Roast Chicken and Boiled Parseleyed Potatoes, by Steph

I was really excited for this week. Since I'm going out of town and won't be available to cook next week's recipe, I combined them into one dinner and one post. I had a bag of potatoes from a while ago...apparently too long of a while ago: when I opened the bag, most of them had gone all mushy and gross. So I grabbed my gardening gloves and ran to my backyard to harvest some of my own potatoes. I have been scared to try my own, because I knew I had to dig in the dirt for them. They don't just sprout up like normal plants. But desperation propelled me into digging. And I found a true rainbow of potatotes. Since I failed to label the potato plants when we bought them (I'm a terrible gardener), I had no idea what kinds of potatoes we had. All I remembered was French fingerling. Not sure what those look like. But we had some red ones with a red middle, some purple ones with a purple middle, and then some plain yellow ones. And a few normal reds left from the grocery store. They looked really pretty in the pot and I was so happy with them.
















Unfortunately, they didn't turn out so great. Some of them held up well to the boiling and some didn't, so we had a bit of mush going on with the finished product. And the ones from the store were okay (flavorless, but okay), but the ones I picked tasted like dirt. Dang it.
















The chicken...that's a whole other story. I stuffed it with kosher salt, fresh-ground pepper, rosemary (from my garden), lemon slices, and garlic cloves. I trussed the legs with twine from my scrapbook stash. It smelled divine while it roasted.This was my 4th attempt at cooking a whole chicken, and I felt confident I would do it right this time, after having bought a meat thermometer. After almost an hour had passed, I stuck the thermometer in - 165 degrees on the dot. Perfect. I let the chicken rest (although I wish I could have rested while the chicken finished up dinner) while I made the pan sauce. It was a bit of an extravagant feast for one mother and two babies, but that's how it is around here.










As I carved the chicken (the non-Martha way - dug might be a more appropriate word), the delectable smell of lemons and rosemary wafted out. My excitement grew. And then my heart sank - I reached a spot that was still bloody and pink.
















Leighton knew just how I felt.

Same problem as the last 3 times - the chicken was undercooked. Of course, it wasn't the recipe's fault this time. The taste of the chicken that did fully cook was amazing. I will definitely be cooking this roast chicken again - it may even become a Sunday dinner staple. The kids both loved it and Eva had about 4 helpings. The pan sauce was a little too buttery, but utterly delicious. As soon as I get rid of the feeling that salmonella is overtaking my kitchen, I'll try this again. But I would say this was the first Martha recipe triumph.