I feel like chicken tonight!

For those who know me, they know I love to cook. This week's dining guide in the Daily Northwestern was quite enlightening to see that the dining and cooking community in Northwestern is very much alive and thriving. For the first three years here, I was strictly confined to the dorm food that Northwestern served. It's not like I could complain when there's a fresh salad bar everyday, hot breakfast (who can resist tater-tots) and the cookie bar on Sundays - but I love variety. That being said, the dining halls' variety in Northwestern have made bold attempts at trying to encompass a wide range of foods, from Chinese stir-fry to Greek hummus. But the stuff wears on you real quickly. I wanted to do something different on my own.

Since I moved off campus last year, it gave me the time to experiment. Last week I discovered a great recipe for roasting a whole chicken - it's really simple to make and gives you best value for your dollar especially with the stagflation leading to rising food prices. White meat, dark meat, drums, wings and everything - the meat lasts you two to three days at least (depending on the size of the chicken). Here's what you need:

- 1 whole chicken (a roaster by Perdue has one of those internal thermometers that pop up when it's done. Makes it easy for figuring out when to pull the chicken out of the oven)
- 6-8 cloves garlic, finely diced
- 1-2 tbsp diced green onion (keep the stalk for your gravy)
- 2 tbsp diced rosemary (keep a couple stalks with leaves intact)
- 2 bay leaves (1 diced, 1 intact)
- 1/3 stick of butter, salted at room temperature
- 1 orange or lemon
- 2 tbsp flour or corn starch
- salt
- pepper
- olive oil


1. Preheat oven to 400F. Unwrap chicken and remove giblets. The giblets are usually in a bag up the chicken's butt.
2. Place giblets in 4-5 cups of water and simmer (covered). Add chopped stalks of green onion and a bay leaf. This will be your chicken stock
3. Shave orange/lemon all the way around to get the zest and finely dice it. Remember not to shave too far: only orange/yellow, no white part of the fruit which is usually bitter.
4. In a bowl, place butter, onion, rosemary, diced leaf, orange/lemon zest, salt and pepper. Mash it all together with a spoon so that you get a consistent rub.
5. Pull wings all the way behind the back of the chicken, (be liberal with it, but try not snap the wing off).
6. Remove excess white fat from around cavity of the chicken. From the cavity where the stomach begins, there should be an opening that goes under the skin of the stomach and breast. Use the back of the skewer stick or a chopstick to loosen the skin from the breast and stomach (do not break the partition that goes up the middle of the breast, it will help keep the rub consistent). This should give you enough room to stuff about 4 tbsp of the rub underneath the skin. Use the stick to spread the rub evenly underneath the skin.
7. Cut orange/lemon in half, sqeeuze out juices into cavity and stuff halves into cavity. Stuff chicken with rosemary/onion stalks if you still have them. Use the rub to spread a thin layer around the entire chicken. Also add salt and pepper around the chicken to season. Tie the legs of the chicken together.
8. Glaze roasting pan with olive oil. Place chicken breast up, back down onto the roasting pan and roast for about 2 hours (5-6 pounds), 2.5 hours for (6-8 pounds). Stop every 30 minutes or so to baste chicken with the sauce from the pan - this will keep the chicken moist. The internal thermometer will pop-up when it's done.
9. Remove chicken and let sit for 15 mins. Remove legs, wings. Cut diagonally to remove both breasts. Cut white meat perpendically to nice easily edible pieces. On the back of the chicken, remove the brown meat. And now it's ready!
10. Place watery stock (no giblets) into the roasting pan and shovel up the chicken bits on the roasting pan while putting it on medium heat. Also add the flour or corn starch until the gravy becomes thick. Place gravy into bowl and it's ready to serve.

If you have any questions on how to prepare this or carve the chicken, post a comment. I'll try to add pictures!

Putting the end into perspective

The other day I was walking from class to class behind the library where all the construction (used to) take place when I saw a family, a B-school student I'm assuming with his wife, son and two elderlies. They all appeared pretty happy to be together and it casted a pall on me to say the least, since it reminded me of finding out recently that maternal grandmother was not doing so well and that her time was nearing a certain end. It was not that I hadn't experienced the thought of loved ones or friends dying before, but it was the fact that my grandmother had deteriorated so quickly.

Just years ago, she was in Canada gardening everyday, doing her chants (she was a devout Buddhist), cooking for herself - she was agile and even had a quickness in her step. What 70+ year old woman would bend her back every bright and early morning to tender after the plants and flowers, doing difficult yardwork that most people half her age were unwilling to do? Her lifestyle and attitude to life was most impressive to say the least. Not only that, she served as the emotional rock to the family she lived in. My mother is one of seven children in that family and needless to say, our family was very Joy Luck - playing Mahjong and having dinners withe each other consistently throughout the year. Regardless of the family squabbles, everyone took care of her one way or another, was mindful of what she ate when we went out (she was vegetarian) and made sure she lived comfortably.

Just recently, we had a "meeting of the families" (I know, very Godfather-esque) where all my aunts and uncles were deciding what to do with the rest of her time. The shocking thing to me was that the people who were so quick to take care of her suddenly were shying away. One wanted to keep her in a old-age home, one wanted her to live with another aunt claiming that it was her turn and that she had better things to do - and then the finger pointing continued. Caught in the middle of all this was my grandmother, like she was a hot potato. She had absolutely no say in the matter, nor could I picture her wanting to have to choose between any of them. My mother wanted to take her in, but that would mean flying her over back to China which we feared she could not handle. I feel it's partly my responsibility to tend for her as one of the grandsons, but I am starting my career very soon and we would be an ocean apart (since she still would be in Canada, myself in Hong Kong). Helplessness really hurts sometimes.

I'm going to see her for the very last time (probably) in three weeks. What do I say? What can I say or do to help her out? I've been dwelling on this for weeks now and it's just so hard. Sorry it had to be such a grim first post, but it's the one thing that's bothering me the most right now. Thanks for reading and feel free to post comments.