The millisecond that The Wedding Singer clicks into focus on the television screen, something magical happens to me. It can be a terrible day, a stressful day, or a sick day, but within seconds of seeing Adam Sandler’s mullet, I'm 16 years old again. The number of movies I have memorized is small (50 First Dates, Bridesmaids, Shallow Hal, and, inexplicably, Terms of Endearment) but The Wedding Singer is perhaps the only one where I have reasonably thought, "I could perform this entire film from start to finish, on my own." On multiple occasions while alone in the house, I think I tried.
I'm a creature of repetition when it comes to entertainment: Law and Order: SVU marathons drift by on lazy Saturday afternoons, The Big Bang Theory episodes stream at night, and certain 80s alternative bands, particularly those sounding like they have marbles in their mouths, play relentlessly in my earbuds. In all the hours I've spent re-consuming movies, shows, books, and songs, I could have learned a real skill, like playing an instrument or speaking several languages. Instead, I've perfected fake skills, like performing an uncanny impersonation of Kristin Wiig’s psychotic airplane meltdown.
Going back to the same pop-culture fare for seconds, thirds, and thirtieths isn't so abnormal. If anything, my re-consumption habits are tame compared to some of you, who have read Harry Potter more than 10 times, watched Star Wars more than 100 times, and spent more of your waking life with Friends than your actual family. Musicologists estimate that for every hour of music listening in the typical person's lifetime, 54 minutes are spent with songs we've already heard. Forget the next big thing. We're all suckers for the last big thing. Come On Eileen, I know you are a sucker, too.
Pop culture is a relentless machine of newness and manufactured surprise. We queue around the block for new comic-book-movie installments and crash HBO’s season finales. And yet, I have spent 100 hours of my life watching a movie I could perform verbatim in my living room.
Why do we spend so much time with stories whose endings we already know? The question has entranced philosophers, anthropologists, economists, and psychologists for centuries. "That which is repeated has been, otherwise it could not be repeated, but the very fact that it has been makes the repetition into something new,” wrote Kierkegaard (whom I have not read). But every time I watch Drew Barrymore kid around with Adam Sandler in the limo timing scene, I am reminded life is short. Do what you like and eat the cake. Even if it is someone else’s imaginary wedding cake.
Old-Fashioned Chicken Stew
INGREDIENTS
- 5 strips of bacon, chopped
- 2 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs; cut into 1 ½ pieces
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 2 celery stalks, chopped (or 1 ½ cups)
- 2 carrots, chopped (or 1 1 /2 cups)
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon cracked black pepper
- ½ teaspoon dried rosemary
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme
- ½ teaspoon dried sage
- 1 teaspoon dried mustard
- 1 tablespoon white miso paste
- 1/2 cup white wine
- 1.5 pounds small red new potatoes, halved
- 3 cups chicken broth (or enough to cover potatoes)
- 2 bay leaves
- ½ cup heavy whipping cream
- ¼ cup fresh parsley, finely chopped
INSTRUCTIONS
- Cook bacon in a 5-quart Dutch oven, over medium-low heat, until bacon browns. Transfer bacon to a paper-towel-lined small bowl. Turn heat to medium-high.
- In small batches, and without crowding the pan, sear chicken thighs in the bacon fat. If more fat is needed, add olive or canola oil to the pan. Place seared chicken in a medium bowl. (Don’t worry if it is not cooked through).
- Reduce heat to medium and add butter, onion, celery, and carrots—season with salt, pepper, rosemary, thyme, and sage. Cook until vegetables have softened (about 6-8 minutes).
- Add minced garlic and cook for 30 seconds until fragrant. Add flour to coat vegetables and cook for one minute more.
- Deglaze the pan with wine scraping the bottom of the pan as you pour, and cook for 1 min. Stir in dried mustard, miso paste, and chicken broth.
- Add the chicken, with its juices, to pot along with the potatoes and bay leaves. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to a simmer.
- Cover and cook on medium to medium-low heat. Cook until potatoes are softened and chicken is cooked through 15-20 mins.
- Uncover and simmer another 5-10 min until thickened. Feel free to add extra broth if you need to thin out the stew to the desired consistency.
- Stir in cream, bacon (reserve a few for topping), and parsley, and cook another 1 min or until warmed through. Season with more salt and pepper if needed.
- Ladle into bowl and serve with bacon and more fresh herbs.
Tip: If you want a thicker stew, remove a cup of the broth from the pan and whisk with a tablespoon of flour. Add slurry back to the pan.
