Whole Baked Chicken

Yesterday, I attempted to bake a whole chicken for the first time. After reading the instructions (getting stuck for quite a long time on the part about scooping the gibblets out, ewwww...) I turned the thing over in hopes that I could shake them out. It was a good thought and the look on the girls' faces as I shook and shook the bird over the sink was well worth the effort. But it didn't work. And after having to stick my hand up there to get the rest of the slimy innards out, and then holding the thing under running water to clean the body while flashes of a small bathing infant went through my head, I had almost all but decided this was truly not worth it.

After that, Madeline and Lily helped me with brushing on the oil and mixing the spices and they were very excited to share the story with Aidan when he got in the car after school.

"Aidan, we got a chicken today!" Madeline said.

"A real one?!" he asked, returning her excitement.

"Yeah, and we helped mommy make it and we are going to eat it!" she said.

"Well, was it alive when you got it?" he asked, now a bit concerned.

"What do you think, Aidan?" I chimed in.

"Yes?" he questioned, hesitantly.

"Yeah, it was alive once," Madeline said. "First it went, bok bok bok, and then mom took the insides out and then we painted stuff on it and tied it together and we will cook it and it will be chicken and we can eat it!" She was truly bubbling over.

Aidan was obviously still processing the whole thing and asked, "Well, does it have feathers?"

"Nope, and it doesn't have eyes either," Madeline answered. "It's head got CHOPPED OFF!"

Poor Aidan. I wasn't sure if he would ever want to eat chicken again.

On a brighter note, Madeline LOVED her chicken....that she finally got to eat for dessert...since I had misread the directions and our chicken had to bake long past dinnertime...so I had to quickly saute some frozen chicken tenders instead. Fortunately, they didn't have feathers or eyes either....