I had my sister over for lunch on Friday; roasted a chicken- simple rosemary and garlic roast  (I will post the recipe tonight)- is great for company: easy, not painfully expensive, looks great, and everybody* loves chicken.

The chicken was a lucky call; we planned to make a Belgian Stew on Saturday, but by the time we made it home, and looked at the stack of dirty dishes, and the fact that I still had to make the stock for the stew, the leftover chicken started looking better and better. That way, I could put the stock on the stove, let it simmer while we ate and such, and have stock ready for the stew tonight.  We made a simple mushroom sauce, just mushrooms in butter and oil (I think a started with onions, chopped very small, in the butter) a scoop of the simmering stock, a handful of fresh oregano- salt and pepper.  I poured that over Uncle Ben’s rice, and cold breast cut from the roasted chicken- happy days.

We are about to start the Belgian Stew.  We consulted the butcher at Lunardi’s, and are ready to tackle the stew. Will post the results later.

8/21  7:15 p.m.

Midnight: stew cooking, pasta almost ready. results tomorrow.

Wow! the stew was fantastic- simple, onion based, beer sauce, and two and a half hours in the oven (in a Dutch oven, after browning the meat chunks). Had it over wide egg-noodle pasta (Di Cecco).