The Secret of my Success

Ahhh, my lovely Paduan sisters.  Let me teach you the ways of how to keep your sanity and still make a fabulous dinner…..

Okay, I am being stupid.  But seriously, making a ham/baking a turkey/whole chicken is not as hard as it sounds.  I figured all this out just this past year when I was comparing prices in the meat freezers at the grocery store.  You take the ham/turkey/chicken, defrost it, cover it with glaze/butter and herbs and then shove it in the oven.  You bake it at the recommended temp (look it up in a cookbook).  And the secret to a juicy ham/turkey/chicken is baking it to the right temperature, which you can determine thanks to a cheapo meat thermometer you can buy in the baking aisle at Kroger.  Another thing about baking a ham/turkey/chicken is that it is cost-efficient and meal-efficient.  That is, you pay less money for a whole turkey/chicken and ham than you would for a sliced, deboned, and skinned whatever, and you get more meat to last you a few more meals than just one.  A 6 or 7 lb. chicken can last us a few meals, or I can freeze some of the cooked meat for later, and then use the bones to make a chicken broth in my slow cooker (throw in tablespoon of vinegar into the water and you can draw out the calcium in the bones, making it calcium-rich, an added plus).  I usually also freeze the chicken broth too and pull it out when I need it for a soup base, etc.  Finally, the best part of doing all of this is that you get the maximum amount of meat, at the lowest cost, and it takes the least amount of time to prepare it.

Ahhhh, but there is more, More, MORE to learn!!

So, it just happens that my oven is ridiculous.  If you remember it, the thing is from the 1950's (a brand name that doesn't exist anymore), and the bottom bigger oven smokes so I am stuck with the smaller oven on top that only cooks on one side so you need to rotate your food or else it's just half-cooked.  But now, I have been liberated from my oven, thanks to Peggy and Ray.  Peggy saw the NuWave Oven on an infomercial and thought of me so she and Ray got it for us for Christmas.  I know it doesn't look like much, but OMG.  It's wunderbar!!

Ladies, you can stick a 7 lb. chicken in there that is FROZEN to the core, and it will be cooked, juicy and ready to eat within 3.5 hours.  I don't have to defrost it or anything.  It has something to do with the type of technology that is used.  And it is my dream come true.  They say you can cook anything in there, even dessert.  When Mom was here with me, she made muffins in that thing.  I haven't tried any desserts yet, and I so desperately wanted to try a pizza but all the pizzas I have are just a tad too big for it.  But I have made a turkey, whole chickens, hams, BBQ chicken thighs, pork chops, and baked veggies.  

And that, my people, is how I made a ham on Easter Sunday--the NuWave Oven and the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook I got when I was married.  

Now, if I only had a solution for keeping the house clean, laundry folded, and keeping the kids from crying at the same time.