December 2013
A big arctic cold front hit the country last week and it was really cold in Portland; our lowest overnight temperature at the house was 10 degrees and highs in the 20s. I’m sure places like the Dakotas and Chicago deal with this cold for longer stretches but for us it was a significant event. Finally on Thursday the weather started to turn and we got our normal December mid-40s and light rain.
Friday the forecast called for an end to the showers and I thought it was the perfect opportunity to make a rotisserie chicken.
I did a dry brine on the chicken by sprinkling some kosher salt on it, in the cavity and under the skin on the breasts. Ideally, I’d let it sit in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours, but 4 hours would have to do today. I used one of Mike Vrobel’s rotisserie chicken recipes from DadCooksDinner.com. My working copy is here.
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| A chicken on the rotisserie last summer. |
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| Chicken hot off the Weber rotisserie. |
A couple of weeks ago I ran across a recipe for acorn squash in a pressure cooker from Dad Cooks Dinner. So dinner was set! I halved two acorn squashes and scooped out the seeds. Then sprinkled some salt and baking soda, put in a basket and into the pressure cooker with a scant 1 cup water. I cooked under high pressure for 20 minutes; it might have been a bit much as they pretty much came apart in the pot.
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| Cook the squash under high pressure for 20 minutes |
Then scoop the squash out of the skins and mix with butter, brown sugar and nutmeg.
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| Ready for mashing with butter, brown sugar and nutmeg |
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| Mashed and ready to serve |
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| Dinner is served |
It was a nice dinner; better tasting and better for us than the pizza I was thinking about ordering.
Chicken Rating: ★★★★★ 5 out of 5 stars.
Squash: ★★★★ 4 out of 5 stars. I’d make this for company.
