Sunday-Monday Nights: Two ways with a happy chicken

Recently, BP and I bought a Groupon for a farm club in our area, which basically allows us to get fresh and delicious foods from the same kinds of producers who come to the farmers markets, with two major differences/benefits - 1) they operate all year round (instead of just May to November) and 2) they deliver the goodies right to your front door!

One of the highlights of this arrangement is getting to order chickens from Polyface Farms, a Virginia-based purveyor of happy chickens that you may have read about in the Omnivore's Dilemma or seen in Food, Inc. This week we ordered two such birds to roast up for our inaugural dinner party in our new pad.

For our inaugural feast, we hosted my delightful coworkers KD and KM, along with their lovely significant others A and A, and also KD's friend M who was visiting. I think K and K are pretty much the bees knees, but I also had the ulterior motive of wanting to connect BP with KM's beau, who is a master home beer brewer.  A fine crowd, if I do say so.

The menu was simple: appetizer course of mushroom bruschetta, followed by a main course of roasted chicken, roasted brussels, braised squash, and mixed green salad.

The feast!

Look good?  Here's how:  The bruschetta recipe is below and the roast chicken I did in the manner that Melissa Clark instructs.  Except, instead of putting chickpeas and carrots under the chicken during the roasting, I put the brussels there (great idea). The squash was braised with maple and fresh thyme and the salad had thinly shaved fennel and orange (vaguely adapted from here).

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Creamy Mushroom Bruschetta 

from April Bloomfield in the WSJ

5 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra as needed
1 pound mushrooms (I used crimini), sliced into ½-inch pieces
Salt
2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped (about 1 tablespoon)
1 tablespoon butter
3 tablespoons roughly chopped flat leaf parsley
2 tablespoons crème fraîche
4 (¾-inch) slices rye bread

Set a large, heavy pan over medium heat. Add 3 tablespoons oil. Once very hot, add mushrooms and a pinch of salt. Sauté them, stirring from time to time, until browned and tender, about 6 minutes. Once mushrooms cook down, traces of their juices should streak the pan. If too dry, deglaze with splashes of water.

Stir in garlic, butter and parsley. Cook until garlic is golden, 3-4 minutes. Season to taste with salt. Remove pan from heat. Stir in crème fraîche until evenly distributed.

Toast the bread on a cookie sheet under the broiler or for 10 minutes in the oven on at 450.

Spoon mushroom topping over toasts. Top with a little more parsley.

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For dessert, KM brought an amazing banana cream pie, which she crafted using the Momofuku Milk Bar cookbook.  The crust was made of homemade chocolate cookies crumbled and pressed into the pie plate and the filling had fresh banana in it.  Needless to say, it was too delicious to delay eating and photograph.

When it was all said and done, everyone went home full and happy (I think) and BP and I tucked the leftovers in the fridge.  When I suggested this afternoon that we eat them for dinner, he asked whether I might turn the leftovers into some kind of chicken pot pie.  I agreed, on the grounds that it would bear a biscuit crust and would contain most (if not all) of the previous night's leftovers.

To produce the tastiness you see below, I loosely adapted this recipe from Faith Durand's cookbook Not Your Mother's Casseroles.

Lemony Chicken Pot Pie with Parsley Biscuit Crust 

The results were scrumptious - super comforting, with a lovely brightness from the lemon.  The softness of the squash lends a nice creaminess to the texture. Also, I always feel so virtuous when I find a pleasing way to use up leftovers. BP was delighted!