The Prep: Chicken and Cabbage with sides

This is the meal I prepared on Saturday, December 10th, 2011. What I should say is that we had this for dinner or supper or whatever you want to call the meal at the end of the day (besides the after-kids-go-to-bed-epicurean-feast). For breakfast I made the andoullie sausage I got on Wednesday with scrambled eggs with onions, garlic and tomatoes. A very stick-to-your-ribs meal that felt like a brick in my gut two hours later when I was running. But yummy going down.

Anyway, on to the main event:

Chicken and Cabbage (adapted from a recipe in Clay Cookery by the Editors of ConsumerGuide)

ingredints:

1 3 1/2 lb. chicken (from Family Food Cooperative)

2 tsp. salt

pepper

1 large sweet onion (FFC)

4 cloves garlic (FFC) double recommended in cook book

1 Tbsp. Brown Mustard

1/4 cup Apple Cider Vinegar (desperate substitution for white wine)

1 medium cabbage (FFC) I actually used a large one but didn't use it all.

1 tsp salt (yes more)

pepper (ditto)

Soak clay cooker bottom and lid in cold water for at least 5 minutes.

Cut off the neck and tail of chicken and set aside for stock to make later.

Pull out giblets (nothing makes me feel more connected to my true food source than pulling out it's organs) Set these aside for stock too.

Take cooker out of cold water bath.

Place chicken in cooker.

Rub salt over chicken.

Pepper chicken.

Slice onion into thin slices and separate them into rings. (This is delightfully easy)

Slice garlic cloves and thin as your dexterity will allow.

Put onions and garlic on and around chicken.

Mix vinegar and mustard together.

Pour mustard mix over bird.

Put clay cooker into cold oven (unless you want a broken clay cooker and a doozy of a mess to clean up).

Cook on 475 degrees for 1 hour.

Cut cabbage into 1/4 (or 1/8 or whatever will allow you to fit it into the cooker but you don't want to cut them too small or they'll over cook.)

After the hour is over take chicken out and set it on inverted lid of cooker.

Place wedges on bottom and side of cooker.

Salt and pepper wedges

Replace chicken back in cooker over the cabbage wedges.

Return to oven and cook for 20 more minutes.

I recommend eating the cabbage with malt vinegar. The chicken in this dish is good, the cabbage is the best I've ever eaten. And, my kids will eat it and ask for more.

I served this with a side of buttercup squash since I already had the oven on.

Here's that recipe

Whipped Buttercup Squash

ingredients;

2 buttercup squash (FFC) note: these are NOT butternut squash. These are a "turban squash" (so called because they look like a turban, go figure).I've had them for a month because they intimidated me with their peculiar shape and rather large size. But after this meal I'm intimidated no longer and can say I'm quite the fan.

2 tbsp. butter

Slice squash in half vertically (or on it's axis as I like to think of it being a geographer)

Scoop out the seeds and slimy sinewy inside with a spoon.

Place squash meat down (or skin up) on a cookie sheet.

Add 1/4 inch or so of water to pan.

Place in hot oven. (Mine was 475 already because of the above chicken recipe)

Cook for about 45 minutes.

Carefully take pan out of the oven being especially careful that no little tykes or pets are around as it is very easy to spill steaming hot water out of the cookie sheet.

Pour water off cookie sheet.

Carefully turn squash over and let cool until your mitts can handle the heat.

While the squash is still warm, scoop the meat out of the skin into a glass cooking dish (corning ware or something similar).

Add butter. Whip it with the same spoon you scooped the meat out with.

Place it in the oven until chicken is ready to serve. The squash doesn't need to cook anymore but doing this will keep it nice and warm until served. Turn the oven off when the other dish is finished.

Everyone at the table loved this squash and every single person asked for seconds even though I hadn't added any sugar or spices to it.

Prep time: Gosh, I don't know but I'm guessing about 2 hours. I know that's alot but I forgot to put a bottle of beer on the ingredients list. Open beer and drink it while prepping everything else. Hey, it's the freaky weekend. If you can't have a little drink while preparing such a big meal what the heck's the point? Substitute wine for beer if necessary.

Dishes dirtied: Caution: not for the squeamish. Clay cooker (prima donna type dish because you can ruin it if you use dish soap on it), large kitchen knife, liquid measuring cup, measuring spoons, cutting board, small bowl to hold salt after measuring and before rubbing on chicken, mixing bowl to mix mustard and vinegar, fork, carving fork. For squash dish: cookie sheet or similar baking pan, knife, spoon for scooping, another large metal spoon for scooping out meat and whipping the squash, glassware for warming and serving on the table.