Thursday Dinner

My parents have kindly agreed to put up with my cooking once a week. This last Thursday, I made a roast chicken, acorn squash, and garlic mashed potatoes. It turned out amazingly. I made Alton Brown's recipe, 40 cloves and a chicken, but instead of cutting up and browning the chicken I just put the chicken in whole. (Recipes below) I used acorn squash and made a sweet glaze on top. For the garlic mashed potatoes I just used the cooked garlic from the chicken and mashed it into the the potatoes.

Chicken
1 whole chicken (broiler/fryer) cut into 8 pieces
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons olive oil
10 sprigs fresh thyme
40 peeled cloves garlic
salt and pepper
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Season chicken with salt and pepper. Toss with a 2 tablespoons olive oil and brown on both sides in a wide fry pan or skillet over high heat. Remove from heat, add oil, thyme, and garlic cloves. Cover and bake for 1 1/2 hours.
Remove chicken from the oven, let rest for 5 to 10 minutes, carve, and serve.

Squash

Preheat oven to 350

1 acorn squash cut into halves with seeds and middles scooped out

1 tbsp maple syrup

2 tbsp brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

4 tbsp melted butter

First take the squash and put it into the oven in a pan with about 2-3 inches of water in it (cut- up side facing down). Steam in oven until squash is very tender. Mix butter, cinnamon, sugar, and maple syrup in a bowl. Then cut the squash pieces in half and drizzle the glaze over top.

Garlic mashed potatoes

25-40 cloves of roasted garlic (I know it sounds like a lot, but roasted garlic has a much more mild flavor than raw.)

1/2 tsp of salt

1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper

1/3 cup heavy whipping cream

6 medium potatoes cubed and boiled until mashing consistency

Drain your potatoes and mash in garlic, then add pepper, salt, and cream. Mash until fluffy.