What I Made for Dinner: October 19, 2009

Roast chicken and vegetables.

I am on a very tight paper-grading deadline, made worse by my loss of last week to flu. (Did I mention I was sick?) My productivity for five whole days looked like this:

1. Grade half a paper.
2. Lie down and moan for two hours.
3. Fall asleep while watching Home Shopping Network.

Now, of course, I have to scramble to make up for it. I hope that this one big meal will facilitate several small, quick ones later in the week.

A few people have asked for my chicken-roasting method. I took some pictures tonight, so hopefully if I get enough work done I'll be able to put together an illustrated guide. For now, though, back to the grindstone. And by grindstone, I mean my dining room table and a mechanical pencil.

What I Made for Dinner: September 8, 2009

Roast chicken and vegetables.

I loved the Everyday Food Sunday Strategy I tried last week! I loved it so much, in fact, that I resolved to plan one for myself. The only thing is, this week on Sunday we were here:


which is Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve outside Cottonwood Falls, Kansas.

I must digress a moment on the tallgrass prairie. I am a lousy photographer, but even if I had talent I think it would be tough to show in a photo what the prairie looks like. It's like pictures of the ocean taken from a cruise ship; all you see is blue. But when you stand there, looking out over the plains, you can see the swells and valleys of the land, and you can see how the grasses change color. You can imagine what it must have looked like to settlers when they came through on their covered wagons, when they didn't even have a road to follow, only the beat-down grass of earlier wagons. It looked to them like they were heading into nothing, into grasslands that went on forever, as far they could tell.

I bet they thought a lot of bad words privately to themselves as they drove through--or decided to stay put in--that prairie that just would not stop. And it is absolutely no surprise to me that the descendents of those people are as conservative and as religious as they often are. How else would a person ever have the courage to do such a thing? To cross the wide prairie, or to try to live on it? If not for complete faith in God.

Anyhow. For us, it was a great little road trip in our minivan on a beautifully-maintained state highway.

But it left me no time (or inclination) to cook anything in advance. Yesterday was a holiday, so I could have, but--well, instead I took a nap.

Never mind! Part of this week's plan is to reuse the chicken and vegetables I made tonight. And I managed to make some rice and roast some more tomatoes as I was cleaning up from dinner tonight. So I should be well set for the rest of the week.

What I Made for Dinner: August 12, 2009

Grilled whole chicken, ciabatta toast with roasted garlic, sauteed baby broccoli, tomato and arugula salad.

This is officially my favorite way to cook a whole chicken. I cut the backbone out of a whole, smallish chicken, rub the skin with olive oil and salt and pepper, and put it over very hot coals evenly spread in a Weber grill. Twenty minutes per side, skin (breast) side down on the second half of the cooking time. When it's done, squeeze the juice of a lemon over it. As much as I love oven-roasted chicken, this is better.

Josh was exhausted and beyond hungry. We went to the playground to have a picnic lunch, then swam with friends for a couple of hours, and then he had soccer practice, and by the end of it all he. had. had. enough. "I don't even like chicken," he moaned. "I don't eat broccoli." "Okay," I soothed. "I know you're tired. Just try a little."

He ate three helpings, and then life seemed more cheerful.
Both he and Alex thought it was fun to squeeze the roasted garlic in ribbons out of the little papery pods onto the toast. There was a lot of dinner conversation about how we're all vampire-proof tonight.

What I Made for Dinner: February 2, 2009

Roast chicken with carrots and potatoes; sauteed spinach; garlic toast.

There are many things to love about my job; one of them is that I do not have to go to the office on Mondays or Tuesdays. This weekend was so busy I had no time to cook, except for competition chili. So today, I made a big roast meal. It's actually easier than it sounds, because it only takes about ten minutes to get the chicken and veggies ready to go into the oven, and then I don't have to do anything else while it cooks (which takes about two hours).

The chicken came out well, and I made an extra one so I can make a fast pasta dish, with shredded leftover chicken, later this week when I get home late from work.

I make garlic toast with Costco's roasted garlic loaf. I just split it open, brush it with olive oil, and toast it in the oven. It's delicious, but we can't think of anything creative to do with the leftovers (other than just reheating and re-serving).

I am very serious about using leftovers. I have an inner Depression-era housewife. For example, tonight's chicken will get used twice more, once for that pasta dish and once for chicken salad for lunch. Usually, when I roast chicken I boil the carcass to make stock, but not tonight because I already have a freezer door full of stock.

I will, however, be making banana muffins with the black bananas sitting on my fruit stand.