You put the chicken guts in the chicken cup.

The following is from two emails about cooking meat that I sent to the Yasuda mother-daughter duo; Lauren being also known as my wife/best friend, and Roxanne being also known as pretty much the best cook I have ever met. And this is considering that once, I met Wolfgang Puck. And also Jamie Oliver, which is also a funny story, but anwyay, Roxanne also puts certain Newsweek interns to deep deep shame in terms of doing the NYT crossword (including Saturday and Sunday).

Dear Lauren and Roxanne,
As I am sure you remember (as you remember everything I say, I'm sure), I once said I didn't have any "brown stuff" to put into the pan in my sophmore year appartment, because I lack knowledge of how to cook said "brown stuff."
Now that I am living in Avignon, and tyring to stick to some sort of budget, but also trying not to catch gangrene, scurvy or malnutrition in general, I decided to buy a hamhock (2.16 euros) and a pack of 6 chicken thighs ( 5.72 euros, roughly one fourth of my weekly food budget). I will be making white bean soup with the hamhock, event though my internet recipe is not very clear on how the hock (if I may call it that) goes into the soup. The chicken thighs, I have put each into a freezer bag, so that I can thaw them one at a time (genius!), and then with the bones, I will make chicken stock. And then freeze that. Although, our freezer may not have enough space for that, since it's not the mini size, but defintely would not get picked for the basketball team.
Anway, I thought of you two when I plunked down the euros to feed myself more protein than just a daily yogurt. They love yogurt here! I will now attempt something with my white wine and mushrooms and a chicken thigh, but I don't exactly know what....

BROWN STUFF, UPDATE
SO, I put some oil in a little pot, since we don't have little skillets, and put a chicken thigh in. Then I turned it over. Then, inspired by an on-line mark bittman recipe, I tried to open a bottle of white wine, but then part of the twisty thing AND the cork got stuck when the bottle opener broke. Fished both poorly made bottle opener twisty tip AND cork out of bottle neck. Put in some white wine and balsamic vinegar to pot. simmered it. Had also cooked some rice, and sautéed mushrooms with half an onion and half a tomato (digging deep into the veggie crisper). Ate it all together. Sauce was good. Could defintely tell by collective ounce of brown stuff on thigh that I had bought bargain chicken.

Moral of the story: Yes, we could spend the rest of our lives lounging around the yasuda pool and fantasizing about what Roxsuda is making for dinner. BUT, should we obliged to leave such cushy environs, we WILL NOT die of gangrene. Or whatever you get from not eating enough brown stuff.