chicken and artichoke stew

This recepe comes from Everyday Food, and it is delicious! Try it served over rice.
a rotisserie chicken
2 tablespoons butter
2 large onions, finely chopped
1/2 cup all purpose flour
3 1/2 cups reduced sodium chicken broth
6 medium carrots, cut into 1/2 inch rounds
1 teaspoon dried thyme
2 14 oz cans quartered artichoke hearts, drained and rinsed

Cook the onions in the butter till golden, about five minutes. Stir in the flour and cook one more minute. Add the broth slowly, along with 1/2 cup water. Add the carrots, thyme, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Simmer till carrots are almost tender, about five minutes. Strip the chicken meat off of the rotissery chicken in bits, and add it to the pot and simmer about 10 minutes. Add the artichokes and cook just until warmed, about 1 minute. Serve over rice or noodles.
Note: if you forget to rinse the artichokes, like I did the first time I made this recipe, there is a strong vinegary taste. Also, you can buy 3 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs, and cook the chicken for the recipe, which makes it a little cheaper, but also more time consuming and messier.

another work poem

This poem was written after editing the last. This poem is not about a particular kitchen, but rather kitchens in general. I put it together with a lot of rhyming, but no end rhyme, which was kind of fun.
in the fray- kitchen day
This poor room needs a broom and a mop
for to sop all the mess. My best guess?
Mister sly did not try once to clean,
that's soon seen (sooner smelt, even felt)
What a guy- me, oh my. Not too nice,
he spilled rice. He left grit, is that spit?
With cookie crumbs, jam of plum, sticky goo,
kitty poo, slime of lime, so much grime!
Now to zoom round the room. Once we clean,
it will gleam. No more stye, by and by.

WH 407 Kit

Here is a fun poem about a kitchen that I cleaned this last summer. It was the dirtiest that I had ever come across, and I felt that it merited a poem. WH stands for west hall, 407 the appartment number and Kit is short for kitchen- it is the way our assignments appear on the board in the morning.
WH 407 Kit
the ice is an inch thick
in the freezer,
not frosty white
but berry blue, cherry red,
and a smear of I don't know what
artistically placed on the back panel.
Spatters of greese
recklessly fly to the walls
from the ferocious oven beast
devouring its prey fried
while crumbs crumble in the cupboards
and hairs hang loose on the floor
but they all tremble at the approach
of the cleaning crew
who comes to wipe out
those gritty crumbs
those smelly spills
and gooey gobs
those left-overs
left-unders
left-ins

why felines prove that God created animals

Felines prove that God created animals because their many different parts are put together with such purrrfection that chance could in no way account for it. Take first their skeletal structure- flexible, light, and with a tail for ballance in jumping and climbing. Their claws are excellently suited for catching prey (and playing). Their muscles are formed for daring leaps to many times their own height. There is also their keen sense of eyesight and their rotating ears- the better to hear, of course. Not to mention their whiskers- which tell them where they can fit and where not, and their fur, which protects them from the cold. All of these things and more have to work together in harmony for the cat to derive benefit from them. If the cat had fur but didn't keep it clean it wouldn't insulate properly. Or if the cat had good eyesight but didn't hear well, it would not be protected from danger. Therefore, it must have arrived on the scene with all these features already in place, and that means that the cat (along with all other wonderfully complex living things) was created by God.