Seriously Real. Simple. Good. Roasted Chicken

I have avoided things that seem difficult in the culinary world. For instance, roasting a chicken. It seems like it would be more difficult that I can manage. When I type that I realize how absurd that sounds. I am willing to attempt crazy things like souffle and doughs from scratch but I'm terrified to roast a chicken?!  Well, luckily for me (and you) Real Simple posted some recipes that beckoned to my "Cook Once; Eat Twice (or several times)" mantra but they put an even more tempting spin on it...each meal is cooked for the first night and then tweaked into something new and magical and wonderful for the second night. I am a sucker for these sorts of things. Anyone else with me?

I saw this recipe and knew immediately it would be added to my menu at some point. I then went grocery shopping and was looking at chicken for another recipe.  The chicken was not on sale and I was so over the idea of paying $5.99/lb or whatever ridiculous price it was just for some stupid bird meat. I remembered the recipe and also noted the store had a BOGO on red potatoes (3lb bag) and carrots (1 lb bag)...sold. The whole chickens were MUCH cheaper ($1.50/lb or something) not even on sale and they were all organic happily raised Colin birds.

I picked up the remaining items and was excited to make this dish (and it's delicious 2nd night cousin).

It was so easy. Chop veggies. Put bird in a dish and turn on the oven. Wait. That was it.
My only beef (ha! funny.) about it was I had frozen my bird on the outside chance that I didn't get to the recipe before we left town so it took MUCH longer than the 1-1.5 hours noted in the recipe. I think it was almost 5 hours at 375F to go from frozen to done.

It was delicious and I already have another bird in the freezer awaiting it's amazingly yummy fate.

Senor took on the second night make-over due to unforeseen delays in my arrival home. The soup was my favorite. The chicken chopped on bread was pretty divine too!

Go try it! Toss your bird in the oven; go work out and then come home to a gourmet Martha Stewart looking meal and feel good about yourself. Martha would be proud, I promise.

Incredible Edible Egg

This is a random boring post on how to make boiled eggs without cursing or losing one's religion. I thought this was pretty common knowledge but I realized last week that there are people who do not know there is a better way to prepare boiled eggs rather than the half-white-part-peeled-off-with-the-shell method I witnessed.

So here's the how to...I am not claiming that this information is new or that it's probably not posted on a billion other sites but I thought just in case you were too embarrassed to research it or just assumed there was no hope...here you go.

You need:
Eggs
Water
a pot
ice

1. Place desired number of eggs into a pan large enough to have a single layer of eggs
2. Cover the eggs with water in the pan.
3. Place pan, eggs, and water on your stove.
4. Turn on the heat to high add a dash of salt to the water and place a lid on the pan
5. Wait
6. Don't look at the pot
7. Seriously...didn't your mother tell you a watched pot doesn't boil?!
8. It's boiling!! Take note...set a timer for 10-11 minutes if you like your egg yolks completely cooked. 8-9 minutes if you like them soft and 6-7 min if you want them still slightly runny
9. Go do something useful for society for 10 minutes. Check your facebook page. Read a few pages of a book. Research how to raise emus.
10. Time is up! Quickly remove your pot from the stove; move it to the sink and dump all the hot water out and turn on the tap as cold as it will go. Let it run over the eggs for a few minutes. While this is happening go retrieve a few handfuls of ice from the freezer and dump them into the pot with cold water. Turn off the water and let it sit over the eggs with the ice.
11. Take each egg individually and tap it on the side of the counter to crack the shell just in a small area and return it to the cold bath.
12. After 10 minutes or so tap the egg all over to crack the shell over the entire egg; then slowly peel the shell off.
 Voila! Perfectly peeled hard-boiled egg.

Now for an added bonus I will give you my very informal egg salad recipe.

Basic:
2 hard boiled eggs cooled and crushed up
1-2 Tbsp mayo (I only accept the real deal...no miracle whip for me)
1-2 tsp mustard
little salt and pepper
dash of celery seed if I'm in the mood.

Now for the more zany days I sometimes add:
1 Tbsp dill relish (well drained)
dash paprika

I like to serve it on yummy whole wheat bread with swiss or cheddar cheese and lettuce.

and in my really silly days I will add some BBQ chips on the sandwich for an added crunch.

There ya go. Enjoy. And eat more eggs.