A whole roasted chicken has always been reminiscent of a leisurely Sunday dinner, the chicken slowly roasted to ultimate succulence. Nowadays we can roast a whole chicken in about an hour, giving us plenty of time to prepare the rest of the meal, set the table, and gather the family.
We're roasting the chicken with gremolata, a mixture used by Italian cooks for poultry, fish, soups, and stews. A simple mixture of parsley, lemon zest, and garlic, the gremolata beautifully flavors the chicken (which you will, of course, be eating without the skin that's still on while it's baking). Sweet potatoes in their jackets bake alongside the chicken after a preliminary 20 minutes of simmering on the stove to heighten their flavor and caramelize their natural sweetness. The green vegetable is a lively mixture of asparagus, green beans, and sugar snap peas that looks and tastes like Spring personified.
Since this is a family celebration, we're getting out our prettiest dishes and using over-sized jonquil yellow napkins, leaving the wooden dining table bare to keep the setting festive, but casual. Dig out a set of whimsical salt and pepper shakers and decorate the table with daffodils or tulips in your favorite pottery pitchers.
Leave room for dessert -- it's a luscious Lemon Meringue Pie, made safe for a person with diabetes. We've had at least a dozen requests in the past couple of months for the recipe, this one graciously supplied by our friends of SugarTwin® Spoonable, one of the sugar substitutes that doesn't break down when beaten into a meringue and then baked. Since the recipe uses two exchanges, watch your fat intake that day so as to not lose pace with your diet.
This is a simple meal that you'll want to serve again and again.
(for the recipes, click on The Recipes or click on the individual recipe above)
