Eric and I brined and roasted a whole chicken tonight, which neither of us have ever done before. It was cheap* and surprisingly easy. Time-consuming, in that the soaking took four hours and the cooking 90 minutes, but easy, and actually kind of fun. It turned out pretty well, too, juicy with an attractive crispy skin. We pulled it together from a number of recipes online and I don't remember exactly how we did it, or else I'd post it. After leftovers we're going to try to make soup from the, uh, leavings. It is so gratifying to finally not suck at cooking.
The chicken-roasting project was additionally gratifying because I got to use the lemon verbena that's been growing, fragrant but essentially useless, in our backyard since August. While I was poking around online looking for lemon verbena chicken recipes, I found a bunch of other stuff to do with it, including an insane-sounding cake and mojitos. Be sure to invite me to all your afternoon teas and gatherings, because we have a ton of the stuff left and now I want to use it all before it freezes outside.
*Another sign of recession: HEB has moved the organs and random parts from a dark corner of the meat section to eye level, front and center. Aggressive merchandising of beef hearts and chicken feet=uh-oh.