On the Garden Path at 5~Acre Farm: Chicken & Macaroni; Roast Chicken with Veggies

Monday, February 6, 2012

Chicken & Macaroni; Roast Chicken with Veggies

I found some beautiful, meaty, bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts in the freezer last night and pulled them out to defrost for today's dinner.

I decided to make Chicken and Macaroni for my dad. It's very boring to look at, but it's really delicious to eat! It's a dish that's easy on Dad's digestion, and easy on his gums. It's also one of his favorite dishes, a modification of the chicken and noodles that my family ate often while I was growing up.

When I was little, my mother often shooed me away from the kitchen while she was cooking, but once in a while I'd get to sit at the dining room table doing homework, and watch her cook, especially chicken and noodles. Just home from work, and still in heels and pearls (really), Mother would don her apron and set-to cutting up a chicken to dump in the pot. (Back then, they didn't sell chickens already cut up. You had to do it yourself! Can you imagine that?)

Mother cooked, I watched, we didn't chat. It was too distracting for Mother, who never took well to cooking. She cooked because she had to, not because she loved it. (Some day I'll tell you that story.) But I loved watching her, heels and pearls, and perfectly curled hair, and the scent of the chicken and noodles mingling with the scent of her perfume, White Shoulders.To this day, the two scents still linger together in my memory.

Now, back to those big, meaty chicken breasts!

I decided to make Roast Chicken with Veggies for John and myself. I seasoned them with a rosemary-garlic seasoning blend, and popped them into my counter-top convection oven at the grill setting for about 30 minutes. I served the breasts with mixed veggies and stir-fried broccoli.

We harvested the broccoli from our garden on Sunday, and we haven't been able to stop eating it! It is so delicious! Stir-fried in a bit of extra-virgin olive oil and butter, then seasoned with a bit of sea salt, the broccoli was the real star of the meal!

My counter-top convection oven is probably my most important kitchen tool. My first one was a gift from my mother 12 years ago. When it died in 2006, my mother surprised me with another one before I had a chance to get one myself!

When I first got the oven, I wasn't ungrateful, but I really wasn't sure what to do with this thing, so it sat on the kitchen shelf for a few months before I pulled it out, studied the booklet, and started experimenting. I realized, pretty quickly, that this wonderful machine was going to change the way I cook everything!

For many years, I have used my counter-top convection oven to cook everything! I've grilled chicken, steaks, and other meats in it; cooked cornbread, biscuits, muffins, and cakes in it; and baked potatoes and roasted vegetables in it. I've even baked pizzas in it! Meats are always juicy, moist and tender, and everything cooks fast and easy. I really can't imagine being without it at this point!

Have you got a kitchen tool that you are particularly fond of? Can't live without it? Tell me about it!

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John and Michelle, and 5 Acre Farm

How We Came To Be

John was born and raised in Georgia by parents who lived incredible lives of their own, and passed on to John a rich family history from both sides. He was a die hard Boy Scout, and later, spent 17 years as a Troop Leader. He earned a dual Agriculture/Agricultural Engineering degree at ABAC in Tipton, where he also started the college's radio station. After college, John served on nuclear submarines in the Navy, where he once saved the lives of his shipmates, and, rumor has it, did many incredible things in the service of our country. He married and had a family, and after the Navy, worked briefly with the EPA before opening his own HVAC-Refrigeration company. John was inventive as a child, and that carried over into everything in his life. He is a fixer of severe mechanical problems, and an inventor of all kinds of things that improve on or simplify existing machinery, equipment, and ideas. His inventions are unique, and some of them may some day aide humanity, save lives, and save our planet if we can get the right people to listen.

My dad was career Army. I was born in France, and introduced, at a very young age, to the Virginia countryside, where we raised rabbits and chickens. After dad retired, we moved to North Carolina, his home state, where we spent many years on the coast, near Wilmington. Here, we had a garden, raised cows, pigs, chickens, and ducks, and fished commercially. Our freezer was always full of fresh Spot and shrimp, and oyster roasts were a weekly event! As a young adult I lived with my family in the mountains south of Asheville. Here too we had a garden, raised cows, pigs, chickens, and ducks, as well as geese and peacocks. I worked for many years with an arts council, Christian organizations, and other non-profits. I helped train missionaries, researched/wrote grants, produced professional documents, edited newsletters, and wrote a lot of publicity materials. I already had two Associate degrees, but in my late 30s I finally completed an undergraduate degree in English/Art History. For 20 years I was active in community theater, sang solos with a community choir, and danced with a show choir. Treasured memories! I moved to Georgia in late 1998, and married my first husband in 2002. I was 45. Eighteen months later, I was widowed.

John and I first met in 2000. After I was widowed, and John was divorced, we found each other again. Of like minds, spirits, and goals, our hearts came together quickly, and we married in 2005. Each of us has undergone Elijah House training, and we were both ordained into ministry in 2006. I have been a Christian counselor and prayer warrior for probably 30 years. John and I live to put God first in our lives, and in our dreams for this small piece of earth of which we are the caretakers.

We call our place "5 Acre Farm." John's father took this barren, overworked field from a larger parcel of farmland in the mid-70s. He fenced off about three-quarters of an acre for the house, and added plants, flowers, and trees. Elsewhere, he transformed the property through years of hard work, adding an apple orchard, peach trees, pears, two fig orchards, grape vines, and a greenhouse. John and I have been trying to continue his father's work on this land, adding to it with our own hopes and dreams, and our late-in-life efforts. Not a day goes by that I don't feel great respect for John's father, for the man he was, for the work he did here, and gratitude for the bounty we reap because of his hard work.

John and I are in our 50s, just starting life together, but with age and health trying to work against us. We aren't ready to sit down and take it easy. We have a goal to become self-sufficient by growing our own food (meat and vegetables), and getting off the grid. The challenges we face in doing this are age, health, and finances. John's inventiveness is being strongly applied, as is my gift for budget stretching and frugality. Our strength? The love we have for each other, and the trust that we are working inside the will of God.

One of the things we ask ourselves now and then is this: "Is it worth it?" I never had children. John's son has set his own path with family and career. There does not seem to be anyone we can leave this property to who will continue the work and the dream; one of John's grandchildren, perhaps, but they are very young right now, and do not yet notice or care.

So, is it worth it (all the work and expense) if there is every chance this land will end up in the hands of developers after we're gone? Well, our answer to that question so far is always "Yes, it's worth it." It's worth it to us, because of what we are accomplishing here in our lifetime. It's worth it because what we grow here we share with family, with friends, and with our community. And not just what we grow, but our faith and philosophy, our hopes and dreams, and our very desire to leave at least our little part of the world better than it was when we found it. We are living - consciously, and deliberately - a lifestyle that expresses who we are and what we believe. Does anybody care? Why don't read our blog, leave a comment, and let us know.