CHICKEN DELICACIES

Shortly after going "online" in 1997 I discovered "Jigzone.com," to which I immediately subscribed. I'm not much of a game player, but I certainly don't consider jigsaw puzzles as games. Well, I guess they really are, but for me I have such a short attention span that I need to be able to complete one of their puzzles in about 5 minutes. I tackle it first thing in the morning and then go on to the less mundane stuff. But I have to admit I really need my Jigzone "fix" every morning.

That website makes it possible to upload your own pictures, too, so whenever I feel a need for a little play time instead of working so hard on whatever it is I'm doing online, I can pull up my little granddaughters into a 51 piece puzzle and see them come alive right on my screen.

However, as much as I like Jigzone, today is the first day in all those years of playing that I have not liked, even one bit, the puzzle that they sent. There was a time in my early life - somewhere between 6 and 10 years old - where watching a neighbor wring chickens necks didn't faze me in the least. This neighbor, who lived in an apartment near our house, used to raise chickens in a coop on the periphery of the lot, and periodically he'd "fix" some for dinner. I don't know how the kids in the neighborhood knew when this was going to happen, but we'd all run down to the apartment, hop up on the enclosed meter-box at the back of the apartment building and watch him dispatch the chickens one by one. The poor headless chickens would run around for a short while and then fall dead. It was bloody mayhem, and we kids hooted and hollered as it was going on.

In my old age I don't even want to think about chickens being killed, and for that reason I do believe I could easily become a vegetarian. I don't like to see animals in a truck being carted off to the slaughterhouse. When I see the trucks on the freeway I always wish I could close my eyes and not see them, but of course one doesn't do that when driving on the freeway. But I'm sure you understand what I am saying.

So when I saw this puzzle this morning, I was greatly distressed (but not distressed enough to not work it!) Can you imagine having a job where you stood 8 hours a day and cut the toenails off a dead chicken? Oh, gross! Once I saw that awful picture, it was too late to "unsee" it, so I worked it, but not without a lot of anxiety!

But it also reminded me of a story in Jerry's family. He grew up in a culture where the children and grandchildren went to grandma's house every single Sunday for dinner. His Bubbe (Yiddish for Grandma) always cooked a big pot of chicken soup, and the chicken feet were put in the pot where they simmered away and rid themselves of all the succulent gelatinous material contained in that particular part of the chicken. Since my own mother was strictly a Campbell's Chicken Soup kind of a person, I had no idea that such parts would go into a simmering pot. So I was surprised when Jerry told me that, but I was even more surprised, and quite honestly revolted, when he told me that he and his sister Judy were always given the cooked feet to eat. It was, I guess, like giving kids the drumsticks of a turkey at Thanksgiving.

Once having heard this story, I had to thank my lucky stars that he never asked me to learn how to cook his grandma's delicious chicken soup with feet.

Anyway, the picture above can be worked from this blog (if I have done everything right, and if I haven't, you can simply go to www.Jigzone.com) The starter is down in the bottom left hand corner. Have a go at it. I think you'll want to become a "regular" at Jigzone too. And I'll guarantee you that most of the pictures are not quite so icky.