Roast Chicken

So, no we didn't make Fiesta Lime Chicken last night to go head to head with Applebee's. But we'll look at the cost of last night's meal too. We made Roast Split Chicken with Mustard Crust. A Jacques Pepin fast food meal. There are some things that are really fun to do in the kitchen. One is to purposely burn your food, like in this recipe (which I thought I blogged about, but must not have.) And another, is to split a chicken. Cris, you might want to stop reading... Here you get to cut, with scissors, the backbone right out of the chicken. Then with a big knife crack the sternum (from the inside) and press it down flat with your hands. Good old caveman fun!

TIP
There was a great tip in this recipe. You know how, when you roast a chicken, the whole thing is cooked except for that one joint in the thigh? This always happens. Then to cook that joint you probably over-roast the breast...drying it out. To overcome this obstacle, you just need to make an incision in the uncooked bird in that part of the thigh to allow the heat to get in. Genius!

Approximate Cost:
1 whole organic chicken from Russo's: $9.55, out of which we only ate half
Mustard Crust: ~$1.00
Salad: $2.00
2 pieces of bread: $1.00

HighDef Grand Total: $13.55
Applebee's Grand Total: $25.00

HighDef 2, Applebee's 0
HighDef is up $14.49

Mustard Crust

• 2 tablespoons chopped garlic
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 2 tablespoons dry white wine
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon Tabasco hot pepper sauce
• 1 teaspoon herbes de Provence
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 chicken (about 31/2 pounds)
• Fluffy Mashed Potatoes

For the crust: Mix all the ingredients in a small bowl.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Using kitchen shears or a sharp knife, cut alongside the backbone of the chicken to split it open. Spread and press on the chicken with your hands to flatten it. Using a sharp paring knife, cut halfway through both sides of the joints connecting the thighs and drumsticks and cut through the joints of the shoulder under the wings as well. (This will help the heat penetrate these joints and accelerate the cooking process.)

Put the chicken skin side down on a cutting board and spread it with about half the mustard mixture. Place the chicken flat in a large skillet, mustard side down. Spread the remaining mustard on the skin side of the chicken. Cook over high heat for about 5 minutes, then place the skillet in the oven and cook the chicken for about 30 minutes. It should be well browned and dark on top.

Let the chicken rest in the skillet at room temperature for a few minutes, then cut it into 8 pieces with clean kitchen shears. Defat the cooking juices. If you like, mound some Fluffy Mashed Potatoes on each of four warm dinner plates and place 2 pieces of chicken on each plate. Pour some juice on the mashed potatoes and chicken and serve.

Applebee's 2 for $20 Deal

I saw an ad on TV for Applebees's 2 for $20 deal. It says for the price of cooking some boring terrible food at home, you can get a sweet deal by coming to Applebee's and getting great food for 2 people for only $20 plus tip and tax ($25 total). I'm paraphrasing...but that's the gist. I wonder if it is true? I don't really know what it costs to cook at home. Let's find out.

All costs listed below are apporximate because you always have to put in some initial money to amass all of the ingredients, but you can use them more than once. Anyway, no more excuses, let's see who wins.

Last night we had Panko crusted tuna steak, with a beet salad, squash,regular salad and bread.

Panko-crusted Tuna:
Tuna: ~$24, but we only ate half so let's say $12
Panko Bread Crumbs: $1.59 for a bag we've had for over 6 months. $0.50
Served with Wasabi and Soy Sauce: $0.50

Beet Salad:
2 Fresh Beets: $0.25
1TBSP Heavy Cream $0.25
Pinch White Pepper $0.10

Acorn Squash: $0.59/lb we had about a pound. $0.59

Regular Salad:
Lettuce: $3.59 for fancy organic salad mix from Whole Foods. Makes 3 salads. $1.20
Radishes: $0.25
Celery $0.25
Olive Oil: Trader Joe's Greek Olive Oil $8.99 for a Liter. 2TBSP=$0.27
Balsamic: Also from Trader Joe's but I couldn't find the price. Let's say $0.25

2 Slices of Bread: $1.00

Total: $17.41

At Applebee's you get an appetizer which we didn't have. But we could add in the Martinis that we had before dinner. If you don't know Lukusowa vodka, you should take a look. It is by far the best Martini Vodka, and its cheap enough to use as a mixing vodka too.

Dry Martini
4 shots (6 ounces) Luksusowa Potato Vodka: $15 for .75 Liter (25.35 ounces) : $3.55
4 Good Big Olives: $1.00

HighDef Grand Total: $21.96
Applebee's Grand Total:$25.00

Applebee's 0, HighDef 1

Maybe this isn't a fair comparison. What we should do is cook one of Applebee's dinners and see how much it costs to do it at home. Look for fiesta lime chicken coming up...

Vacation

It's Sunday so you can imagine how the day started. NPR and the Globe, washed down by a couple of Mocha Lattes from Darwins. See here for more details of Sundays in the Boisvert household. The Globe had some interesting stuff today. The Travel section had a nice article about where to go for great but not expensive vacations. With the Euro so strong right now it looks like a lot of people are looking into different locations (us included). When thinking about a week vacation in the spring sometime, we initially thought about Costa Rica. We have heard good things from friends of ours, but are concerned that it might be a little too commercialized. Also, it's kinda a long flight for only a week (like 5 hours). The next thought was Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico is close, there are plenty of direct flights, and there is both rainforest (for hiking) and snorkeling opportunities, and some bay that glows. A quick look into accomodations proved fruitful as we found loads of VRBO houses at very reasonable rates.

Anyway, back to the Globe. I'm not going to list all of the them here...just the ones that caught my eye.
1. Honduras - I have no idea how safe Honduras is. Does anyone know? It looks beautiful. Look at this hotel. Are the rooms really under $30 a night? They have guided tours from the hotel into the rainforest to a 300' waterfall that you can swim in. Sounds like something Heike would like... VRBO has some nice places too . Ideal vacation here would include some Jungle time, and some snorkeling time.

2. Guatamala - Is Guatamala safe? Don't know. I'll have to look into it. Take a look at this hotel. Are you kidding me? This is so beautiful and under $70 a night. Guatamala looks like it might have a little more emphasis on culture...lots of Mayan culture still kicking around.

So, it comes down to Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, Honduras or Guatamala. What would you choose? Life is full of difficult decisions....

Voting Notes

Election Day tomorrow. Maybe I should figure out what I'm doing...Note that I don't really know anything about politics.

Let's see. What's on the ballot?
◆ President/Vice President
◆ US Senator in Congress
◆ US Representative in Congress
◆ Governor's Council
◆ State Senator
◆ State Representative
◆ Question 1
◆ Question 2
◆ Question 3

Actually Massachusetts makes it very easy to make these decisions as barely anyone runs against the democratic candidate. I had to look up what I'm actually voting on tomorrow (maybe you Germans don't know, but it's not just one check box). There are always surprises on the ballot, for example on the Presidential ticket there are actually 6 choices:

John McCain/Sarah Palin, Republican
Bob Barr/Wayne A. Root, Libertarian
Chuck Baldwin/Darrell L. Castle, Constitution
Ralph Nader/Matt Gonzales, Independent
Barack Obama/Joe Biden, Democratic
Cynthia McKinney/Rosa Clemente, Green-Rainbow

If you thought McCain was terrible, check out Bob Barr or Chuck Baldwin. Wow.



President/Vice President : Obama/Biden
US Senator: John Kerry
US Representative in Congress, District 8: Michael Capuano (unopposed)
Governor's Council, District 6: Michael J. Callahan (unopposed)
State Senator, Middlesex, Suffolk, Essex: Anthony D. Galluccio (unopposed)
State Representative, 25th Middlesex District: Alice K. Wolf (unopposed)


Question 1: State Personal Income Tax
Summary: This proposed law would reduce the state personal income tax rate to 2.65% for all categories of taxable income for the tax year beginning on or after January 1, 2009, and would eliminate the tax for all tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2010.
Dan's Vote: No. This is the worst idea I've heard in a while. Are people going to be so selfish to get back ~$3700 and cut about $12 billion from state funds? I assume this will pass.

Question 2: Possession of Marijauana
Summary: This proposed law would replace the criminal penalties for possession of one ounce or less of marijuana with a new system of civil penalties, to be enforced by issuing citations, and would exclude information regarding this civil offense from the state’s criminal record information system. Offenders age 18 or older would be subject to forfeiture of the marijuana plus a civil penalty of $100. Offenders under the age of 18 would be subject to the same forfeiture and, if they complete a drug awareness program within one year of the offense, the same $100 penalty.
Dan's Vote: Yes. Although an ounce of Marijauana is a lot of pot. Seems like this should be more like 1/16 of an ounce...

Question 3: Dog Racing
Summary: This proposed law would prohibit any dog racing or racing meeting in Massachusetts where any form of betting or wagering on the speed or ability of dogs occurs.
Dan's Vote: Yes. Don't have a strong opinion here, but I think they treat the dog's pretty badly, and we don't need that.