Last night, Nathan had his friend Mike over to make some beer. Thanks to my parents, Nathan is the proud owner of a home brewing set. They made these plans last week, so I had time to put together a hearty filling meal that they could enjoy after an hour of beer making. According to both of them, this was a huge success.
Inspired by a recipe in The Nest Magazine’s Winter 2010 issue, I decided to conquer roasted chicken. Somehow I had managed to go 25 years without ever making a whole chicken. So this was my first attempt.
Roasted Chicken & Vegetables
Ingredients
- 4 lb whole chicken
- 2 tbs olive oil
- kosher salt
- pepper
- 4 carrots
- 4 parsnips
- 3 potatoes
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Clean out the chicken, and place on a frying pan. Top with approximately 1/2 tbs salt and 1/4 tsp pepper. Drizzle with olive oil. Cook in the oven for 20 minutes.
- While the chicken is cooking, peel and chop vegetables. Carrots should be cut into 1 inch pieces as should the parsnips. Peel and cut potatoes in slices then half the slices.
- In a bowl, toss the vegetables with 2 tbs olive oil and salt to taste. Transfer the vegetables to a roasting pan {I used a ceramic one}.
{sorry this is ridiculously blurry} - Once the chicken has been in the oven for 20 minutes, remove the frying pan from the oven. Transfer the chicken to the roasting pan with the vegetables.
- Reduce the oven temperature to 400 degrees and cook for 40 minutes.
- Serve!
Grade: A
Comment: Both Nathan and Mike really enjoyed this dish. They ate almost the entire chicken! I thought the vegetables turned out quite wonderfully, and the juice from the chicken flavored them nicely. If you wanted to cook more vegetables with the chicken I would recommend sticking with root vegetables. The flavor was amazing.
Mango & Pineapple with White Wine Sauce
Ingredients:
- 2 mangoes
- 1 pineapple {Nathan cored and prepared it for me}
- 1 cup white wine
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 2 tbs lime juice
Directions:
- Cut and peel the magoes into approximately 1 inch pieces. Do the same with the pineapple. Put in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
- Mix the white wine, sugar, and lime juice in a bowl. Keep in the refrigerator for a minimum of 45 minutes.
- When ready to serve, mix the mangoes, pineapple, and white wine sauce in a large bowl. Mix thoroughly.
Grade: A
Comments: This is my go-to white wine sauce for fruit. I’ve used it a few times now, and it always gets rave reviews. This is my first time using the sauce with magoes and pineapples, but it turned out very well. The flavors definitely went together.
