A Draining Victory and Sunday Supper

I woke up at 5:30 AM again. So, I suppose it was really 6:30... My God this gets tiresome! I had a cup of coffee and then got to work (I can't shower yet while the microbes are doing their thing).

By 8:00 AM, I had the living room swept, vacuumed, dusted and dust mopped. I washed the upstairs bathroom and then, while it was drying, checked on my drain problem.

Nope, the microbes didn't seem to fix it. Ticked now, I opened the cleanout and rammed the damn snake down it (through standing water) again. Not sure if it was the microbes, or me being ticked, but all of a sudden, there was a loud belch from the drain and all the water went down!

I celebrated by shaving and showering.

Then I went back to cleaning the house. I didn't bother trying to wash the downstairs floors, BTW, but I got the kitchen swept and wet-mopped. I was finished and ready to take a nap by 1:00 PM.

I woke up about 2:00 and decided to make some lunch. I had found a review of frozen pizzas (!) the other day on the Internet and some I'd heard of, but most I hadn't. The over-all winner was something called American Flatbread Cheese and Herb Pizza (baked in a wood-fired oven). I went on their website and found the only place nearby that sold it was Joe's Produce (on 7 mile and Farmington Road). So, I went there and bought a box at lunch on Friday.

So, I preheated my oven to 350 degrees F. and sprinkled some cornmeal on my pizza stone. When the oven was ready, I popped in the pizza and set the timer for 7 minutes.

A few minutes later, Jake and Carla stopped by. He had mentioned they were going to Whole Foods today, so I asked him to pick me up some Whole Foods 365 Extra Virgin Olive Oil. The Filippo Berio Extra Virgin Olive Oil I use is great for cooking, but lacks something if you are making, say, a salad vinaigrette. I had called him this morning and also asked him to pick me up another bunch of beets.

So, they did. And, since they were here anyway, they were the perfect taste-test group for this silly pizza. I pulled it out, cut it into wedges and we sampled it. I think we all agreed that, for a frozen pizza, it was pretty damn tasty!

They left and I decided to watch some TV. This time I turned on the History Channel (one of my favorites) and watched that until I noticed it was dark outside. Then I looked at the clock and saw it wasn't even 5:30 PM!

So, I got up and started on Sunday's supper. I bought a Tyson free-range, young chicken that was 4.5 pounds on a Manager's Special a week or two ago. I froze it (of course) and I've been thawing it out all day.

So, I opened up the package and discarded the innards. Then I rinsed it off and put it on the plastic cutting board. I dried it off with a towel (that immediately went into the washer) and let it rest. I washed my hands and went outside to grab some fresh sage leaves.

Back inside, I carefully wiggled my fingers here and there under the skin. Then I put a pat of butter and a sage leaf in each of the three areas. I drizzled olive oil on it, then salted and peppered both sides of the bird, stuffed more sage leaves into the cavity, washed my hands again and started peeling veggies. I chunked up two carrots, four russet potatoes and left two yellow onions whole, but peeled. Those went into my roasting pan, under the rack. The chicken I put breast side up on top of the rack.

The roasting pan went into the oven, and I cleaned the counter with anti-bacterial spray. I know, I know, I sound like Jake, but this cross-contamination shit does worry me!

I set the timer for 90 minutes and went to fill this entry in. I did check it after 30 minutes, but there weren't enough juices yet to baste it. Maybe I should have added some chicken stock... No, there were juices the next time, so I basted the chicken. When the timer went off, I checked the internal temperature and took the chicken out to rest.

I ate dinner watching my Sunday shows. The chicken was very moist and good, but I thought the sage taste was a bit muted. I tried to stay awake through all three but fell asleep just after 10:00 PM.