Breakfast Becomes Dinner and Dinner Becomes Lunch - November 24, 2013

Last weekend we went to our property in Pendleton County to turn off the water for the winter to find that the pipes had already frozen.  We decided to stay the weekend, but our provisions were limited which led to a fun circle of using the leftovers from each meal to make the next.  On the drive, John had stopped and picked up a cheap loaf of wheat bread, a dozen eggs and a tube of breakfast sausage to make breakfast our first morning.  So, when we started planning for dinner, he remembered making his fancy sourdough sausage dressing a year ago for Thanksgiving and decided to riff.  He made dressing with nothing but sandwich bread, an egg, a sauteed onion and apple, some salt, pepper and Herbs de Province and a half tube of crumbled sausage.  This was stuffed into a whole chicken which moistened it more and cooked according to his roasted Italian chicken recipe below.  It was a winner.

Roasted Italian Chicken

3 lbs potatoes, peeled & cut into chunks (or get those tiny ones and leave whole)
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup minced parsley (optional)
4-5 lbs chicken, in parts (or whole chicken)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Toss potatoes with half the oil and parsley plus salt and pepper.  Coat the chicken with the other half and sit on top of the potatoes in a baking pan with sides.  Cook a half hour and stir up potatoes before returning for another half hour until the outside of the chicken is crisp and the meat is cooked through.

After dinner, we still a great deal of chicken, so it was time for chicken salad sandwiches.  I asked my mother-in-law Mary Ellen how she makes hers and it's simple and delicious.

Mary Ellen's Chicken Salad 

1 c. Chopped Chicken pieces
2 T. mayonnaise
1 tsp. curry powder
halved grapes
chopped walnuts

Mix all together and eat.

You can of course riff on this.  I usually use Durkee's instead of mayonnaise.  You can also use different nuts or add celery and onion.

One Year Ago - Post Thanksgiving Stew and Turkey Jook