Happy birthday msbelle!

I don’t think it is the host’s duty to cater to my weird dietary restrictions.

I feel this way as a guest, but as a host I want to cater to everyone's dietary needs/wants/mild preferences!

Roast chicken is the easiest thing ever. (This recipe used to be called "The Most Difficult Roast Chicken Recipe In The World" but I guess the joke was putting people off of actually trying it.) tl;dr, stick a lemon up its butt and put it in the oven.

I…don’t think I’ve ever roasted a chicken?

Not that complicated! I do recommend a dry brine (which is no more complicated than putting kosher salt under the skin for a while before you roast it). Also, I learned from one of the BA chefs to use a little soy sauce on the skin as it cooks. Made a big difference in flavor, color and crispiness.

But you know, you can do any of protein focused thing with a side of salad and bread. If you want to do salmon terriyaki skewers, have at it!

but as a host I want to cater to everyone's dietary needs/wants/mild preferences!

I definitely consider it my responsibility as the host, and want to cater to all my guests. It is not an imposition.

After Thanksgiving, I found an 8 lb turkey at the supermarket, so I went for it, and I said to my mother "I didn't do anything, just threw it in the oven" and it was delicious, but of course I threw a lemon and an onion inside and bacon over the top. But that was it!

Recipe writers have to make up new stuff to do to whole birds all the time, but you don't need much to make it delicious.

Timelies all!

It's snowing here. Good thing tomorrow's a holiday so we can dig our cars out.

We didn't lose power! I think there was more snow than they thought there would be but not as much rain and icy conditions. It helped that a lot of the snow was dry fluffy snow and not wet and heavy. Although stuff could still happen.

Scrappy the cat is still missing. I did take one of the pet cave things and a spare sheet out to the shed, I put it in a plastic container and left some food out there. Didnt see him but hopefully he will try to get back there to be dry and find it. Or some other animal will use it. can't believe I thought he wouldn't freak out and run away when he felt the snow.. I thought he'd run into the house not away from it. I'm assuming he will come home soon.

And Scrappy is back! He was in the shed meowing loud enough for Matthew to hear him on the porch. And I went and tried to tempt him to me with treats and he finally got close enough and head butted my hand and I grabbed him. He was calm and happy until we started getting to the porch and then he freaked out. I tried to give him some canned cat food (usually he wants some when he comes in) but he doesn't seem interested the silly cat.

Yay not-missing cat!!

I went on a long walk with a friend and my dog, which was nice (also nice because my back wasn’t hurting) and then played VR games with my sister from across the country, which was also cool. I’m very glad to have tomorrow off.

I decided to do a taco bar, I think, because I already have a lot of ingredients? And then will have extra salad so the keto person can put it on salad. Unless I change my mind, because now I’m like “mmmm, salmon….”

Taco bar sounds fun!

Ick. Vacation day or no, do not like being awake in the middle of the night because my stomach is unhappy! Boooo. Good thing I don’t have anything to do today (!) but clean and cook.