Popcorn for dinner

I saved the culinary energy for H tonight tonight, so that instead of handing him a plate while he sits in front of the computer, we could actually eat together. At home, he's very good at sitting down and not reading or anythign and being with us, although I admit I had to train him not to bring magazines to the table. Nothing says, "I don't want to be here," more than watching TV or reading at the table. I think it's acceptable at breakfast, and sometimes lunch, but that's just us.

So J and I had crushed FinnCrisp Sesame Rounds on the couch while watching Polish TV, and microwave popcorn at the dinner table. He asked for chopsticks, because we always eat popcorn with chopsticks at home. It keeps the grease from getting all over your fingers. Works well for chips and such, too. We actually learned this froma Make-Up girl ( I know, I'm sexist) that H worked with a few years back. It's pretty cool to see a two year old gain chopstick proficiency, although I'm sure millions of Chinese children do it, too.

H and I had a green salad of iceberg, tomatos, cucumbers, onions, and a vinagarette, and pork chops with an orange/soy sauce on them. The chops and sauce were loosely based on a recipe from "The Working Stiff Cookbook".

I can't get about half the ingredients, but the basic idea is to mix a half cup OJ with two tablespoons oil, sesame in the book, olive here, and add one tablespoon soy sauce, then reduce it after you've cooked the chops. You also add ginger, which I could get but forgot, and something else, but I don't remember.

To cook the chops, you have to start with nice thick ones, at least an inch, but thicker is better, and then brown them for one minute on each side on high heat. Then you flip them again, turn the heat to meduim (although I prefer more of a medium low) and cover. Cook four or five more minutes on each side, and let rest on a plate. The book says to then drain the extra grease, but that's up to you, as I find there's really not that much grease, and if you're cooking with cast iron or enameled cast iron, or even heavy gauge stainless, this is a bit awkward, and somewhat dangerous.

Anyway, turn the heat to high, pour the premixed sauce in, and let it reduce, which usually happens very quickly. I double the sauce recipie, because it gives me more time to keep it from turning instantly to glue. As usual, I don't really do much exact measuring with this, but go with what feels comfortable to you. This is one of my husband's favorites, and he is always happy to have pork chop night.

I quite like this cookbook, and it was the first cookbook I bought for myself. I got it becasue it had good, easy, and quick recipies for two people, and a few for four. The Thai fish recipe is disgusting, don't even try. But I did get my first good rosemary potatos from this, although now I prefer a lavender/rosemary mixture instead of just rosemary and salt.

As a side note, J has decided he wants to wear underwear all the time, but still poos in them. Good thing he's got lots. He'll take my hand and say, "We have to go do something in the bathroom," and take me there. Then he says, "Get the wipes".

Thanks for reading,
Anne

Where do we pee?

After a good five weeks or so of potty attempts, my frustration level has exceeded J's ability to use the potty, so I think I'm going to tone it back down. He still has no problem going, he just won't stop what he's doing to do it, or admit it. I realized I was getting frustrated not becasue he wasn't going, but because I was feeling like a failure. He, of course, doesn't really care, and I certainly don't want him to think that the potty is all I care about. So from now on, I will ask him at his diaper changes if he wants a diaper or underpants, and we'll go from there.

I think it's complicated by his overall maturity in other areas, especially language. He has the verbal skills of a five year old, and he's also kind of a big kid. Not huge, but about 38 inches and 31 pounds, and so sometimes I expect too much out of him. He is only 2 and a half, after all. And why do I even care about when he potty trains? He's not going to day care or preschool or any place which requires potty training, so why do I care? I think I feel like, as a stay-at-home mother, my child should be more advanced in everything to justify my time with him. I don't get this message from H, but I think in general I am a defensive person, even before I am questioned about anything, and this is one way it comes out.

I need to focus on what he CAN do. For example, as of this morning, he can cut all the way through a small peice of paper with scissors, he can peel and stick his own stickers, and he can trace lines pretty decently. He also has amazing narrative abilities, and remembers absolutely everything we tell him, including me saying "your stupid train". He thought that was it's proper name, and called it, "My stupid train" all day. Great.

He can also remember about 20 different songs, about 20 nursery ryhmes, and can crack an egg without getting any shell in the bowl. He can identify several different kinds of birds and maybe 10 different flowers, and is generally the most amazing person I've ever met. He can wear diapers forever if he wants. Soon enough he'll be able to change them himself.

And he can type his first name on the computer. Sweet.
Thanks for reading,
-Anne

Marinara time

I know, I know, I promised this about a week ago. But it's worth the wait, really.

I never had any real desire to make my own pasta sauce, being perfectly happy with what came in jars. Newman's Own Bombolina was the winner in our house, mostly becasue H preferred it. I'm partial to a sauce with mushrooms, but he doesn't like mushrooms. I'd rather not hear about it than fight for mushrooms, so I probably haven't had sauce with mushrooms in years.

Back to the sauce-making. So we were fine with jarred, but the last time we were in Eastern Europe, we discovered they have a completely different idea of what should go on noodles and pizza. The sauce is somehow both sweeter and more peppery than we're used to. They also are still figuring out pizza, often throwing things like corn and ham and sardines and goat cheese together, so I was motivated to make a pizza that tasted good.

The recipe I am using is somewhat based on the one in "A New Way To Cook"

I tend to triple this recipe, then freeze it in one meal-portions for later use.

Get your big pot out. Put 2 tablespoons olive oil in it and turn the heat to a medium lowish. Chop up a medium red onion and a few cloves of garlic. I only use two, but some people might like more. Fry them in the hot oil for about six minutes.

Open one 28 oz can of peeled plum tomatos, then seed and chop them. I use my hands to seed them. I don't even know of any other way. Empty one 28 oz can of tomato puree, and half a can of tomato paste into the pot, along with the seeded chopped tomatos. Stir. Then I add a few teaspoons basil, a few of oregano, two teaspoons sugar, and about half a cup of red wine. A cabernet or a burgundy works just fine for this. Add one teaspoon of salt, and then just simmer at a low heat until dinnertime. I often adjust the spices as I'm cooking, so I apologize for not having exact measurements.

I did make this completely from scratch one time, peeling and seeding my own plum tomatos, no puree or anything. It took FOREVER to reduce the tomatos to a sauce, and just was not worth it to me.The above will taste delightful in about 30 minutes of simmering.

One nice thing I've noticed from this is I don't get the swollen tounge from the tomatos when I make my own sauce. Eating fresh tomatos swells my tounge and makes it even bleed sometimes, and so did eating jarred sauce. Even though I'm using canned tomatos and canned puree, I don't have this efffect with the homemade stuff.

Make sure you use Italian Plum tomatos grown in Italy. And your puree should have one or two ingredients, tomatos and salt. If you can find it without salt, even better. I can't remember if that's possible, because I've been here too long, but I'll find out when I get home.

Eggs and NotEggs

I'm fairly confident that J has an intolerance to eggs as well as dairy. I tested him a few days ago, and sure enough, he reacted. He seems to be ok with the tiny amounts in baked goods, however, but I wasn't sure of this until this week, so we had been putting other things in our recipies.
We had egg-free-dairy free pancakes a few times, which were very, very dense, but that can be remedied with additional rice milk. I actually prefer my pancakes thinner than most, so I'm used to adding milk as I cook them. I'm a huge fan of crepes, but since they have to sit for 30 minutes before you cook them, I don't make them too much for me and the boy. He has a hard enough time waiting for food to cook and cool down, so extra waiting is out of the question.

Anyway, while we were egg-free, I found a list of things that could subsitute for eggs ina recipie. As they don't have the pacakged egg-subs here, I chose half a mashed banana and a half teaspoon of baking powder as our sub in a zucchinni muffin recipie. It mixed ok, poured ok, but then it never really cooked. They were in the oven for an HOUR before they even came close to setting. It was like glue muffins. They never browned, and I was going to let them cool and then throw them away. J, however, saw me taking them out of the muffin tin (which is actually silicone), and asked to eat one. I checked the inside, and they had finally set, sort of, so I let him have one. He ate it, and had two more over the next two days, until I finally threw them away. Weird.

We're going to make zuchinni-oat muffins today, and we'll be using real egg. He had three chocolate chip cookies, made with real egg and dark chocolate, but rice milk not cow, and he was fine, so I think a muffin here or there with 1/12th of an egg in it might be OK. I'll keep an eye on it, though, and let you know.

UPDATE; So the oat zucchinni muffins have baked, taking ten minutes longer than the recipe said, but I think it's something to do with the super-havy-duty baking sheet that has to sit under the silicone muffin tin. They still seem REALLY sturdy to me, but taste pretty good. ANd easy to make, so here's the recipe.

One cup oats, instant is fine. One and a half cups flour, 2 and a half teaspoons baking powder, half teaspoon salt, half cup sugar. Mix all that together. In a seperate bowl, mix one lightly beaten egg, one cup milk of your choosing, one quarter cup melted margarine. Then mix the two bowls together gently, adding a half to one cup shredded, skin on, squeezed zucchini. BAke at 425 for about 20 minutes. Done when a knife or toothpick comes out clean.

A note about margarine: In the states, this would never be allowed in my house, but as there is no almond butter here, it's filling a calorie niche for J. I always prefer to cook with real butter, becasue even though it's full of fat, it tastes better and doesn't have trans fats. My father-in-law tells me they make margarine without trans fats now, but I hope I can avoid it all together. As alwasy, I prefer to eat food, not chemicals. The margarine I'm using, Rama, has no trans fats, so that's good.

J eats it with bread and jam, and of course on his muffins. I'll get soy butter when we get back to the states, or I may try a little butter, and see how he does.

O the Player

J has had a fever for two days, so pardon the break. We didn't get much sleep Tuesday night, and I think I'm still tired from it. However, the babysitter is here, so I will take advantage of her last half hour to write to all my adoring fans.

At home, I am with J full time. It's awesome. I feel like I've been waiting my whole life to be with him, and he amazes me every day with who he is.He's a thoughtful, kind, bossy little boy, and the most fun I have ever had. He occasionally stays an hour or two with the neighbors, or with H or the in-laws if I have something to do, but nothing regular. It was, however, very exciting the first time he went to bed for someone else, sometime in February. We stopped nursing to sleep in January, when he was 2 years, 4 months, and so, Date Night arrived! Anyway, I don't have any regular help at home, but I get what I need when I need it as far as time to myself.

Here, a different story. H and the inlaws are working all the time, and I don't know many people, and those I do can't speak much English. So, five weeks into a three-month stay, I got O. One of H's friends was mugged and knocked out in the street, and O was one of the three girls who picked him up and got him to the hospital. She's also an out-of-work preschool teacher, although here they call it kindergarten, and speaks more English than I do Lithuanian. This is her second time, and she's brought a friend each time with better English. J is having great fun, telling me to go away while they play, and climbing all over her. When I told him about her coming over, and how she would play with him and take him for his stroller walk ( I dare not call it a nap walk), he decided she was "O the player". And she is.

In the states, I could never afford this much help. It's about a third the cost here. I would prefer she not have the TV on the entire time they're in the house, but it's only 7 more weeks, and besides, the shows they watch are 30-year-old Russian cartoons, so hey, he's getting even MORE international flavor in his life. As it is, I don't really care that much. The shows are all little forest creatures and stop-action puppets, so it's the opposite of cartoon network, which he is not allowed to watch.

I'm not as much a stickler for TV as some of my friends. He usually watches about 2 hours total a day at home, usually less, sometimes more, depending, but that's what Noggin's for. He also will ask to turn it off, or say, "I'm done watching my show," a lot, so I'm not concerned.

So that's it for today. I almost have a nanny. I feel so middle-class.

-Anne

Canned food

At home, I'm not real big on canned food, beyond a few fruits, as I've mentioned before. Too much excess sugar, fat and salt, and I can generally make the same thing, only better tasting. I haven't been able to stomach canned soup in years. It just tastes like salty glue to me. However, here I have discovered the joy that is Marks and Spencer, a clothing store that has branched off into prepared foods.

Not having any desire to cook two dinners a night, I have been buying food for my husband there, in the back of a clothing store. I stumbled onto it through a book I was reading, "The River House", and investigated the shop which is about a mile from our apartment. H is fond of the chicken tikka masala, and if you get a can of that, plus one bag of microwave rice, it's the perfect instant meal for him, with no leftovers to worry about. There's also chicken korma, and I got him spaghetti and meatballs, too. I'd still rather eat food I've made, but since H has no hangups about poisoning himself through canned food, he's happy, I'm happy, and I don't have to worry about what to feed him.

Another nice thing is the Marks and Spencer canned food has far fewer unidentified additives and no corn syrup and such, as it is from England, where they don't put corn syrup in EVERYTHING, like they do in the states. So it's not quite the drek that Chef BoyArDee is.

Anyway, J is watching his favorite show, Big Cook Little Cook, another fine English import, and it willl be over soon, so I must go.

Thanks for reading,
-Anne

Poop in the potty!

Obviously, we won't be discussing a recipe today.

Since we've been overseas, about a month, we have been doing some light potty training, mostly out of boredom. J is 32 months, and pretty good at holding it and has no problem going outdoors or in public toilets. He particularly enjoys peeing in the river at the bottom of the hill. However, he seems completely oblivious to noticing the urge, and will often come up to me and say, "look what happened," and ask why his pants are wet. It's still all me bringing him to the potty. We weren't even attempting poo, and I would just stick him in a diaper every other afternoon. He's quite predictable that way.

Yesterday when I was laying down for a minute while his dad was home, he started to go in his underpants. he always comes up and says, "Can I have a few minutes" before pooing. H asked him if J could try and make it go in the potty, and J said OK. H left him alone on the potty and he finished there. Hooray!

Earlier that day, while he was peeing, J said, "hey, some poops are coming out," and did a teency one in the potty.
We were happy for him, but never really have made a big deal out of it, and don't do stickers or m&m's or shaming or anything. i figured we'd just go all the time and talk about listening to your body and he'd figure it out.

The next step is getting som kind of warning from him BEFORE he starts, but hey, one thing at a time. I'm just glad he's not afraid of the potty. I also know a lot of kids go back and forth with this kind of thing, so I'm not claiming sucess by any stretch of the imagination. It's just nice to know there's hope.

And he looks super cute in the tiny European boy undies.

Sweet and Sour chicken

Dinner last night was a hit. We had my father-in-law over, and he really enjoyed it. The last two times, I tried new things, and they were just this side of poison. The first time, I had cooked some mystery fish filets, and forgotten to take the giant broiler sheet out of the oven. It took so long to cook that R left before he could eat anything. The second time, I cooked a cut of meat I THOUGHT was pork tenderloin. It came in the same kind of packaging, with a picture of a dancing pig on it, and seemed to be the same cut. The striations looked a little off to me after it cooked, and after five minutes of thinking it was the worst, toughest pork tenderloin in the world, we all realized it was roast beef. By then the slices had been cut too thick, so we couldn't really eat it. I also made the mistake of using my immersion blender to try and make mashed potatos. Did you know you could make industrial adhesive out of potatos? Becasue apparently that's what happens when you immersion blend it to death, like I did.

So last night, Jamie Oliver's Sweet and Sour Chicken from his book, Happy Days With The Naked Chef.

Take some bell peppers, two each of red, orange and yellow, two red onions, and chop them into quarters, the onion into eighths. Throw in a giant bowl with a chunked pineapple, three good chunks of ginger, grated with the skin on, garlic cloves peeled but not chopped, and olive oil and sea or kosher salt. Swirl all the veg together to marinate while you prep the chicken. Do the usual chicken stuff, wash, pat dry and rub with a bit of olive oil and salt. Dump the veg into a big, deep oven-safe pot. At home I use my 7.5 quart LeCruset orange dutch oven, which I probably use 4 times a week. Worth every penny.Put the chiken on toop of the veg, and roast at 375 according to weight of the chicken. Baste if you want to. Since I put mine in breast side down, if I forget to baste it's not that big a deal. If you have it breast side up, I'd def. reccommend basting. I tend to throw some white wine in the pot too, to make basting easier.

After it's cooked, you can serve half of the roasted vegetables, and then process, not puree, the rest, minus any liquid which might be in the pan, with two tablespoons of sugar and 6 tablespoons balsalmic vinegar. I process all the vegetables, then freeze the leftovers in three quart containers so I can just roast a chicken and have the sauce already made. It's so good, I eat it on toast. This is one of my favorite Naked Chef recipes. There are other good ones too, so you should buy his book.

A few notes.
When I say olive oil, I am referring to extra virgen olive oil. I prefer Spanish for cooking and Greek for salad dressings and such.

As always, fresh is better than canned, but chopping a pineapple can be a hassle, and the taste isn't really affected.

Last night, due to lack of resources and a smaller pan, I only chopped one red and one yellow pepper, and used two small white onions instead of red. It was still delicious. You can get red onions here, but the one we had was molded all the way through, so hey, subsitution time!

Really Flat Bread

I had to invent a bread recipe the other day, so J and I could make biscuits. I'm not completely sure what's in all the bread here, so it's best to make our own. Plus, J really likes to bake, and kneading the dough is one of his favorite things. He puches it down with his little hands, and folds and turns it like a pro. Then he usually makes a face in it, paying special attention to the ears.

The yeast situation threw me. I couldn't find any Red Star, and had to explain yeast by miming bread rising. Go ahead, try it. The women in the shops would tell me either they didn't have such a thing, or would hand me baking powder. I finally just pointed to the word I thought was yeast on a bread package, and they gave me a brown brick from the refrigerator.



It was a yeast paste, and I had NO idea how to measure that out, or mix it in. In the States, you put the contents of the yeast packet in warm water and let it dissolve and foam before proceeding with your recipe. I finally randomly found some dried yeast, but it called for mixing it directly with 1Kg of flour, no dissolving necessary. I had to buy a whole new bag of flour for this, as I had no way to measure out 1Kg, and decided to wing the rest of it. I mixed the yeast and flour, then added about 1/2 cup of sugar, some salt, and then took half of the dry mixture and threw it into the freezer. Hopefully it will keep. Then we added very warm water until the dough looked like dough, then kneaded the heck out of it. It was really stiff, but we managed it. We let it rise, which it did, thankfully, then I made a HUGE mistake and tried to add honey, which of course
meant we couldn't get the dough to stick together any more. So we made weird shapes with half the dough, and put the
other half in the fridge in a bag. We stuck the biscuits in a cast iron pan to rise again. They rose fine, and we cooked them, and they were pretty good. They were like rocks the next day, though. I think we'll add some melted margarine
next time, as I've heard it helps the bread keep.

The next day, yesterday, I tried to pull of hunks of the dough in the fridge, but they wouldn't rise, so I pulled the dough sort of flat and made a sweet pizza -like shape. It was good for about 90 minutes, then became homemade duck food.

So yeah, don't add honey after the first rise.

I'll try to do some more with about half of what's in the freezer, then report back.

Dairy Free

Tonight, J and I had honey and jam sandwiches for dinner. It would be peanut butter, but we're still sorting out a food intolerance that has recently appeared. It seems to be mostly milk, but there's something else lurking that hits him every few days, and honestly, I don't have the resources to do a healthy elimination diet over here, so we're doing the best we can.

It's a little frustrating becasue I did all the things you're suppossed to do to keep this from happening. Breastfed 2+ years, no formula, no whole milk or peanuts until he was 2, and then out of nowhere in March he starts pooing blood and mucous. Three DR visits, including one ER later, it's not bacteria, it's food, and a child who lives off of cheese and yogurt can no longer have them. In the states it's not so bad, as there's readily available, soy/rice/almond milk, almond butter, and other delicious things he'll eat, but here it's a bit of a hassle to get to the stores with the rice milk, which comes in tiny tiny boxes. Last time I went to the store I bought 16 boxes. That will last us about a week, I think. There's also no sweet potatos or winter squash, which I find surprising in a country that puts regular potatos in everything. How hard can it be to grow a squash? Those were my two go-to, high nutrition, peace of mind foods for him.

Of course, this coincides with him being in the throes of toddler food refusal. The only vegetables he'll eat are avacado and carrotts, and the only fruits are peaches and bananas. He'll eat chicken, turkey slices made to look like sails, meatballs (straight ground beef in balls), cheerios, oatmeal, honey, jam, bread, plain muffins, and of course rice milk.

Now that I wrote that down, it doesn't seem too awful. I'm just bummed about the vegetable thing. He used to eat peas by the fistful, and blueberries constantly, but not now. The other day he asked for blueberry mufifns, and we made them (dairy free, of course), and he picked the blueberries out. Ugh. I'll make zuchinni muffins next time. That'l show him...

I am thankful it's intolerance and not allergy, so if he does sneak ice cream he won't die. It is alwasy disturbing to see blood issuing from your child, though, don't you think? ANd it's a good thing I did most of the cooking from scratch already, or this would be much harder for us.
Alright, gotta run. Tomorrow, I'll tell you all about marinara sauce.

Taco time

One thing I like about this country is it is just assumed that babies and small children will nap in their strollers outside. In the States, it seems if your child is not sleeping by themselves flat on their backs in a crib, you must be some kind of failure of a parent. J has always preferred motion for sleep, especially as a baby, and even now, at 2.5, he's napping in the stroller again. It's usually only about 40 minutes, but yesterday it was 2 hours. He's got a bit of a cold, so he needed the extra sleep. Here's a shot of him passed out on the balcony of our apartment.

I got this monster stroller, a Huack, threee weeks after we got here, as the Quinny Zapp, while a fine, compact umbrella stroller, was not well sutied to napping or long walks on the bumpy streets and cobblestones. J even said one afternoon, after a long walk, "I'm tired of all the bumpies." He loves the new one. Even thought it's massive, it's perfect for the nap, an essential part of our day. Full recline, footrest, and all that other stuff.

We had tacos for dinner last night, with the leftover hamburger meat. J didn't touch it, preferring instead to fill himself up with some unidentified Italian biscuits. I meant to just get shells and sauce, but accidentally picked up the "taco kit". It wasn't bad, but it wasn't NEARLY enough food, and I ended up eating a rice cake afterwards. My husband had a supplemental bowl of cereal.

Tonight we make the chicken! Hooray for fail-safe food.
Thanks for reading,
-Anne

Where's the beef come from?

It's almost time for dinner, and I'll be making plain penne for J and I, then hamburgers for my husband when he gets home later. The burgers here are quite tasty, although you can't get a decent one in a restaurant. They do all sorts of tradional dishes with ground beef, but in the 1,000 years since this country's existed, it seems no one thought to smash the meat together and cook it that way.
I think it tastes better because of the way the cattle are raised. I'm sure they have their version of factory-type farms, but since this area doesn't have the grossly subsidized corn surplus that America does, the ruminants are allowed to ruminate. As usual, animals allowed to be what they are, and eat what they are suppossed to, taste better and are better for you.
If you're interested in this kind of stuff, namely, where your food comes from, read this book.
It's The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. It's great. When I read this, I was already going down the path to eating more whole foods. I kept the boxed, bagged food to a minimum, although I do admit to a love for canned peaches, organic and in juice, of course. One of the biggest points I took away was about the eating habits of animals, and it's eventual effect on us, and the planet. My favorite example is that cows should eat grasses. In American Factory Farms, where we get the vast majority of our meat, cows are forced to eat corn, which makes them so sick they need antibiotics just to stay alive long enough so we can kill them and eat them. Makes a lot of sense, right? So the next time you want beef, get grass fed. The difference in taste is unbeleivable. I can tell now when I have factory beef, although it's not often. If I can't at least get "naturally raised", I'll just get something else for dinner.
Speaking of which, it's time. J has already pulled his chair up to the counter, and is trying to get the pot out. Cheers!

-Anne

Chicken Dance

My family and I are currently overseas for my husband's work. We're in one of the Baltic States, and I find the food situation to be less then desirable, but I enjoy the challenge. I remember the first time, back at home, I was able to roast a chicken without lookng at a recipe, I called Mumzel and told her because I was so proud of myself. As a full-time Domestic Engineer for almost three years, I'm finally getting to the point where I feel like I know what I'm doing, housewise. The boy is another story, but we stomp our way through.
So here's how you roast a chicken, from memory.
Take a nice chicken, preferrable organic, prefferably fresh, preferrably cage-free (although that can be a bit of a misnomer). These things make a difference, and not just in chickens. It should not necessarily be a "vegetarian" chicken, as chickens were made to eat bugs, and should be allowed to stuff themselves silly with beetles and worms. Or at least something abit meaty.
Wash the chicken, adding a little dance for your children's sake. Your kids ARE cooking with you, right? If they are small, you need one of these.


I have no idea who this kid is, but she's cute.
It's the Learning Tower, and it's usually about $149.00 USD with free shipping from most websites. Worth every penny, even in a tiny house like ours where I must move it to the counter every time we use it. It's heavy, and can hold two kids, although my son is really possesive about his. A chair or librarian's stool also works just fine.
So where were we? After the chicken dances, rub it with olive oil or butter, then Sea Salt , or Kosher, depending on what you're going for, and freshly ground black pepper. Smear some under the skin if you can. Then, have your kid shove a a multi-pierced whole lemon in it's butt, or whatever that hole is. Lightly brown it on all sides in your dutch oven, or cast iron pan, whichever pan you have that can do stovetop and oven. Then, put it, BREAST SIDE DOWN in the 375 oven and add some white wine, like a cup or so. Baste every 20 minutes. It takes about an hour for a 3.5 lb chicken, and about 1.25 hours for a 4.5 pound chicken, but you know what your oven can do.
To make it a one-pot dinner, peel and cut up some carrotts and potatos, toss them in a teency bit of olive oil, and throw them in the pot, too. It doesn't really seem to make more than 5 or ten minute difference in the cooking time.

Three notes:
I originally put the chicken breast side down by accident. I didn't know which side was which. It turns out, breast meat cooks faster than dark, so the combination of breast side down (tee hee) and basting actually keeps the breast meat moist.

Let the chicken sit for about 10 minutes after it comes out of the oven. This helps the juices reabsorb back into the chicken, so you don't have a "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" moment. Well, maybe not quite that dramatic.

Make sure your oven is preheated and your pan is prewarmed, and oiled before browning the chicken. This keeps the food from sticking. If you're using Teflon, don't tell me. I will be sad.

That's all for now! Let me know how it works out.
-Anne

Starting Over

The boy finally sleeps.
I am happy to say things are predictable enough in my life that I am going to try again at this blogging thing. I'd like to get on my soapbox an amaze you all with the finer points of my culinary and child-rearing adventures. I tell my son that every day is an adventure, but perhaps I'm simplifying things too much. However, I find life to be easier when things are simple, so on with the adventures! And thanks for stopping by.