The First Moment

Anyone remember the moment you decided you wanted to cook?  I was forced into my moment.  This is the truth.  Here is the story...

I was married for less than six months when I was escorted to my husband's family Christmas celebration.  I was nervous, but I decided to muscle through and to try and have fun.  Dinner was wonderful.  I even ate a salad that had fruit in it!  If you ever ate at my house as a kid you know why this was a big deal.  Then it was time to open gifts.  

In the Ayres family people open gifts one at a time and I was slated to go last.  When it came to my turn the family was looking at me with smiles.  Well, everyone but my father-in-law who was grimacing as I began to open the first gift.  I should have known then what I was in for.  The first thing I opened was a Kitchenaid mixer...a VERY LARGE mixer.  Then there was the cooking software...then the set OXO kitchen utensils....a cookbook or four...a food processor...and then it dawned on me that my husband had told his family I did not know how to cook.  I almost started to cry, but instead thanked everyone and I waited until we got home to shed my tears.

My spouse was so apologetic and we had our first marital disagreement.  His mom tried to smooth things over in the days afterward.  She offered to give me cooking lessons.  I took her up on her offer.  I learned to make things that no one will ever make after a ten hour day at work. Duck, anyone?  It had oranges in it.  I was scared of it.

After weeks of learning to cook things I would never cook on my own, she gave me these...

See this one?  It is my favorite.

Want to see how much times have changed? Read this:

I read them as if they were text books.  Now if you know me (which you may not), I LOVE text books.  I still have the first two paragraphs of my eighth grade social studies text book memorized.  Don't you?!

There was advice on everything in these books.  There was even a section on how to measure ingredients.

So now I am a pretty decent cook and am asked frequently how and what to make for different occasions.  This brings us to today and this new venture in the Ayres' household: a food blog.  Our first venture is a recipe I tweaked from a site called Pinterest.  Have you ever heard of this web site?  Look me up!  Follow me! PLEASE!  I am listed as Auntiecheena.

Now onto the recipe!  Today we are making a rotisserie chicken in the crock pot.  Now I tried the recipe the way it was listed and I am sorry to say that it was a mistake.  The ingredient list looked a little odd, but I persevered anyway.  Tell you what...why don't you skip that step and follow my recipe instead? OK? OK!!

Start with four bone in chicken breasts in a large crock pot.  They will be a little cozy.

Now we need a seasoning to go on top.  This is a picture of:
4 crushed garlic cloves
3 Tbsp of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 tsp of kosher salt
2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp season salt
1 tsp smoked Spanish Paprika
1 tsp crushed black pepper
Mix this all together in a small bowl with a fork or small whisk.

Now spread it all over the chicken.  Scared of raw chicken?  Wear a pair of non-latex gloves.

Cover the crock pot and place it on high for 4 - 5 hours.  Now you may be wondering why the first recipe did not work.  Well, it was because of this:

See this lovely little beauty from Penzeys Spices?  It has a lovely and amazing flavor but in the original recipe there was 2 tablespoons of this stuff and all I could say was, "Yuck!"  Now go to this web site and order all of your spices.  You can thank me later!

This is what you get five hours later...

Look good?  I know!!!

Here are some suggestions of side dishes:

Sauteed broccoli rabe with garlic

Potatoes Anna I don't use russets in my recipe but if you have them handy you should go for it!  I am picky and use Yukon Gold.

A mixed green salad with citrus dressing and DO NOT skimp on making your own salad dressing.  Break out that blender, sweetheart, and LET HER RIP!!

Let me know how yours turns out.  Also, please feel free to leave any questions or comments below.