Very Voluble

Yesterday was nice and warm if a bit windy. Actually the weather bar at the bottom of my browser window said "gales", which was fairly appropriate. I wore sandals and my toes didn't fall off, so it was a good day. It's still pretty nice today, though it is supposed to rain later.

Well, the weather was really just a segue into what I really wanted to talk about. Not that the weather really has anything to do with what I made for dinner yesterday other than the fact that I needed to open the windows to let the smoke out. I didn't burn anything, but it certainly got smoky. I actually roasted a whole chicken in my oven. I had never done that before, in the oven that is. I have done the beer can in the butt chicken before on the grill, which was incredibly tasty. I think the smoke was due to the butter I shoved under the skin, but I will have to try again with olive or vegetable oil (they have higher smoke points than butter) to test my theory.

The chicken was tasty, and the skin a nice golden brown. I tried the skin, but didn't like it. I am not sure what people find so appealing about chicken skin. I like cooking with it on because it adds flavor and keeps the chicken moist. I do wish I had made a pan sauce for a bit of extra flavor, but I was too lazy and had run out of counter space which isn't hard when you only have about 4 square feet to work on. i also made roasted cauliflower and orzo risotto with spinach. It was a nice meal that required little hands on time and I have chicken left over to shred for chicken tacos tonight!

I also made some cookie dough and shoved it in the freezer for cookie emergencies. I don't know how the cookies will taste but the dough was quite delightful. I used some cage-free eggs I found at our local grocery store that are only a few cents more than the store brand, so I am quite happy. I do look forward to the green eggs from the farmers' market though they are more expensive.

I would have posted pictures of all of this, but nothing was terribly photogenic and the light in my kitchen is crappy. I guess the chicken looked pretty good except for where I split the skin on the breast side while trying to shove butter in there. I think my technique needs work.