Adventures in Cooking-Roast Chicken

With winter back upon us the past couple of days I was in the mood to make some healthy comfort food. I love getting the whole organic chickens from Costco, and for two people it's perfect for leftovers or a soup for later. Although I am secretly envious of the stay at home wives who can have dinner ready and waiting on the table when their husband gets home, Wednesday nights are still an ok night for me to do this since it's a late night for Joel. Unless he was telling me white lies to spare my feelings, Joel has always said I was a good cook, and he is glad that unlike many newlywed husbands he hasn't had to endure eating bad or burnt food and telling me it was good to spare my feelings (so he says).

This recipe is more a compilation of recipes I have used in the past and also the ingredients I had on hand.
 Typically I would like to brine the chicken for a couple of hours, overnight is even better, but since mornings are challenging enough for me to just get out the door with coffee in hand at a decent hour I ended up brining it for about an hour when I got home from work. (Brining, I learned cooking my first Thanksgiving turkey, is a great way to get a nice crispy, golden brown on the skin.) I didn't measure but I used about 2/3 full of water and 1 c. kosher salt.) 

Luckily I still had some carrots and onions in the fridge, so in those went along with 1 1/2 cups water, salt, and pepper as a base for the gravy. (Would have used celery too if I had it, but some celery seed worked in this pinch). I also added a few of the baby potatoes so we would have some extra soft ones. I used this large roasting pan I had to convince Joel to buy for Thanksgiving dinner. It was a great bargain and I have proved that I really would use it again! 

Next I cut up some squares of butter, and along with some garlic, gently lifted the skin to insert the butter under the skin for a nice juicy crisp. I love cooking with wine, and as they say sometimes I even put it in the food, so this went over the chicken and into the pan. Two Buck Chuck Sauvignon

Blanc or a Pinot Griego are great dry whites for cooking, but since I had none on hand (how did that happen?!) I had to use the Casa Rodena Seranade (I know, it was horrible) as a last resort. Some for the chicken, some for me. Next I added some lemon juice and rosemary I had frozen from the garden, and then rubbed the chicken with a poultry seasoning mix. 

Finally it was time to put the bird in the oven! I put it on 350 for an hour and a half, then I added the rest of the veggies and some more water for the gravy. After about another half hour I covered the wings and breasts with tin foil so they wouldn't get too brown.



Just as Joel waltzed in at about 9pm (finally), I strained the broth out and added a little cornstarch over the stove for a delicious chicken and white wine gravy. Unfortunately we were so starved by then I completely forgot to take a picture. Sorry. But I promise it was good. My little helper even got a little chicken broth on her dog food :)

As much as I love roasting and trying new recipes in the crockpot, I have to say I am very excited for the return of warm weather when we can grill and have fresh veggies from the garden or farmer's market. But, until then, I think all were happy...

Valentine's Day the Napa Way

Ok so I'm a couple days late, but finally returning to the swing of things after my sweetheart swept me away to the beautiful city of San Francisco and the California Wine Country to celebrate Valentine's Day. Actually, it was for President's Day, but since most people except federal employees seemed to be working that day we can just say it was for V-Day.

I got to spend a wonderful two days with the love of my life touring wineries in the beautiful Napa and Sonoma wine valleys. I do have to say it was very romantic! Our favorites were the reds of course, especially Pinot Noir and some of the Bordeaux blends.

We had some very generous tastings at the Peju winery in Napa, and even got to taste in the barrel room at a cool 55 degrees

I fell in love with this sign and thought it was so fitting

Happy Valentine's Day to the love of my life and thank you for such an amazing trip!  

Happiness Is...

I'm needing some positivity in my day so I thought I would make this a short and sweet blog post about some happy things from this week….

1. The Bachelor Sean finally woke up to the reality the rest of us have endured for the past several weeks and kicked that psycho Tierra off. At least she still has her sparkle…

2. The chocolate insanity of Valentine's Day has begun, starting with my co-workers sharing cookies from Flying Star and some See's Chocolates J

 

3. A beautiful boy English Springer Spaniel won third place in the Westminster Dog Show. Vesper was quite interested in him. She's already practicing her show dog stance.

 4. Got to have some fun girl time at Kamryn's shower.

5. I get to come home to a sparkling clean house this evening. 

6. Only 6 more hours of work this week!