It's a Crock Mondays: Risotto Edition

Hello and happy Monday. I've mentioned already that I'm going to be using the crock pot on Mondays, and this week I chose to make Parmesan Risotto from the "Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker" cookbook. I was thinking it probably wouldn't be creamy or my crock pot would burn it, so I was rather anxious about it. Luckily, the recipe calls for dry white wine, so I was forced to sample the wine, as any good cook would, to make sure it was up to par. It was. And it was on sale, so double bonus.

It turned out to be wonderful! Oh so creamy and bitey with the wine and the parmesan (the real stuff folks, Parmigiano Reggiano). Nutty and perfect! It's really hard to get a nice shot of risotto though, at 5:30, in the winter, in Michigan, in a black crock pot. But here it is:

The large strips are parmesan ribbons I shaved off with my vegetable peeler. MMMM

To go with this, I decided to roast a chicken, as I needed stock and more chicken throughout the week's menu. I prepped it, washed in and out, patted dry, seasoned the cavity and put in shallots and rosemary. Made a wet rub of balsamic vinegar, dijon mustard, salt and pepper, olive oil and rosemary. Loosened the skin, seasoned that...and set it in to roast at 450 degrees for an hour. It was beautiful! Nice crispy skin (which I did cover at about 45 minutes) and it smelled heavenly. But, I did one big bonehead move. (I really can't believe I did this-I've never done something this dumb in the kitchen. Well except that time I had a plate on the stovetop and turned on the wrong burner.) I roasted that beautiful chicken breast side down. So just about everything was cooked except the breast! I couldn't believe it. So I deskinned the breasts, because it was all fatty and gross now, not crispy and good, and threw it back in the oven. 35 minutes later I declared "That it! Everyone get your coats on, we're going out to eat." Outback had wonderful lamb tonight. And the Fosters was good too.

What is it with me and roasting chickens? I had great success at one time with them. I can roast a turkey like no one's business. But chicken has plagued me the last few times. Remember this post? Not good then either. So, more chicken cooking to happen tomorrow and I'm thinking I'll have some risotto for breakfast.