(no subject)

[indiana_j]

The combination of cooking for Marissa's party and the coming down with what I think was food poisoning, I think it's safe to say that I have not been cooking a lot this week.  Or, for that matter, eating a lot; a combination of no groceries and spending Wednesday and Thursday sick.  I think dinner was a couple of spoonfuls of peanut butter one night.  As far as I can remember, anyway.

I rectified the main situation today by going grocery shopping and having a fully stocked pantry once more!  Huzzah!

I made the Roast Chicken  with Spring Vegetables from the Food Network magazine - I enjoy making meals that will reap me plenty of leftovers and I've got enough for another 2 - 3 meals.

Roasted veggies are probably one of my favorite ways of eating them.  It's the perfect blend of soft but not so soft you can't pick it up and eat it (yes.  I once traveled home from Toronto with a bag of roasted veggies.  It was AWESOME.) and there's a million things you can put on them.  I have to say that I was too thrilled with the seasoning for this when it came out.  The dill came off rather flat and what lemon juice was on there seemed to cook right off.

Different herbs next time or a combination of them.  And maybe mixing it in with the olive oil or something - nothing seeped in, really.

However, the chicken turned out beautifully.  I had to cook everything for an additional 10 minutes because of the vegetables not being soft enough but that didn't harm the meat any.  The skin was very crisp and the entire thing was very tender.

I love the idea of the roasted vegetables in this dish but it needs something else to really pull it together.

Comments

[dexfarkin.livejournal.com]

There's not much point trying to roast in lemon juice and dill. The cooking time largely destroys them. What you can do is just roast them with some oil for 2/3rds of the time, and then toss in the lemon juice and dill to get the flavours.

[indiana-j.livejournal.com]

That's - pretty much what happened to a t. It was like the lemon and dill sort of waved hello. Should I do the same for the chicken, too, just wait until later to put the lemon juice on?

[dexfarkin.livejournal.com]

Depends how strong of a lemon flavour you want. You can baste it with lemon later if you want a strong flavour, but most of the time, you really only want a waft of lemon.

[marag.livejournal.com]

I love roasted vegetables. Mmm. My favorite combination is something like potatoes, sweet potatoes, and butternut squash. With maybe a few carrots thrown in. Big chunks of shallots are nice too.

I love roasted cauliflower, mushrooms, turnips...pretty much anything but asparagus. Don't ask me why, but I prefer my asparagus stir-fried. ::shrug::

My favorite is just to cook the veggies with olive oil, salt, and white pepper, but sometimes it's nice to do half oil and half maple syrup, with some curry powder and turmeric thrown in.

[indiana-j.livejournal.com]

Any time someone gives me starch, I'm a happy happy person. Though I don't think I'm a fan of turnips - they seemed too bitter. But they're so pretty! (And I think my mom is pleasantly thrilled that I love my veggies now.)

The last would probably sound fantastic to someone who isn't so turned off by maple syrup. :D I'm such a freak - I generally really don't like sticky, sweet things. Honey and maple syrup are my anti-foods. But I love the idea of the curry powder and turmeric.

I'm very much looking forward to this later this week: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/pasta-primavera-recipe/index.html. Tossing in some pre-cooked roast chicken. (My mom and I get this same magazine and we swap ideas.)