One of the first parties I ever hosted was for my class in CEP. We had a grand time--I grilled avocados for guacamole and fixed a peanut butter sandwich for my cousin Drew...Oh, the early days.
Several people slept on my couches and floor that night, most of us having to be at the same class at 8:30 the next morning. When I wandered out of my room in the morning I found this note from my friend Jesse on my kitchen table...
The switch-y arrow is my favorite part. The crumbled piece of paper has been on my fridge for over three years now. It's my kitchen mantra and I am currently in the process of having it framed.
After that night, my apartment was the go-to get together household for my class. My apartment senior year was more out of the way and we were all so wrapped up in graduating that we didn't play the way we did as juniors. But my apartment now is ideal. Centrally located with an open floor plan.
I had folks over for a roast chicken on Saturday. My friend Jeff picked blackberries earlier in the day and we all wanted to reap the desserty benefits of his scratched and blue-stained hands. Almost immediately we had a problem--I had accidentally purchased "Best of Fryer," which as some of you may know, looks like a whole chicken when you buy it but once the packaging is off just topples apart into the breasts, legs and wings. Dammmmmn. It was weird--while seeing a whole chicken doesn't weird me out and I deal with the boneless skinless all the time, there was something about having such big pieces of chicken scattered on my backing sheet. I felt bad and wasn't as distanced from the idea of dead animal as I usually am in the kitchen. We reassembled the poor little guy (whom we will now affectionately refer to as Cluck), basically just propping his dismembered parts up in way that I could still salt him really well and slide butter, rosemary, garlic, onion, oranges and lemon under the skin of (his?) breasts and legs and "stuff" Cluck's "cavity" with more of the same. A final seasoning and oil rub down and into the oven he went.
We tossed oil, s&p, potatoes, carrots, fennel and onions with rosemary, lemon zest and more garlic. We stuck them in the oven about 20 minutes after the chicken and opened a bottle of Septima Malbec. As I've mentioned, I spent a few months in Argentina last year and have since developed a perhaps unfair preference for Malbec as my choice red wine.
Rachel arrived a little late and assembled a little salad. I made the vinegarette (Dijon, Mom's raspberry jam, some of Jeff's blackberries, white wine vinegar, s&p, a bit of sugar and olive oil) and Rachel tossed it with spinach, goat cheese, more blackberries, and walnuts (I think).
I love the smell of a chicken roasting in the oven and despite the sad appearance of Cluck that night, whole or split, it's all the same. With the oven at about 400, the whole meal was ready in about an hour and a half--the chicken didn't dry out (my fear from it being in pieces) and the veggies were super. Ooh, about a hour hour before I took them out, I tossed in more lemon juice and about a quarter of a cup of white wine.
We had 6 people for dinner and I was convinced I'd have soup makings with my two pans of roasted delicious morsels but um....yeah, the pans were licked clean. I saw it. Jeff, Simon and I were so tired from all our sitting around that we took a nap while Rach and Ilana baked an AMAZING nectarine and blackberry cake. I'm not a dessert person, especially of the cooked fruit sort but this wasn't too sweet and served warm pretty much knocked my socks off. Also there is something great (gee, I don't know what) about wandering into your kitchen at one o'clock in the morning to find hot baked goods ready for you on the table. GOOD night!
Grilled Guac (For you, Leonie)
6(ish) avocados, halved, pitted (just in case you are truly a recipe follower I have included this), salted, oiled and grilled (with skins)
1 chopped onion (I prefer red)
2 chopped tomatoes (3 or 4 if they're small)
1 cup chopped cilantro
2 or 3 minced garlic cloves
1/2 can of Hernandez salsa verde
2 tablespoons olive oil (optional)
2 limes juiced (more if it needs it, I like lime-y dip)
A good dash of cumin, chili powder, s&p, Tapatio if you have it and a bit of jalepeno if you want a kick
1/2 cup plain yogurt or sour cream (extremely optional)
**Peel avocados, dice roughly for best "charred" taste, and toss it with everything else. Season to taste with all that stuff I listed at the end there.
Cluck and Veg
1 chicken, you pick how big
Lots of veggies that you like chopped reasonably small (think ping pong size, maybe smaller for quicker cooking)
Herbs you have handy
Garlic garlic garlic
2 lemons and 1 orange
1 onion, in slices
1/4 white wine
Oil, butter, s&p
Remove nasty bits of chicken. Don't forget whatever they left inside the cavity! Salt chicken in advance. Classic recipes call for a whole day but I think a 1/2 hour is still okay. Take it out of the fridge and wash your hands. Proceed to stuff. Skin gets pads of butter, sliced lemon, orange and onion, and sprigs of herbs and minced garlic. Cavity gets quartered lemon orange and onion (I also put the tough bits from the fennel bulb in there). The idea is to infuse the chicken with yumminess. After an oil, s&p rub down, stick it in the oven on the top shelf at 450, after 25 minutes or so (the skin should have nice color) cover with foil tent, reduce heat to 400 and stick in the veggies...
Toss veggies with herbs, lemon zest, juice, garlic, s&p, and olive oil. Turn a couple times in the oven so stuff gets evenly cooked/browned. When they're half way done, add wine and more lemon juice. Cook 'em till they've got some color.
The Cake but with some blackberries thrown in...
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