350 Degrees Challenged

Its been about 10 months now living in the "indoor campsite" and I'm getting starved for the use of an oven. I have to make do with store bought baked goods. Like Costco's chicken, which is delicious to me since they brine it before roasting it, but its huge. I think it's almost bigger than my campsite refrigeratorette. I have to eat a lot of chicken before I can get it in that little thing. I'm not talking so much about eating roasted foods but actually cooking them.

I miss my roasted garlic chicken, roasted potatoes and vegetables and baked chicken thighs with feta, butter and rosemary stuffing. I can't do that here in my little slice of Oasis. I can't pop anything in the oven and walk away and come back in 45 minutes to a golden piece of baked or roasted joy.

One day, when I get somewhere kitchen blessed, I'll roast and bake the day away for a good 6 months. Appreciate your oven for me. When you pull something yummy out of your oven, think of me. When you bite into a luscious bit of crispy golden roasted chicken skin, send a thought my way. You really don't know how precious your oven is to me.

I browse online to look at ovens. Aww, sad isn't it.

My Daughters Favorite Chicken Dish

I cooked dinner for the family last night. Its easier to cook for more than myself. I didn't bring any recipes so I did old time favorites from my dusty brain. I'm sure many of you have a similar recipe since this one is so universal so don't expect anything exotic, just delicious.

I take a pint of sour cream, a cup of dry sherry and 1 can of cream of golden mushroom soup. (the store didn't have it so we sub'd with cream of chicken with roasted garlic). I mix these all together in a separate bowl. I take chicken thighs, (depends on who you're feeding but I used 6 for 4 servings here) and season them with marjoram, rosemary salt and pepper, then I place them on a warmed skillet sprayed with pam and with some olive oil added, just a bit so things don't stick. I brown them about 4-6 minutes over medium (we have electric here) turn them and brown the other side.

Once they are sufficiently browned, not fully cooked, I drain out the fat, add a bit of sherry to deglaze the pan then add the sauce and chicken back to the skillet and cover and cook for 30 minutes over medium. I don't walk away and ignore them or they will stick to the skillet so you have to turn them occasionally and baste them with the sauce. They're done when you poke them and no more red surfaces add another 5 minutes and serve over rice with some steamed broccoli for bright green color.

This morning I had the leftover rice with sauce - heated it up and put two over medium eggs on top for breakfast! It was really satisfying with my cup of tea.

No photo here as I thought the camera would get sauced and eaten once I plated it!! LOL

Ya Gotta Love Garlic

Last night I made one of my all time favorites for dinner. Garlic roasted Game Hen. I season the hen inside and out with Marjoram, Rosemary, Garlic Powder, Salt and Pepper then I sprinkle Crushed Red Peppers on the inside only. Last night I roughly chopped up a dozen garlic cloves and tossed their little happy butts inside the hen. Cook at 350 degrees for 1 hour and smell the garlic! Its heavenly.

I used to stuff the hen with mashed potato walnut stuffing before I realized I was alergic to walnuts and pecans. I like the garlic better because I'm a garlic freak. Once the garlic is cooked for the hour it really loses its pungency so much so that I'd serve it with a nice Pinot Noir or a Cabernet.