Today, my husband and I returned from a relaxing staycation at a local resort and we’ve thrown all our luggage on the dining room table.  My husband immediately retreated to the family room for Sunday football.

However, my agenda is solely focused on my best friend’s baby bash scheduled for next Sunday.  Pinterest is a blessing and curse.  You get so many great ideas and it’s so easy to press “Pin It” to a board, but then you have to execute.  Now that I’ve gathered all the felt, glitter, fabric, glue, and other items needed to transform my house, today had to be the day to measure, cut, organize, etc. so it all comes together next week.

But, I still wanted to see my in-laws for Sunday suppa and enjoy a nutritious and delicious meal.  That’s where Mr. Chicken comes into play.  On the way home, I ran into Publix and grabbed a whole uncooked chicken, because roasted chicken is super easy. I could get a deli rotisserie chicken, but I find them full of sodium and not as good as my own.  I’m going to use this recipe from “Mark’s Daily Apple” and let the oven do its magic.

Also, I have a ton of carrots and potatoes which go great with chicken, but I don’t like how mushy they come out when I cook them with the meat.  Therefore, I used this recipe and cooked the vegetables separately.

Combined preparation time will only be about 20 minutes max, but the flavor will be HUGE!  Once the chicken was in the oven for its three-hour roast, I retreated to my bonus room which has been taken over by all my crafting supplies.

The finished product was great and the in-laws were pleased.  Bonus!  When you cook the chicken at the higher temperature, you sometimes end up with bloody cartilage and you find yourself questioning whether or not it’s done.  However, with the slow cooking (I did 275 degrees for 3 hours with 425 degress for about 5 to 10 minutes at the end), you have moist meat, crispy skin, and all of the chicken is undoubtedly cooked.

As for the baby bash preparation, here’s my progress to date:

I’m going to keep working at the baby bash projects each evening, but the biggest task is done — setting up and organizing the actual studio.