Happenings Around the House

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I recently purchased Rhonda Hetzel's book, Down to Earth: A Guide to Simple Living, and love it!  In there she has all sorts of recipes for simple cleaners.  One of them is for silver.

My mother-in-law had given me some silver that belonged to Dan's grandmother and some of the pieces were badly tarnished.  While I love the silver, I was thinking that it wasn't going to be really practical for me to have to scrub it all the time.  I decided to try Rhonda's homemade solution.

It was amazing!  All it took was a piece of aluminum foil in the bottom of a sink, boiling water and a bit of baking soda and salt.  I let the silver sit in this concoction for ten minutes, waited for the chemical reaction to happen and viola!  It was done.
There was no scrubbing and no costly cleaners.


I think I spent most of the day in my kitchen yesterday, preparing dinner.  Every now and then it's nice to go all out.  I made blueberry pie for dessert.
Macaroni and cheese.


 And sticky chicken.  I love this because it gets this wonderful, caramelized, crispy coating on the chicken and has a great flavor.


 I thought I'd share the recipe here:

 Sticky Chicken

Ingredients
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 2 teaspoons paprika
  • 1 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
  • 1 teaspoon onion powder
  • 1 teaspoon thyme
  • 1 teaspoon white pepper
  • 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1 (5 lb) chicken
  • 1 cup onion, chopped

Directions

  • In large bowl combine all of the spices.
  • Remove giblets from chicken, clean cavity and pat the chicken dry.
  • Place the chicken in the large bowl with spices.
  • Rub the spice mixture into the chicken inside and out, making sure it is evenly distributed and deep into the skin.
  • Place chicken in resealable plastic bag (or use your foodsaver).
  • Seal and refrigerate overnight.
  • When ready to roast the chicken, preheat oven to 250.
  • Stuff cavity with onion and place in a shallow baking pan
  • Roast uncovered at 250 for 5 hours (cooking time is less if you use a smaller chicken).
  • After 2 hours, start basting with the juices in the pan every 30-45 minutes.
Enjoy!

I'm off to grocery shop today.  Exciting times in the Groh household.  lol  Have a great weekend!

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