Kitchen Tip Tuesday - Scrounging up Dinner

My kitchen tip for this week is how I came up with my Sunday dinner by scrounging around in my freezer, pantry and cookbooks!



1. I had a whole chicken, but wanted to make it special. I have one "sample" issue of Cook's Magazine that is stored with my cookbooks. I like this issue, and I really should subscribe to it. The issue I have takes common food, such as pork chops and chicken, and explains how to cook it for the best flavor. This is how I made the chicken: In a small bowl I mixed room temperature margarine (didn't have butter) with some salt and pepper. About 3 tablespoons. You can easily lift the skin on the breast up and put the margarine/butter mixture under there. Then spread it all over by smoothing it all around from the top of the skin. Then I rubbed a little vegetable oil all over the chicken and sprinkled salt and pepper all over the bird, to your taste. We like lots of pepper! Then place the chicken on a rack in a metal pan. I lined the bottom of the pan with aluminum foil for easy cleanup. My chicken was 5 pounds, and I cooked him for 1 1/2 hours at 350 degrees. We ate everything, but the bones!

I also boiled the little fat pieces, gizzard and livers, etc. in a small pot for chicken broth. I plan to put some rice in this later in the week.

2. I wanted some good veggies, etc. to go with the chicken. I noticed that the sweet potato basket was still in its storage place in the laundry room. What do you know!!! I peeked in and there were 6 or 7 sweet potatoes still in there from last winter that were in perfect condition. If I had known they were in there, they would have been long gone! So I made sweet potato souffle. I didn't' have any marshmallows for the top, but it was delicious as it was.

3. I rummaged around in the freezer and found a bag of frozen corn my Mama had frozen a while back. She had written on the bag: "D & B 03". That is mine and my sweetie's initials and the year. I thought, I wonder if this corn is good after 5 years. The bag was in perfect condition, and did not look freezer burnt or anything. I cooked the corn and it was delicious!

4. I opened a can of cut green beans and placed it in a pot on the burner that vents the oven. While the chicken was cooking the beans were heated up with no extra electricity being used.

5. I peeled and sliced some regular potatoes and placed them in a covered dish in the oven along with the chicken to cook. I just salted and peppered the potatoes and dotted them with margarine. My daughter loves potatoes and I almost always cook some kind of potatoes for her. This made efficient use of the oven, by cooking multiple items at the same time.

I know, I know, we had a lot of starches in this meal. But it was good!

6. I picked off all the little pieces of meat from the left over roasted chicken bones and made myself and my son sandwiches for lunch on Monday.

For our Sunday dinner, the only thing we bought was the chicken. All the other items were already on hand, a couple of which we didn't even know we had! I bet you have a scrumptious meal just waiting for you to scrounge up too!

For more kitchen tips, visit "Tammy's Recipes".