For dinner, I pulled out a baked pasta dish I made a while back.  I had frozen half of it to ensure we didn’t eat it all in one meal!  The dish consisted of mostaccoli pasta, homemade marinara with ground beef and marsala wine.  I topped the dish with a bechamel with a hint of nutmeg.  This meal was a quick bake after having spent the weekend with family and putting up Christmas decorations.  We finally finished decorating the house just before dark.  The inside of the house is now complete as is the outside.  Beautiful I must say!

Technorati Tags: Pasta, Pasta Sauce, Roasting

The plan:  Roast chicken with the fresh herbs from the garden and vegetables.

The process:

• Heat oven to 450
• Chop the herbs to a nice mince.  Blend 3/4 of the herbs you use into softened butter.  I put about 2 tablespoons into 6 tablespoons of butter.
• Clean the chicken and rub the butter mixture all over.  (Under the skin on the breast too!)
• I cut up a lemon into four wedges and squeezed the juice inside of the chicken and placed the squeezed lemons too.
  
• Season with salt and pepper.
  
• Place (trussed) chicken on top of cut vegetables, breast side down.  (I used carrots, celery, and onion tonight.  By the way, the remaining herbs were sprinkled on top of these vegetables before the chicken was laid on top.
  
• I roasted the chicken for a little over an hour.  About 30 minutes in, I flip the chicken so that the breast is on top.  This allowed the dark meat of the chicken to get a good head start while protecting the delicate breast meat.
  
• I removed the chicken once the space between the leg and the thigh registered 160 degrees.
  

I love a roast chicken.  Though today was warm and we did a ton of work outside in the yard, this type of meal is so comforting and nourishing after a long day’s work.  We each have a side of the breast on the first meal of roast chicken.  We’ve found this is the best point to eat the white meat as it’s super juicy.  It will dry out when reheated.

Hope you have a good week.  This meal is definitely going to point to a good week for us!

Technorati Tags: Chicken, Julia Child, Roasting

Mushrooms - www.acobox.com

Time to hit the grocery store.

Technorati Tags: Chicken, Ground Turkey, Meal Plan, Risotto, Roasting

My goal was to have chicken for a sandwich recipe later in the week.  However, a couple of juicy slices of chicken breast with wild rice and broccoli served up no complaints tonight!!

Technorati Tags: Chicken, Roasting

The first was a pork roast from Gourmet magazine.  The roast was a 1 day wet rub marinade that included black peppercorns, pink peppercorns, garlic, and fennel seed.   For taste, it was great.  Unfortunately, the cut of meat I used and the method of cooking didn’t exactly match.  Digging through fatty bit after fatty bit, it was a challenge to eat.  Will try again…and will post the recipe once I find the right cut of meat!

The second was a pork noodle dish with a slightly Asian flair.  This Cooking Light recipe sounded good.  In the end, a little too “peanut-buttery” for my taste.  The pork was tenderloin cooked in the oven and then fork pulled.  The sauce was predominantly almond butter with a little soy, ginger, rice vinegar, scallions, etc.  If I were to make this again, I would definitely cut down on the almond butter.  Too strong and overpowered the dish.

So tonight, I decided to have a little meal hiatus and went the appetizer route.  We made crab cakes and a warm brie with maple and walnuts.  Very good…even if they weren’t a perfect match.  I’m enjoying a nice Limoncello to end the evening while typing.

Looking forward to  meal planning for the next week.  I’m confident we’ll have a successful dinner week next week!

Technorati Tags: Pork, Roasting