EXCITED! MY first blog post!

OK, EXCITING!  My very first blog post ~  It's late Sunday night!  Boys have school in the morning, so have gone off to bed.... Spring Football practice in the EARLY morn~  I am having a late night glass of wine, chilling, listening to 'quiet' music while cleaning up after dinner.  Not too bad!  Considering how many boys I fed, and how many wonderful extended family I was able to beg to come over...it's pretty CLEAN!  ( I love when family stops by, and to be in their company!) ~  OH,  I better not forget to mention my unbelievable 'extended family' in my Blog intro!!   They are people of LEGEND!  (well, they SHOULD be!)  We have one BIG TEXAS family....CLOSE Grandpa, Aunts, Uncles, cousins, besides all the McKeel Brothers (that'd be my boys!)....ALWAYS hungry and ready for family fun!  SO, what did we have tonight??  We are starting out pretty 101 with this recipe~ Lemon, rosemary roasted chickens!  YUM!  EASY, BREEZY!  Winner, winner Texas dinner!!  Sometimes 101 is BEST!   STAY IN TOUCH!!  ;)  Night y'all!


Lemon, Rosemary Roasted Chicken~
   4 1/2 pound roasting chicken
    1 large lemon
    2 large sprigs of rosemary
    2 sprigs of oregano
    2 tsp onion powder
    1 tsp garlic powder
    1 tsp lemon pepper
     fresh cracked pepper to taste
    Olive oil

Preheat oven to 350.  Rinse chicken.  Pat dry, then place in a roasting pan and squeeze lemon, cut in half, all over bird.  After all juices are rendered from lemon, place lemon halves into chicken cavity.  Take one sprig of rosemary and oregano and chop finely.  Take the other sprigs of rosemary and oregano and stuff into cavity with lemon halves.  (no need to chop, just put them in whole!) Sprinkle top of chicken with chopped up herbs and then season top with spices and olive oil.  Bake at 350 for 1hour 20 minutes, or until juices run clear.
                           
                                       
              (Pic of my eldest, Cole, running out of the tunnel! Picture taken by the amazing, Layne Murdoch! Just wanted y'all to see the big boys I'm always cooking for, and they're always hungry!!)

    Here are the pics of the process of making melt in your mouth roasted chicken!!

EASY, impressive and so YUMMY!!

Beautiful herbs to use from garden!  You can use dried! 

Washed, dried, and seasoned up.  Lemon squeezed over top, then lemon halves stuffed into cavity with some of the whole herbs~ (save half of herbs to chop up and put on top of chicken)

Fresh chopped herbs added, then topped off with olive oil~ Time to roast! 350 degree preheated oven for about 1 hour 20 minutes. Once done, and juices are running clear, put on platter and cover loosely with aluminum foil for about 15 minutes.  Take the drippings from the pan, scraping up bits,  and make gravy with it!

EASY gravy, made with all the pan drippings from roasted chicken pictured below~  just put pan drippings into pan on simmer and slowly add Wondra powder, and a bit of milk, til just perfectly thick!  Adjust salt.  (don't have to separate grease)

SMELLS SO GREAT AND IS SO JUICEY!  ENJOY!!