Cooking Days: Conquering Mushrooms and Roast Chicken

 

Yum!

I've been flaring up a lot, so food has been very laidback these past few weeks. From the top right corner:

1. We usually try to eat with just each other - no TV, and definitely not on the couch. But rules are made to be broken and the best way to break them when you are feeling crappy and cranky is with (homemade!) pizza, spinach salad, red wine and MST3K

2. I love roasting chickens. They do not always love to be roasted. But this little beast turned out beautifully. The trick? Having things get in the way (sharing an oven is murder!) of being able to cook the chicken for dinner, thus enabling one to roast the chicken in the middle of the day just to get the meat off it for the meals planned for its leftovers. Since no one will be eating the chicken immediately, the chicken will come out 100% perfect. Bonus: You get to eat all the skin. So that it doesn't get soggy in the fridge, of course ;)

3. I always thought I hated mushrooms. It turns out that I did not know anything about them. The mushrooms I'm used to are those little, dry, shrively things on top of pizza. These mushrooms above are just crimini mushrooms, but they are divine! I have learned to slowly caramelize them along with my onions. Needless to say everything we have eaten in the past two weeks has had a mushroom and onion component.

4. I've been making pizzas in my cast-iron skillet! I got the idea here, but have been too exhausted to make my own dough lately, so I've just been using storebought stuff. They've been turning out marvelously and are a lovely vessel for leftover things. Cheese isn't my friendliest of foods, but since I haven't been eating any other dairy, the pizza seems to be hitting just fine. I have also been using a blend of mozarella and Trader Joe's Goat Milk Cheddar, and that's been remarkably delicious. I greatly dislike tomato sauces, so my pizza has just a light garlic infused oil spread on it, then some leftover roast chicken and some caramelized mushrooms and onions. I think I put artichokes on there too! Hooray!