Roast Chicken

After getting home from work, I realized that there is nothing but hummus (too salty for a 16month old), a bit of leftover 'creative' parsley omelette (which said 16month old hates), and wild rice (another thing my son hates). I proceed to feed him these things for dinner, and then a tantrum commences. He eats a few bites of apple, and we call it a dinner. Ugh. It's over, there is nothing to feed him. After he goes to bed, I decide I better cook that whole chicken that I bought on Sunday. I bought it, forgot about it, and thank goodness I remembered it.

At 8:30pm, I google 'whole chicken' and decide on the following recipe.

Ingredients (Edited by MI)

- 1 (5 to 6 pound) roasting chicken - My chicken is only 4.25lbs, but we can work with this, right?

Salt

- black pepper

- 1 large bunch fresh thyme (I just have parsley, so screw you fresh thyme, your ugly step brother parsley is joining the party)

- 1 lemon, halved (Yeah, I don't have a lemon, but I can squirt that 'ReaLemon' stuff wherever)

- 1 head garlic, cut in half crosswise (I don't know what this means, so I took a HUGE clove of garlic, took off the peely outside and sliced it into stinky slivers)

- 2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter. (I sliced a large random chunk off the whimsical rhino butter dish that we user to butter bagels and melted it in a mug in the freakin microwave)

- 1 large yellow onion, thickly sliced (or two small onions that are about to go bad. I have no idea if they are yellow)

- 4 carrots cut into 2-inch chunks (Okay, so we had a ton of about-to-go-bad carrots. So, I used all of them - ended up being 10 kinda stumpy oddly shaped purple, white and orange carrots. Fingers crossed.)

- Olive oil

Directions

- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees

- Leave that chicken where it is for a minute and chop all the vegetables.

- Chop carrots, onion and parsley (or seriously fennel if you have it) and put them in the roasting pan.

- Throw some olive oil all over the vegetables - but not too much - just enough so they won't burn. Mix them with your hands. Add some salt and pepper - I have no idea how much you like, but I shook the containers about 7 times.

- NOW, cut that chicken out of it's bag or whatever you bought it in. Rinse under the sink and remove any giblets. Do NOT freak out that holding a whole, raw chicken that has a little backbone and little wing (arm) & leg joints feels kinda like holding a newborn baby (yeah, maybe skip this recipe. I'm going to become a vegetarian after this. I've handled poultry before, but not since giving birth. I'm not so into it.)

- Shove the garlic and parsley (fennel, if you have it) in it's cavity, and squeeze some of that ReaLemon in there too.

- Place the chicken on the carrots, etc. in the pan and place (covered with aluminum foil, if desired. I learned this later from HERE and totally took the chicken out after 20 min and covered it) in the oven for 1.5 hours.

Read more at: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/perfect-roast-chicken-recipe/index.html?oc=linkback

FAMILY RATING: 5/5
MY RATING: 4/5 - I should have added even MORE carrots. The 4 carrots in the recipe, plus the additional 8 small purple carrots that I added were not enough. I would have liked more. It tasted great!

PHOTO:
I cut behind the wings to be sure the chicken was done. I forgot to take a perfect picture beforehand.

Zucchini Quiche

If you were to ask me to your party, and you - being the gracious host that you are - asked if I had any food restrictions, I would resoundingly say "No, I don't have any restrictions, I'll eat anything. Except quiche. I hate quiche. It tastes like mayonnaise pie."

I thought quiche tasted like warm mayonnaise - but I am wrong (see, I admit it). Quiche is tasty - even if I made it. I mean this recipe is freakin easy AND delicious, if I do say so myself.

Ingredients

  1 (ready to cook) pastry shell (9 inches) - This is in the frozen food area, ask the grocery guy. Yeah, I had no idea where to find these either. It's the same thing that you'd use if you made a Libby's pumpkin pie. It's like dough in a metal pie tin, and you just buy it all ready to be filled with eggs, zucchini, etc. 

4 cups thinly sliced zucchini

  1 large onion, thinly sliced

  3 tablespoons butter

  2 Eggs

  2 teaspoons dried parsley flakes

  1/2 teaspoon salt

  1/2 teaspoon each garlic powder, dried basil and oregano

  1/4 teaspoon pepper

  2 cups (8 ounces) part-skim shredded mozzarella cheese

  2 teaspoons prepared mustard - I used whatever mustard we had in our fridge - which happened to be some fancy Roland Organic Grained Dijon Mustard, and I thought it was going to be terrible. It wasn't. I'm sure the yellow mustard or whatever you have in your fridge will be fine too. I am not endorsing Roland's mustard, I'm saying this is a good opportunity to get rid of that mustard you haven't been able to finish since 2009.

 

Directions (edited by MI)

- Grab a large pan. Cook the zucchini and onion in butter and don't freak out when they sizzle a little - wait until the onion is clear (I did not 'drain' per the original directions. See link to them below). 

- In a large bowl, throw in the the eggs (crack them, throw shells away), parsley, salt, garlic powder, basil, oregano and pepper and wisk it all up with that wisk you got for your wedding in 2010 and never used before. Wisk like the dickens!

- Stir in cheese and add zucchini/onion mixture. 

- Spread mustard over pastry shell; add egg/zucchini/etc. mixture.

- Bake, uncovered, at 400° for 35-40 minutes and crust is golden brown. Let stand for 5 minutes before cutting.

Recipe here: http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/zucchini-quiche-2

Originally published as Zucchini Quiche in Quick Cooking July/August 2005, p7

FAMILY RATING 5/5 - Everyone loved it, even my 16 month old picky-eater.

MY RATING 5/5 - Like I said, T.A.S.T.Y. It's like so good I want to make it every week until I get sick of it. Which may be never. But, that doesn't make for good blog content, so...we move on.

Asparagus and Green Bean Salad

I don't cook. I hate cooking, actually. But, at 34 I realize I have to feed my family. So here goes - I'm going to cook (at least!!) a recipe per week, even though I loathe cooking. I hate, hate, hate it.

This blog is for writing the shortest notes possible about the things I've cooked, so I can remember. If you don't like it, screw you. Like I said, this is for me biotch.

Okay, so I made this...Asparagus and green bean salad.

I doubled the recipe so the chopping took a freakin hour.

Ingredients
Salt
1/2 pound green beans, trimmed of stems
3/4 pound regular or pencil asparagus, trimmed of rough ends, a small bundle
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
1 cup flat-leaf parsley, a couple of handfuls
1 lemon, zested and juiced
1/2 cup basil, 12 leaves, a couple of handfuls
1 small clove garlic, cracked from skin
1/4 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano or Romano, a generous handful
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil, eyeball it
Salt and pepper
2 plum tomatoes, seeded then thinly sliced lengthwise

Do things in this order:
- get a package of green beans, open it and cut off all the stems
- get a package of asparagus, cut the ends
- chop only half an onion into pieces you would eat w/ a fork - I think the recipe had too much onion
- zest a lemon, if you forgot how google it.

Directions (MI edit)
- Boil 1 inch of water, add salt then green beans, cover and cook 2 minutes, then add asparagus and cook 3 minutes more. Drain. Cold shock vegetables in ice water. Dry the vegetables on clean kitchen towels.

Slice the green beans on an angle.

Halve the asparagus on an angle.

Combine the beans, asparagus, 1/2 cup of parsley and onion in a shallow bowl.

Combine the lemon zest and juice, olive oil & remaining 1/2 cup of parsley and herbs in a blender with the 1/4 cup Romano cheese. Add salt and pepper and pour over the salad.

Before serving, add the sliced tomatoes.

Read the actual recipe att: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/asparagus-and-green-bean-salad-recipe/index.html?oc=linkback

FAMILY RATING 4/5
MY RATING 3/5 - The basil gets stuck in your teeth! I can't take this to work, unless I can brush immediately after.