Wanting to try a different cole slaw? This could be the one. The dressing is more buttermilk than mayo, with a hint of peanut oil. And it has a little bit of crushed pineapple in it and then the peanuts. The peanuts are great in it – they give the whole salad an extra crunch.

It’s been several years ago I made this salad, but must not have taken a photo of it. I loved it. There’s a hint of sweetness (the pineapple), a hint of Asian (peanut oil, and maybe the peanuts). Well, and then there’s cilantro too, just about my favorite fresh herb. There wasn’t anything in this salad I didn’t like.

When I decided to make this I bought a half head of green cabbage, and a half head of purple cabbage. But I’ve learned over the years that you can’t combine them ahead of time because the purple color will bleed into the dressing. Not quite so appetizing. So it was simple enough to combine everything in 2 bowls and just put it together when I was ready to serve. That also made it easy to combine them again 2 nights later with the left overs. I just think the two cabbage colors are prettier – no other reason.

Although the ingredient list may appear long, it’s really not all that hard. I made the dressing the day before, actually, and it will keep for a week or so. I always try to keep one can of crushed pineapple on my pantry shelf. And I had peanut oil too. Once you have the dressing made, it’s very simple to shred the cabbage and combine the few ingredients for the cabbage part. The recipe calls for using 2/3 cup of dressing. Having made this a few nights later without measuring, I think the salad may need just a tad more than 2/3 cup. But it kind of depends on how big the cabbages are too. So, taste it and figure out if it might need a bit more.

What I liked: the all-over crunch in the salad – the cabbage and the peanuts. Also liked the salty addition of the peanuts – they’re just unexpected in a salad like this.

What I didn’t like: nada, nothing. Will make again for sure.

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Do you like lemon? If so, you HAVE to make this dish. It helps if you like garlic too, but the sweet (honey) and sour (lemon juice) combination is a match made in carrot heaven.

There must be something in my genes that perks up with anything – ANYTHING – lemon. And this recipe just screams lemon. But it’s tempered with some sweet (honey, or sugar). And then it has the healthy addition of fresh baby spinach. Not only does it make a gorgeous side dish, but there’s a total of 3 T. olive oil in the dish. It’s called a salad. But it’s a side dish in reality.

My curiosity got me on this one – what exactly IS a salad? When I started writing this, my contention was that this dish isn’t a salad. So, I consulted several online dictionary sources. A SALAD is:

A cold dish of various mixtures of raw or cooked vegetables, usually seasoned with oil, vinegar, or other dressing: “a green salad”.

or

A dish of raw leafy green vegetables, often tossed with pieces of other raw or cooked vegetables, fruit, cheese, or other ingredients and served with a dressing.

or

A usually cold dish consisting of vegetables, [such] as lettuce, tomatoes, and cucumbers, covered with a dressing and sometimes containing seafood, meat, or eggs.

So, okay, I generally associate “salad” with greens. BUT, obviously potato salad isn’t a green. A cold lentil salad isn’t a green. Egg salad, isn’t a salad at all! My logic is flawed! I have to laugh, though at the variety of definitions. The carrot and spinach salad fits within the 1st and 3rd choices, but not the 2nd one, unless the spinach was left raw. Oh well – so much for that little study in definitions. There’s your English lesson for the day.

The dish does require the use of a couple of pans (although you could use the same pan, just put the drained carrots into the bowl then re-use the sauté pan). You need to cook the carrots – but only partly – you want them to have a bit of bite in them – and they’re cooked in honey, lemon juice and salt. The spinach is sautéed briefly – just a minute or less. It’s chopped. Then you add the dressing (honey, cumin, garlic, orange juice, more lemon juice and a tiny bit of olive oil). Toss and set aside, or serve immediately. To raves. And you can call it whatever you’d like – salad, schmalad! Whatever it is, it’s good! Thanks to Phillis Carey for the recipe.

What I liked: The sweet/sour flavors just burst in your mouth. I guarantee it. If you have really tasty carrots (organic is what I buy whenever possible) it’ll be even better!

What I didn’t like: nothing – I could have eaten an entire plate of the stuff! Make more than you think you’ll need since I know you’ll like it a lot – unless you’re a crazy person who doesn’t like carrots. Are there such people?

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Just when I think I’ve run out of ideas for lean chicken, I go to another cooking class and get a great one – like this recipe. Chicken breasts pounded thin and stuffed with Boursin cheese, ham and chives, then dipped in egg and a bread crumb/cheese mixture. Then the little bundles are baked at a high temp in a thin layer of hot oil in the oven to get a crispy crust on it. Like deep fried, but not really. Healthier. The crunch is wonderful!

The night I made this I wasn’t in any particular hurry (fortunately), so when we didn’t sit down until well after 7:00 I realized I should have started a little earlier. Not that it took all that long to make this – I just didn’t start working on it until after 6:00. I did have green beans left over and I sliced some tomatoes as sides. If I’d wanted carbs, I’d have made some buttered orzo, which is what Phillis Carey suggested, but I didn’t want carbs. The chicken breasts had been defrosted earlier, so I pounded them thin between two layers of plastic wrap. You need to make them fairly big (thin) in order to have enough to wrap around the filling. The Boursin cheese is part of the secret to this dish – it adds a nice, moist succulence to the stuffing (thin-sliced deli ham, chives, and a little tiny sprinkling of red pepper flakes). You can either fold over the chicken, or roll them up (I did a roll). Hopefully the sticky raw chicken will kind of self-adhese (is that a word?) on the outside edges. Carefully they’re dipped into the beaten egg and rolled very gently in the toasted bread crumbs, Parmesan and chopped parsley.

The “trick” if there is one, is pouring a thin layer of grapeseed oil into a rimmed baking sheet (with enough room on it for as many chicken bundles as you’ve made, with some breathing room in between them) and pre-heating that oil in a very hot oven for about 4 minutes. Until it’s almost (but not quite) smoking. That part worked like a charm for me – when I placed the chicken bundles in the pan, the oil was already spitting at me. The chicken is baked for about 7 minutes on convection bake (8 minutes regular heat), turned over (and they spit at me again) and baked an additional 5-7 minutes. Done. In that last 5 minutes I plated everything else and slide the chicken onto the plates right out of the oven. Because they were really HOT, they stayed warm on the plate well for at least 10 minutes while we consumed them.

My DH (who will tell me if something doesn’t taste up to snuff) couldn’t say enough good things about this chicken. He loved it. So did I. What’s there not to like? – Boursin cheese inside, crispy coating on the outside. Yum in every bite.

What I liked: already said – crispy coating on the outside that you’d only get if you did this oven-fry method – it works because the oven is very hot and the chicken is thin – it all cooks in a few minutes. Also the Boursin cheese. Oh yes. Delish. You could also make this a few hours ahead (the pounding, stuffing, then refrigerating). Just dip in egg, crumbs and do the oven frying at the last minute. This would make a GREAT company meal. As I mentioned, Phillis said to serve with buttered orzo.
What I didn’t like: well, I suppose if I had to say something, it was getting zapped by the spitting fat in the pan, but couldn’t be helped. No burns. Otherwise, nothing at all.

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With peaches in season, and as tasty as I’ve tried in a long while, I yearned for some creamy peach ice cream. I tried a new recipe, herewith . . .

The half-flat of peaches came from Costco. That great company called I Am Ripe. I think there were 12 in the box. But no, they really weren’t ripe the day we bought them. It took a few more days, and they were just exquisitely juicy. Every single peach was perfect – no blemishes or bruises. Using David Lebovitz’s book, The Perfect Scoop, I followed his peach ice cream recipe. First I peeled the peaches – peeled them, using my Messermeister Pro Touch Serrated Swivel Peeler that will peel fresh peaches (and apricots, even ripe tomatoes – if you don’t have one of these, you should). I peeled them over the saucepan I’d cook them in so I wouldn’t lose any of the juice. These peaches are clings, so I ended up having to cut the flesh from the pit. Water was added and the peaches were simmered gently for 10+ minutes, until tender.

Actually, I’d planned on making two batches (since I had so many peaches), so I doubled the amount of peach puree I made. If nothing else I thought I could freeze the puree to make another batch of ice cream in a couple of months when there won’t BE any peaches. If you end up doing what I did – then you’ll want to make a double batch of the puree too – just save half of it. I actually added the sugar to the peaches so I could do that. I improvised slightly!

The peaches were whizzed up in the food processor to actually make the puree, cooled, then I made the ice cream mixture. This one doesn’t require a custard (eggs) so it was easy enough to combine. I chilled it for several hours. It was recently I was watching a food program on TV about the chemistry of ice cream and learned something important. Even though I happen to have an ice cream machine that doesn’t require freezing the bowl first (so I could put the mixture in there at any temp), the COLDER the mixture is BEFORE you put it in the ice cream machine the less ice crystals you’ll get during the freezing process. Therefore, the smoother the ice cream will be. Makes sense, and this batch certainly worked that way. If you’re new to my blog and don’t know about the ice cream machine I use, click over to this blog post which will give you plenty of info about it – as well as the recipe for my all-time favorite ice cream, Lemon Velvet Gelato.

Once the ice cream was done (took about 55 minutes in my machine) I scooped it into a big bowl with a cover and stuck it in the freezer overnight. I’ve learned now that I must take the ice cream out of the freezer about 15 minutes before I want to scoop it – otherwise I just can’t – it’s too cold/solid.

In the cookbook it was suggested that you serve the ice cream in individual bowls and slice additional peaches on top. I’d figured on doing that, but then I got an idea and went with it. I used small glass cups, crumbled up some vanilla meringue cookies (Trader Joe’s brand that I’ve had in my pantry for at least a year) and layered a little bit of cookies, some ice cream, more cookies, a few more meringue crumbs. We had a guest for dinner that evening and I made these you see pictured – those did have sliced peaches. But the next evening when our son and his family were here – THEN, my epiphany happened – I used the crumbs, the ice cream, and some of the peach puree, drizzled it on top (instead of fresh peach slices). THEN I drizzled just a little bit of balsamic glaze (Trader Joe’s brand that just lives in my refrigerator) on top of that. Oh my goodness was that good! I’ve box bordered the recipe below if you’re interested – it’s not exactly a recipe, but just a suggestion.

Even our 4 year old grandson ate it with relish. We all liked it a LOT. So easy to make, and the meringue cookie crumbles give the dessert some nice crunch/texture.

What I liked: the overall peach flavor; how easy the mixture is to make, although you do have to cook the peaches a bit; and, the fact that this is a dessert you can make the day before! Yippee. It made both evenings we entertained so easy to serve the dessert. The other thing I liked was that each serving contained a small amount of ice cream – smaller than if I’d served it by itself. I thought that was a good thing – less fat, calories, etc.

What I didn’t like: can’t think of a thing. I’ll be making these layered desserts again. And again. As long as I’ve got peaches! And peach ice cream. Maybe another visit to Costco is in order just so I can make more than one batch of the puree . . .

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Green bean salads are a regular around my house in the summertime when we’re having outdoor dinners. They’re a make-ahead item, and if you can find really good green beans, well, you’ll have a real winner of a side dish.

Usually I try to get those baby green beans, haricots verts, but in this case it was regular organic green beans that my DH found when he was shopping for me. I’d read the recipe over at Food52, and this was one of the contest winners last year. I simmered them in boiling water – well, simmering water until just done, drained them and got everything else ready to go. Marjoram isn’t something I have in my pantry or in the garden, so I substituted tarragon, which I do have in my garden. Not very big of a plant, but tarragon is a strong flavor anyway, so I only needed about 1/2 teaspoon or so of chopped tarragon.

Because I like onion but I don’t like raw onion at all, I always use that trick of soaking the onion in acidulated water (a tetch of vinegar in with water) for about 15 minutes. It takes that harsh edge off the raw onion. I sweetened the dressing with agave and poured it over the salad just before serving. Green beans make a great color item on the dinner plate too. It was a lovely salad to accompany some grilled pork chops. I liked making something other than our all-time favorite, the garlic green beans that I turn to at least a dozen times a year because they’re so easy and SO good. But this recipe was really good too.

What I liked: that I could make it ahead and just toss it before serving. Liked the pretty color addition of the red onion and Feta cheese – the color contrasts were very pretty. Actually, I thought with the lemon juice in it the green beans would turn gray after a day, but they didn’t. Enjoyed the left overs just as much as the first time. An easy side dish to make – do soak the onion if you can allow time for that. Definitely a keeper.

What I didn’t like: gosh, nothing. Loved all of it. Worth making.

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You could say this is something like the spinach dip you can find at lots of grocery stores these days. The kind that’s made with full-fat sour cream and mayo. Whereas this one is made with yogurt; with the exception of the little bit of olive oil drizzled over the top, there isn’t any other fat in it. And it’s delicious – maybe even better than the store-bought stuff. This version has mint, and some crumbled walnuts on top.

Slowly over the last month or two I’ve been trying to make some of the contest winners over at Food52. Every single one of them has been a winner. And this one was no exception. If you haven’t browsed recipes there, you should. This one was not difficult to make, and in actuality, it didn’t take all that much time, either. However, you do need to blanch the baby spinach (leaving it in boiling-hot water for a minute), which is a bit of a nuisance. Other than that, it’s pretty easy to stir together the other ingredients in this.

One little detour must be explained – the recipe calls for dried mint – an item I don’t have in my pantry. I just never use it. Period. Once you plant mint in a California garden, you’ll have mint forever. It jumps barriers, spreading its little vines. But I use ample mint in my cooking. So anyway, I didn’t have dried mint, which the recipe inventor here insisted should be used for its woodsy flavor. Instead, I put fresh mint IN the dip, not sprinkled on top. Maybe one day I’ll have to try the other version. I also added more garlic because I had just two garlic cloves left and we like garlic.

The dip contains simple ingredients – full fat Greek yogurt, the spinach, garlic, a little tiny bit of olive oil, then walnuts are sprinkled on top and you drizzle a little bit of extra virgin olive oil on top too. I served it with sangak bread, that wonderful, yeasty Iranian bread I’ve mentioned numerous times before. Lavash would work or any kind of very thin, fresh flatbread. Even toasted pita bread would work well too. The spinach flavor is certainly there. Make this, okay?

What I liked: well, half a recipe disappeared in a flash when our son, his wife and their son came to visit. In fact they scraped the last of it out of the bowl after dinner was over with – they liked it that much. Does that tell you anything?

What I didn’t like: gosh, not a single thing. Loved it. Will make it again for sure.

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If you have some pizza dough on hand, and a package of prosciutto, some fresh mozzie and fresh tomatoes, a pizza marriage can be made. Especially with the arugula salad on top and decorated with more Parmesan cheese and pine nuts.

Perhaps I’ve mentioned it before, but I can remember the first time I had  pizza with a salad on top – it was at California Pizza Kitchen, and it was surely 25 years ago, or more. What a combo, I thought. And I’ve ordered it many times since. And I’ve made it in a few variations. Most recently it was the Pioneer Woman’s version with prosciutto and figs. I’ve also made an artichoke & zucchini focaccia pizza too, and because I love the salad aspect, I’ve added it onto the other pizzas I’ve made too, like  my all-time favorite one, chicken, red onion and kalamata olive pizza.

This one had an arugula salad on top. Truth be known – I love-love arugula. It’s the peppery-lemony biting flavor of it that I like so much. In this case it’s tossed in a light olive oil and lemon juice dressing. Nothing fancy at all – I didn’t even measure, although the recipe does give you amounts.

The recipe came from yet another cooking class with Phillis Carey. What a wonder woman she is. Five different dishes at this last class, and five winners. You’ll see them all here eventually. This was the first one I made from the class. And I’ll tell you right now – my DH Dave and our dinner guest Irene both nearly levitated off their chairs they loved this pizza so much. Dave even ate my little pieces of crust I’d left on my plate. If you can’t find or can’t get fresh mozzarella, you can use regular mozzie. It won’t have the same taste, but it’ll be good. And if you want to try a little something different, add some goat cheese to the mixture. That will make it good too.

One of the features of home made pizza is creating individual sizes – a one pound ball of pizza (which I bought at Trader Joe’s a week or so ago) can be divided to make 2 to 4 pizzas, or even 8 if you want small ones. I divided it into thirds, which was just right for us. Bigger appetites, maybe not enough. One of the secrets to working with raw pizza dough is giving the dough enough time – in between stretching it out – to rest and relax the gluten. In the past when I’ve been in a hurry and just jammed and pushed and pulled to try to get the pizza dough to stretch out into a big enough shape, and I’d get so frustrated. I knew it needed to rest, but I was in a gosh-darned hurry and didn’t have time for the blasted dough to give me trouble. But it will let you manipulate it if you just let it rest.

What I did was cut the dough into thirds. I put those blobs onto a rimmed baking sheet. Then I drizzled my hands with olive oil (actually it was grapeseed oil) and pressed out the dough some. Whatever you do, DON’T oil the entire ball of dough as then it won’t stick to the pan. It’ll just slide right back into a blob after every pushing/stretching session. As I began gathering up the ingredients for the pizza, I’d give the pizza dough another stretch, then I’d wash my hands again and go do something else for 10 minutes. It took me about 30 minutes to get the rest of the dinner together, and by then the dough was perfectly pliable and I was able to stretch it easily into sort of oval shapes.

Then the toppings begin. Because I’d oiled my hands as I molded the dough, I didn’t need to put oil on the top of each pizza. You choice, though. You can also use a rolling pin to stretch and shape the dough if you don’t like getting your hands icky. Phillis used fresh oregano. Well, I didn’t have any fresh,so I just used dried. That went on first. Then half of the Parmesan cheese, sprinkled all over the dough.  Then the fresh Mozzie went on, along with the strips of prosciutto. More Parmesan went on with a bunch of halved cherry tomatoes (the recipe calls for plum tomatoes) and a sprinkling of red pepper flakes.

They’re baked in a hot oven and once removed it’s so much easier to go ahead and slice the pizza right then and there, THEN dress the arugula, pile the salad on top. I slid the pizzas onto plates, then topped each with the salad. Then you sprinkle on the last bit of Parmesan and toasted pine nuts.

What I liked: well, it’s easy to make, especially if you buy the raw pizza dough. Just have all the ingredients ready and it’s quick to put together. The toughest part is stretching the dough into place. The tastes in this are just fantastic.

What I didn’t like: nothing at all!

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Like parsley? Like garlic? Well then, you’ll like chimichurri sauce, an Argentinian jewel to accompany grilled meats. VERY simple to make!

It was about 20 years ago that I first heard of chimichurri sauce. We went to a Brazilian restaurant in our area and were entertained with the very elaborate and dramatic meal containing several courses and the long sword of grilled meat they delicately sliced off at the table, right onto your plate. Each person had his/her own little bowl of chimichurri to use on the meat, or you could dip bites into it. I liked it enough that I asked for seconds, and asked the waiter for more information about what was in it. We’ve been served it several times in the interim at other restaurants that have some kind of grilled meat.

Actually chimichurri is an Argentinian invention, and as I did some research about it I’ve discovered that variations abound, like any other culture/country related dish. As an example Italian Bolognese sauce (or Sunday Sauce, as it’s often called), even Mexican salsa, or the British favorite, lemon curd. So it is with chimichurri. One I found from an Argentinian, said that they never add oil to their sauce. Hmmm. I’ve only had it with oil. Many others add tomatoes – to some it’s an essential part of the dish. I didn’t add them, preferring to make it more green only. So, you see, you can make it your own if you wish. This recipe may not be authentic at all, but I’ll just say one thing – it’s fabulous!

My hubby and I are still taste-testing grass fed beef, and am happy to report that we found a local purveyor we really like. Before I tell you about it/them, I want to try the steak another time. You know that adage, first time’s a charm? We’ll make certain the second steak is equally good before I share. So we grilled the said ribeye steak in our time-honored method (see Grilled Ribeyes with Amazing Glaze) but didn’t do the Amazing Glaze this time because I was making the chimichurri sauce.

Not having a favorite recipe for it, I looked up several before deciding what to do. Eventually I made it simple on myself and used the food processor. I took ingredients from several recipes and made my own combination. I whizzed it up just a tad too long – you really want to have some parsley texture – the parsley got a little lost when I pureed it. Read the instructions before making this – read it all the way through. I also used lemon juice in mine because I didn’t have any limes on hand. But lime is the preferred citrus for chimichurri.

With just half a recipe I still have nearly a cup left after the one dinner. So you might not want to make the whole thing unless you’re feeding a crowd. I think garlic loses its pungency too, after it sits in the refrigerator for even a day, let alone a week! Probably wouldn’t keep that long anyway.

What I liked: the potent garlic and parsley flavors. Loved it. Loved it. Loved it. It has powerful flavors – you need to love garlic and parsley for sure! It’s also VERY easy to make.

What I didn’t like: nothing really – just don’t over-process it- leave some texture.

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Talk about simple. And delicious. Actually I bought a kale salad mix (in a bag) from Trader Joe’s, then added halved fresh heirloom cherry tomatoes and my old standby favorite salad dressing. If push came to shove, I think I could just eat this salad for dinner with nothing else! It was wonderful with a chicken dinner, though.

I swear, sometimes the simplest of things are the best. I made a Thomas Keller roast chicken the other night and since we’d been out of town for 5 days, we needed a trip to Trader Joe’s to stock up, and I went along (usually Dave does the grocery shopping for me, with a list in hand). And I noticed the kale mix at Trader Joe’s. We love kale. And here it was, already chopped up and ready for a quick salad. (It does come with its own little bag of dressing too, but I didn’t use it.) I did chop it a bit more because some of the pieces were too large, but it only took a few quick whacks. Then I added some heirloom cherry tomatoes (amazingly good for so early in the season). And because I have way too much on hand, I also added some small chunks of Feta cheese (sheep’s milk, my favorite).

Every few months I make one of my old standby salad dressing recipes – this time it was my all-time favorite salad dressing – a kind of blue cheese vinaigrette. But way back when I named it a Creamy Garlic Dressing. Yes, it has garlic in it, but the blue cheese is probably more predominant than the garlic. And there’s no cream or mayo in it. But if you whiz up this dressing in the blender until it’s smooth, it looks like a cream type dressing. This time I made it more like a vinaigrette. See the small chunks of blue cheese (actually I used Gorgonzola this time)?

So had I thought it through, I wouldn’t have added Feta to the salad – because I already had Gorgonzola in the dressing – but it was already in the salad, so oh well! Surprise? It tasted wonderful, although I couldn’t exactly pick out the flavors as well. But it was delicious nonetheless. If you haven’t made this dressing, you should go look at my old post about it. The recipe below doesn’t include all the ingredients for the dressing – just go find it from the above link. You could also use whatever dressing you’d prefer too. I just happen to like home made dressings and rarely buy anything store-bought.

What I liked: it’s a healthy salad – well, as healthy as any salad is with an oil-based dressing on it. Loved the chewy texture of the kale – AND the delicious heirloom tomatoes. All of it was good.

What I didn’t like: gee whiz – nothing. It was all good.

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If I were to tell you that this dish is super-easy, would you believe me? Most of Thomas Keller’s recipes are long and arduous. Not this one. And to me, there’s really nothing quite so tasty as a freshly roasted whole chicken hot out of the oven. Read on.

After being away for a few days (attending our oldest grandson’s high school graduation – see Logan, right) and after having numerous rich (and very enjoyable) meals, some in, some out, we were ready for a more simple, less caloric dinner once we got home. I picked up a nice big, fat 6 pound chicken at Trader Joe’s – a whole chicken.

Then, I was reading through some other people’s blog posts and learned about the Amateur Gourmet – have you ever read his blog? He won Saveur’s #1 rating for best overall blog. The magazine’s list of blogs is long. Really long, although some are categorized. Most of them I’d never heard of. Oh my, I’m in trouble . . . I already follow about 60 food blogs. How am I ever, ever going to keep up? But I had to go back through some older posts on the first ones I looked at. Anyway, on someone’s blog there was a link to watch a youtube video of Thomas Keller making one of his many chicken recipes. This one from Bouchon, the eponymous restaurant in Napa Valley.

The video was really interesting. And it looked so EASY! So I scribbled down the simple directions and did it – with only minor modifications. I let the roasting chicken I’d bought sit out at room temp for about an hour to get it closer to room temp. To the inside cavity I added a thyme sprig and salt and pepper. Then I prepared all the vegetables (I used onions, celery, carrots and later on during the baking time added about a pound of sweet potato chopped up). You can use your own choice of veggies. Those were lightly drizzled and tossed with olive oil and put in the bottom of a roasting pan. I used a Teflon-coated 9×13 pan and loosely covered the bottom with the veggies.

Next you truss the bird so the wings and legs are tight up against the body (I didn’t do this one step cuz I was lazy), then rub it all over with some olive oil and sprinkle liberally (really liberally) with salt, pepper and I added some dried thyme. The birdie is placed on top of the veggies and popped into the oven. Keller’s 3-4 pound bird roasted in a 450° oven and was done in about 45 minutes. My chicken at 6 pounds took about 80+ minutes. I also lowered the temp by 25° too because the bird was so big. You want to get chicken to an internal temp of about 165°.

Once out of the oven I removed the chicken to a grooved cutting board and let her sit with a little dome of foil over her to keep her warm. Also covered the roasting pan with all the veggies in it – and they were pooled in a lovely liquid of juices and fat. Talk about tasty! I tasted one piece of sweet potato (to make sure it was cooked through – it was) and could hardly keep my fork out of the pan.

The veggies went onto the plate along with pieces of the dripping, juicy chicken. With a salad, that was dinner. Fantastic is about the only word to describe!

What I liked: first, how EASY it was. Secondly, the flavor – oh yes – the salt really made a difference. It was extra-specially juicy. And the veggies – I had to talk to myself about not eating the entire pan full of veggies all by myself. They were that good.

What I didn’t like: gosh, nothing. It was magnificent. Worth doing again and again.

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