Tonight I was in one of those moods where I just wanted to cook. It'd been a crazy weekend of a spontaneous dinner at ESPN Club with our friend, wonderful birthday party, rainy weather, and a strained back muscle from Zumba...which lead me to not move from the couch Sunday...and barely even stay awake. So, today I was determined to accomplish something.
We had set out a whole chicken to thaw in the fridge over the weekend but it was one of those moves where we both secretly wanted the other to cook it. Finally today I just took the initiative...I'd already written down in my monthly menu planning that I'd make this so why not. I realized right away I'd need to do a lot of prep and a lot of dishes, so I started with peeling potatoes for mashed potatoes and cutting the onions (six of 'em!!!) for the cream sauce. I had glanced at the recipe for the chicken and saw a total cook time of 40 minutes and thought this would be perfect...everything should finish about the same time. Then, when I moved on to the chicken I realized why the cook time was short...the chicken was cut up. Damn. I'd never in my life cut a chicken, but thankfully on the very next page of the recipe, Mark explains how to cut a chicken. Awesome! It was not fun...breaking bones and cutting tissue is not what I enjoy, but I did learn from it and I did cut the bird well. I also have a whole new appreciation for our knives. We splurged about four years ago and purchased a homemaker Cutco set. It cost a chunk, but I knew Kevin would appreciate them and even today he credits them with inspiring him to cook a whole realm of new things. If you've ever seen the demo, they are impressive, but putting them into action was a whole different thing. I only used our chef's knife and large carver and I may have as well as just cut butter. I also had a close call with this beloved chef's knife while chopping my potatoes...while guiding the knife along the potatoes on the cutting board (I can't cut potatoes in my hands), I somehow rocked the knife onto my right thumbnail. Amazingly, I must have hit just the right angle because I didn't chop my thumb tip off. No blood either! Score!Anyway, back to the food. I did manage to forget about the creamed onions while going Edward Scissorhands style on the chicken and my cream boiled down to oil. So, while I baked the chicken, I took out the onions (which didn't soften like I wanted anyway) and tried again. Much better the second time around, especially since I wasn't distracted.
All-in-all, the food was good. The chicken recipe called for parsley, dill, or basil, and I used all three. We liked it, and decided it can be a regular recipe. It will replace roasting a whole chicken because that's so much like Kevin's rotisserie. He has his specialty, I'll have mine. I felt there was something missing with the creamed onion sauce. I don't know what...maybe garlic? Maybe salt? I know that if I find it, I'm going to LOVE this sauce. I am beginning to loved cooked onions and who doesn't like them drenched in cream?!
Oh! I'm still not finished! I used the remaining pieces of the bird (the back mostly) to boil up some chicken stock. I do have a corned beef in the freezer....maybe it's time to give that recipe another shot...and not with broth! :)