Wait, the Oven is Off?

Day 2 of "Cook Because You Can!" greeted me with a nice wake up call this morning at 4:30 a.m., which was a perfect time for some hot cereal!  I tried the Trader Joe's version of Cream of Wheat...enriched farina Hot Wheat Cereal.  In case you curious Georges out there are wondering what "enriched farina" is, I looked it up for all of us.  Basically, a hot, wheat cereal, which begs the question, isn't it redundant to put the name of your product as "Enriched Farina Hot Wheat Cereal"?  Why not just "Hot Wheat Cereal"?  The "enriched farina" part doesn't really do much for me.  But I guess people do order "Stuffed Chile Rellenos" so I shouldn't be too surprised.  I sprinkled a little cinnamon sugar onto it and it was mighty tasty in the wee hours of the morn.

Sitting in the relative silence with only the birds chirping, enjoying my breakfast, it got me thinking of dinner (I can imagine this will eventually turn into a problem of gluttony).  Since I have so much chicken (...a whole one!) left over, and my mind already was fully parked and napping at the cinnamon rest stop on Taste Bud Highway, I snatched up my "Chicken: A Collection of over 100 Essential Recipes" book and got to looking.  In trying to find a link for it (can't), I got extremely sidetracked by this book, to which I've decided I must own immediately.

"Chicken: A Collection of over 100 Essential Recipes" is one of those books that's always placed in the Barnes & Noble entry way, on sale for $3.99, that most people would breeze right past.  Not I!  How can you turn down a book that's JUST CHICKEN recipes?  I mean, aside from the vegans and vegetarians, how much chicken does the average person consume?  A lot, right?  You could go 100 days without eating the same variation of chicken!  Why this book is in the bargain bin is beyond me.  But then again, I'm a book hunter of all sorts.  This might explain why I also fell victim to purchase "Cupcakes", "Smoothies" (looking forward to trying that one!), and "Cookies".  

Tabbing over to the "Hearty Dishes" chapter, I was immediately drawn to "Roast Cinnamon Squab Chickens with Lentils" on page 110.  I had to cheat and look up squab and thought, "...but this is a CHICKEN book?"  I decided to go with the biggest piece of chicken I had left and moved it to thaw in the fridge while at work.  The good news about this go around?  I only had to buy 3 items in the grocery store instead of practically the entire meal!

I started the recipe with a wonderful sauce to brush over the chicken before roasting (note: I don't have a brush so I spooned over the chicken instead--must pick up during next Target run) that was 3 tablespoons of maple syrup, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, and a tablespoon of vegetable oil.  The chicken was nestled in a roasting dish (does the average person own this??  I used a bread pan) with onions "tucked around the bird".

While that was roasting, I put the coriander and cumin seeds into a pan "until they start to give off an aroma".  Kind of wondered what the point of this step was but I thought I'd just get on with it.  

After that, I was instructed to "tip [the spices] into a mortar and finely crush with a pestle."  There are two words in that sentence that I have no clue what they're about.  I replaced "mortar" with "bowl" and "pestle" with "hand and spoon".

That worked quite well for what I thought it was asking me to do (turns out I wasn't too far off!)  

After that, I blended together my spices and crushed garlic (crushed using the same method above) in some olive oil.

And then added the canned lentils (which felt like cheating).  I should say that at this point, not having much knowledge of what certain spices taste like, I had no clue whether this was going to be sweet or salty.  Turns out it's sweet!  Or maybe I should have guessed that from the maple syrup and cinnamon glaze I "brushed" over the chicken.  Foresight, anyone? 

Right about this time, I had so many timers starting and going off that I must have inadvertently hit the "Off" button thinking I was stopping a timer, but really, you guessed it, turned off the oven.  How did I find this out?  After my chicken timer went off at the end of the 35 minute roast and it looked exactly like it did when I put it in.  Whoops!  There goes another 30 minutes before I can start eating--and I had timed everything else just perfectly!

Once the chicken was finally done, I poured the lentil concoction on the base of the plate and put the cinnamon chicken on top with some of the roasted onions and ta da!

I paired this meal with some peas with black pepper and white wine.  Oh you fancy huh?  

All in all, it was a large piece of chicken that, unfortunately, wasn't that good.  I'm not sure if it was the recipe or the way I prepared it.  Maybe I should have taken the skin off before I put the glaze on to roast?   Maybe left the chicken in a little longer...like 5 more minutes?  Maybe I'm not a fan of sweet glazes?  Maybe I was too distracted watching my DVR'd "The Voice"? (Blake Shelton I love you!)  I'm not too sure.  At this point, I don't think I'd be making the chicken part again any time soon.

But let me tell you...the lentils. were. fan-freaking-tastic!  I would definitely make that again and can't wait to heat up the leftovers for tomorrow's dinner.

You live and you learn right?  Can't say I went hungry tonight.