Praha, Pivo, Prosim

This has certainly been the longest I’ve gone without posting something. Anything. Bad me. I know, I know. Six weeks. Ouch.

But unfortunately, I have nothing really interesting to report.

Bus, bus….who has a bus? I did an overnight to Bratislava in February. But since it was a quick trip and I only brought a change of clothes, I didn’t want to bring along a camera & camera bag; therefore, I have no interesting photos of Slovakia. Nothing. Zip. Not even a stamp in my passport to show that I’ve been there. Sigh. Oh well.

I can report that Bratislava seems like a lovely town. For those who don’t know, Slovakia and the Czech Republic were formerly known as Czechoslovakia. In fact, many people still think it’s Czechoslovakia. Nope. Not since 1992. The bricks of communism fell in November of 1989 (The Velvet Revolution) and the country split a few years after. They are separate countries with separate flags, capital cities, currencies & languages.

The language part is interesting. Czech & Slovak look almost identical. And, most of the language is very similar. Many words are the same. However, there are other words that are completely different. I’ve been told that children of either country/native tongue can’t quite understand each other but adults are so used to hearing the differences that it’s not a problem. In fact, there are many Slovaks/Slovans that work here and the communication ‘barrier’ doesn’t exist. Well, this isn’t confirmed from my non Czech/Slovak speaking ass however, the two seem to get along quite well.

Messing with my emotions….Spring is coming. I’m ready. For those of you living in/at a more southern latitude, I am jealous. The upcoming season has been teasing us here and for that I tell her to fuck off. Damn. One day the sun will be shining and for once I won’t need to wear extra clothes. I will have happy thoughts of pivo and the beer garden only to be brutally rebuffed by the cruel bitch of winter. She slaps me in the face and then tells ME to fuck off. Damn. Fucking seasons.

Time….. But alas, the time change is soon and having daylight begin at a reasonable hour is nice and makes it much easier/more comfortable when required to wake up at early hours. I currently have a 5:30am wake-up (Monday, no less) on the roster and it ain’t fun. I don’t mind so much setting the alarm and getting up and doing necessary things but when it’s dark it’s just a bear. And doing it in the dark makes it more difficult.

Speaking of getting up early….I’ve now been waking up at 7:30 on days when it’s not required. Anybody else? I know it’s good to get a regular schedule and that acclimates your body to routine, blah bah but man, on Saturday?

Clockwatcher….. I have a have always had a (bad) habit of looking at the time when I wake up during the night. The reason for this is unknown to me but nevertheless, it happens. Additionally, there is the mental math that occurs when I determine exactly how many more hours/minutes I am permitted to sleep until the alarm is set to jolt me from my slumber. So, when I roll over to examine the clock even on the lazy days, Im not surprised to see that the display reads 7:27am. Shit. Damn. I do sometimes feel guilty for sleeping too much or sleeping too late. And, generally, I don’t do this. My schedule doesn’t permit it and I certainly can’t stay up late enough so that I’m still in bed at 4pm. Somehow, I feel obligated to GIT-R-DONE and not just lay around and not accomplishing anything other than widening my ass. Anyway, I’m not saying I want to sleep until noon however, I’m saying 8:30 would be a bit more respectable on those days made for nothing.

Facebook assholes….. A few things on this topic.

What’s up with random friend requests? From ‘friend finder’–what the hell is that? I assume it’s some random programming thing but it ain’t my thing. If I don’t know you, it’s unlikely I’ll accept the random friend request of some douchebag ‘looking for fun’ with ‘conservative’ political views from Saskatoon.

What’s up with the people who post about how awesome they are, how much their life sucks or are generally miserable/depressed and post their doom and gloom into the feeds of others? Jerkoffs. I get that people want to vent about a bad day–everyone does it. But, at some point you just start sounding like a whiny baby who is bringing down the mood of others who are reading the incessant bitchyness. The negative energy isn’t appreciated. There are numerous motivational factors behind these kinds of posts. Sure, maybe it’s done to get a ‘reaction’ out of others or maybe it’s just some kind of reaching out for attention/help. I’m no princess of sunshine but I’m aware that other people read what I post. Facebook isn’t my psychiatric sounding board. So, bottom line–these people have been deleted. Goodbye. Your outbox is empty.

Random food….

Sloppy Joes & Kraft Mac & Cheese!! It’s American food that when you can get it anywhere and everywhere, you can take for granted. This is my Euro version with my Euro beer backdrop.

Cheese omelette with bacon & tomatoes! Some oven roasted taters & a nice slice of toast with peanut butter & jelly. By the way, PB is quite pricy here so this is my contraband American version sent thanks to my Mom. **I was also photo editing while eating breakfast. So, here’s a trivia question–can anyone tell what the image is on my computer here? Be specific.

Salad!! Big green salads like this are hard to find and really don’t exist here. This was my version: spinach, mixed greens, salami, tomatoes, roast onions/potatoes,carrots, bleu cheese crumbles, cucumber, hard boiled egg, deli ham & a creamy orange vinaigrette. Sorry, this photo is underexposed.

Random breakfast casserole/concotion! I don’t have a name for this so you can call it what you want. Since I have to live on a budget and throwing away unused product is cost prohibitive, I try & develop recipes/ideas that can use everything I buy. Because I DO cook, it’s not difficult to do this but my limited funds and resources leave me with fewer ways to adapt the ingredients. This was my breakfast idea…. Initially, I wanted to make a quiche. Quiches are great. If you have never had one, go buy one now. Eggy goodness with a crust. Perfection. But, when I was thinking about a quiche I didn’t really want to make a crust and I have yet to see a premade frozen crust anywhere in any market here. There are, however, some ready-made dough options in the refrigerated food cases but I didn’t want to roll one out and par-bake it, etc. Call it lazy–that’s a fitting word because it’s true.

The process…

So, instead of the quiche crust, I decided to do a potato crust.

First, in a saute pan I cooked up some ‘English’ bacon (the words on the packaging, not mine). It’s similar to ‘American’ bacon only not as thick and this is much wider.

2. With the leftover and tasty bacon grease in the pan, the potatoes*** were cooked (or at least partially) with some salt & pepper.

3. I lined a pan (approx. 7in x 9in) with wax paper and then arranged the sliced potatoes in the bottom. The greasy & beautiful bacon went on top of that.

4. There was leftover spinach and mushrooms in the refrigerator so I sauteed those in the same pan as the potatoes & bacon.

5.In a bowl off to the side I mixed 4 or 5 eggs with some heavy cream, salt/pepper, thyme, rosemary, basil and cubed bleu cheese.

6 The spinach mixture went on top of the potatoes & bacon and then the eggs were poured on top of that.

7. The oven was preheated to about 200C an in the stuff went. Sorry, I don’t have a conversion handy for this temperature.
Cook until the eggs get fluffy and increase in size. You should be able to tell when it’s done just by looking at the stuff.

8. Near the end of the process I topped it with sliced tomatoes, sliced Eidam (yes, Edam–they spell it differently here) cheese and a nice sprinkle of paprika. Why paprika? I’m a woman and a nerd and I want my food to look pretty. Also, I knew i would be photographing it so it gives a nice aesthetic.

I was surprised that this held together and actually came out of the pan in recognizable squares. I was wondering if the potatoes would function as a reasonable base and if the potatoes/eggs would ‘stick’ together. They did.

***If you choose to do something like this, it is important that the potatoes are cooked first. Eggs cook quickly–potatoes do not. If this ‘casserole’ was baked until the potatoes were done, the eggs would be shit. And because everything else in this pan is already done, the actual oven cook time is quite low.

While this isn’t a dedicated food blog, the last two entries have been food-related so today I’m continuing the trend….

Green/mixed salads aren’t impossible to find here but not as many places have really good salad options so in the past week I’ve been throwing together a few random ones to compensate for my lack of veggie eating.

I hit up Tesco last night and bought the requisite ingredients. I had no specific salad in mind but I bought what looked good and knew I would make something ‘on the spot’ when/if I needed/wanted it.

First, I sliced up 2 red peppers and 3 small zucchinis. I tossed them with dried rosemary, salt/pepper and olive oil. Into the oven they went. 200-ish C until they are soft enough for your own liking.

While the vegetables were roasting, I made a vinaigrette. Mandarin oranges were on sale so I sliced off a sizable section and squeezed it into a jar. Some zest was also added. Salt & pepper were added as was dried rosemary, sunflower oil, olive oil and some apple cider vinegar. Shake, shake, shake….shake your booty.

The other ingredients of my salad included: baby spinach, mixed greens (Iceberg & radicchio), cherry tomatoes, cucumber, eidam cheese, salami, mandarin slices, and a hard-boiled egg. I’m a big fan of meat & hard boiled eggs on salads–I realize some are not into it but whatever–my salad!

Said salad was assembled and drizzled with the rosemary mandarin vinaigrette.

All in all, a rather tasty salad–and colorful, too!

MORE FOOD……

From the Smitten Kitchen, I read about a super EASY recipe. I usually find tomato sauces a bit too tangy (therefore I tend to add other ingredients to balance out the tang) but this one was SO SIMPLE I had to make it.

Strange though-it really IS as good as the other food bloggers said. I’ll certainly be making this again.

I modified the plain pasta with some leftover brown-sugared bacon I had made a few days before. I also added heavy cream to the mix to make a ghetto carbonara. Yes, I know carbonara IS a sauce so I essentially had two different sauces on my pasta but alas, this girl likes sauce!

And since I just mentioned it, here’s the brown sugared bacon I made last week. In a thread on Reddit, someone posted the merits of preparing bacon this way. Dude, it works. Yum. *Basically just get some thick-sliced bacon and sprinkle brown sugar over it. Put it into the oven and cook until it’s as crispy (or in my preference, floppy) as you like. Voila–salty, sugary, fucking delicious bacon!

Other random stuff… last week there was a festival/carnival in town. These festivals are quite frequent but with varying themes. Last week was Eurokarnaval… different bands (or ensembles? not sure on this one) from all over Europe came to town and played their stuff. Each group had their own theme/wardrobe…. One group was dressed like cavemen, another looked like wizards while yet another were all dressed like giant babies (yes, BABIES).

The guy from this group was very enthusiastic and fun to watch. His group did covers of Hush, Radar Love & Paint It Black. Good stuff!

Cavemen–complete with layers of fur!

In other news, it’s Saturday. I’m not working. Therefore, it’s time for pivo. Pivovarsky Klub here I come!

I have a weakness for breakfast food. I do–fact. I admit it. Admitting a problem the first step in recovery. I can’t say with certainty that there is some reason why I have this love/love relationship with breakfast items, it just IS. It’s kismet; it’s fate. Maybe it’s because my Mom never really made big breakfasts when I was a kid therefore, when I did have them, it was eggy carbo bliss. (and still is….)

On the weekends, I usually find myself whipping up some random breakfast. With a grocery store SO close (we’re talking a one minute walk), it’s really easy to buy stuff in no time at all. And even though I ain’t got no wheels, it’s no big deal. Transportation in this town is a breeze. It’s fast and efficient. That said, I don’t even need to use the public transportation to lug groceries back to my flat. It’s that close. Good times.

So, today was a day of pancakes. No, not from scratch. I could do it but I had a nice package of mix (sent from the land of the stars & stripes) in the cabinet. As Americans, we love syrup on our pancakes. It is delicious. No denying this sentiment. However, a bottle of syrup is about 200Kc here ($10+ yes, really) and I cannot justify the expense for something that I can’t/won’t use regularly. Instead, I whipped up a tasty (but ghetto) alternative to syrup. In a heated pan went some butter (duh), brown sugar, honey and a bit of cinnamon. When it was nice and melted I added it to a few tablespoons of Jif peanut butter. The heat makes the mixture pliable/stirrable (is that a word?). Also in went a bit of heavy whipping cream. Voila! A semi-spreadable peanut buttery pancake topping.

Many times I’m an ‘on the fly cook.’ Simply meaning, if I see an ingredient I’ll often try to use it–especially if it’s produce and about to go ‘bad.’ Wasting food is exactly that and I don’t really have a flexible enough budget to not care that I’m throwing away unnecessary amounts of food. So, with some leftover button mushrooms I decided on an omelette. I sauteed up the mushrooms with deli ham and tomatoes. When the omelette was ready to be ‘filled’ I put in the sauteed mixture and topped it with Eidam (cheese). Voila–nstant omelette!

Marks & Spencer (British store) has a nice grocery/potraviny. Here is proof that porridge really exists; it’s not just in that children’s story. By the way, it’s just oatmeal.

You may be surprised to know that I do have some flaws. Shocking, I know. But impulse shopping isn’t on this list. Well, ok I take that back. I’ll impulse shop at the grocery store but not really at a shopping mall. Exorbitant and flashy expenses aren’t usually my thing. This next item gets a check mark in the ‘impulse shopping at Albert’ column. I bought this ONLY because of the dumbass name. By the way, this is basically store brand Coco Puffs. And yes, I do eat them.

I love how much awesome stuff there is in a big city. And it’s even better when this big city is in Europe and you live there. Bonus.

The street I live on is a sidestreet. Although it’s a sidestreet, there are still plenty of drunk revelers and ‘action’ to keep things interesting. On the back side of the building is my grocery store (but this one sucks) as well as the metro, a tram stop and a big mall. It pays to live near convenience. Anyway, on my little sidestreet there are a few restaurants and bars as well as a hostel and a police station. But additionally, there is a cute little cheese shop (that I think specializes in Dutch cheese). The door to this place is about 20 feet from the front of my building so it’s beyond convenient. Although the shop is small, they do have a decent selection of cheese that I’ve never heard of as well as various klobasas and meats. There are also two tables which I’m fairly certain are for drinking wine & eating cheese. What a wonderful idea!

So, in this country many businesses are either closed on the weekend (including Saturday) or they close at noon on Saturday. Therefore, if you are requiring anything from a smaller shop, you best be hauling your ass out of bed on Saturday. I went to the cheese shop at 10:30 this morning and I bought two kinds of cheese. I don’t have an itemized receipt but I think one is Farm Cheddar (brand name? not sure–thus the capitalization). It has a black rind and the cheese itself is rather pale yellow. It’s certainly not the bright orange cheddar Americans are used to seeing. Cheddar is nearly non-existant here so that’s why I bought 100g of the stuff. Cheese #2–I cannot possibly remember the name because 1) it was in Czech and 2) I had never heard of the stuff before. Maybe I’ll be nice and take photos for you.

Voila!

Today is a day of cooking–here’s the menu

Herbed baguette with cheese–not original but hey, it’s a good start

Roast chicken–made with a compound butter of: rosemary, fresh lemon juice, salt, pepper, oregano, marjoram, basil, garlic– also stuffed with lemon, onion, apple & garlic

Roast vegetables–organic carrots & potatoes with onions–made with olive oil, salt, pepper, rosemary, oregano, basil, marjoram

Steamed broccoli—snooze, I know but my guest likes broccoli. See, I’m a good hostess!

Vanilla nutmeg pudding–layered with an organic blueberry reduction made with lemon zest, honey and apple liquor –topped with an almond/brown sugar/cinnamon crisp

Midnight–food gone, two bottles of wine gone. Done. Time for bed.

The Christmas markets opened yesterday. Reason #410 why Prague is awesome. There is a gigantic tree in Old Town Square. It’s beautiful. Enjoy.

I’m a ‘use what you have’ kind of cook. Like everyone else today, a budget has to be considered. Although I usually buy staple items, I can come up with new variations all the time. Being creative makes it more interesting. Use what you have and make what you like!

I put together some homemade Thai curry the other night and one of the main ingredients is coconut milk. If you’ve never had anything with coconut milk, go buy some today. Delicious. Anyway, I had some coconut milk left in the refrigerator.

Last night I decided I wanted to make some French toast. I had just bought a crusty baguette and I knew I had the other stuff to make it how I wanted. The only thing I didn’t have was syrup so that led me to be even more creative. When I went on the hunt for syrup last night, I noticed the organic variety for about 10$…no way. The ‘regular’ variety was also 10$. People don’t use syrup here so therefore it’s ridiculously priced. There’s that pesky budget thing creeping in so I didn’t buy any.

For the batter I used 3 eggs, regular milk, cinnamon and coconut milk. Not having cooked with coconut milk this way before, I was hesitant to use too much as the sugar content is high and I didn’t want a blackened and charred breakfast. The baguette was sliced on the bias (more surface area for your delicious eggy mixture to soak in and cling to). In went the bread to the batter and I soaked it for 15-20 minutes. I didn’t clock it as I was having coffee, half a grapefruit and reading stupid crap on the web. While your bread is soaking and you are catching up on new Reddit posts, heat up a saute pan–medium-ish heat will work fine.

Put a nice hunk of butter in the pan then add your bread. Don’t overcrowd the pan–it will be harder to flip the pieces. Check periodically and flip when it’s as brown and ‘done’ as you like. When finished, keep warm in the oven if necessary.Since I had some bananas and a can of pineapple that’s been collecting dust, I decided to use those for a topping. The canned pineapple was cut into rather small-ish pieces so I quartered and chopped the banana to ‘match.’ I mixed them in a bowl with a bit of the canned syrup. (Actually, I have to thank a fellow Redditor for the idea of using pineapple on FT. I posted a food thread last week about ‘what to make for breakfast’ and someone suggested a kind of pineapple syrup. I thought it was a most excellent idea!)

Assembly: stack your bread–food tends to look ‘prettier’ when it’s built up. Of course, add butter to your FT. I also have something called Nugeta here in my flat. (Think Nutella but made with peanuts.) I wasn’t sure how sweet the FT would be and since I wasn’t using regular syrup, I thought this would be a good touch. So, on it went. Next was the banana/pineapple mix and finally a bit more cinnamon for garnish. Voila!

All in all, it was pretty delicious and I’ll make it again (as I have leftovers!) but I’d add more coconut milk as I didn’t find the bread to burn ‘more’ than say just using a traditional batter mix. I’d also maybe use more of the canned syrup for more sweetness.

12:34 56s 7/8/9A bottle of Becherovka, shots & a one second party under the horse’s ass of the King Wenceslas statue at Vaclavske Namesti. Check. Done.

More Becherovka. This time add Wii, shake & stir. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. James Lipton & Lou Gossett Jr. play baseball.

Workshops, Visas, & Zivnostensky lists OH MY! *Note: it was ’suggested’ that I present some kind of timeline for getting a work permit/zivno/visa. I tried to explain that’s nearly impossible due to the government bureaucracy but alas, they think I’m an idiot and just making this more complicated. They’ll realize soon enough that it’s a nebulous process and there is no speedy and painless route. You’re welcome in advance before you even realize it. Just be thankful you didn’t have to deal with R.J. on this one. It’s neither easy nor cheap. Remember I told you this.

Rain rain go away, why won’t you bring summer weather with you to this fine city?

1) Awake at 7:30am on a Sunday morning. 2) Laundry done by 9. 3) Hang laundry out window to dry. 4) Grocery shopping by 9:30. 5) Wait, WTF to #3?

I like public holidays although I don’t get paid. Good or bad. I can’t decide. Both?

Chili cookoff round 2. I’m the only competitor. I win & so does my stomach. Close race. Ahh. All mine!

I broke my quasi-good headphones last week. I stepped on them. The cheap replacement is such an inferior piece of shit. I miss the old ones.

FOOD and FOOD

I enjoy cooking. No mistake about this; I blog about it often. Anyway, I’m a ‘cook what you have’ kind of person. What do I mean by that? Well firstly, I do follow recipes. However, I don’t follow recipes all the time. I think the idea of a recipe is to have a base. If you know how to make some basic things, you can riff off the tenets of what to do and ingredients and various quantities. If you cook for yourself, you know what you like. So, if you think something will ‘go’ together in a dish, fuck it, throw it in. In other words, if it’s in the kitchen, for God’s sake use it! You aren’t a restaurant critic, you can always toss it and start anew.

1) Budget shopping. As much as it sucks, it must be done. I’m on a shoestring budget here and I’ve learned what to buy and what is cheap. Certain staples are key. Potatoes and onions are always on the cheap. Loaves of bread are usually a good deal. Eggs are fairly inexpensive too.

2) Unless you are boring and just love bland and flavorless food, you need to buy some herbs/seasonings. Fresh herbs are a bit harder to find here but there’s a fair amount of individually portioned/bagged dried herbs & seasonings readily available. They’re a good deal, too. Well-flavored food can make an otherwise lifeless meal a bit more interesting.

3) Fresh fruits & vegetables… the selection isn’t what it is in the U.S. but generally speaking, carrots, cabbage and occasionally tomatoes are on the less expensive side.

I love breakfast food. Always have. This will not change. Lately, I’ve been making larger ‘American style’ breakfasts on the weekends.

Why did I just mention all this stuff? So I can share with you my most recent morning treats! Keeping in mind the points I just covered, here’s what I made last week:roasted potatoes & onions with misc. herbs, omelette with ham, cheese & tomatoes, and some nice hearty thick-sliced Czech bread.Vitamins!

Today’s meal: toast, roasted potatoes & red pepper with thyme, oregano, basil, paprika, salt/pepper, olive oil, three cheese omelette (Hermelin, bleu cheese cream cheese & Moravian cheese–similar to Parm), a nice sliced fresh tomato…. sprinkle more fresh cheese atop and voila! I wouldn’t normally use those kinds of cheese in an omelette but it follows my ‘use what you have’ mentality. Cheese, eggs, potatoes, bread & butter are some of my favorite things!

Some random images from iPhoto!

a) Fine wine of the week. A well-spent 49Kc at Albert. b) I spilled Ranch on the floor. In a land where it’s unavailable, this pretty much went down as the following–Oh shit! Man down! c)Let’s call this the slicer of death. I was at a party at a colleague’s flat in Zizkov a few nights ago and this rusty old Eastern Bloc instrument of torture is about 3 feet from the front door and in plain view of anyone in the kitchen. I inquired about said death tool. It looks like an antiquated meat slicer; you know the kind that the guys in the deli would use. No, this is a bread slicer. Or so I was told. According to my colleague (flatmate of the proprietor of said device), this was affixed to the counter in this spot so when slicing bread, the crumbs will just fall into the sink. Our query, ‘Who the fuck slices bread like this?’ Buy a knife, dude.

As much as it sucks to have one, living on a budget is a bitch. If I could afford steak & crab legs & whiskey every night, believe me, I’d live it up big time. But, the pesky thing called reality bites us all in the ass and provides an anchor for which the budget-minded are required to subsist. That said, I thought I’d share some of my budget meals with my fellow budget-conscious cyber friends.

Everyone that knows me knows that I like to cook. For some the process of shopping, preparation, and the actual cooking is a tortuous concept. They just hate it. Hate everything about it. I’m not one of those people. Going to new and fancy grocery stores is something I like doing. I enjoy slowly cruising the aisles for good little edible treats. I enjoy mincing garlic and chopping onions and all that other stuff even if these things make my hands stinky or make me cry. I enjoy sauteeing random things in a pan and making sauces. It’s just fun. For me, it’s a good time.

Breakfast

A month or so ago I was craving some good American-style breakfast goodies. Other than Bohemia Bagel, it’s rather difficult (if not impossible) to find a place that serves hash browns, bacon (American style–and yes, there is a difference), bagels with cream cheese, omelettes, pancakes, etc. you get my point.

First, I love bacon. Yes, love it. There are really two camps when it comes to bacon: those from the school of ‘burn it’ and those from the school of ‘I’ll take it floppy and greasy, please.’ I am from the latter. Crispy burnt bacon, in my opinion, is a disservice to the bacon. Respect the meat. If it can disintegrate when picking it up, what’ the freaking point of that? The glorious streaks of fat in the bacon are what make it so damn good. Fat = flavor. Go ahead & deny it but it’s the truth. Any butcher will agree.

So, I really wanted some bacon on this particular day… I decided to go full out and make other stuff because I figure that if I want just one thing specifically and am required to go to the store to get it, why not go ahead and make all the other delicious breakfast accoutrements. Bread? Gotta have it. Carbs = life. I toasted up some fresh baked goodness and slapped cream cheese all over that bad boy. Huevos? Gotta have those, too. Scrambled with cheese. Check. Potatoes & onions? Ok, sounds good. Oh wait, let’s add some cherry tomatoes, too!

Lunch

I made some egg salad last week. I don’t eat egg salad regularly but I have to confess I think it’s great. Sometimes I’m pretty easy to please and egg salad is just one of those comfort food items that makes me a happy person. I don’t know about you but egg salad makes me think of picnics and the summer. You know what else makes me think of picnicking? Potato salad. Not being one who usually likes the cold side dishes associated with picnics, I felt a wild rash of potato love this morning and made some potato salad. This is an item that I had never made before but I quickly Googled a recipe and threw some things together. It actually worked and is quite tasty. It also helps that the potatoes were on sale at Albert. One kilo for 7.90Kc is pretty damn reasonable. When it’s on sale, you fucking buy it. It’s an unspoken rule to me.

Since I didn’t want to eat the potato salad by itself, I also made a grilled cheese for the side. Well ok, I’ll be fancy and call this a croque monsieur because I piled some ham on this baby. There is no cheddar in this country. Actually, all the cheeses I’ve seen have been of the light yellow variety. They love their Edam here. It’s everywhere. But, I sprung for some kind of local bleu cheese so my grilled cheese was a variant on the traditional.

Dinner

Unless you live under a rock or a terrorist regime, you’ve probably had a roast chicken in your life. Roast chicken is certainly one of my favorite foods to eat and prepare. Why? Roasting a chicken is super easy and almost impossible to destroy. Whole birds are usually reasonably priced as it requires YOU the purchaser to do the work of skinning and boning the meat.

So, how does one prepare a roast chicken? Here’s what I do and I’m basing this on using a whole chicken…

Preheat your oven to 350 or 375F

Wash your bird and pat dry

Make a delicious compound butter–I typically like minced garlic, salt & pepper, butter, lemon juice, lemon zest, thyme
(You’ll be putting the compound butter underneath and on the skin so make sure you are using an adequate quantity)

Rub the butter all over the bird and separate the skin from the meat using your fingers–this is easy to do but be careful not to pierce the skin as the mixture will of course melt and run out from under the skin

Put the bird in a roasting pan and just let that baby go!

60-75 minutes is usually ample time for the bird to cook through

How to test if a chicken is done? Pierce the meat around the leg and if the juices run clear, you’re good…. also if the legs wiggle freely, that’s a good indicator that the meat is cooked

Of course this can be done with smaller portions of meat (breast, thigh, etc.) but your cooking time will be quite a bit less as your quantity has been reduced

Another tip is to cook the meat on a bed of potatoes, onions, etc. (of course your choice) Depending on how much chicken you are using, you might want to alter when you put in the vegetables as they won’t all necessarily require the same cooking times

The vegetables will also absorb the delicious juices/butter mixture that slowly drips from the chicken so essentially, you will have a pan of damn good eats. Crack open a beer or a bottle of wine and enjoy your meal!

p.s. Good girls like me make leftovers!

Voila!