Say Hello to my little friend....

First I have to say "spoiler alert" to Rebecca and Christy, my daughter in law and my sister, who are vegan/vegetarians....ignore this next post, please!


I have been really good about not eating meat like I use to, yes, I could chow down on a 16 oz prime rib dinner and not even bat an eyelash, but that was in my younger days. I could eat a ribeye steak in minutes flat, cows would shudder in my presence! But like I said, that was long ago....I have not had beef in....well, I am not sure...I try to order only vegetarian when we go out to eat and I may cook hamburger for the hubby but I don't eat it....so I am not really sure....I have a little pork now and then, a BLT sandwich at the cafe...but for the most part I only eat chicken and veggies.

But you do little chicken, you do.....

The one thing I cannot give up is chicken, now that I finally mastered the cooking of it, I must say chicken is fabulous!!! Yeah, I finally learn to cook and my family turns vegan/vegetarian on me!! UGH!! I could so dazzle them with my chicken dishes!

I had to work late today, my boss is such a tyrant, but I still sleep with him for the fringe benefits.....hahahaha, ( I better add this: for those who don't know I work for my husband of 24 years, it's all good!) he was going to stay late and work on the race car stuff, so I was on my own for dinner.

Anyway, got home and threw my comfort food in the oven and after 1 hour 30 minutes, The one meal I would request if I got thrown in prison and got the death penalty and was going to die that night.....yes, this would be my last meal: MY ROAST CHICKEN AND FRENCH BREAD WITH WINE! Oh, and if I got stuck on a deserted island and could only have one food, this would be it too!!!

So I thought maybe, I should share this, it is that damn good!

The title of this post is "say hello to my little friend" so here is my little friend, the pampered chef deep dish baker, I only use it for my roast chicken. period. The chicken comes out to die for, which said chicken did die for, but I thank the chicken gods each time I eat this, it is that damn good.

OK, here we go, you need the deep dish baker from pampered chef, sorry, that is the only dish I can cook this in. period. Contact the nearest consultant you can find and while you are at it, get their garlic press, it is the best press in the whole wide world for garlic!!

You need one roasting chicken 5 to 6 pounds. clean it out and dry it with paper towels, throw all that weird stuff you find inside in the trash, I keep thinking I will cook it all up for my cat, but then I am usually starving and know I have 1 hour and 30 minutes before my dinner is done and he has a full bowl of dry cat food anyway...
So moving on...
you need olive oil and spices and 1 lemon and about 5 garlic cloves.

the spices are: garlic powder, onion powder, celery salt, lemon pepper, kosher salt, fresh ground pepper.

Peel the garlic cloves and slice the lemon into about 4 big slices, shove into the chicken, then rub chicken with olive oil all over and cover in the spices. Really sprinkle on the spices, heavy, heavy, the more the merrier!! Cover chicken with baker lid, and put into 400 degree oven for 1 hour.

After 1 hour, take lid off and cook 30 more minutes. After that set it out and cover with lid while you cook side dishes and bread, I normally just have the chicken and bread. So I throw the loaf of albertsons french bread in the oven and wait 10 minutes, then I slice off some chicken and butter a slice of bread, pour some of the juice onto my plate and eat the chicken all the while sopping up the juice with a slice of bread and drinking some Riesling or Pinot Grigio wine!

The baker dish is usually half full with the juices of the chicken and the spices and the lemon and garlic, it is sooooo good. I hope you enjoy this recipe. Chicken, Bread and Wine, it just does not get any better than that! "Bon Appetite"