A Family Affair Sunday Supper

Growing up, my Dad did a lot of the cooking when it came to Sunday Suppers. He was the one in charge of the Turkey for Thanksgiving or basting the chicken for our Sunday Feast. He made the mashed potatoes, and that man can make gravy from nothing. Mom was more in charge of the “mood” – setting the table just so, putting the little touches in place. When you walked into the room, it felt warm and inviting. I’m glad that they each did their roles so well because I can do both.

When I first saw this recipe for a Roast Chicken that included corn I was thrilled. While it does use frozen corn for convenience sake, we grew up picking our own corn for Sunday Dinner. If it was a roast chicken or fried chicken, you can bet in the summer there was cob corn on the table. I remember Dad growing Red Potatoes in the garden. We had so many potatoes that we gave away bags and bags of potatoes. The entire back porch was a mound of potatoes. We let people know to come by and help themselves. Dad didn’t grow carrots. I’m not sure if that was because we had so many other things growing in the “communal” garden or if it was because we had rabbits. The gardens weren’t fenced off, but the rabbits were. And because it was so open, sometimes you had to chase the chickens out of the corn. Such fond memories.

I remember Dad and his brother making Biscuits. Uncle Lee made the best biscuits. Dad wanted to know his secret. Talk about a mismatched pair in the kitchen! Dad worked construction all his life. You measure twice, cut once. Uncle Lee was a short-order cook, wandering the country from truck stop diner to truck stop diner. Measure? No way – it was an eyeball thing. A handful of this, a pinch of that. They finally created a reasonable recipe, with Uncle Lee waiting until Dad had measured every ingredient before combining it all together. It was funny to watch the two of them arguing. Dad insisting everything had to be measured, Uncle Lee insisting “cooking is from the heart, and you can’t measure that.”

The problem with cooking from the heart is that, when the cook is gone, so too is the dish. So now I do both, cook from the heart and write it all down. Happy Sunday everyone!

Sunday Menu Supper
Roast Chicken with Vegetables
Old Fashion Biscuits

Dutch Apple Pie

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Complete Roast Chicken with Vegetables
6 frozen half-ears Corn on the Cob
1 tablespoon Flour
1 large Oven Roasting Bag
8 small Red Potatoes
6 medium Carrots
1 teaspoon Kosher Salt, divided
1/2 teaspoon Black Pepper, divided
1/4 teaspoon Paprika, divided
1 medium Onion
3 fresh Rosemary Sprigs
6 lb Roasting Chicken
2 tablespoons Olive Oil
1/2 teaspoon Dried Rosemary, crushed

Remove ears of corn from the freezer and allow to thaw overnight in the refrigerator.

Heat oven to 350-degrees. Sprinkle flour into oven roasting bag; shake to coat and set aside.

Scrub potatoes, cut in half and set aside. Peel carrots, cut into 2-inch pieces and set aside. Add potatoes, carrots, and corn to the bag. Season with 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper and 1/8 teaspoon paprika. Shake bag to coat vegetables with the seasoning; place in a 13-inch by 9-inch baking pan. Set aside.

Peel onion, cut into quarters. Place onion and rosemary sprigs in cavity of chicken. Rub skin with oil; sprinkle with dried rosemary and remaining salt, pepper and paprika. Skewer chicken openings; tie drumsticks together. Place chicken in center of bag, breast side up; place vegetables around chicken.

Cut six 1/2-inch slits in top of bag; close with tie provided. Roast chicken in the heated over for 75 to 90 minutes (1 hour 15 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes) or until a thermometer inserted in thickest part of thigh reads 170 degrees. Remove from the oven, let chicken rest in the bag 15 minutes.

When carving, discard the onions and rosemary from the cavity of the bird. Serve carved chicken with vegetables.

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Uncle Lee’s Old Fashion Biscuits
2 cups Flour
2 tablespoons Baking Powder
1-1/8 teaspoons Salt
1 tablespoon Sugar
4 tablespoons Butter, softened
1 cup Milk

Note: Go ahead and make the biscuit dough while the chicken is roasting. Have the biscuits all ready to bake. While the bird rests, kick up the oven to 450-degrees and bake the biscuits. 

Heat oven to 450-degrees. Combine flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, soft butter and milk to form a soft dough.

Place dough on a working surface dusted with flour. Kneed 10 times. Roll dough 1/2-inch thick, cut with 2-inch biscuit cutter.

Place biscuits on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake until golden, about 8-10 minutes.

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Dutch Apple Pie
Crust
1 (9-inch) Deep Dish Pie Crust, favorite recipe or premade dough

Heat oven to 400-degrees. On a flat work surface sprinkled with flour, using floured rolling pin, roll pastry dough into circle 2 inches larger than 9-inch pie plate. Fold pastry into fourths; place in pie plate.

Unfold and ease into plate, pressing firmly against bottom and side. Take care not to stretch pastry, which will cause it to shrink when baked. Trim overhanging edge of pastry 1-inch below the rim of pie plate. Fold and roll pastry under, even with plate; flute as desired. Place in the refrigerator to chill until ready to fill and bake.

Filling
8 cups Baking Apples
1/2 cup Sugar
1/4 cup Flour
1/4 teaspoon Cinnamon
1 tablespoon Lemon Juice

Core, peel and slice apples. Place in a large bowl. Add sugar, flour, cinnamon and lemon juice. Toss to coat apples well. Pour into pie plate, mounding apples toward center.

Note: If you want to get really ambitious, you could layer the apples rather than pour them in, just remember to build height toward the center.

Topping
1/2 cup Butter, softened
1 cup Flour
2/3 cup packed Brown Sugar
1 tablespoon Sugar

In medium bowl, use pastry blender or fingers to mix butter, flour and the brown sugar until crumbs form. Sprinkle evenly over top of pie. Sprinkle the sugar on top to help form a caramelized crunch to the baked topping.

Bake in the heated oven 45 to 55 minutes or until pie crust and crumb topping are deep golden brown and filling begins to bubble. Transfer to cooling rack to cool.

Serve pie warm or room temperature with slices of cheddar cheese or a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.