Cami's 40 Cloves & A Chicken

This was another hit at our house. It was easy, convenient and had very few ingredients. Although it takes a while to cook the hands on time is minimal. I also bought my chicken pre-divided. The cost seemed to be the same, so why not? I do have one little tip that you may all know already anyway. When peeling the garlic, lay the blade of a large knife horizontally to press down on the garlic until you hear a pop. That is the peel breaking. This makes it much easier to peel.

I never buy chicken with skin or bones. I was surprised how cheap it is when you buy it as a whole chicken. I probably won't switch my ways but I will make this recipe this way again. I did take the skin off one of the breasts because I don't eat the skin and thought it might be easier before I cooked it. This was a mistake. That piece was much drier than the other ones, so in the future I'll just leave the skin on to cook and then remove.

I really enjoyed taking the garlic and spreading it on french bread. I thought it tasted wonderful as did my husband. He ate this for dinner last night, lunch today and dinner again tonight, so I think he likes it.

I wasn't sure if my 12 inch pan could go in the oven. I want to get new pans sometime in the future so I figured if I ruined the pan that would be a good excuse to get a new one. Unfortunately/fortunately the pan did just fine.

Jen's 40 Cloves and a Chicken

The recipe is found on page 238 in the book. Here is the link to the recipe online, http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/40-cloves-and-a-chicken-recipe/index.html
I did make it as it was stated there only I did not cut up my own chicken, Sorry Alton. I did take the faster route and bought it that way from the store.

He says to use some of cooked garlic to spread on bread but it was a bit much for me. Although the chicken was moist and flavorable.

Out of the 6 of us eating only my nephew was slow to actually pick up his fork. But then again he is 4 ;).

Hope everyone likes this one.

"The Bulb of the Night" episode

Later Today I'll be posting a recipe from "The Bulb of the Night" episode. I have chosen 40 cloves of garlic and 1 chicken recipe. I have made a version of this recipe when I was in High School and I remember it being a lot of work! This one doesn't seem as a complex but will see later today.

Danielle's Lemon Pasta

We had kind of a late night last night, so no pictures.

We both thought this recipe tasted good, but it wasn't a favorite for either of us. I think mainly it's because we're not really big on Italian-style pasta dishes. But it was easy to make, and I can see this being a go-to recipe for people who like creamy pasta dishes.

I just cut my chicken up into cubes and sauteed it. I also liked the idea of having it with asparagus, so I cut some up into bite-sized pieces and sauteed it too. I combined the chicken and asparagus with the sauce and then topped the pasta with it. I liked it all combined, but I didn't make enough sauce to cover the pasta, chicken, and asparagus and still be saucy. I should have added more half and half to make the sauce go farther. It was definitely flavorful enough to stand up to some extra liquid.

One caveat, though -- I had the sauce on low on the stove for awhile while I waited for for Max to get home. So I ended up reducing the sauce longer than I intended to, and that probably factored into the sauce not going far enough.