a good collection of carbon stainless steel knives. I prefer Japanese style knives with their thiner blades and harder steel.

I have a filleting knife, a half dozen pairing knives, a serrated bread knife, utility knifes and several chefs knives. I also have a sushi knife for those occasions when I want to make thin slices of raw fish to serve on steamed rice or on a fresh green salad.

I want my knives with me wherever I am. Even when I travel, packed safely in my checked luggage, I always carry one of the pairing knives and a chef knife.

Cooking is one of the best ways to explore a destination if you have a kitchen where you are staying. Shopping puts you close to the local rhythms of life and cooking with fresh, local products is so much fun.

Or, if you are staying with friends, nothing says "thank you for letting me be a guest in your home" than making a meal for your hosts.

But a knife is only as good its edge. When you feel the knife drag as you slice a carrot or cut through a chicken breast, you know it's time to sharpen the blade.

For many years I used a steel rod, the kind butchers use to carve a thick pork chop or trim a rack of spareribs. But when the steel rod didn't give me the sharp edge I wanted, I switched to an electric knife sharpener. That made all the deference. Every couple of weeks, when I noticed that slicing a tomato wasn't as easy as it used to be, I'd run the knives through the sharpener and I'd be back in business.

I was perfectly happy with the knife sharpener I had, and then, I was asked to try the Work Sharp E5.

The Work Sharp E5 Electric Kitchen Knife Sharpener

When I used my old knife sharpener, my knives sharpened up nicely, but they didn't hold their edge. Now that I've been using the E5, I find my knives are sharper than before and they hold their edge longer.

Created by Work Sharp Culinary, the E5, its sister the E3 and the newest and most economical the E2-S sharpen every type of kitchen knife.

The more expensive E5 sharpens as well as the E3 with the added advantage of timed sharpening. Draw the knife through the sharpening slot, once, twice or as many times as necessary. The machine can sense when the edge is sharp and turns off.

To finish the sharpening processes, both the E3 and E5 come with a ceramic honing rod for fine tuning your blades. The E5 honing rod has an ingenious addition. On the side of the handle, a v-shaped notch is actually a MicoForge, designed to clean up the edge of your knife blade, extending its sharpness and giving you more control when you are slicing.

The E3 and E5 will also sharpen blades that are sharp on only one side like serrated bread knives, scissors, kitchen shears and my Japanese sushi knife.

Unlike my old sharpener which relies on factory installed disks to straighten and sharpen. The E3 and E5 use replaceable belts of varying grades (extra coarse, coarse, medium and fine). Color coded, they are easily replaced by flipping open the front panel and threading around three rollers. The belts slide off and on with ease.

The 17° guide that comes with the E3 and E5 works well with both East and West style knives. For a finer edge, I was given an Upgrade Kit which includes 15° (East) and 20° (West) guides and an expanded selection of belts.

Since my knives are mostly made in Japan, I switched out the 17° for the 15° guide. I'll be interested to see if I notice a difference in time.

Right now I'm seeing a big improvement in the sharpness of my knives.  Of course, the true test will be Thanksgiving, when all hands and all knives will be pressed into action to bring the half a dozen salads, dozen side dishes and a carved turkey to the table.

Ready, Set, Prep: Planning Makes Thanksgiving a Lot More Fun

Thanksgiving was my mother's favorite holiday. She loved the food, the gathering of friends and family and the positive outlook of a holiday that sought to bring everyone to the table. My wife and I enjoy having a gathering at our house as a time to celebrate what is good about our life, to see family and friends we don't see often enough and to have a really great feast.

Because we host the meal at our house, there is a lot to do.

Whether you are hosting a dinner of six or twenty-six, with so many dishes part of the celebration, planning is essential. And that means being prepared. Planning ahead ultimately means less stress and more fun on Thanksgiving. 

The First Step - Make a List 

Step 1 - as soon as you decide you will host, invite the guests so you have a head-count and ask who will bring a favorite Thanksgiving dish

Step 2 - pull out the recipes you want to make, make an ingredients list and a preparation time line (some dishes like pickles can be made the week before, some like an apple pie and the turkey are best made on Thanksgiving)

Step 3 - clean the house

Step 4 - borrow extra chairs

Step 5 - pull the extra table out of the garage

Step 6 - shop

Step 7 - cook

Step 8 - eat

Step 9 - clean up

Step 10 - lie down

The recipes we use are a mix of the ones we've perfected over the years and a couple that are new to us. We want to have the favorites and also to shake it up a bit, to have some surprises.

Among the favorites are kosher dill pickles, corn bread stuffing with Italian sausage and shiitake mushrooms, cranberry sauce with nuts and orange juice, shiitake mushroom-turkey liver pate and chocolate banana walnut cake.

I've already made the Moroccan style pickles that I learned to make on a trip to Marrakech. The kosher dill pickles only need 2-3 days to cure, so I'll make those on Monday of Thanksgiving week.

10 Delicious Holiday Recipes

To help prepare for Thanksgiving, I published an e-cookbook 10 Delicious Holiday Recipes.

The ten recipes are easy-to-make, festive and fun. With a recipe for roasting a perfect Thanksgiving turkey with stuffing.

Using the Kindle App you can read the recipes on any smart phone, computer or tablet. The app is free and downloads easily.

I hope you'll buy my book and let me help you plan your holiday meals with recipes for special cocktails, appetizers, salads, sides, entrees and really delicious desserts.