My sister Molly and I used to spend a lot of time with our grandparents. We used to go to their house for a couple of weeks in the summer — which undoubtedly gave my mom a break!
I can’t remember a Christmas, Thanksgiving, birthday or any other holiday that our grandparents weren’t there.
They used to make everything seem so fun and interesting.
They lived in a woodsy area and we used to go for nature walks. My gram landscaped her entire backyard herself and turned it into a really cool natural playground.
There was a sandbox, lots of trees and giant boulders to climb on. Actually, said boulders resulted in the scar on my chin. But that is a story for another day.
I wish I had a picture of her yard to share — Mom? Are you there? Do you have any?
One of the fun things my gram used to do was make Molly and me special drinks.
A drink that I now know is called a Shirley Temple.
Only she called it a Harvey Wallbanger.
Molly and I found this hilarious, but also it was the only name we knew for this wonderful concoction.
So you can imagine everyone’s surprise when we went out for some occasion to a fine dining establishment and the waitress asked what everyone wanted to drink. She took orders around the table and when she got to my 5 year old sister she said, “and what would you like to drink, sweetie?”
Molly very seriously said, “I would like a Harvey Wallbanger, please.”
Zoink!
I realize that this story has nothing to do with roasting a chicken, but for some reason I remembered it when I made this chicken the other day. So to me they are connected.
Or I’m just weird.
On that note I think I will go make myself a Harvey Wallbanger.
The real kind.
Roasted Chicken
Ingredients:
1 whole 3 (ish) pound chicken
5-6 carrots, peeled and cut into 1 -2 inch chunks
2 onions, peeled and quartered
1 garlic bulb, cut in half crosswise
4 garlic cloves peeled
4 Tablespoons butter melted
1 orange, zested and cut in half
15-20 pieces of Thyme, divided
2 Rosemary sprigs
Salt and Pepper
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 425 F.
Pat chicken dry with a paper towel and generously salt and pepper inside and outside.
Zest and juice orange into a bowl.
Stuff garlic cloves, orange, rosemary and all but 5 Thyme pieces inside chicken. Tie legs with butcher twine.
Arrange carrots, onion and garlic bulb halves in a casserole dish or roasting pan. Sprinkle with olive oil and salt and pepper.
Melt butter in microwave or on stove and add Thyme leaves, orange zest and juice from the orange into the bowl.
Place chicken on top of the vegetables.
Note: I normally use a rack to roast meat, but I saw Ina just put the chicken on top of vegetables the other day, so I decided that was good enough for me.
Brush the butter/herb mixture all over the chicken.
Roast for 1.5 hours or until a meat thermometer reads 170F.
Remove from oven, cover with aluminum foil and let rest for about 20 minutes before carving.
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