How to: roast a good chicken

(Update: yay for schedualed posting! As of the time this puplishes MaSu and I are in Anchorage!! We are going to the Diamond Mall with some friends, and *gasp* I don't have to cook! We are taking sandwhiches for lunch. And I might not have a post tommorrow, but warning you now! Or I might have MaSu do a game or Music review, think thats a good idea? <3 WEFA)

You may call me crazy. you probably already did, but that is besides the point. I went out on a limb last night.

I do not have a fancy rotisserie cooker, or even a roasting rack for that matter. (OUCH on those prices!!!) I have one black "roast pan" that I used for the turkeys, but when the meat sits on the bottom it gets gooey and my favorite part is the skin so its not what I want.

So I did some research, to cook our full chicken in our oven if you don't have a rack to raise it above its own juices so you get nice brown crispy skin.

I used, a bundt pan!

I rinsed my chicken and spread butter under the skin and some salt and pepper. I felt like going for a classic since I have never made a whole chicken on my own before. (Well technically I put rotisserie chickens in the oven when I worked at Safeway, but it was throw in frozen, pull out and put in plastic containers, display for 6 hours.)

Don't you think it looks good?

I also found out that I can freeze my yummy bread rolls after the first rise and before the second, then thaw them and they bake perfectly! So yay for us not having to eat 18 rolls at once.

What is your favorite chicken meal? Do you have good recipies using chicken stock as I am making a HUUUGGGEEEEEEE pot of it? <3 WEFA

Caramel Apple Lattice Pie

Sorry again for horrible photos, I got out that cheap 7 dollar thing again to take these... Can't wait till Logan's phone and therefore my camera is fixed ;)

Okay, so I tried my best. They are not the most elegant looking things, but I am proud. :) According to Logan "THIS TASTES AMAZING" . Todd liked it too. I thought it was good for a first try, I have ideas for next time.

So with those apples that were on sale, I wanted to make a pie. Buuutttttt, I didn't want to make any pie, I wanted to try to make a lattice pie. I think they look cooler. And I wanted it to have caramel in it, like the pies that we had at the bakery I worked at that I always wanted to try but never had the money to buy.

First thing first, I needed a recipe. I pulled out all of my recipe books, and found nothing for either, and only one fully covered apple pie and a few pie/pastry crust recipes. Did a few searches on allrecipes.com and I could not find what I wanted, even using the ingredient search. So I guess it is time for a wildly crazy Wing-it creation!

I found one for "Never-Fail Pastry Crust" I liked the look of in my FCCLA-HERO cook book from school (was a fundraiser) and this is the crust that has been used for years and years. However, it made 6 single pies or 3 double crusted pies, and I did not need that much! Heck I am lucky I had two tin pie pans from my mom! So I roughly estimated half of everything. Also, the recipe called for vinegar, something we don't have yet (its going on the list! I keep looking at it in the store and decide we don't have the money for it yet)

(THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I DID. STATING CHANGES I WOULD MAKE AT BOTTOM)

2 cups sifted flour, 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp sugar sifted together in large bowl. (Or mix in blender if don't have sifter hahaha) Cut in 3/4 cup lard or crisco with pastry knife (or two butter knifes hack hacking away till crumbly like meal)

In a separate small bowl, beat 1 egg (couldn't cut that in half) and 1/4 cup COLD water. Mix into dry mixture gently till balls up and then knead gently on lightly floured surface. Separate into 3 portions.

Roll out 2 on floured ice cream bucket lid with empty wine bottle, then place pie tin over, and flip pastry in. Press into sides evenly. Place in fridge. 

 Wash and cut up 3 large honeycrisp apples. An easy way to do this is to place stem down on your cutting board, and then get a small, sharp knife and cut in thin sections down. I tried to take a picture of this on the left, but the camera is 300 kb, not even 1 mega-pixel lol. Essentially just do really thin cuts all the way down for 360 degrees. keep the apple together until the end, and then the sections easily come apart like an orange! 

Then sprinkle the apples with about 3 tbs white sugar and 4 tbs brown  sugar and cover if possible to shake or stir it all up.

As evenly as possible lay out the thin apple slices on the crust. Then put back in the fridge until caramel sauce is done.


For that I took the rest of the bag of kraft caramels we had eaten some of (39 pieces left actually) and poured in just under 2/3 cup Dulce De Lechce International creamer, as I did not have half and half and did not want to open the new galleon of milk. Microwave for about 3 minutes, stirring every minute. Then drip and pour evenly over the apples.

Roll out the last of the pastry and cut into strips, lay in a criss cross pattern across the top of the pie and brush with a bit of the Dulce De Lechce. Bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes, then lower to 350 for about 40 minutes. 

 Let cool on cooling rack for at least 10 minutes before cutting. Serve by itself or with some vanilla ice cream and a bit of the left over caramel sauce! XD

WHAT I WOULD DO NEXT TIME: I would make the full six crusts, so they could be a bit thicker. I would use double crusts on the bottom of the pies and place a thin layer of butter in between to make it more like a flaky puff pastry. Also I want to dab the apples with some pats of butter. I want to learn how to make a better lattice, but other wise these were awesome!!!! Yay me! 

Fried chicken and.... Interesting mistakes

Okay, so tonight's dinner was... quite interesting. Logan is certain I went insane there near the end. But I never promised perfection just (hopefully) edibility.

The only thing that turned out remotely okay that I want to make again was the fried chicken, so that is the  recipe I will give.

(Other items were gravy and mashed carrots and potatoes like in "sheppard's pie" because yesterday I made a potroast as meat was on sale. Though I only have 5 spices on hand (chili, cyanne, pepper, salt, and garlic powder) Turn out very delicious, Logan called them "lava potatoes". I tried to be a little ingenious to make mashed potoaoes without a masher or even a fair sized spatula, and  no pot for making gravy. I was smashing with a chopper and having never made any of this before I took on too much with too little.
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Anyways, onto the chicken.  My plan was to defrost some of my boneless tenderloins early on, but  forgot so I put on low in the microwave till soft. The following is not the exact recipe that Logan's mom uses, but she is the only one I have ever seen make fried chicken and I've never made myself.

I mixed my leftover egg wash from my perfect pretzels with some buttermilk in a tin pie dish.

In a bag I put about a cup of flour, some of all of my seasonings, and some baking powder for good measure. (again estimation, but turned out great.) (edit: Just found out she does not put baking powder in, that was made up on my part XD )

Then take your defrosted chicken and dredge it in the liquid, then roll around and shake in the powder. Repeat in the liquid and powder.

Fry in a pan of canola or peanut oil over medium heat till golden brown. Perfection somehow, though everything else in the meal was questionable as to thee appeal (I feel horrible abougt the "aborted potatoes" though still edible, interesting flavor :)

Pot Roast (pre sheppard's pie)

This first one isn't that innovative or interesting, but leads to something really good!

So, its my first time making a pot roast, my mom had bought one on sale and said it needed using up. By the way, she is out all day due to her work and is not teaching or telling me what to do.

I got my Tall Tall friend Todd who is getting an apartment with me to get down the roasting pan, unwrapped the meat and placed it in the pan. Filled it with a few inches of water and started going through the spice cupboard again! A bit of the garlic salt, some Lawry's all purpose, Black Pepper, Dried Onion. I think that is it... though I am not certain. I will get better now that I know I need to write it down! Flipped the meat over and did it again.

Stuck it in the oven at 350 for a hour or so, I don't quite remember. Checked it fairly often. Then chopped up some carrots (the whole bag! too many!)  and potatoes and tossed them in. Decided that I wanted a bit more, so upon finding a pouch of dried vegetable soup threw that in for good measure. When the carrots were soft enough, a smorgasbord! I think the vegetable soup packet had some good spices in it.

The meat was good and juicy tender, vegetables just the right done-ness! Read the next post to find out how I turned the left-overs into Sheppard's Pie (American Version)