Easter Dinner

Stuffed Chicken
Broccoli with Cheddar Cheese Sauce
Mashed Potatoes

Stuffed Chicken:
One whole roasting chicken
1/2 loaf of bread for stuffing, cut into cubes (see bread recipe below)
1 carrot, chopped fine
1 tsp sage
1 onion, chopped
1 tsp fresh rosemary
1/2 tsp thyme
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup cranberries

Mix the bread cubes, water, butter, cranberries and spices in a bowl, then stuff into chicken's cavity.

Put in pan, or on a cookie sheet, it doesn't matter in an oven at 350 for an hour and a half or two, depending on the size of your bird, and yes, use a meat thermometer!!! It must be 180 degrees Farenheit to be safely cooked to eat. Put the meat thermometer into where the stuffing is, and I also check the temperature by the thigh bone, too.

This takes about 10 minutes at most to prepare, there's really no excuse not to cook at home from scratch!

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BREAD:
2 tsp yeast
2 TBS sugar
1 cup warm water/room temperature
3 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 TBS butter or olive oil

I confess, I use a bread machine to do my mixing, but since bread rises at it's own mystifying rate, I don't let the machine cook it for me, I just let it do the mixing. Once it's mixed (about an hour, go watch half a movie while you wait), I take it out and put it into a well greased bread pan, throw a wet washcloth over it and kill another hour taking a nap, painting my nails, whatever, right? When it's twice the size you started with, bake it for about 25 minutes on 350 F. You can smell it when it's done, usually right before your timer goes off, and it'll have a nice golden top to it. Stick a butter knife in it, it should come out "clean" with no gooey dough sticking to it. mmmm, fresh bread.

It takes about 5 minutes to put the ingredients into a bread maching bucket. yeah. That's it. and it's WAYYY cheaper and tastier than store bought bread. You're welcome.

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BROCCOLI WITH CHEESE SAUCE:

One bunch/head of broccoli
1 block of cheddar cheese, grated or cubed. yes, you can actually grate your own cheese. Think of it as excercise!
2 TBS flour
2 cups milk
2 TBS butter
1 tsp salt

I cut the stems off the broccoli bunch (before I even take off the rubber band if it's store bought) then put them cut stem side down in a steamer basket over some water. Turn it on low, go have a 20 minute phone call, or better yet, make the cheese sauce).
That took what, all of one minute? Not even!

Cheese sauce:
It's a basic white sauce with melted cheese in it. Put 2 TBS butter in a pan on the lowest heat setting, let it melt, then add the flour and mash it together. Now very, very slowly, add the milk while you're mixing it all together. I use a tiny wire whip and sort of mash it together as I stir CONSTANTLY at this point. Once the milk is in, turn up the heat and bring it to a boil while stirring constantly or you'll get lumps. Add your cheese, and stir while it melts. oh, nom!
Pour over your broccoli in a nice serving bowl.

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MASHED POTATOES:

ok, if any of you have used the boxed kind, please, never, everrrrrrr do it again, promise? this is SO easy!

Potatoes, how many is up to you, I usually do three - five.
1/2 cup of butter (or bacon fat if you've got it)
1 cup milk if you have it, or water if you don't (enough to get the potatoes nice and mashed)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp white or black pepper
(diced onions optional)

Cut up any kind of potatoes, one, two, five, whatever, however many you want to eat, ok? put them in a pan with water to cover them. Bring to a boil. Yup. Boil that water! You can do this, and I do it at the same time as the broccoli is cooking, they take about the same amount of time, and boiling water could not be less work, really. About 20 minutes or so, stick a fork into a potato chunck, it should slide in easily, if not, boil them more. Try again in five or ten minutes and when they're soft, drain them in a strainer, and put them back in the same pan you boiled them in, toss in your butter, salt, pepper and anything else you want in there (like bits of bacon?). Use a potato masher to mash them up. They SHOULD have lumps, and it takes about two minutes.

Prep time: two minutes
mash time: two minutes
Entire time spent on potatoes: about five minutes.

Enjoy!