Time and Still Procrastinating

When you are unemployed, you have all the time in the world. Time to do the NYT crossword (check), time for a megasuduko puzzle (check), time for cooking dinner for all your friends so that you can win a $250 gift certificate to your wine club. But of course there wasn't enough time since Halloween until today - count it - 9 days to actually enter the contest.  There's actually tons of time until there is no time left. The deadline is November 9th. The blog never said what time.  I still have 1 hour and 40 minutes to post my entry. So what can I do to procrastinate another hour, just to squeeze in in the nick of time?  I'm too tired to think of anything.  It's been an exhausting four days (Kali is home, resting comfortably, but still not eating.)

Here's the recipe for the Twisted Oak Culinary Cluck. I'm using a simple but delicious dish that I learned to make in Spain.

Rice In The Oven - Arroz al Horno (sounds better in Spanish.)

1 1/2 cups dry rice
3 cups chicken stock/water
1 head of garlic - remove all the white papery stuff from all of the cloves, leave the skin closest to the garlic
2 carrots - peel and cut in 1 inch chunks
1/2 red pepper cut into 1 inch square pieces
1/2 can of garbanzo beans
1 medium onion - cut into 1-1/2 inch chunks (I usually 1/2 then cut in sixth or eighth)
1-2 roma tomatoes sliced
1 medium potato, cut into 1-1/2 inch cubes
6 chicken legs
8oz morcilla de cebolla* - cut into 1-1/2 inch rounds
Fino or dry sherry (the cheap kind is fine)
Salt to taste

In a 3 quart pyrex dish or clay cookware pour the stock.  Add the rice so it is distributed evenly. 

Add the garbanzo beans.

Add salt to taste.

Arrange all of the chunks of vegetables so they are distributed in the stock.

Add morcilla (make sure it is under the broth so that the flavor soaks through)

Arrange the chicken legs for a nice presentation.

Bake at 375 degrees for an hour, lightly pour (or heavily) the sherry all over the dish (kind of as you would balsamic vinegar, but you don't have to worry about putting too much.) Bake for another 20 minutes to 30 minutes until chicken is fully cooked.

To serve, make sure everyone gets at least one piece of all the different goodies.  

To properly eat, squeeze the garlic out of the skin and mash up the garlic and morcilla into the rice.

Serve with slices of baguettes, a diced tomato/cucumber salad and a bottle of 2004 Twisted Oak The Spaniard.

Serves 6.

*I use morcilla de cebolla from The Spanish Table in Berkeley but they have other locations and mail order.