Chicken

As of New Year's Day, arsenic is officially off the menu for Maryland chickens. The nation's first statewide ban on the use of additives in chicken feed containing the toxic metal is among a dozen new state laws that take effect Jan. 1. The new civil marriage measure that was affirmed by Maryland voters in November, allowing same-sex couples to take their vows, has grabbed the most headlines, but less-publicized laws will take effect as well....

Last week, a federal judge in Baltimore issued a verdict in a lawsuit filed by an environmental group against an Eastern Shore farming family and Perdue. After nearly three years of litigation, Judge William Nickerson ruled that the evidence presented by the Waterkeeper Alliance did not demonstrate conclusively that contaminated water samples taken from the Pocomoke River could be traced to an adjacent poultry farm in Berlin owned by Alan and Kristin Hudson. The outcome was recognized by many as a victory for farmers and the poultry industry and as a setback for environmental groups interested in improving the water quality of the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries.

Now that we have gorged ourselves on holiday meals, it's time to get back to healthy eating. The latest healthy recipe comes from Jay Wilson, senior program director at the Dancel Family Center Y in Ellicott City. It is butternut squash chicken salad. Wilson said he has been cooking since age 12 and you can often find him in the kitchen experimenting with new recipes. He loves to share his creations with colleagues. His duties at the Y include coordinating sports and fitness activities and teaching boot camp classes.

Let's get this out of the way: This week's recipe is not health food. It's not foodie food. And it's not particularly pretty food. But this warm Buffalo chicken dip is hearty, rich, comforting, and it's got just enough hot-sauce afterburn to help warm you up during a chilly tailgate party. In short, it's perfect football food. Made as directed, you can serve it in a crockpot if you've got a plug in the back of your vehicle. You can also heat it in a 350-degree oven in a casserole dish until the cheese melts and bring it on over to your event.

With the election behind us, I had hoped our politicians would get beyond games of chicken. No such luck. First, you need to understand that the upcoming game of chicken isn't about how much or when we cut the budget deficit, or even whether the upcoming "fiscal cliff" poses a danger to the economy. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office warned last week that the automatic tax increases and spending cuts scheduled to start in January amount to too much deficit reduction, too soon.

More than a dozen chickens died in a fire in their chicken coop in Havre de Grace Monday night. The fire was discovered shortly before 8 p.m. by David E. Toney, who owned the 8-by-6-foot chicken coop that was attached to a 10-by-12-foot shed in the 4100 block of Gravel Hill Road. It started accidentally when a heating lamp inside the coop had fallen and ignited nearby combustibles, according to a press release from the Maryland State Fire Marshal. The chicken coop was a complete loss and 13 chickens died in the fire.

Chicken is everywhere, from road-side shacks to four-star restaurants. The problem with chicken these days is that it has been bred more for quantity than quality. Luckily in the past few years, local farmers have been producing chickens that have amazing flavor and texture (and that are raised in much better conditions than typical supermarket birds). At the farmers markets around the area, chicken is one of the easier products to find now that most vegetables are out of season. This recipe is perfect for the cold weather.

Cows, rather than chickens, caused the pollution for which an Eastern Shore farm couple and Perdue are being sued, contends a witness for the Salisbury-based poultry company. Charles Hagedorn, a microbiology professor from Virginia Tech , told a federal judge Monday that a small herd of cattle grazing on Alan and Kristin Hudson's farm near Berlin were the sole source of high levels of bacteria and nutrients found in drainage ditches there. "These counts - and they are high - came from the cattle," Hagedorn testified.  But a lawyer for the Waterkeeper Alliance pressed Hagedorn to acknowledge that manure blown by large ventilation fans out of the Hudsons' two poultry houses could also have reached the ditches, contributing to the pollution.

Alan Hudson, the farmer at the center of a environmental law case that could shake up the Eastern Shore chicken business, took the stand in federal court Wednesday to tell his side of the story. Hudson testified that as a 19-year-old, he built the chicken houses at issue in the case, on the Berlin-area farm that has been in his family for at least a century. "That was going to be my contribution to getting my foot in the door farming with them," the 37-year-old Hudson said, adding that the farm needed a new stream of revenue after its dairy closed down a few years before.

Though it opened just last year, Gunner's Grille in Taneytown feels like it's been around forever. That's both good and bad. On the good side, the restaurant's rustic atmosphere is downright charming, and its interpretations of classics, like chicken-fried steak, are capable and comforting. Unfortunately, at times, our dinner also recalled an era of fewer dining choices (and no dining critique websites), when restaurants could get away with spotty service and food that didn't quite live up to its description.