What’s Cooking May 5, 2022

 I love the cabinet in this picture. It looks like it has plenty of storage and charm but doesn’t take up much space. 

My original plan for Mother's Day was to order pizza and work in the garden all day.  We are now having a roast chicken, corn, rolls, mashed potatoes and gravy and coleslaw. Cupcakes and cookies for dessert.

How oddly difficult it is to find a roast chicken recipe that doesn't have you somehow stuffing or loading on lemons.  Lemon and chicken aren't a flavor match for me.  I think in my head it's like a mini turkey.

 

Reading through a number of recipes I decided to follow most of the directions for Dinner Then Dessert's Perfect Simple Roast Chicken.

 

https://dinnerthendessert.com/perfect-simple-roast-chicken/ 

 

Starting out your chicken at 425 then dropping to 375 after 12-15 minutes seems a consensus to seal in the juices.  Trussing the chicken sounds awful, but it apparently helps the baking process by holding heat in.  She mentions lemons but I'm ignoring that. What fun things we learn while cooking.

 

I find myself putting adorable little kitchen charms in my China cabinet. Not so many as this.

I hate to be that person who finds recipes and immediately tweaks them, but in the case of macaroni and cheese, I've tried so may variations and none are very flavorful, no matter how nice the cheese I use is.

So, Baker By Nature's "Extra Creamy Stovetop Mac and Cheese" had great ingredients, but I really like my macaroni and cheese baked, so I didn't make it on the stovetop.  

 

I halved the recipe, and used Penne Pasta which I'm favoring for mac and cheese these days. 

I didn't have whole milk and used 2%, and used Havarti cheese I had on hand rather than Fontina.

This is the delicious, tasty, creamy mac and cheese I've been searching for.  I would just cut the cayenne pepper back in half once more, to 1/8 tsp, as it is quite "warm" at 1/2 tsp.