Finally, a Little Decorating!

Well, we’ve been living here for two months and I’ve fiiiiiiinally gotten around to doing a little project for our new home! It was totally spur of the moment and cost me nothing but gas money and I just love it. Wanna see?

We are fortunate enough to have this lovely sunroom on the front of our house. It’s probably my favorite room in the house and I have done NOTHING with it yet! The only furniture in it is our little wicker loveseat, but MAN does this room have potential! And lovely light. And free heat. And a pretty blue floor. And. . . .

Ooops, sorry, was getting off track. Anyhow, the sunroom really heats up during the day. Like, a LOT! I walked out there the other day and it was so warm and wonderful that I went into the kitchen and grabbed the thermometer. It was 23 degrees outside and 90 (!!!!) in the sunroom! It has two doors into the house and I like to leave the kitchen door open during the day for a little free heating. (I’d open both doors and warm up the living room too except that would make a wonderful loop that a couple of small children I know would love to run around.)

So, I have been using an old laundry soap bucket - that we now keep Lucy’s dog food in – to hold the door open.

Lovely, no?

My mom gave me this glass jug a while back and it’s just been sitting on my mantle waiting for me to decide what to do with it. So today I decided. It’s a doorstop.

 

Isn’t she pretty?

So, since it was 37 degrees out (practically balmy! LOL!) and I had decided I needed a chicken to roast, I tossed the kids in the car and headed to the grocery, with a little stopover at the ocean. (Sorry, I thought that was funny! It’s still surreal to me that I live this close to the ocean.) I brought some zip top bags and some measuring cups and I got the kids set up scooping sand while I took Lucy on a quick walk down the beach! Amelia was SO PROUD of her bag of sand! (No picture, sorry. I was going to bring my camera down there, but between 3 kids, two bags of sand, a frisky doggy, and no pockets, I just didn’t think I could manage.) We all had a great time!

On the way home all three kids fell asleep. I carried them, one at a time, into the house and put them down for naps. Since I had some newly acquired free time, I got started! I sifted the sand first, there were bits of seaweed and rocks and sticks in it, and poured it into the jug.

Then I broke out my stash of beads, some ribbon, and my twine and got to work prettying the jug up! I can’t for the life of me remember how I came by these green beads, but they were just perfect for this! Some of them are chunks of jade, some resemble sea glass, and some look like bottle glass. I just strung them haphazardly together and wrapped them around the jug. I really liked the ribbon, but when I looped it around the jug it just sat there looking too pristine. So I tied a bunch of knots in it and tried again. Much better! Turns out I really like the look of knotty ribbon! I thought about tightly winding the twine around the top of the jug, like people do, but I really liked the messy, layered, necklacey thing I had going on.

 

What do you think???

Forgive the mess, I didn’t even bother to tidy up! Not the most mind blowing transformation in the world, but how much better does my jug look than that ratty old bucket??

I love it! And I love my door. It’s dinged up and the paint is crackling and when it’s closed I can see daylight almost all the way around it, but I love it!

Speaking of chicken. . . . . I realize this isn’t the most appetizing-looking bird you’ve ever seen, but Oh My Gravy, if this was a scratch and sniff picture you’d be trying to gnaw your way through the computer screen!!! So simple and so delicious. Oh, and if I were serving this to guests then I’d tie the legs up and tuck the wings in and make it look presentable. But it’s just the family tonight and they could care less, so she’s flying (frying?) free.

Scrumptious Roast Chicken

One 4-5 pound chicken

1 onion, roughly chopped

1 lemon, sliced

4-5 cloves of garlic, smashed

2-3 sprigs of rosemary

olive oil

LOTS of kosher salt

pepper

 

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and get out your roasting pan.

Rinse the chicken and pat dry with paper towels.

Place the chicken in roasting pan and lightly coat it with olive oil.

Liberally, and I mean liberally, sprinkle the chicken, inside and out, with salt. (I don’t like the skin, so I’m not much concerned about the sodium. It brings out SO much flavor, it’s totally worth it!)  Sprinkle with lots of pepper.

Stuff the cavity with the onions, garlic, some of the lemon and some of the rosemary. (I just layered it in, sometimes if I don’t mind dirtying a bowl I’ll mix it all up in one. But you don’t have to.)

Run your fingers under the skin on the top of the chicken breasts. Sometimes I have to work it apart from both ends. It should lift up a bit. Carefully insert some of the lemon slices.

Sprinkle the chicken with the remaining rosemary.

Pop into the oven and set the timer for 30 minutes.

After the 30 minutes, knock the heat down to 350 degrees.

Continue roasting another 1 1/2 hours or so. (Depending on the size of your bird) Roast until a meat thermometer, inserted into the thickest part of the thigh, reaches 180 degrees.

Enjoy! Your home will smell A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!!

P.S. You may have noticed that there isn’t any basting. Yup, that’s right. No basting. And it still turns out juicy and delicious! Seriously, if you have your ingredients ready to go, the prep on this is, what, five minutes? Amazing little bird :)

 

P.P.S. I think Lucy has made it her mission in life to appear in every one of my blog posts. (Well, since we’ve moved to Maine anyway.) Care to play Where’s Waldo Lucy and tell me which of the pictures in this post she appears in?