Now about the 2B anniversary part.......my husband and I celebrate 2 anniversaries....the first one, also denoted "A" is a celebration of the day we were married....January 4th.....the second anniversary denoted "B" is a celebration of the day of our wedding....we had the wedding 1.5 years after we were married in a courthouse over lunch....there were seven people there in total.....it was perfect.
So to celebrate our wedding I decided to roast a chicken.....what I also love about roasting a chicken is all of the possibilities for leftovers: BBQ chicken pizza, chicken cacciatore, chicken fajitas or burritos, chicken caesar salad, or even some kind of chicken curry stir-fry would be nice.....I think the chicken BBQ pizza is one of my favorites!
Oh right the darn chicken, well I of course dealt with all the "whatnot" that is packaged inside a whole chicken (thank goodness for disposable rubber gloves)....they have saved my life as I hate walking around the rest of the day having my hands smell like raw poultry....no matter how long you wash your hands and no matter how smelly the soap....the smell still lingers for me.....and besides the point of the smell, I would rather not have my bear hand up a chickens ass.
Once washed and patted dry with some paper towels I set the chicken on a rack on top of a roll sheet.....I kind of forgot about the nice deep dish pan I used to use for roasting meat....it had seen better days and in the move I said that any pans that were looking like they had seen better days were good to go.....luckily nothing spilled over the edges....I of course lined the sheet with aluminum foil.....so handy for clean up.....and I sprayed the rack with pam before placing the bird on the rack!
Now it does sound and feel a little odd to lift the skin off of the chicken and place basil leaves underneath......but it infuses such a wonderful flavor in the meat.....then I brushed on some canola oil.....usually I use extra virgin olive oil - but I was out! Then I added what I always add to a chicken to be roasted: seasoned salt, garlic powder, (oh by the way, while roasting the chicken I took a bunch of raw garlic and roasted it for later use - I have an obsession with roasted garlic), and red pepper flakes......then in the oven for a few hours....
This may sound weird but I love the sound of a chicken sizzling in the oven....it just sounds and smells like a home to me....
Sides:
brown rice - with sauteed onions....I tried something different and actually sauteed up the onions and then cooked the rice in the same frying pan....it took a little longer - but I think it worked well....and hello to 1 less pot to clean! I also experimented with some flavor.....I added turmeric, which I have recently discovered and love! I still need to check out the origin of this spice and see what I "should" be using it for.....I also love the color it adds to any dish....when frying up the purple onions I added the turmeric and it was such a rich yellow color that almost heightened the purple of the onion.....I tried to capture these glossy contrasting colors.....but sometimes you need to see it with your own eyes to appreciate that kind of beauty.
cauliflower - red peppers......this was simple and really just trying to get rid of what I had left in the produce department of my refrigerator.....when I pulled all the veggies out I was thinking this was my own version of a mystery box challenge (yes, I watch masterchef....and I think enjoy it too much)........I started by boiling the cauliflower and then sauteed the red peppers - small pieces....then added them all together and added some Trader Joe's red curry sauce....simple but tasty......
There are no pictures of the chicken....but I did get some beautiful roses!
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