Thursday, November 24, 2005

I am opaque

Or possibly translucent, on a good day.

Clearly (hyuk hyuk) I'm not in any position to assess myself accurately. But the fact is that in spite of my best intentions, I'm obviously not as willing/able to share as much of my life as I expected/hoped. Not that I'm lying, or even glossing over things. But the fact that I haven't been able to post lately, due to some shit that has been going on here on my end the past couple of weeks (well, longer really, but it manifested itself recently), certainly demonstrates that I'm not ready to completely bare myself.

I'm ok, my husband and pets and friends and family are ok, no worries. Well, some worries, but none of the immediate sort.

I'm tempted to poke my finger in the wound and examine it further - *why* can't I talk about things? What possible harm could it do? But my excessive need for self-analysis is part of the issue here :~P

Sorry for the cryptic nature of this post. Basically, it's an apology for not posting in so long, and an assurance that I had reason. Just not anything I feel like talking about here and/or now. Sorry!

Friday, November 04, 2005

Never Say Never

I hate fruit in my food. HATE it. But last night I wanted to roast a chicken and I had no onions to stuff the cavity with, so I decided to go ahead and use a Red Delicious apple. I figured it couldn't do too much damage.

Let me tell you, it was the BEST damn roast chicken I've ever made! Maybe the best I've ever had. Not only did the apple make my house smell incredible, but it also lent a subtle flavor to the chicken without making it too sweet. Yummy! Needless to say, this is definitely worth repeating! And for anyone who wants to know how to make a foolproof roast chicken, here you go:

Preheat the oven to 250°F (this is NOT a typo - just 250°). Thoroughly rinse your chicken and pat it dry. Sprinkle the outside and cavity liberally with salt and pepper, and any other spices you might like. I just used salt and pepper this time. {Note: if you would like the spice rub used for Roast Sticky Chicken, let me know} Core and slice a Red Delicious apple and stuff into the cavity. Alternately, you *could* use a quartered onion, but this was better.

Place the chicken on a shallow roasting pan and cook for 5 hours. After the first hour, baste every 30 minutes. There may not be enough (or any) drippings for the first basting, in which case you should toss a few tablespoons of butter or margarine into the pan to melt, and use that. At the end of the 5 hours, let the chicken rest for 10 minutes or so.

Roasting the chicken slowly at a low temperature cooks it *beautifully* without drying it out. A word of warning though: it will be so tender that it will LITERALLY fall off the bone, so be careful when transferring it to your serving dish. Cooking it this way and basting as often as the recipe calls for also makes some INSANELY delicious, crispy skin. But of course, I'm not allowed to eat that. Stupid Weight Watchers. Grumble grumble...

Happy roasting, kids!