What's for Dinner, Mon., Nov. 17, 2014

[pinto]

Comfort food for the big chill parts of the US? Take out? Special event? Basic Monday dinner?

[Freddie]

1. Pot roast w/potatoes, carrots & onions

Home today from work, had my 1st ever colonoscopy this AM (I'm fine) so ate nothing but jello, broth & soda (plus the disgusting prep stuff) yesterday. I deserve a nice meal! Cold and rainy here, snow and freezing rain a few counties north.

[pinto]

2. Defrosting one of those surprisingly good veggie burgers. It'll become a cheeseburger.

Salad and garlic toast.

[bif]

3. Chicken Cow Mein

[greatauntoftriplets]

4. Leftovers!

Spare ribs, potatoes and yellow beans.

[cbayer]

5. Homemade tortilla soup.

Roasted a chicken yesterday and made the broth. The chicken, done on the grill, came out great.

And I may make the leftover chicken bits into chicken salad and serve on lettuce.

DH is still under the weather and I'm trying to find things that will be easy on him.

[japple]

6. So you found a solution to your chicken grilling dilemma? In the last episode

you were trying to get your chickens to cook evenly on the outside BBQ. How did you resolve that?

[cbayer]

7. I bought a whole chicken and cut out the back bone. Then flattened it as best I could.

I laid it in a cast iron sauté pan ( no handle), skin side up.

I closed the grill and cooked about ½ hour.

Then I took it out of the pan and put it directly over the fire for about 10 minutes, skin side done.

It came out perfectly and this is a method I will use again and again.

Moist, done and crispy skin.

[japple]

9. Oh my!!! Sounds delicious. So glad you got it down.

And it takes less than 1 hr. This sounds like a perfect chicken.

[cbayer]

12. Thanks, japple.

I am so happy to have figured this out.

[Luminous Animal]

10. This is my favorite way to grill a chicken. And it is so easy.

I cut them in half put the halves in a big plastic bag and flatten the hell out of them with an iron skillet then marinade each half separately. Usually one half gets lemon, herbs, olive oil, salt and pepper; and the other half oil, salt and a very generous bath of hot sauce. I have a huge rosemary plant so sometimes I make a bed of rosemary branches and cook the lemon marinaded one on top over indirect heat.

[cbayer]

11. Great ideas. I didn't marinate but I will next time.

The key for me was putting over the direct heat at the very end. I love crispy skin, but my grill is very tiny and the grate is very close to the flame.

It is great for searing ahi tuna, but chicken… not so much.

This absolutely worked.

[Luminous Animal]

13. I saw your chicken grilling dilemma elsewhere. Glad you found a great solution!

[cbayer]

14. Me, too! I have been struggling with this for years.

One thing is that the chickens here are distinctly different than in the US. They do not have those big globs of fat, so that helps with the flare up issue.

They also have the feet included with the gizzards in the inside cavity, lol. Good for broth!

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

8. spaghetti.

3-5 inches of snow outside, over a slush base that will freeze tonight. Tomorrow's going to be dangerous driving.

[fizzgig]

15. probably a bacon and tomato sandwich

nothing exciting here

[grasswire]

16. USDA choice cube steak cooked like pot roast...

...with carrots. potatoes, onions...etc. Safeway had it on sale, so we made two meals from a pound and it was delicious. We're not eating much red meat. But $3.49/pound for USDA choice beef is not a bad price.