Time to play catch-up....

So, August and September slipped by before I knew it, and I am waaaay behind on this blog....so much for a "daily" account of mealtime on Churchill Row! The guilt has been gnawing at me, so I'm going to combine a few dates into one, backdate the entry, and go on from there. May have to adjust the description too - daily seems to be a little too ambitious for me.

Given that the kids are back in school, I think it's somewhat appropriate to deliver my version of a "bird" course:

Chicken 101

One lovely September Monday, knowing that I had to stop for groceries on my way home from work, I found myself trying to come up with a meal plan for the week. We were all getting a bit tired of BBQ fare (although I must admit it was great having Patrick and Jack work the grill every evening!), so I decided that roast chicken was in order. With that one decision, everything else seemed to fall into place....roast on Monday, chicken stew on Tuesday, tourtiere on Wednesday, chicken pot pie on Thursday, and culminating in dinner out (Yes!) on Friday.

On to the menus:

Monday
Roast chicken, mashed potato, carrots, asparagus, Yorkshire pudding, gravy.

Mustard Roast Chicken
2 tsp crushed rosemary
1 Tbs minced garlic

3 Tbs yellow mustard
1 lemon, halved
1 roasting chicken
1 stalk celery, cut in two
1/2 small onion, peeled
1 cup chicken broth
salt and fresh ground pepper

 

Preheat oven to 375 F. In small bowl, combine 1 tsp crushed rosemary, garlic and mustard. Set aside. Rinse the chicken inside and out and pat dry. Rub the chicken inside and out with one lemon half, squeezing juice as you rub.  Shove the other half lemon, one half onion and the celery stalks inside the chicken. Sprinkle the remaining rosemary inside. Pin the flap of skin over the hole to seal. Now spoon the mustard mixture all over the chicken and place it on a rack in a small roaster. Season with salt and pepper. Gently pour chicken broth into pan. Bake, basting every 15 minutes, for 1 1/2 hours. Remove from oven, transfer chicken to a platter and let stand for 10 min. Use stock from pan to make gravy.

UPDATE: Clearly, I didn't do all that I planned to do way back in October. Well, I actually did make the stew, the potpies and the tourtieres, but I never got around to finishing this blog post. I'm just going to publish and move on from here.