Black Lacquered Legs & A Sneezing Poodle

Are you like me, and keep lists and menus in your head? When we cook something good, it gets put on a list. Our most popular list is the one we keep to serve company. The other, lesser known (lesser used) list is for the food we would cook for parties. These balsamic glazed drumsticks are perfect for both.

Now that Bridget and I are eating healthier, we’re buying fewer bottles of olive oil, and more bottles of paradoxically sweet balsamic vinegar. We seem to be putting it on everything these days (chicken, pork chops, salmon), which is taking a toll on our poor poodle’s nostrils. First the recipe, then the sneezing.

Put the following in a gallon-sized Ziploc bag:

• 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 5 rosemary sprigs
• 5 garlic cloves

Seal the bag and squidge everything together to mix and to dissolve the sugar. Toss in 10 to 12 chicken drumsticks, and let it chill in the fridge for about 2 hours.

Bake the lovelies in a blazing-hot (450 degrees) oven for 30 minutes until they look like mine above.

Bring the marinade to a boil (it’s safe, we’ve made this many times and haven’t died, yet), then reduce the heat. Simmer and thicken the sauce for about 15 minutes. Brush it on at the end, or do like me and dip them in. A bit of chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley makes this fancy company slash party food.

Ooo! I just thought of something. I bet using drumettes would make this perfect party pickings for fancy finger foraging.

Chopper Sneezes

An interesting and peculiar phenomenon occurs every time I reduce balsamic vinegar. If you’ve done it, you know that first burst of vinegary steam can be quite caustic – acrid enough, it seems, to make my poodle sneeze. It’s like clockwork. No matter where he is in the house, we’ll hear a cute little poddley sneeze. I feed him a little piece of chicken to make up for the abuse.