That One Time I Cooked

I'm kidding.  We cook all the time, but quickly.  Simply.  This was simple too, but it was a lot more food than we normally make.  We had guests, so we had to step up the volume.  When we go, we go big.

Scenes from dinner, aka between prep and serve when I remembered to take pictures, with links to recipes included:

Whole chicken in the slow cooker.  So easy.  Fell of the bone.  I put leftover juices in a gravy boat, but in another life I'd have reduced it to a thicker sauce.  Doesn't he look funny all naked in the crock pot?!  It was hard to get the skin off completely, so it looks like he's wearing socks.

Roasted eggplants that I decimated for a spread made with lemon juice, garlic, and za'atar.

Crusty no-knead on the table, along with salad, the eggplant dip, and Barbera wine from Barboursville.

We also had roasted Brussels sprouts with turkey bacon and Israeli couscous with herbs and parm.

Grandma's cookies: chocolate chip mandel bread and sour cream twists.  I made the last of the twists today and cooked them longer, until more golden.  Either way they are just as I remembered, except they aren't coming to me in a tin while I'm at sleepaway camp this time around.

  and one more

They are made with a very buttery pastry dough--zero sugar on the outside, but rolled in vanilla sugar before baking.  The recipe was recently rediscovered--I hadn't made it since college--and maybe it'll end up on The Shiksa soon, if I get my mom's permission. 

There you have it.  Dinner at my house on a Saturday night, brought to you by Google searching "whole chicken crock pot," my Google Reader, and my Grandma Renee.