Sunday Dinner

First of all, a brief explanation is in order. I find myself with this public blogging space that I haven’t been using. The one thing I do most consistently, aside from parenting, is cooking. I’m not going to call this a cooking blog exclusively, but I don’t want to be a mommy blogger either. Since this is what I know, this is what I’m going to do here for the time being. I’ve also been doing as much scratch cooking as I possibly can lately. The result is a better attitude, more energy, and a sense of satisfaction with myself. It’s not for everyone. Not everyone can cook. That’s fine. Not everyone wants to cook. That’s fine. Not everyone has time to cook from scratch. That’s also fine. I do.

Roasted Chicken

This one is pretty simple, actually. A whole chicken only looks intimidating.This is also how I cook a turkey, but that obviously takes less time.

1 whole chicken (fryer, roaster, whatever’s on sale)
seasonings
1 stick of butter
Whole onion, peeled and quartered
Olive oil

Remove giblet packet from inside of chicken, if there is one. Pat skin dry. With clean hands, take roughly two tablespoons of your favorite seasoning combo (Mrs. Dash is good but anything is fine) and rub them on the flesh of the chicken, under the skin. Gently tear the center membrane of the skin as you work and try to get as much as you can to the legs. Cut the butter in to quarters and stuff it under the skin. Rub the top of the skin with olive oil and sprinkle more seasoning on it. Then place the quartered onion in the cavity where the giblet packet was.

Bake at 400 degrees for 1 hour, covered. Remove lid/foil and continue to cook another half hour. Then remove from oven and “tent” or recover and allow to rest for at least 15 minutes. A half hour is ideal. This keeps the meat moist when you carve it and is more important than any other preparation above. (Well, aside from the cooking. That’s kind of important.)

Mashed potatoes
Steamed Broccoli

(I’m going to assume you can do both. If not, google is your friend. I cook mine from raw and do it all from scratch but do what works for you.)

Today we’re also having leftover cole slaw from yesterday (see previous post), but that’s only because it’s there. It’s not traditionally a part of this meal.

I’ve also determined Sunday to be dessert day. It’s the day when everyone, or almost everyone is home, and it’s the day I have more hands to help with the toddlers, so it seems like a good day for it. We don’t need the sugar and fats but everything in moderation, right? That dessert will vary, but this is what I chose this week:

Strawberry Shortcake

(Adapted from Betty Crocker)

1 quart strawberries, washed, stemmed, and quartered
1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup shortening
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup milk

whipping cream, redi whip, or cool whip topping

Toss the strawberries with 1/2 cup sugar. Refrigerate at least one hour.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees (unless your chicken is already cooking).

In medium bowl, cut shortening into flour, 1/3 cup sugar, baking powder, salt. Use pastry blender or two forks to mix until it looks like coarse crumbs. Add milk. Knead 7 or 8 times. Roll out to about 1/2 inch thickness and use large circular cutter, glass, or even a tuna can to cut circles in the dough. When you run out of room, place circles on ungreased cookie sheet, roll up and roll out dough, and repeat. Continue until you run out of dough. The Betty crocker recipe says it makes 12. I can get as many as 18.

Bake at 400 degrees for 10-15 minutes, until bottoms are browned but not burned. Remove from pan immediately and cool completely.

When you’re ready for dessert, split the cakes in half and fill/top with strawberries, then garnish with your choice of whipped topping. Cool whip is the only place I cheat here because I like the taste of it. Hey, I’m entitled to one thing!