What I Made for Dinner: April 21, 2009

Roast chicken with carrots and sweet onions; toast with roasted garlic spread.

Extra-curricular activities piss me off. I know that's not rational. The kids love their sports teams, Josh loves Scouts, they get so much out of these things, I know all that. But dammit, they make it hard to have a relaxing evening. They butt into all my sittin'-around time.

It's important to me to have dinner as a family, to hang out together and do Legos or homework or play Wii or just watch DVDs, whatever. But as the kids get older, it is getting more and more challenging to do that. (To be fair, the last two weeks' interferences were as much mine and Chuck's as they were the kids'.) From what I hear, it's only going to get worse.

So when it's been especially chaotic and I get a break in the action so I actually have a chance to make a nice dinner, I try to grab the opportunity. Tonight was one of those nights.

Roast chicken is a safe bet, which is one reason I make it so much. (It also creates lots of great leftovers, which is the other reason.) Tonight I made it like my Aunt Dawn taught me to: Olive oil, salt, pepper, and thyme on the outside; lemon wedges on the inside. I sliced the onion thin so it melted all over the carrots, which were very soft and charred in places. Made gravy from the pan drippings.

Now I need to think of what to do with the leftovers (which I did NOT finish by picking at them while cleaning up).