To say this week has been busy would be a severe understatement. In addition to my regular work, I’m learning how to do web site design. It’s really fun, but lots to learn and do. When I have this kind of a week, I tend to focus more on cooking my old standards and less on experimenting with anything new. Are you like that?
I did take a needed break on Monday and went for a walk to enjoy an amazing spring-like day. It was just a tease, though, as the temps have now returned to more normal and winter-like cold, but there were definitely signs that spring is on it’s way. Let me share a few pics to brighten your day:
Last Friday there was a sale on whole organic chickens, and faced with that lovely prospect, you know I couldn’t resist. Yes, roasted chicken was on the menu. And much like in the Tale of the Little Chicken That Could, posted a couple of years ago, I made an Herb Roasted Chicken first. The next night, I stripped off the remaining meat and instead of making the Individual Chicken Pot Pies, I used the meat to make my Easy Chicken Enchiladas Verdes for the next two nights’ meals. This chicken made exceptionally good enchiladas.
Last night, I combined the stripped chicken carcass with veggies, herbs and water to make a rich Homemade Chicken Stock, which you can see in the photo at the end of this post. I’ll use it to make a lovely risotto and/or a soup later in the week, and share that in my next post. Meanwhile, I hope you’ll click on the individual dish title links in bold above, and check out ideas for cooking and using chicken, as well as enjoy the story I wound around the dishes—if you haven’t read it already.
Here’s my study partner in all of her almost 15 pound glory…Miss Thumbelina, for a giggle.
New dishes will be on tap for the next post, I promise. Have a great week and may spring be on its way for us all!
This stock has such a rich color and taste…I can’t wait to use it in my next dishes!
bits and breadcrumbs 
We all love old favourites – which is why they are favourites! Good luck with the studies and a big cuddle to miss thumbelina 🙂
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Thank you Tanya! Miss Thumbelina is in here right now lobbying for some lap time because her toes are cold. 🙂
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Wow! The pictures of the flowers blew me away. Feels like ages ago when I last saw fresh flowers in the ground. Such beautiful pictures. I have spring fever, too 🙂
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Yes, this week has definitely given me a case of spring fever…and yet, it’s still a bit too early to get too crazy. 🙂 Thanks, Lisa!
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Old favourites are awesome favourites 😀
You certainly know your chicken!
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
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Thanks Uru! Yes, I get to know my chickens rather intimately, LOL. 🙂
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My bones are starting to ache for spring … any little bit of sun on my skin makes me stop in my tracks to soak it up! Way to make that chicken work for you, that is exactly the types of things I use it for too — so versatile and delicious!
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Hi Judy! Yes, I think I’m more than ready for spring. The problem about having this teaser 70 degree weather it that it feels that much colder when it gets cold again…like now! Chicken must be the most versatile of all meats. 🙂
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The chicken sounds divine.
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Divine is a good word for it. I think this herb roasted chicken is my all time favorite way to prepare chicken. 🙂
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I am totally impressed with this whole post. All I can say is Wow!! I can’t wait to try some of these recipes… your stock is so beautiful. I can only imagine how rich it must taste.
Yes, I am like you… on a busy week, I tend to stick to the old standbys…the recipes that I know I can make in a flash. The ones I know like the back of my hand! And of course, there’s always a bowl of cereal!! 🙂 Miss Thumbelina is such a pretty kitty!! Looks like such a snugly little ball of fur!!
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Thank you, Prudy, I’m thrilled that you’d like to try some of these recipes. I can tell you that this is a pretty easy and foolproof way to roast a chicken and the results are outstanding! I had a smaller chicken this time, and it didn’t take as long, but it was so moist and delicious with a crispy skin. And this recipe doesn’t use butter, so all the way down the line you have a pretty clean taste with your chicken meat and with your stock. Thumbelina accepts your compliments and thanks you kindly! She’s a love bunny. 🙂
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How lovely to have organic chickens. And you made your own stock! I always have good intentions about making stock but then I never seem to get around to it. I need to be more like you! xx
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Usually the organic chickens are more expensive…like $3 a pound, and while that’s not too bad, I’m always motivated by a sale! 😉 I, too, am bad about making my own stock, but always feel that I must when I have a whole carcass. It’s so easy to make and I can use trimmings from other meals for the veg…don’t know why I don’t do it more often. Sure makes a difference in the taste of things you use stock for.
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Oh how fortunate you are Betsy to have blooms already; we are still under several inches (some places feet) of snow! I doubt we’ll see spring for at least another month maybe two. We are still getting slightly warm days then the temperature plummets into the minuses, where we are now.
I usually have a bunch of soups in the freezer for the busy weeks, glad you’re having one, I’m in a bit if a slump with only a couple of days booked for assisting and prep work, but at least I have posts queued up until the end of March!
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We are so extremely further south than you, Eva. I think we’ll need to worry if we have that much snow here, ever! Of course in the summer, it’s almost unbearably hot and humid here, made worse by all the concrete and steel of this city… a trade off. But spring is always lovely and it will come, hang in there.
I have some soup in my freezer that we’ll be eating tonight, but need to make some more with this stock now that I have it! I don’t know how you get so many posts done and queued and I envy you that. I’ve never been able to do that and my posts are always written and then up within 24 hours. Never seem to have the time to do more than one at a time.
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The really unusual thing is that Toronto is one the same latitude as Milano, and it’s a heck of a lot warmer in Milano than it is here! I was in Atlanta in May, just prior to the time you hosted the summer Olympics and I recall how warm it was then too.
I get a little panicked if I am only one post ahead, but it does make me want to go back and rewrite some of the stories to make them more pertinent for the day it’s posted!
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I do a roast chicken every week but haven’t turned leftovers into enchiladas yet! I need to do that post haste. 🙂
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I think you’ll love the enchilada recipe. We used Herdez salsa verde in ours this time and they were that much better, if you like a little spicy kick. Thanks for your comment!
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Miss Thumbelina is adorable. My Tallulah does the same thing but she likes to be on my shoulder. No typing allowed.
I often roast a chicken just for the bits to use in other recipes. What a slew of beauties you’ve got here.
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Hi Maureen! Thanks so much for your comment. My goodness, if Thumbelina was on my shoulder, I’d have to go to a chiropractor…she weighs almost 15 lbs. and falls off my lap as it is! Cats are so funny about not wanting you to type or be on the phone.
I always say I’m going to roast a whole chicken just to make other dishes, but I love roasted chicken so much…and the smell drives me crazy…that I just have to have some for dinner when it comes out of the oven! If I’m roasting chicken parts rather than whole, I don’t feel the same way about it. 🙂 Have a great weekend!
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Grilled chicken, strawberry and feta salad and hasselback sweet potatoes sound blissful. Old favorites are the best and that chicken broth looks so rich and delicious. I would never be able to get left over from a whole roasted chicken…hungry teenage boys sometimes there is not even enough for dinner after they raid the birds. LOL Beautiful spring flowers and good luck with picking up some new skills at work. Website design? Take care, BAM
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I can see how it would be difficult to have leftover chicken in your house, BAM! There’s just the two of us, so we can stretch it out…if we can behave ourselves. It’s warming up here today so we may have a few more buds pop out this weekend. Yes, website design. I’ve been a print designer for 30+ years, but now need to transition so I can do both. Once I know what I’m doing, I’ll be redesigning the blog and making it more responsive. Still got a ways to go, though! 😉 Happy Weekend, BAM. xo Betsy
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Hi Betsy, Having both print design and website design under your belt with open up your career to a whole new level and lots of opportunities. Best wishes! BAM
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That’s my hope, and it seems to be working a bit already. One thing for sure is that you now cannot have one (print) without the other (web) and that it is web that now drives any possible print. I have LOTS to learn, but am fortunate to be working on a site for a friend with a developer right now. That accelerates the learning! Thanks so much for your good wishes, BAM. It means a lot! 🙂
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I am happy to see reposts because sometimes I’ve missed some great ones. All of these recipes look so delicious and comforting. Great post! Good luck with the web design education. Your cat is adorable…i’d take that study partner any day.
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Thank you, Geni. Sometimes it’s good to revisit old posts…and old recipes! And it’s really hard to keep up with everyone’s posts, so I love seeing a revisit of things I may have missed. Miss Thumbelina says thank you kindly, too! 🙂
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My mother-in-law told me that if bulbs start coming up too early here they heap a load of snow on top of them to make sure they “chill out” a bit, otherwise they’d just end up freezing and dying off too early. We’re having crazy weather at the moment… was a beautifully sunny day today. Very windy, but so warm. The 3-inch thick layer of ice covering everything seems to be melting a bit finally too!
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Gosh…you are having some cold weather. Ours warmed into the 70’s yesterday and today again after a cold snap, then it will get cold again on Thursday. Too late to cover bulbs as they are all popping now…trees, too. 🙂
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