Boneless birds

Alpha grew up in a family where beinlose fugel (boneless birds) are a family Christmas tradition, and I love it when he and Beta spend an afternoon making them in honor of that tradition: there are scraps of meat to be harvested off the floor, and chunks of stray carrot to munch on.

Most of the recipes you find on the internet for boneless birds don't mention carrots at all, and I don't understand how that can be: how can you have a "bird" without that strip of carrot poking out to mimic a neck? Of course, most of those same recipes mention bacon, and that might be an improvement over the packaged sausage that A & B use. Bacon's even better than squirrel. And it doesn't run away. But I'm cool with sausage.

So I was excited when Alpha and Beta got back from the grocery store this afternoon with a bunch of tenderized steak. I knew immediately what was about to happen: even if the tenderized steak in Texas is destined for chicken-fried steak , in our house it's for the birds.

It was a good afternoon. Spices flew around the kitchen, Alpha split carrots lengthwise (and made sure there were some spare chunks), Beta laid out chunks of steak and spread sausage on them (and made sure some of the trimmings fell on the floor).

But then, as I sprawled on the floor with my belly full, with visions of bacon and squirrels dancing in my head, I thought a think: what if we merged the Texas tradition with the Scandinavian tradition, and made Chicken-Fried Boneless Birds. Would that be cool or what?