Breaking Down the Recipes of 29 Statewide Candidates. 29!

Also included - two good recipes for the weekend weather.

Our most recent Candidate Rankings of the Big Three Races here in Virginia have received a good bit of feedback and curiosity.

Many campaigns, candidates, podcasters, political junkies, and media outlets (even CNN) inquired as to our data driven methodology and subjective analysis about the statewide races in Virginia. And for good reason - Virginia’s 2021 elections are the ultimate bellwether for the rest of the country in the post-Trump (?) era which coincides with the generational transition of political power from the Baby Boomers to the GenX and Millenials.

2022 and 2024, here we come!

All of those conversations have yielded even more campaign intel. If you want to do the deeper dive about the races, I would like to invite you to join me today at Noon for Virginia FREE Fridays via this Zoom link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85795386645

Normally Virginia FREE Fridays is an exclusive event for our members and/or newsletter subscribers, but given the interest in our Candidate Rankings I thought it best to open up the opportunity to everyone who is on our distribution lists.

It’s the least we can do for clogging up your inboxes!

Here are some options for you if you would like to engage with us more going forward.

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While you are waiting for the Zoom to open up, you can work on your air drum skills watching the Rush’s legendary Neil Peart playing Subdivisions live. Epic stuff.

Yes, of course there are reasons why I chose this one.

1) Peart shows the magic of what can happen when Left and Right work together especially after the 4:00 mark #Bipartisan #Pragmatism

2) The song is Subdivisions - and America is painfully subdivided. Lyrics here

3) It’s just damn good music. And live.

IF you are still here and getting ready for the weekend snow find out Why Anthony Bourdain’s recipe for beef bourguignon is still hot according to the Washington Post or you can try your hand at my mom’s Chicken Cacciatore recipe:

I have amended it over the years.

In a crock pot, pour a very good jar of spaghetti sauce and a 15 oz can of diced tomatoes with Italian herbs. Turn on crock pot to high. I use Rao’s.

Chicken thighs - half skin on boned and half skinless boneless - salted and rubbed with herbs/ spice blend - obviously use an Italian blend but this one is il Boschetto Mix Spaghettata - it has a bit of a kick but roll with it. Easy on the salt!

Let the rubbed chicken chill in the fridge for 2-3 hours. More time is even better.

Brown the chicken in batches preferably cast iron skillet. Set aside in a bowl.
In the chicken fat sautée down two large diced green bell peppers and one medium onion. I like the 2 to 1 ratio here.

Remove.

Sautée down sliced mushrooms in the same pan. If you get them pre sliced make sure you rinse and drain them. Add half a small can of tomato paste, half a stick of unsalted butter, and some good red wine - maybe half a cup. Eyeball this part - more mushrooms = more halves. 

Keep cooking that down until it is well together.  (this is also a good blend to cook down and pour over a creamy polenta)

Add the cooked veggies to the crock potting sauce. Add the mushroom mixture.
Stir.

Add the browned chicken thighs. Stir.

Crock pot it until you are ready to serve over al dente pasta - penne rigate - do not put oil in the boiling water otherwise the sauce won’t stick to the noodles. Salt the water instead.

A good crusty bread is nice to have to mop up the sauce. We’re going with fresh baked sourdough tonight.

I’m not really sold on parmigiana reggiano over this dish, but if you like it - go for it.